Category Archives: Love

Love a child and change the world

Posted on by
Reply

This is the story of Dr. Joe Bailey of Tupelo, Mississippi.  He told it in 2004 as a tribute to his mentor, Dr. H. O. Leonard.  I hope you love it as much as I do.

His family were farmers, says Dr. Joe Bailey, but since his mother refused to live anywhere but in town, they lived in Coffeeville, population 600. That was precisely across the street from the town doctor.

As far back as Joe Bailey remembers, he wanted to be a medical doctor. In fact, when he was 10, his father suggested that it was time for him to begin helping out on the farm. Young Joe took a deep breath and told him that “if I was going to be a doctor, it would be better if I had a job that would teach me about people.”

The truth is, I really enjoyed the farm, but at age 10 I went to work in the local grocery store for 25 cents an hour (in 1957). I kept the job until I finished high school in 1965. By then I was making $1 an hour and the experiences of dealing with people those eight years have proven invaluable to me.

In the middle of that vocational experience, however, little Joe Bailey began his medical training. Here’s how it happened.

When he was 11, young Joe climbed the steps to Dr. Leonard’s office and knocked at the door. “Yes, Joe, what can I do for you?” said the elderly physician.

“Sir,” Joe said, “I want to be a doctor, and I wondered if I could help you in your office after school. I won’t get in your way. I just want to learn what to do.”

Dr. Leonard smiled, “I think that would be fine, Joe. Why don’t you come by after school tomorrow?”

As he walked down those stairs, young Joe Bailey had the feeling that life had just changed for him forever.

Continue reading →

When discussing religion, here is the test of an honest person

Posted on by
Reply

“In all things, love.”  –I Corinthians 16:14

That’s one test of a believer and a mighty important one it is.  Our Lord said it is the mark of a disciple.  (John 13:34-35)

Look for the love.  Otherwise, you know this one with whom you are discussing scriptures and doctrines is no follower of Jesus.

The cultist you’re talking religion to across the table or across the continent feels no need to love you since he/she has decided you are not a follower of Jesus since you disagree with their doctrine.  I’ve sat at a table with a Jehovah’s Witness who was brutal and mean-spirited and who may as well have thought of me as a child-molester by the scoffing and belittling he was dishing out.  (I was a younger pastor, and had not learned that there comes a time when it’s all right to say, “This meeting is over,” and walk out.)

But while love is the first mark of the believer, there’s another test for determining whether the person across the table is an honest seeker.

Ask them to cite a verse that troubles them because it seems to contradict a doctrine they believe.

Here is mine….

In an article about discussing (or debating) religion, I cited a verse that does not seem to agree with a doctrine I hold dearly.  Hebrews 6:4-6 says, “For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.”

The passage says as clearly as possible that this individual has been born again and truly came in to the family of God, and yet if they fall away–and it definitely states it as a possibility–they cannot be saved a second time.  All of that is as clear as anything in the Word.  (I’ve read a dozen commentaries on this and know the arguments and explanations.  But none are satisfactory.  Sorry, if you do not agree.)

The reason that passage troubles me is because I believe John 10:28-29.  “I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish; and no one shall snatch them out of My hand.  My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.”  This promise is consistent with the Lord’s teachings.  Over and over Jesus spoke of eternal life for believers, the saved becoming children of God, that we will never perish, etc etc.  Scripture says we are sealed by the Holy Spirit unto the day of redemption (Ephesians 4:30).  Our salvation is secure, eternal, and guaranteed.

So, what am I to do with Hebrews 6:4-6?  My answer is to leave it as an open question.  I have no answer for it, although the overwhelming testimony of the New Testament seems to say something otherwise.  And I’m fine with leaving this as an open-ended question, one for which I have no answer.

Only the immature and lazy among us cannot abide a mystery, that is, something he/she does not understand.  Which, if you stop and think about it, should be an amazing thing, since life is filled with mysteries and those who know their Scripture will always have questions for which they have no answers.  And it’s perfectly fine.  We walk by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).

Now, let’s hear yours….

Here’s one for a particular group among us.

If I were a Mormon who truly and sincerely wanted to serve the Lord Jesus Christ and honor His word, I would have a huge problem with Galatians chapter 1.  In verse 8, we read: “Even though we or an angel from heaven bring any other gospel unto you than what I have brought to you, let him be accursed.”   The entire LDS religion goes back to an appearance of an angel to Joseph Smith.  Then…

The question for the sincere Mormon, based on Galatians 1:8, is: “Okay, then did the angel from heaven bring a different gospel from what Paul preached?”  The good news is we have the gospel which Paul preached.  It’s the book of Romans.  The Epistle to the Romans is the best explanation of the message which the Apostle Paul preached up and down the Roman Empire. We are not in the dark about that.  And no one who is honest can claim (as some groups are wont to do) that it was translated wrongly.  (That, incidentally, is a cop-out for any group that does not want to deal with the plain truth of Scripture.  By saying it was mistranslated, they can put their own spin upon it.  The Jehovah’s Witness people grew tired of claiming this, so they published their own translation of Scripture, one in which they made the Word say exactly what they wanted it to say.  No honest Greek scholar would pay a dime for a JW Bible.  It is a corruption.)

So, the “sincere Mormon,” one who wants to know the will of God and do it, is driven to read Romans and then compare with what he/she is taught by all the doctrines of the LDS church, few of which line up with the Gospel Paul preached.

So, what’s your verse?  The one that troubles you because it doesn’t seem to agree with what you believe the rest of Scripture teaches?

If you say there is none, then we know you are not honest and can end the discussion at that point.

Every group has its Achilles’ heel.  God set it up that way, in my opinion.  As we’ve stated elsewhere, instead of this being a weakness, it ends up being one of the strengths of the faith since it proves beyond all question that no little group of church leaders sat down and wrote or tweaked or whatever the Holy Scriptures.  Had they done so, they would have taken out the hard places.  But they’re still there.  And we can be eternally grateful for that.

If I were a member of the Church of Christ–the denomination which refuses to call itself a denomination; the group which teaches baptism is an essential part of the act of salvation–I would have a huge problem with I Corinthians 1:17. “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel.”  This is from the same apostle who gave us Romans 1:16, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus, for it is the power of God unto salvation to all who believe….”  Baptism is a lot of things, but it is not a requirement for salvation.  (We believe it to be the first act of obedience following one’s profession of faith.)

If I were a member of the Seventh Day Adventist denomination, I would have a problem with Colossians 2:16-17. “Let no one act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day–things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.”

And what are we to do when we find Scriptures that do not agree with what we believe the Bible teaches?

We are to stay on our knees and stay in the Word.

We should ask ourselves, “What is the overall and consistent teaching of Scripture?”

And we should leave room in our theology for questions for which we have yet to find answers.  Because they will always exist until the time comes when “we know even as also we are known” (I Corinthians 13:12).

The mind-boggling, everlasting love of God.

Posted on by
Reply

“The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying, ‘Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love….’” (Jeremiah 31:3)

What part of ‘everlasting’ do we not get?

Lately, we are learning through science what unending and infinite look like. Space seems to be continuous, going on and on.  The lineup of galaxies across the heavens staggers our imaginations, considering their size, makeup, and number.

The Psalmist who said, “The heavens declare the glory of the Lord” had no clue just how much they say about the majesty and might of our Creator. That’s not to imply we do, only that we have far more information on the complexities and delights of the universe which the Father has wrought with His own hands than biblical writers.

From everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God (Psalm 90:2).

From everlasting in the past to everlasting in the future, God is God.  There never was a time when God did not exist; there will never be a time when God does not reign.

Personally, I cannot get my mind around that. To my puny intellect, infinity of any kind is fearful.  To think of being snuffed out upon death, that after our last breath, we are extinguished forever, is frightening and painful beyond belief.  I think of loved ones whose passing took with them a huge hunk of my heart and soul. The thought that I would never see them again strikes me with a sadness incalculable.

But infinity of the other kind–living forever and ever, world without end–is just as mind-boggling. How could that work? How could we exist knowing that nothing would ever end?

The answer is and absolutely must be: “It’s a different realm.”  This mortal must put off its mortality, its corruption, its limitation, and be changed forever–into immortality, into glory, into power.  “We shall be changed.”  (See I Corinthians 15.)

Someone protests, “Well, I’ve been bad and I know God cannot love someone like me.”  That’s so patently ridiculous as to be laughable.  Scripture says, “God demonstrates His own love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

If God loved only the worthy, He would be mighty lonely.

Continue reading →

How could you not feel special?

Posted on by
Reply

He who did not spare His own Son–but delivered Him up for us all–how shall He not also with Him freely give us all things?  (Romans 8:32)

Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called the children of God! And such we are!  (I John 3:1)

First story.

I was doing a revival in Jerry Clower’s church.

The year was 1990 and we were in East Fork Baptist Church between McComb and Liberty, Mississippi.  Anyone who has ever heard the inimitable Jerry Clower tell his stories will have heard of this church where he grew up.

That week I was staying in the Clower camphouse, a block through the woods from Jerry and Homerline’s mansion.  We had morning services each day that week at 10  and evening services.  The Clowers did not miss a service.

The organist was Clyde Whittington.

Mr. Clyde had one arm.  You read that right; the church organist was playing the hymns with one arm.

We were at lunch one day–Jerry, and Clyde and I—and Jerry said, “Clyde, I want you to tell Brother Joe how you lost that arm.”

He was baling hay, he said.  The baler was the same kind we had used on the Alabama farm where I grew up.  You pull the baler over to the pile of hay, then uncouple it and turn the tractor around and use a conveyor belt from the tractor to the baler to operate it.  (Sorry, that’s as good as I can describe the process.)  Usually, baling hay would require several people. Mr. Clyde was doing it alone.

You feed the hay into the baler, then get out of the way of the huge arm with a claw slams down upon the hay driving it into the bottom area, then packing it and sending it down the tube to be tied off into bales.  Mr. Clyde was doing it all himself.

And somehow–I’m unclear on this–the huge arm with a claw caught his arm and drove it down into the bottom area.  Breaking it badly.

Not only was his arm now crushed, Mr. Clyde was stuck.  He couldn’t extricate himself from the baler.

And he is alone.  A half mile from the house.

Continue reading →

We can love Him here and He feels it there

Posted on by
Reply

If you love me, keep my commandments (John 14:15).  He who has my commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves me (John 14:21).  If anyone loves me, he will keep my word (John 14:23).  If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love (John 15:10).  You are my friends if you do whatever I command you (John 15:14).

Anyone see a trend in these verses? He wants us to love Him and tells us how: Obedience. 

With that in mind, the question before us is this: Is it possible to do something so loving, so affectionate, so Christ-honoring here on earth that Jesus will feel it in Heaven’s Throneroom?

Can I do something loving for Jesus here and have Him feel the love there?

Yes.  Absolutely.

We direct your attention to the woman of Luke 7:36ff.

 

Then one of the Pharisees asked Him to eat with him. And He went to the Pharisee’s house and sat down to eat. And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, and stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil….

What courage it took for this fallen woman–known to be so–to enter a home where she was not welcome in order to see the Savior.  What depth of love drove her to His feet where she wept and worshiped.  Then, seeing what she had done and with nothing to dry the tears on His feet, she let down her hair and used it for a towel.  Then–in for a dime, in for a dollar–she broke open a flask of ointment and began to anoint His feet. The fragrance filled the house.  No one was unaware of her presence or of what she was doing.

A drama ensued. The Pharisee-host fumed inwardly, and our Lord turned it into one of Scripture’s greatest object lessons. We do love everything about this wonderful story.

It’s a lovely story.  We admire this woman.  And in some ways we envy her. We wish we had her courage, ignoring what people were thinking in order to do something that pleased Jesus.

What Christ-lover would not relish the opportunity to sit at the feel of our Lord and worship Him with our tears and our touch.

That day is coming, saints of the Lord.  Be faithful.

There is a sense, however, in which we can do that now.

Continue reading →

Judge us by what our religion makes us do

Posted on by
Reply

Almost every week we hear of a killing in the Middle East.  Someone converts to Christianity and his family murders him.

Who would want to belong to such a religion?  Surely no one in his right mind.

Wednesday morning, January 1 of this year, an idiot drove his pickup truck down Bourbon Street, killing at least 15 people and injuring a lot more.

What a way to welcome in 2025.

You know, what I wonder–and have ever since the terrorists took down the World Trade Center using our jetliners–is how some people think if they do murderous activities that somehow the rest of us are going to line up and say, “Oh yes, I think I would like to be a member of that religion!”  Not going to happen.

And then I find myself wondering why others of that religion who do not do those things are offended when we oppose their religion.  If it can be used legitimately to do such horrific things, why in the world would any sane person want to worship their god.  Not for me, thanks.

It is a truth that one’s religious faith causes one to act in certain ways.  And it is true that however one acts as a result of his faith should speak volumes about that religion and everyone else will be making their choices based on that.

Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in Heaven.  Our Lord Jesus said that in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5:16.

What you are speaks so loud, someone has said, that I cannot hear what you say.

Your works tell the story on you.

Continue reading →

Anyone can love the lovely and well-behaved. But we have a bigger job than that.

Posted on by
Reply

Fred Harvey was a name almost every American knew in the late 1800s and early 1900s. This son of Britain had come to America and made his mark in the food industry. Working with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, he built a chain of restaurants across the great Southwest which became legendary for their insistance on quality and their devotion to the customer.

In his book, Appetite for America: How Visionary Businessman Fred Harvey Built a Railroad Hospitality Empire That Civilized the Wild West, Stephen Fried says Harvey originated the first national chain of restaurants, of hotels, of newsstands, and of bookstores–“in fact, the first national chain of anything–in America.”

You may be familiar with the Judy Garland movie on the Harvey Girls, another innovation of Fred Harvey’s. He recruited single young women in the East, then sent them to work in his restaurants from Kansas City to California. In doing so, he inadvertently provided wives for countless westerners and helped to populate a great segment of the USA.

All of this is just so we can relate one story from the book.

Once, in the short period before women took over the serving duties for his restaurants, Harvey was fielding a complaint from one of his “eating house stewards” about a particularly demanding customer.

“There’s no pleasing that man,” said the steward. “He’s nothing but an out and out crank!”

Harvey responded, “Well, of course he’s a crank! It’s our business to please cranks. Anyone can please a gentleman.”

Pleasing cranks.

Anyone can please a gentleman.

It’s our business.

Why did that line sound familiar to me, I wondered as I read past that little story. I know. It sounds so much like the Lord Jesus.

Continue reading →

Why we need to say “I love you.”

Posted on by
Reply

“My little children, let us not love in word or tongue (only), but in deed and in truth”(I John 3:18).

In our effort to encourage people to “love one another,” we must not leave the impression that words do not count.  While deeds of love and other expressions are vital, a lot of people need to hear the actual words.

“I love you.”  “You have no idea how much you mean to me.” “Thank you for being such a precious friend.” “I treasure you.”

Speaking love is a good thing to do.

First, something inside me needs to speak words of love.  It’s good for me.

One day, my young grandson said, “Grandpa, why do you tell me you love me so much?”

How perceptive, I thought. And such a good question. Why do I do that?

I said, “Grant, the love inside me keeps building up and I have to let it out. And the only way to do that is to say the words.”  Otherwise, I seemed to feel, I would explode.

This satisfied him. And it expresses the truth as well as anything I know.

Speaking love to someone dear to us can be a kind of pressure relief value.  We will explode if we don’t tell that person of our love.

For this reason, writing a love letter to our sweetheart can be almost as good as receiving one from them.

It’s good for us to say “I love you.”

We have all heard stories of a husband saying, “Honey, I love you so much it’s all I can do to keep from telling you.”  We want to scream, “Tell her! Tell her!”

You’ve heard of the trucker whose rig went off a Colorado mountainside in a snowstorm. He was found several days later, buried in the snow, his truck a crumpled wreck.  During the hours before he died, the man had written a note to his wife. He told her how much she meant to him, and added, “I’m so sorry I never told you.”

That line is nearly as tragic as the wreck itself.

In Dan Fogelberg’s tribute to his father called The Leader of the Band, one memorable line stands out:  And Papa, I don’t think I said ‘I love you’ near enough.

Most of us do not say it nearly enough.

Continue reading →

God promises to make His people youthful. What that looks like.

Posted on by
Reply

…so that your youth is renewed like the eagle (Psalm 103:5).

…they will be full of sap and very green (Psalm 92:14).

Eternal, lasting youth.  Sound good to you?

This is better than anything cosmetic surgery can offer.  This is a real makeover.

We are not talking about a second childhood or any such silly thing. We are talking about the Holy Spirit doing a new thing in an old vessel, the living God rejuvenating a veteran servant, the God of creation renewing His child and doing something fresh in him or her.  Making you youthful.

And no, the image of recapping an old tire does not fit here.  Or, plastering a toupee on a bald head.  Or padding a bra.  Or going in for cosmetic surgery.  None of these images fits what the living God wants to do, intends to do, has promised to do in the life of His elderly faithful.

He will make you JOYFUL.  Joy, in fact, is a big deal with God.  In the words of C. S. Lewis, joy is the business of Heaven.  Psalm 16:11 assures that “in Thy presence there is fullness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore.”

Continue reading →

Questionable things we pastors do–for which we shall give account

Posted on by
Reply

“Lord, we saw someone who does not follow us casting out demons in Your name, and we forbade him because he does not follow us” (Mark 9:38).

Robert Schuller died in April of 2015. This founder of the Crystal Cathedral in California and founder/host of television’s Hour of Power broadcast was the “media pastor” to countless millions who would never have entered my church.  He wrote books, did a lot of good, did much that was questionable, and drove us traditionalists out of our collective minds.

A few days after Schuller’s passing, I posted this on my Facebook page:

My favorite Robert Schuller story: When he was a kid, his mother taught him piano lessons.  Once, in the middle of a recital, his mind went blank and he forgot the rest of the piece he was playing. There was nothing to do but walk off the stage in humiliation.  Later, his mother gave him some great advice. “Honey, any time you mess up in the middle of a piece, always end with a flourish and no one will ever remember what you did in the middle.”  Schuller would look at his congregation and say, “Some of you have messed up in the middle of your life.  But my friend, you can end with a flourish if you start now.”

It’s a great story, one I often use when speaking to senior adults.  It fits perfectly.

In 2015 when I posted the story, I suggested Facebook readers restrain from giving us their judgments of the man.  “He has One who will judge him, One far more qualified than you or I.  And since we will be needing mercy when we stand before Him, we want to show mercy toward everyone.”

The comments poured in quickly.

Most expressed appreciation for something Dr. Schuller had done or said, a few remembered visiting the Crystal Cathedral and gave us their lasting impressions, and several thanked me for the tone of my note.

None judged.

But the first time I told that story–I was the new pastor of that church–the reaction was entirely different.

Continue reading →