On Thursday afternoon, I stood beside Rosemary VanVleet and prayed with her family that she could be ushered into her new home in heaven in peace. As we finished praying, there was a marked difference in her breathing. A few minutes later, she did just that. With Vernon sitting at her side, holding and gently stroking her hand, she left this earth behind and stepped into eternity to live in heaven. Just three days before I spoke with her at Lutheran General Hospital and asked her if she was afraid. She looked good that evening, was smiling and talkative. But we all knew that her time was short. She quickly said to me, “No, I know where I am going! I don’t know how people who don’t know the Lord do it!”
Today, Rosemary is in heaven.
Where are you going? There is no other question that could begin to compare in importance to that question. I am amazed at how people will spend so much energy thinking through and preparing for retirement, which may last twenty years, if they are in good health, but give little thought to where they go after that.
Some have said to me, “It is presumptuous to say that you know you are going to heaven. You can’t know that until you die!” But the Bible says, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life (1 John 5:13). God’s Word was written so that you do not have to leave this question unsettled. He wants you to know today where you will spend eternity!
In fact, the Bible indicates that by leaving this question unsettled, you seal your own eternal fate in condemnation. In our natural state of sin, we are separated from the life of God and condemned. Jesus came to the earth, died on the cross and rose again from the dead to provide you with His resurrected life––eternal life in heaven! The good news of the Bible is that if we repent of our sin and believing that Jesus died for us and rose again, receive Him into our life as Lord and Savior, that we will be saved. By receiving Jesus Christ as God’s gift, we can know that we are going to heaven.
Do you know? Have you responded to God’s grace by believing in His Son and committing yourself to being His disciple? Using Jesus’s words, have you been born again?
Rosemary accepted Christ when she was a little girl and followed Him her entire life. And now for all eternity, she will be with Him. Maybe you are getting ready for retirement just fine. But if you are not ready for eternity, your twenty years or so in retirement will mean nothing. Are you ready to meet God? That’s the real question. If not, today is the day to get that settled!
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Churches Helping Churches
A 70 year old woman was pulled from the debris of a collapsed building in Haiti on Sunday after lying there for five days! They located her partially by using a sophisticated electronic device that is able to detect heartbeats. Once they knew the area where she was buried, they pinpointed her location because rescuers could hear her singing under the concrete. Can you believe that? She was singing a Christian hymn!
There are some rare happy stories in this unbelievable tragedy, but for the most part, the story of Haiti is currently disastrous. I want to thank all of you from The Bridge for your generosity in helping us to help them. Our plan is to work with local Bible-teaching churches in Haiti to provide help for those in their neighborhoods, as well as to rebuild and be the beacons they need to be in the rebuilding process that will take years. But once all of the world’s attention has subsided and the humanitarian shipments have diminished, it will be the local churches that will make the real difference. We want to help position these centers of hope for both immediate relief and long-term spiritual and societal impact.
A number of Christian organizations are currently working through local churches, including Compassion International and Brighthope, but none are working directly to help the churches themselves. James McDonald, senior pastor at Harvest and a new friend of mine, along with Mark Driscoll of Seattle, traveled to Haiti this week to investigate the state of local churches and their position to help the neighborhoods where they are located. They are putting together a consortium of local churches here in the states to work directly with Hatian churches for more than immediate humanitarian aid, but the kind of help that can change the course of Haiti’s future. For more information on this group, check out their website here. One of the benefits of our getting on board with this group is that we open the door to work directly with people with whom we can build long-term relationships and for some of us to actually travel to Haiti and help them rebuild. Gifts that you give to the Haiti project through our online giving will be given as a special church project through Churches Helping Churches, and opening the door for us build an ongoing relationship with a church in Haiti. You can make a special gift for that project here.
It seems to me that as a church, we have no choice. We are not only followers of Jesus, we are His Body, his hands and feet. We are called to be Jesus to those who are in desperate need, and to reach out with help first to our brothers and sisters so that they, in turn, can meet the needs of those around them.
Let’s continue to pray for those in Haiti!
There are some rare happy stories in this unbelievable tragedy, but for the most part, the story of Haiti is currently disastrous. I want to thank all of you from The Bridge for your generosity in helping us to help them. Our plan is to work with local Bible-teaching churches in Haiti to provide help for those in their neighborhoods, as well as to rebuild and be the beacons they need to be in the rebuilding process that will take years. But once all of the world’s attention has subsided and the humanitarian shipments have diminished, it will be the local churches that will make the real difference. We want to help position these centers of hope for both immediate relief and long-term spiritual and societal impact.
A number of Christian organizations are currently working through local churches, including Compassion International and Brighthope, but none are working directly to help the churches themselves. James McDonald, senior pastor at Harvest and a new friend of mine, along with Mark Driscoll of Seattle, traveled to Haiti this week to investigate the state of local churches and their position to help the neighborhoods where they are located. They are putting together a consortium of local churches here in the states to work directly with Hatian churches for more than immediate humanitarian aid, but the kind of help that can change the course of Haiti’s future. For more information on this group, check out their website here. One of the benefits of our getting on board with this group is that we open the door to work directly with people with whom we can build long-term relationships and for some of us to actually travel to Haiti and help them rebuild. Gifts that you give to the Haiti project through our online giving will be given as a special church project through Churches Helping Churches, and opening the door for us build an ongoing relationship with a church in Haiti. You can make a special gift for that project here.
It seems to me that as a church, we have no choice. We are not only followers of Jesus, we are His Body, his hands and feet. We are called to be Jesus to those who are in desperate need, and to reach out with help first to our brothers and sisters so that they, in turn, can meet the needs of those around them.
Let’s continue to pray for those in Haiti!
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Ice Patch
My daughter hit a patch of ice last weekend and it cost me $500. Just a little patch of ice….that was it. Ice….followed by a little 4” curb, and that was all it took to break the right front strut and render the car immobile. Tow truck….auto mechanic…..$500. Aargh!
That’s the trouble with ice, it takes you out of control. I once was leaving Wal-Mart’s parking lot
at about 3 mph. As I slowly rolled down the parking apron on to the street, the car in front of me braked, so I did, too. Only my car didn’t stop, didn’t even slow. I was on black ice and at 3 mph, I hit the car in front of me. You know how rugged these modern car bumpers are. I think the total damage was nearly $1,000 for the two bumpers!
Its a horrible feeling when you hit a patch of ice, whether you are walking or driving. It takes you out of control. I hate to feel out of control.
A friend of mine recently hit a patch of ice. I think he’s still spinning and trying to gain control. He was unjustly attacked at work for doing the right thing, and then he lost his job over it. This was his dream job, nonetheless.
Ever have anything like that happen to you? Ever hit a patch of ice in life? Death in the family, best friend moving away, sudden job loss, spouse says she’s leaving, really bad news at the doctor’s office, etc. It can send you spinning, can’t it? You might be feeling like that right now.
Reading the Psalms, it’s obvious that David felt that way at times. He gives us some pretty good insight as to how to handle spin-outs. Interestingly, handling a patch of ice on the road isn’t that different from handling one in life.
For starters, hang on. When you first begin to lose control, there isn’t much you can do anyway. You can scream, but that just scares everyone else. You can panic and start whipping the wheel around, but that makes things worse. It’s best just to hang on.
Secondly, turn into the slide. That goes against nature in that we naturally feel like turning away from it and getting out of there! But just like a slippery spot on the road, out-of-control situations in life are best handled by facing them. If its medical, get all the information you can. If its a relationship, learn what went wrong. If its job related, connect with the people you work for or with. In other words, don’t run. Don’t counter attack. Don’t do what you “feel” like doing. Face the problem.
Thirdly, when the slide is over (and it will come to an end), assess the damage, fix what needs to be fixed, and move on. There’s no sense spending the rest of your week cursing the ice. You’ve got the rest of your life to live and as bad as this out-of-control experience may be, it doesn’t have to destroy your life. The ultimate outcome of our lives is 10% circumstances and 90% our reaction to those circumstances. More often than not, you will find that the scariest disturbances can turn out to be the most beneficial life incidents when you respond in a way that honors God.
But I’m still not happy about the $500 car repair.
That’s the trouble with ice, it takes you out of control. I once was leaving Wal-Mart’s parking lot
at about 3 mph. As I slowly rolled down the parking apron on to the street, the car in front of me braked, so I did, too. Only my car didn’t stop, didn’t even slow. I was on black ice and at 3 mph, I hit the car in front of me. You know how rugged these modern car bumpers are. I think the total damage was nearly $1,000 for the two bumpers!
Its a horrible feeling when you hit a patch of ice, whether you are walking or driving. It takes you out of control. I hate to feel out of control.
A friend of mine recently hit a patch of ice. I think he’s still spinning and trying to gain control. He was unjustly attacked at work for doing the right thing, and then he lost his job over it. This was his dream job, nonetheless.
Ever have anything like that happen to you? Ever hit a patch of ice in life? Death in the family, best friend moving away, sudden job loss, spouse says she’s leaving, really bad news at the doctor’s office, etc. It can send you spinning, can’t it? You might be feeling like that right now.
Reading the Psalms, it’s obvious that David felt that way at times. He gives us some pretty good insight as to how to handle spin-outs. Interestingly, handling a patch of ice on the road isn’t that different from handling one in life.
For starters, hang on. When you first begin to lose control, there isn’t much you can do anyway. You can scream, but that just scares everyone else. You can panic and start whipping the wheel around, but that makes things worse. It’s best just to hang on.
Secondly, turn into the slide. That goes against nature in that we naturally feel like turning away from it and getting out of there! But just like a slippery spot on the road, out-of-control situations in life are best handled by facing them. If its medical, get all the information you can. If its a relationship, learn what went wrong. If its job related, connect with the people you work for or with. In other words, don’t run. Don’t counter attack. Don’t do what you “feel” like doing. Face the problem.
Thirdly, when the slide is over (and it will come to an end), assess the damage, fix what needs to be fixed, and move on. There’s no sense spending the rest of your week cursing the ice. You’ve got the rest of your life to live and as bad as this out-of-control experience may be, it doesn’t have to destroy your life. The ultimate outcome of our lives is 10% circumstances and 90% our reaction to those circumstances. More often than not, you will find that the scariest disturbances can turn out to be the most beneficial life incidents when you respond in a way that honors God.
But I’m still not happy about the $500 car repair.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Guns and the Bible
In my last blog, I talked about growing up and loving to fish as a child. My dad instilled in me a love for the outdoors in general. But I would have to say that even more than fishing, I loved to hunt. I began traipsing through the woods and into duck blinds carrying just a BB gun when I was barely of school age. I still remember arguing with Dad over who actually killed the duck. I was honestly convinced that the one BB that came out of my spring-loaded Daisy was the lethal shot that landed our dinner.
What’s interesting is that I don’t remember a lot of what my dad taught me about hunting per se. What I do remember is the gun safety he taught me. He was very concerned that I grew up knowing how to properly respect the power of a firearm and that I knew how to handle myself around a gun. At the age of twelve, like most boys growing up in Wisconsin, I took the DNR’s Hunter Safety Course. But I honestly could have taught the class. My dad had already thoroughly taught me more than the instructor could have had time for.
I struggle with our society’s attitude towards guns in general. I realize that the misuse of firearms has become a huge problem in our country, particularly in metropolitan areas. Things were different in small town Wisconsin, and I understand that. But I have had people express shock when they learn that I, personally, own guns. Its almost as though they do not believe that a pastor, or any upstanding decent person, should own a gun. But I usually remind people that not that long ago, many more households in America, if not most, had guns, and few of them locked up their guns. Yet, firearm violence did not approach the problem that it is today. What has changed? It isn’t an increased availability of weaponry, that has actually diminished. It is the value system of our population. Owning a gun is not the problem. Lacking love for other people and respect for all human life is.
I could go on with a lengthy treatise on the culture milieu that has led to our propensity for violence, particularly in the inner cities, but this blog isn’t about that. I have another application.
I have seen that just as some people view “possessing a gun” to be evil or dangerous, in and of itself, many Christians view “possessing a Bible” to be good or beneficial, in and of itself. Just like guns, its not the possession that makes the difference, its the use. Just having a Bible, or even carrying a Bible to church, does no one any good. There is no magical spell placed on the leather or cardboard cover, onion skin pages, or ink (black or red) that brings God’s blessing to anyone. God’s blessing flows through the truths, the principles, the words of Scripture, to those who read, study and practice them (Joshua 1:8). Having a Bible does nothing for you unless you read it, learn from its teaching, and put it into practice at home, work and with your friends. God doesn’t care if you have a Bible. He cares if you read it!
So….do you?
What’s interesting is that I don’t remember a lot of what my dad taught me about hunting per se. What I do remember is the gun safety he taught me. He was very concerned that I grew up knowing how to properly respect the power of a firearm and that I knew how to handle myself around a gun. At the age of twelve, like most boys growing up in Wisconsin, I took the DNR’s Hunter Safety Course. But I honestly could have taught the class. My dad had already thoroughly taught me more than the instructor could have had time for.
I struggle with our society’s attitude towards guns in general. I realize that the misuse of firearms has become a huge problem in our country, particularly in metropolitan areas. Things were different in small town Wisconsin, and I understand that. But I have had people express shock when they learn that I, personally, own guns. Its almost as though they do not believe that a pastor, or any upstanding decent person, should own a gun. But I usually remind people that not that long ago, many more households in America, if not most, had guns, and few of them locked up their guns. Yet, firearm violence did not approach the problem that it is today. What has changed? It isn’t an increased availability of weaponry, that has actually diminished. It is the value system of our population. Owning a gun is not the problem. Lacking love for other people and respect for all human life is.
I could go on with a lengthy treatise on the culture milieu that has led to our propensity for violence, particularly in the inner cities, but this blog isn’t about that. I have another application.
I have seen that just as some people view “possessing a gun” to be evil or dangerous, in and of itself, many Christians view “possessing a Bible” to be good or beneficial, in and of itself. Just like guns, its not the possession that makes the difference, its the use. Just having a Bible, or even carrying a Bible to church, does no one any good. There is no magical spell placed on the leather or cardboard cover, onion skin pages, or ink (black or red) that brings God’s blessing to anyone. God’s blessing flows through the truths, the principles, the words of Scripture, to those who read, study and practice them (Joshua 1:8). Having a Bible does nothing for you unless you read it, learn from its teaching, and put it into practice at home, work and with your friends. God doesn’t care if you have a Bible. He cares if you read it!
So….do you?
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