Things My Father Taught Me

Do you remember the things that your Dad taught you? I am talking about the important things, like, how to shoot a gun? Do you remember him teaching you how to cast that line into the right spot in the pool? Maybe you remember him teaching you how to throw that curve ball so that it would break just right and catch the batter off balance. How about teaching you how to tuck the football in after you had caught that over the middle pass, insuring that you didn’t fumble? Was it a behind the back dribble that your Dad taught you? How to sink a twenty foot putt, or even a one foot putt?

We all have things that we have learned from Dad. Things that make us remember those days that are past, “yester-years” with a fondness, maybe even a wistful smile. They remind of us of pleasant afternoons spent with Dad. They might even remind us of getting up early, before dawn, to go on hunting or fishing trips. Somehow those events are forever planted in our minds.

My father wasn’t much of a “sportsman.” When he was growing up during the “Depression” he worked more than he played. He couldn’t throw a baseball, he always said he threw like a girl and he really did. I don’t think he ever played a game of football in his life. I never saw him shoot a gun. I know he probably played some basketball, only because I have a picture of him, in Korea, poised to shoot a basket, but even then he is holding the ball awkwardly. He loved to fish, but we never caught anything when we went, truthfully. We only went camping about four times while I was growing up. He was an awesome sport, but not a sportsman. He loved for us to play ball but couldn’t teach us much about doing it.

My “special” memories of the things my Dad taught me have nothing to do with sports. They do, however, have a lot to do with the time he spent with us. During those times he was teaching us those things that were really important to life. He was planting perpetual seeds of value in our lives. I live today based on what my father taught me in those times spent with him.

I remember as a young child most of our Saturdays were spent visiting people. Most of these were people I didn’t know. Yet on a Saturday we would all pile into the car with a list of people to visit. Mom had a list of people she needed to see and Dad had a list of people he needed to see. We would stop at each house and they would get out of the car, go to the door and visit for a few moments. David, my brother, and I would stay in the car (I know you can’t do that today but in the ‘60’s it was alright.) Even today, when I hear gravel crunching under someone’s feet as they walk on the sidewalk, my mind goes back to those afternoons and recognizing from that sound that Dad was coming back to the car. Dad and Mom taught me to care about people.

I am a carpenter by trade. My first carpenter job was at the age of ten. Dad was a town carpenter for the lumber mill town that we lived in. For many months, when he came home from work he would eat supper and then he would drive to Eureka, about twenty-five miles away, to work all evening. Now this was a deferred payment job, which means he wasn’t getting paid immediately. In fact he was just “laying up treasures” because he was helping build a Sunday School wing on a Church so payment comes in eternity. However, just before he would leave I would ask him if I could go too. So I learned from my Dad at the age of ten how to lay our studs for a wall. I also learned it always pays to give to God, even if it is your time and energy.

There were a lot of evenings when we got in the car and would take a drive. No, we weren’t going to see scenery, we were going to Church. All the way there and all of the way home Dad and Mom would talk. They weren’t talking about people and they weren’t talking about how rough life was. They were talking about their lives, events that happened as they were growing up. Dad would talk about his work. We felt we knew as much about the people he worked with as he did. He always had a funny story from the day to share. We sang songs together. Dad had a hard time carrying a tune, but I don’t know of him ever forgetting the words to a song. In our family it was like the old song, except it changed just a bit: “Momma sang bass, Daddy sang tenor, and me and David would join right in there…” I still sing many of those old songs today. I have shared many of Dad’s funny songs with my kids and grandkids. They taught us to be a family and to love the things of God.

I was blessed to be able to learn a lot of things from Dad that have been so valuable through the years. I read a passage this morning from the Psalms that made me realize that once again. The Psalmist said walk around Zion, check out her bulwarks, examine her palaces so you can tell the next generation. Zion of course is the Church. The bulwarks are the strengths of the Church. The palaces are the beauty of the Church. We need to know it for ourselves, but we also need to show it to the next generation. Teach them something that is everlasting.

Thanks Dad! You taught me some things that are more important than shooting a gun or casting a line. They will last longer than knowing how to throw a curve or dribble behind my back. You taught me to love people, to love my family and to love my God! Those things are everlasting!

God Bless!

Helping With Failure!

I love being a Dad! To me it is one of the most wonderful things that I have ever experienced. It is awesome to have the responsibility as well as the love that is the result of being a Dad! My own Dad had a sign in his office my youngest brother, Tim, gave him, it said, “Anyone can be a father but it takes someone special to be a Dad!” The sign had a picture of a young boy in a boat on the lake with his father and they were fishing together.

I have had the blessing of being Dad to three awesome people. Each has brought their own particular brand of joy to my life. Each has experienced their own challenges and known their own victories. I like to feel that I have played some part in helping them become the wonderful men and woman they have become. One of the greatest challenges I have experienced as a Dad is helping them to overcome failure.

Failure is something that each of us will experience in life. I was recently reading a book by motivational speaker and author Zig Ziglar called “Better than Good.” The book is about how to experience a life that is “Better than Good,” good just isn’t good enough. In my opinion this book is a must read for everyone, especially parents. One segment of the book deals with the subject of failure. This discussion really caught my attention and gave me a lot to think about as a Dad.

Zig spoke of what is often classified as failure being nothing more than just a slow start. He tells the story of a man that is familiar to most of us, so let me share some of it with you. Tom Brady, quarterback of the New England Patriot’s professional football team has won three Superbowls and been selected as MVP in two of those. In 2007 he was selected for three different NFL Most Valuable Player Awards and a Player of the Year Award and an Offensive Player of the Year Award. He is a four time Pro Bowler and a one time first team All-Pro. He has been featured on “60 Minutes,” hosted “Saturday Night Live,” was invited to the 2004 State of the Union and signed a $60 million contract in 2005. He has done all of this by the age of 31. However, although he was an All-American in high school he did not receive any scholarship offers until his Dad sent out sixty highlight films to college coaches around the country. He was finally offered a scholarship at Michigan; however, it was not as a starter. At the end of his college carrier the NFL teams said he was too skinny to play in the NFL. They said he didn’t have the right type of body or a strong enough passing arm for a successful NFL quarterback. During the draft he sat waiting through six rounds before being selected. Tom Brady was the 199th draft choice that year. The New England Patriots let him sit on the bench until the starting quarterback was injured before he was given an opportunity to play. From that point on, the rest is history, and what a history it is! Zig asks the question, “Is this man a failure or a slow starter?” I think with hind sight in our favor we would all say he was just a slow starter.

Zig Ziglar also lists some lessons learned from failure, which I thought I would share:
*We learn to depend on God
*We learn humility
*We learn we can’t always get what we want
*We learn to make a correction in our course of action
*We learn character
*We learn perseverance
*We learn we can survive

I, as a Dad, hate to see my children fail at anything. I felt their pain in failing. I also think maybe I felt somewhat like a failure also. I have struggled to keep my mouth shut when my advice wasn’t sought or it was ignored. However, one of the greatest things that we can do as a Dad is to allow our children the privilege to fail. Oh, we need to help them, encourage them, coach them and pick them up when they fall. At the same time, we need to allow them to have the learning experience of failure along with the thrill of success when they overcome that failure.

I can’t help but think of Tom Brady’s Dad sending out those sixty highlight films for his son to coaches around the nation. He helped him the best he could. However, somewhere Tom learned to believe in himself and he learned to keep trying until he got it done. I think maybe he learned that from a man who kept plugging away until he got his son a chance with a college in Michigan.

Looking at failure, isn’t it the same in our walk with God? God allows us the opportunity to fail. He knows we are making mistakes, yet He gives us the privilege of choice. Then, being the awesome Father that He is, He picks us up and brushes us off helping us to learn from the experience of failing. - God Bless!

Have You Seen God?

Have you ever heard of God with your ears? You know what I mean! Have you heard someone say something like, “I remember when I was sick and the doctors didn’t know what to do, I was prayed for and God healed me?” Maybe it went like this, “We were in a great financial need and after we prayed, God sent provision from nowhere.” Here is another one you might have heard, “I was bound by the chains of sin, my life was hopeless, but God delivered me and set me free.” Have you ever heard of God with you ears?

The other day I was reminded of a man who had heard of God with his ears. He said he heard God was working in another place. Yet when this man arrived at that place he didn’t see God. This to him was more important than hearing of God. He actually was on a search for God. His own description of his situation goes like this, “I go east, but he is not there. I go west, but I cannot find him. I do not see him in the north, for he is hidden. I turn to the south, but I cannot find him.” Job 23:8-9 NLT. He had heard of God with his own ears and now He was looking for God!

Let me share something that God brought, very forcefully, to my attention just the other day. I have experienced times when I have read the Bible and have gotten little out of it. I know that sounds bad and maybe I was “bad” and that is why I didn’t get anything from it. Actually I think the problem was more my “retainer” wasn’t “retaining!” There have been other times when I have opened my Bible and a passage has jumped out at me as if it were in flashing lights. This is what happened the other day.

We were sitting in the ICU waiting area of a hospital and had been there for a couple of days. I had spent time praying and crying until I felt I couldn’t pray or cry anymore, at least not for a while. It was late at night and some folks were curled up in chairs nodding off. Others were just staring off into space, keeping their thoughts and prayers to themselves. Still others were talking in hushed tones to each other. I picked up my Bible and opened it. I love to read the Psalms, especially at times like this, so that is where I turned. Not having a particular passage in mind nor marked I thought I would start reading at Psalms One. I read the passage but I guess my “retainer” wasn’t turned on because it didn’t do anything for me. I started into the Second Psalms and my eyes strayed from the reading. They actually jumped up to the Book of Job, which was on the same page.

Now I am going to admit to you something I don’t want you to tell anyone else. I don’t really like to read the Book of Job. Quiet! Someone might hear your gasp! I know it has a lot of good information but I don’t like to read it, especially if I am not happy already. The ending is great but the rest of the story is pretty rough. So my intentions were not to read the Book of Job but suddenly there was a passage in “flashing lights” demanding my attention. What I read was something I really needed to read at that moment and it has been like a slow release fertilizer to my soul for the past several days. Job is at the end of his story and he is repenting to God for his attitude. In his repentance he makes a statement that is amazing to me. He said he had heard of God with his ears, but now he saw God with his own eyes.

This is when God began to speak to my soul. We have all heard of God, as I mentioned earlier. The question is have we seen God with our own eyes? I remember stories that I had heard when I was a child of the power of God. My dad told me the story of his grandmother Winnie Doran. She had fallen and shattered her knee caps. The doctors told her she would never walk again without crutches. She came to a church service in Tulare, California and they prayed for her. Dad said he saw crutches fly one way and Grandma danced another way. She danced all over the church and never used a crutch again. I heard that story with my own ears!

I heard the story of my Grandma praying for a truck tire that had went flat and had been patched several times that day. The family was moving from one city to another and it had been a hard day. It was now night and everyone was tired. She didn’t want the family stranded along a deserted highway so she prayed for the tire! Dad said they drove to their new home with a loaded truck and then drove on that tire for several more months. I heard that story with my own ears!

I heard my Mother tell me of the doctor’s report. They said she had tuberculosis, for which there is no cure. The reports were shocking! The prognosis was hopeless! That is until God came on the scene and completely healed her. There was no sanitarium needed. There were no treatments needed. There are no residual effects today over fifty years later. She takes a TB test on a regular basis for her work and it comes back clear! I heard that with my own ears!

I could go on and I am sure you could as well. Stories of salvation, I know of one preacher who received the Holy Ghost in a hog pen. I know of another man who was a drug addict and God touched his heart and lead him to a church that showed him the truth of God‘s love and Word. I know of a couple that was headed for divorce court when God intervened and helped them salvage their marriage. We have heard lots of stories! The question is have we seen God with our own eyes.

God spoke to me and let me know that it is one thing to have heard the stories of God’s power, deliverance and grace. It is another thing to have seen with your own eyes God exhibits His power, His deliverance and His grace. It is great to hear how powerful God is, but to know how powerful God is because you have seen that power work in your life is something even greater. To hear that God can deliver from any situation is wonderful, but to have seen God deliver you from a hopeless situation is beyond compare. To hear of God’s amazing grace will bless your soul, but to see God’s Amazing Grace in action in your own life will humble you in ways that cannot be explained. Have you seen God for yourself?

What we must realize is to see God for yourself you will need to be in a situation where you need to see God. It isn’t going to be enough to have heard He is working in the east, or west. It will not be enough to have heard God has done it for someone else; you will have to see Him for yourself. You will have to have your own personal relationship with Him.

As a young child I saw God for myself! At the age of five I came down with the measles. Although placed in a dark room the measles got into my right eye and caused an ulcer. I can remember being taken to the doctor and the doctor telling me and my mother to come back the next day. Their plan was to take the eye and lay it on my cheek. They were going to have to scrape the ulcer off of the eyeball. I remember being terrified. It sounded so horrible. That night we went to a little country church in the middle of a field in Fontana, California. I can still see it in my minds eye. I remember telling Mom I needed our Pastor, Brother Phil Granus and my Dad to pray for me. I remember them laying their hands on my head and praying the prayer of faith over me. I also remember, very vividly, going to the doctor the next day and hearing him say we don’t know what has happened but the ulcer is gone and surgery isn’t necessary. I also remember telling him that I already knew I would need surgery because God had healed my eye when I was prayed for. I had seen God with my own eyes!

The disciples of Jesus had heard His teachings. They were sure they knew He was God. Yet it was in the middle of a storm that they saw Him with their own eyes. For it was from the midst of the storm that He came walking across the waves. It was from the midst of the storm when everything was out of control that they witnessed His deliverance and power for themselves. They saw Him with their own eyes.

Paul and Silas had heard about Him, many times. In fact, they had seen Him with their own eyes. It is in a Philippian Jailers house, after being delivered from prison, they told the Jailer of a God they had seen with their own eyes. They talked of His saving power. They talked of His love and mercy. They shared His wondrous grace for all mankind with this man, who a moment before was on the verge of taking his own life, thinking life was hopeless. They had seen Him with their own eyes. Now the Jailer and his household have seen Him with their own eyes as well!

The question was circulated, was Jesus a sinner. He had healed a blind man on the Sabbath day! The Pharisees came to the man and asked him if Jesus was a sinner? The man replied that he did not know if He was a sinner or not, what he did know was that he had been blind but now he could see! He then proceeded to give a Bible study to these Bible scholars about how God doesn’t answer the prayers of the ungodly. The Pharisees became angry at what they considered insolence and banned him from the synagogue. When Jesus heard this He found the man and asked Him the following question:

"Do you believe in the Son of Man?"

To which the man replied, “Who is he, sir, because I would like to."

"You have seen him," Jesus said, "and he is speaking to you!"

Now I want you to notice the answer and the actions of the man in response to this statement, "Yes, Lord," the man said, "I believe!" And he worshiped Jesus.” John 9:35-38 NLT

He had heard about Him. He had heard good things and also bad things. He wasn’t sure what to believe except that he had been healed. Now, in spite of what he has been told by others, He has seen Him for himself and he believes! He has witnessed the power of God! He has witnessed the deliverance of God! He has witnessed the grace of God! He, who was blind, has seen God for himself and when he realized who he had seen he worshipped Him!

Jesus goes on to say He has come to give sight to the blind. He has also come to show those that think they see they are really blind. There are a lot of things that we could say here, but I wonder if one of the things that Jesus is saying is this, “There are going to be some times in your life when what you have heard with your ears will not be enough, you are going to need to see God for yourself. It is in these times that I will open your eyes and you will see and you will believe!”

God Bless!

What Do You Do When Life Shows Up And God Doesn't?

What do you do when life shows up and God doesn’t? I know that is a tough question. In fact it is a question that many of us would be afraid to verbalize. What do you mean God doesn’t show up?

Picture this! You got out of bed this morning, just like you have for the past two thousand five hundred days. Your bed is not a pillow top mattress lying in the frame of a sleigh bed. Neither is there a comfortable nice Persian rug to place you feet upon as you swing them over the side of the bed. You don’t smell coffee brewing from the other room and when you go to wash your face there is no running water. Instead, you roll out of bed, literally. Your bed is on the floor, so you roll into a kneeling position so you can stand up. Your bare feet feel the cold and damp that seeps up from the floor, chilling you immediately. The coffee isn’t on because you are worried about starting a fire. There is no running water in the cave in which you slept. For the past several years you have awaken every morning knowing there are three thousand men who have one mission. They wake up every morning with one objective. Their intent is to seek you out and kill you!

No they are not outlaws. They are the law! They are the king’s men. These are men who have been commissioned to kill you, to destroy you. And the reason for this is because you did your job too well. You were given a job to do and when you came back everyone was singing your praises. Now, your boss wants to kill you for real.

I am talking about what you do when life shows up and God doesn’t. How do you handle those situations when life comes your way with its problems and difficulties? When you see problems everywhere but can’t feel God anywhere. David had been anointed to be king of Israel. It was not a position he had applied for. He had been minding his own business out in the pasture. Suddenly a messenger comes and says he is wanted at the house. The next thing David knows, the old prophet is pouring oil over his head. The next words he hears are that he will be the next king of Israel.

From that moment on, David’s life is turned upside down. It seems that he goes from one bad situation to another. Some of these are of his creation. Others are cast upon him through no fault of his own. He slays Goliath. David could not stand to hear a heathen shame the God that he served. He becomes a national hero. He is sent on a mission in hopes he will be killed. He wins a tremendous victory instead. The maidens sing his praises in the street. One evening he is sitting on his couch trying to enjoy his family. He hears unusual noises outside. It is the king’s men. They are there to arrest him. He slips out a window and runs for his life.

His companions are the rejects of society. They are men who are wanted by the law. They were men who are trying to escape debtors’ prisons. They have migrated to David. We are not talking about a few men. We are talking about six hundred men who have brought their families with them. You have heard of having problems with the “in-laws”? His wife, Michal, just happens to be the daughter of the king. Yes, Saul is also his father-in-law. Saul takes David’s wife and gives her to be the wife of another man.

The king has three thousand men looking for him everyday to kill him. He lives in caves. He is constantly in danger, running for his life. Always one step ahead of the law. He spares the life of his enemy on two occasions. Saul says he is sorry and promises to be good. Yet a few days later he is once again chasing after David. It isn’t until he leaves the country and goes to a foreign land that Saul leaves him alone. David, realizing he will never know peace, goes to Gath for security. When Saul hears this he decides to let David go.

So now things have changed. It is over! Life can become normal, right? Wrong! Guess again.
David and his followers are given the city of Ziklag to live in. The king of Gath offers his friendship. David, being so long without a friend and having all offers of friendship rejected, accepts his friendship. The five kings of the Philistines decide to go to war against Israel. The king of Gath asks David to help them. Join up with them to fight a common enemy. Now David is in a difficult position.

What should he do? Should he fight for those who have befriended him? Should he stick by his home land? He decides for safety’s sake he should fight for the nation in which he is living. He and his men join up with the Philistines to go to war against Israel. However, the other four kings decide it isn’t going to work. They would have David behind them and Israel in front of them. They are afraid David will attack them in the midst of the battle. David and his men are sent home. Rejected again by those he tries to befriend.

When they return home, they find another enemy has attacked their homes. The city lies in ruins. Their families have been captured and carried away. It is a dismal picture they find that day! Now, when it seems that nothing could get worse than it is. David’s men turn against him. He is being rejected by the rejects. The outcasts want to cast him out. They actually are going to stone him. Murder is in their eyes. Life has dealt them one blow more than they can handle.
What do you do when life shows up but God doesn’t? Where do you go, to whom do you turn?
I noticed there isn’t a lot of talk through those passages of God being there. It isn’t like other passages or stories. The hero is dealing with a situation and God says… and all is well. It seems to me there are several passages that span close to ten years of time where it looks like David is just living by his wits.

Now you and I both know the end of the story. We know that David goes from the cave to the throne. We know that Saul receives his just rewards. David ends up wearing a crown. We know that because we read the book and know how it ends. What we need to remember, David was living the story. He didn’t have the benefit of knowing the ending. There wasn’t a Book of Revelations with a twenty-first or twenty-second chapter for him to read. He was living the story right then and there. Life and showed up and it seemed that God had been given the wrong address and was somewhere else.

David did the one thing I hope to learn to do. The Bible says when David had come to this spot. It seemed as if all that could go wrong had gone wrong. When life had showed up and God didn’t seem to be there. The Bible tells us that David encouraged himself in the Lord! He couldn’t depend on anyone else. There was no one else to draw strength from. No one was there that would say it is all right, we are going to make it. We are in this together. So David had to encourage himself in the Lord.

There are going to be times in our lives when seemingly life shows up and God doesn’t. What will we do then? You and I both know that God is always there. Yet there are times when it seems like He isn’t. Job said he looked all around him. He saw the evidence of God everywhere. Yet he could not feel God for himself. He could not touch God and get the answer he was searching for. What do you do when life shows up and God doesn’t?

David encouraged himself in the Lord. I believe he reminded himself of all those times that God had kept him. David is on one side of the mountain and Saul is on the other. David somehow manages to get away. Oh, the list went on and on. When he arose from that time of encouragement, he led his men to a great victory. It is at that moment, the lowest point in his life that God shows up and begins to make his presence known. Not long after this, David is sitting on the throne of Israel as king.

Job said that he had put his trust in God. I don’t know where God is! I can’t feel him anywhere! Yet God knows where I am. He knows where I am going. He knows what he is doing. What is happening in my life is going to make me a better person in the kingdom of God. It is going to reveal those short comings that I need to get out of my life. I will be purified by this.
What will you do when life shows up and God doesn’t? Don’t despair and feel that God has forsaken you. It just feels like he hasn’t showed up. He is there and He does care. You are on your way to the THRONE! You will receive the crown!