Death, How We Hate You

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I’ve put it off as long as I can. Writing this one.

Duane McDaniel, executive director of the New Orleans Baptist Association, went to Heaven over this last weekend. Far too soon, if I had any say in it. He was only 54 years old. His funeral is next Sunday, June 5 at the First Baptist Church of New Orleans.

Rachel Lively was ten years younger than Duane. The mother of a 17 year old son and a 12 year old daughter. Her funeral is tomorrow morning, June 3, at First Baptist Church of Brandon, Mississippi.

They both died of strokes.

I was Rachel’s pastor during her childhood. When she married and moved away, I saw her rarely, but her parents, Roy and Penny Lively of Brandon, have remained our close and dear friends all these years. As you can expect, they were shocked and are broken-hearted by the death of their daughter. I’ll be driving up for the visitation at the funeral home this (Thursday) evening.

Duane McDaniel’s photo and obituary are in this morning’s Times-Picayune. I cannot look at that smiling, happy, beaming face without the tears flowing. We were nowhere near ready to hand this dear brother back to Heaven.

Death, we hate you with a passion. What heart-break you bring. What sorrow you spread. What dreams you stab through the heart. What loneliness you produce. Tears.

It helps some to remember that the Lord Jesus hated death too. We sometimes gloss it over a little by calling death a friend because it sends us to Heaven. But make no mistake; it’s an enemy. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.I Corinthians 15:26.

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(Father’s Day) “Preparing Sermons for Special Days–Tough Job for Many Preachers”

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For some of us in the ministry, sermons for Mother’s Day, Memorial Day, Father’s Day, July 4, and the like come easily. But other pastors have a difficult time planning such sermons. Some ignore those days altogether.

Here is my approach. It might possibly help a pastor somewhere find how to pull this off without feeling that he was caving in to the culture and turning his back on his call to preach the Word.

Right now, I’m thinking about my sermon for Father’s Day. That Sunday, I’ll be filling in for Pastor Craig Beeman at the First Baptist Church of Winnsboro, Lousiana. It’s nearly 3 weeks away and a good time to get to work.

Typically, we pastors close the door to our study and sink into our chair and say out loud, “What do I want to say about Father’s Day? Lord, what do you want me to say?” And, if I may say so, typically no answer comes. We’re stuck. That’s why this sort of thing is no fun.

I suggest those are the wrong questions. A better question is: “Lord, what lesson have you taught me about fatherhood?”

Sit there for a few minutes and consider your own role as a father, your dad’s role, the men you have known who were fathers and granddads, and sermons you have preached on this subject before. What key points, what definitive stories, what lesson looms large in your mind?

In my case, as I consider that question, two things occupy center stage in my mind.

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The 10 Best Things About Being a Senior Adult

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I noticed the old man just now as I drove down the street to my office in the church library. He was ambling along, clearly having difficulty walking. My heart went out to him. As I drove past, I tried to estimate his age. “80-something,” I said to myself. Maybe 10 years my senior.

It’s no fun getting old. My dad, who lived into his 96th year, had cut out of a magazine and posted on a door facing his philosophy on the subject: “Growing Old is Not For Sissies.” Art Linkletter wrote a best-selling book by that title.

Growing old is not for everyone either. In fact, it’s a privilege denied to many who were far better people and more deserving than any of us.

We would do well to focus on the privilege of aging instead of the burdens. In fact, here is my list of the top ten reasons I love being a senior adult and cannot wait to delve deeper into seniorhood!

There’s no order, just as they occurred to me.

1. You get to see your kids grow up and raise families and begin to mature.

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What Joy Looks Like

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First, a warning: this is not an article about the “gifts” of the Spirit.

Further, this is definitely not an article about the “fruit” of the Spirit.

However, it might be fairly close to “the evidence” of the Spirit. That is, how one can know that the living God is actually indwelling his life and the body of believers with whom he/she associates.

We can sit here all day and talk about gifts of the Spirit such as healings and prophecies and tongues, and for the most part we will be spinning our wheels. We’ll probably agree on little and disagree on much.

But there are three evidences of the indwelling Holy Spirit, around which I’m thinking all God’s children can come together. Surely none will find reason to opt out of these.

When the Lord is in your life and when He daily “lords it over” you, and when you are actively serving Him in a body of believers of the same sort as yourself (so to speak), then you should expect to see these three incredible gifts from the Holy Spirit making their presence known….

1. Joy in your heart.

2. Sweetness in your fellowship.

3. Passion in your service.

Call these fruits or gifts of the Spirit, whatever. But they are most definitely evidence that the Lord is in this place and flying His flag high.

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Lord, help your church please.

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The Harold Camping episode of this past weekend–he predicted the world would come to an end on Saturday and bet millions of dollars he knew what he was talking about–demonstrates two disturbing facts of the church in these latter days: The overwhelming pride of many who call themselves leaders of the church and the mind-numbing gullibility of millions who call themselves disciples of Jesus.

Lord, help your church please.

Help us to know a Godly leader when we see one and to learn how to tell when he’s not one.

Help us to check the teachings of our leaders by the Word and to have the courage to say “Not so fast.”

It’s easy for the fellow in the pew to blame this kind of fiasco on false leaders. And that’s what Camping is, let me hasten to say. The Bible clearly says that if a man makes a prophecy that does not come to pass, he is a false prophet. That’s Deuteronomy 18:22, and it’s still in God’s Word.

But if people like Camping found no one to follow them, they would get tired of hearing themselves speak and shut up.

After his prophecy about May 21 failed, I said to some friends, “Okay, watch now. He’ll come back and say, ‘Oh, I’m sorry. I misfigured,’ and give out a new date. That’s what false prophets do.”

According to the daily papers (I live in New Orleans, so it’s The Times-Picayune), that is precisely what he did. Well, he did two things actually. He did say that the real date is something like October 21. And he said, “Well, the Lord did actually come back on May 21 in a spiritual way. The processes have been set in place beginning on that day.”

Uh huh. And I’ve got some Louisiana swamp land to sell you.

People who study these things will recall that the Jehovah’s Witnesses did this very thing nearly a hundred years ago.

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Worship: Going About It in The Wrong Way

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Give unto the Lord the glory due to His name. (Psalm 29:2)

It’s Sunday around noonish. As the congregation files out of the sanctuary heading toward the parking lot, listen closely and you will hear it.

It’s a common refrain voiced near the exit doors of churches all across this land.

“I didn’t get anything out of that today.” “I didn’t get anything out of the sermon.” “I didn’t get anything out of that service.” “I guess her song was all right, but I didn’t get anything out of it.”

Sound familiar? Not only have I heard it countless times over these near-fifty years in the ministry, I probably have said it a few times myself.

This is like dry rot in a congregation. Like a termite infestation in the building. Like an epidemic afflicting the people of the Lord, one which we seem helpless to stop.

But let’s try. Let’s see if we can make a little difference where you and I live, in the churches where we serve and worship. We might not be able to help all of them, but if we bless one or two, it will have been time well spent.

1. You are not supposed to ‘get anything out of the service.’

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Special Word to Older Ministers

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Sometimes when I’m speaking in churches for what is variously called “senior adult Sunday” or such, I’ll say to the congregation as a whole….

It’s great being a senior adult! If you knew what fun we have, you’d be chomping at the bit wanting to be one.

One of the best things about it–I don’t know if this is common knowledge, so you might want to keep this to yourself–is that every month, the government sends you money! I’m not kidding.

It’s really kind of amazing. Toward the end of the month, you’ll call the bank to check on your balance and find that your account is almost bare. Then, the next day, boom! There’s more money in the account. The government did that just for you.

Is that nice or what?

And if that’s not enough, being a retired pastor (that’s what I am, ever since my 69th birthday two years ago) brings a special kind of reward most other people don’t have: We get to preach all over the place! Really. People call and invite us to their church for a revival or banquet or prayer conference, to speak to the deacons–boy, do I ever get a kick out of that!–or do a senior adult emphasis. All these churches we used to drive by and think, “Hey, wonder what it would be like to pastor there,” well, they invite us in and we get to preach there. It’s more fun than anything.

Honestly, if I’d known retirement would be this much fun, I think I’d have gone straight from ordination into retirement.

There is one downside to all this getting older business, however. And that’s what brought me to my soapbox this morning. Something I need to say to my brethren in the ministry who are moving into those senior years.

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There is a Good Reason for Joy

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Rejoice in the Lord always. And again I will say, rejoice. (Philippians 4:4)

I believe in rejoicing.

I believe in rejoicing when things are going great and when they are falling apart.

I believe in rejoicing when you feel like shouting “God is good!” and when you wonder whether He knows you are still in this mess and still needing His help.

I believe in rejoicing in worship services and in private.

My favorite–and most often preached lately–sermon I call “Rejoice Regardless,” based on three texts which loom larger and larger in my mind as the days and years go by.

The basic “regardless” text: Though the fig tree should not blossom and there be no fruit on the vines. Though the yield of the olive should fail and the field produce no food. Though the flock should be cut off from the fold and there be no cattle in the stalls, yet, I will exult in the Lord. I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. (Habakkuk 3:17-18)

The Lord Jesus emphasized the same point: Do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven. (Luke 10:20) You won’t always have great results and big numbers to report and rejoice over, but if we are rejoicing in our salvation, we will never be without joy.

The third text shows how it’s done. But at midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. (Acts 16:25) In the Philippian jail, locked into stocks and with their bloody backs beaten and left untreated, these two disciples of Jesus broke into prayer and praise. As a result, wonderful things happened.

It occurs to me, that the missing note in almost every sermon I’ve ever preached or heard on rejoicing is the practical aspect. There are good reasons for the Lord wanting His people to rejoice at all times.

Here are three of the most important.

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The Hardest, Best Thing for a Preacher to Do

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(Please don’t miss my story at the end of this article on how the principles in this article work together.)

Malcolm Gladwell is speaking at a forum in New York City soon. The promotion describes him thusly:

The Canadian-born ‘New Yorker’ staff writer Malcolm Gladwell is the author of such best-selling books as “The Tipping Point,” “Blink,” “Outliers,” and “What the Dog Saw.” Gladwell is known for taking a unique perspective on seemingly well understood topics and generating new patterns of thought about them. This provocative thinker joins Luminato to share his latest brainstorm.

Do you ever read a sentence and a day later, it’s still with you, hounding your steps, disturbing your sleep, probing your spirit? That’s what that description of what Gladwell does did to me.

He takes seemingly well understood topics and generates new patterns of thought about them.

Anyone who can do that–who can show us a different perspective on something we thought we knew well and then can draw fascinating conclusions from it–that is someone I want to know.

You probably already know this writer. Many of my friends cannot wait for Gladwell’s latest books and eagerly snap them up as they hit the bookstores. There’s something about his unique way of looking at things that produces “aha!” moments and leaves readers gasping, “Why didn’t I think of that?”

In “The Tipping Point,” Gladwell wrote about how little things can make a big difference. What turns an unusual clothing item into a hot new fashion trend? What are the forces at work to cause strange shoes to go from being oddities worn only by oddballs one day to (ahem) Birkenstocks the next?

Gladwell tries to find the precise act when that change occurs. He calls that moment the tipping point.

In “Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking,” Gladwell focuses on intuition. Far from being a glorified hunch, he says intuition is the result of long hours of work and searching and concentration. His examples are worth the price of the book.

“Outliers” is his latest hot book. Subtitle: “The Story of Success.” Gladwell examines achievers for what they have in common. He says we should not ask “what are these achievers like?” but “where are they from?” That is, what went into making them different from the rest of us? He finds commonalities for them.

Okay, pastor. Malcolm Gladwell is your new role model from now on. Go forth and do with your ministry what he does with the mundane things of everyday life.

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Deceiving and Bewitching as Careers

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O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? (Gal. 3:1)

The bewitchers are among us, hard at work.

I see it all the time.

Beautiful people sit (reluctantly) before me for me to do a quick sketch. I say, “Look at me please. Could I see a smile?” But getting a smile from them–or even eye contact–is next to impossible.

They say variations of, “I don’t smile” or “I don’t like my smile.” Sometimes, it’s “I’m shy” or “This is really difficult for me.”

And I wonder who has done a number on this person to warp their psyche that severely.

A man told me a few days ago, “I had a teacher in high school who said to me, ‘You do not have a nice smile.'” That was all it took, he said. Thereafter he went out of his way to avoid smiling.

Aarrgghh! That’s a good comic book expression that means, “This is awful! I cannot believe this!”

I see intelligent people–men and women and young people who are really brilliant with great gifts and talents–who seem to think they are stupid. Ask them to do something that requires reading or writing or thinking and you will hear a variation of “I’m not good at that” or “You’ve got the wrong person for that.”

Who bewitched them into believing they were dumb? Take your pick: a teacher, a parent, a friend. But someone did it to them. No one comes into the world automatically believing they are morons.

I see godly people oppressed by needless guilt over forgiven sins.

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