Let Me Hear HIm Preach One More Time

David Leo Doran was said to be one of the greatest preachers to ever walk in shoe leather. I have said it myself and have heard many others say the same thing. He was an old time fiery preacher. He would quote more scripture in one sermon than most preachers use in a year’s worth of sermons. He could tell a story like you have never heard it told anywhere else. Most important of all, when he came to the pulpit, you knew that he had been in touch with God.
David did not have very much formal education. He had to leave school in the tenth grade to work and help support his family. Yet he always had a hunger to learn and continued to study and educate himself. He would talk to well educated men that he admired and ask them what books they recommended. He would then buy the book and read it from cover to cover. He was much disciplined about this. I remember someone recommended Clyde Narrimore’s book, “The Encyclopedia of Psychological Problems.” They said it was a good book to have to help when you had to counsel with people. David bought the book and read it from cover to cover, word for word.
He was a preacher who studied. He would eat lunch on Sunday afternoon and then go to his study and prepare for the message that night. When he was finished, he started on his Bible lesson for Tuesday night. Tuesday night, when he got off work, he would eat, bathe and change clothes, and then he would head for the church to finish up for Bible Study that night. He never walked to the pulpit without spending hours in study and prayer.
He took his responsibility so seriously that I recall a time or two when he would actually tell us that he didn’t have a message, although he had spent time in study and prayer, he didn’t have a message. He refused just to go through the motions or just be redundant in what he had to say. He was honest and up front and said he had nothing.
I saw him, one night at a Fellowship Meeting, it is a service with several churches, preach. He was preaching on Jehu telling different men to come see his zeal for the Lord. David got to preaching about being zealous for the Lord. He got to preaching about being like Jehu, who they said drove his chariot ferociously. David grabbed the hand of a young man sitting in the front of the church and he began to run around the building. All the while he is pulling this young man behind him and preaching with all his might about having zeal for God.
Mind you, at this time David was probably about 47 or 48 years old. The young man had just returned from Marine boot camp. David ran him around that building until his tongue hung out, while David never missed a word or slowed down. The man could preach!
A Bible Study, that David taught, might last an hour or more. A sermon that he preached would be thirty minutes or so. That was his average. A Pastor once called him to preach for them for several nights and the night of the main event the Pastor requested David preach on a certain subject and asked him to preach for three hours. David did just that, he preached for three hours and although I was not able to be there, those that I spoke to later told me it seemed just like minutes.
When David was 59 years old, he found out that he had Parkinson’s disease. If you are not familiar with Parkinson’s disease let me briefly explain its affects. Parkinson’s disease is the result of a chemical deficiency between the brain and the nerve center that sends signals to the muscles. As a result, many of the things we do reflexively have to be thought out in order to do them. For example swallowing is something done as a reflex, we don’t think about it at all. Yet with Parkinson’s you have to think through the whole swallowing process. Many people with Parkinson’s have problems swallowing food or even saliva.
Parkinson’s affects walking, talking, and standing. I won’t go into detail, but because of the lack of the signal from the brain to the nerve center it was soon evident that David’s time as a pastor had come to an end. It was also obvious that he would no longer be able to preach the way that he once had preached.
David was a champion; he squared his shoulders and faced the problems before him. I must say that the most difficult thing for him to face as a result of this disease that so handicapped him, was not being able to preach the way he loved to preach. At the time of his being diagnosed with Parkinson’s I was David’s associate pastor. When he could no longer carry on the work as pastor, in the church where he had pastored for twenty-five years, He and the church asked me to step in and carry on his work. Being his son and his student, I knew how he wanted to stay involved so I encouraged him to seek other ways to minister. One of those ways was discipling young Christians.
When I became Pastor, the people in the church began to call David “The Elder” as a way of honoring him for his life time of service to that church. When we started working together with David teaching young Christians I called it, “Sitting at the feet of the Elder.”
David dealt with Parkinson’s and all the affects it had on his life and his body for ten years. In 1999 the doctors told him and the family that Parkinson’s had taken its toll and David didn’t have much longer to live.
I spent many nights, along with my brothers and oldest son, sitting in David’s living room, sometimes holding his hand. Mostly just sitting talking quietly and listening to him talk to us. I don’t remember a lot of the details of those conversations, I think it was more of his spirit strengthening ours than it was of words and dialog. I just remember being there with him. As the days went by, David became weaker. He became so weak that they brought a hospital bed in and set it up in his living room.
I remember on a Saturday afternoon I was sitting with him. Faye, his wife and my mother, had laid down to rest. David was a sleep and I was sitting on the couch in the living room thinking. It was very quiet and still. I watched David as he slept and seemed to labor a bit in breathing. In the still time my mind went back over the years and I began to remember the different times that I had heard my Dad preach. I began to relive those moments and those sermons which we called “Messages,” my how he could preach.
I walked through the years. I remembered the times and the places. There were one room school houses. There were school gymnasiums. There were Camp Meeting Tabernacles and Brush Arbors. There were nice Church buildings and other buildings that had been converted from a former life into a church building. There were big crowds, medium size crowds and there were small crowds. David had preached in them all and to them all.
I remembered sermon titles like, “Are You Asking for Trouble?” “You Know Too Much!” “Check Points on the Road to Heaven.” “Five Things I Would Like On My Tombstone.” “A Three and Two Count!”
It was a pretty overwhelming experience. In my heart I knew that David didn’t have many days left to live. Along with that knowledge and the memories I felt just a little overwhelmed. Then I remember a thought that came to me. Maybe it was more of a wish or even a prayer than a thought, actually. Whatever it was, I said to myself, “I wish I could hear Dad preach one more ‘Message.’ I wish I could just hear him do it one more time.”
My eyes had actually been closed and when I opened them Dad was looking at me. I asked him if he had gotten some rest and he answered back appropriately. Then we both sat there somewhat lost in our thoughts.
A few moments later, Faye came into the room to check on David. They spoke to each other in low tones and then Faye left the room. I didn’t think any more about what had been going through my mind because within just a few moments’ people started coming in to the house to visit. There was Slim and Rose Daniel. Jean Daniel and the Petranoff family showed up. Marc and Valerie Anderson came walking in and the house was soon filled with family and friends from the church. One of the last people to come in that evening was Joe Silva. Joe and his wife Sheryl were new Christians that David and Faye had been teaching and Joe looked to David as a son does to a father.
After Joe came in, David began to talk. Suddenly he was once again the Pastor. He looked at my wife, Melinda, and asked her if she would get out the old accordion. He looked at me and asked me to get out my guitar. Then he looked at us all and said that he had asked Faye to call everyone in so that we could have a time of worship and fellowship. It was about this time that I realized the people he had had Faye call in were the people that he had pastored for so many years. These were “his people or his saints.” He had loved them, led them to Christ, discipled them and pastored them for twenty-five years. They were those who were dearest to his heart and he to theirs.
He would tell us the song that he wanted us to sing and we all gathered in and sang our hearts out. He would call the name of an individual and ask them to sing a “special” song that they had sang in church, and they would sing their hearts out. What a time we had. You could feel the Spirit of God as it began to minister to each of us.
After everyone had sang and after we had pretty much exhausted the old song book. David spoke to Justin, his oldest grandson and my oldest son, and told him to go into his office and bring him some things. When Justin returned he had with him some sermon notes and a chart which he set up for his Grandpa.
David turned to Joe and said, “With all that has happened I haven’t been able to teach you this lesson that I really want you to hear. I have called you all in because I have something that you really need to hear.”
My prayer was answered. My desire came to past. There on his hospital bed “The Elder” preached one last “Message” to his people. I got to hear him preach one last time.
He preached from Hebrews 10:34-38 which reads:
Heb 10:34-38
34 For ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance.
35 Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward.
36 For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.
37 For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.
38 Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.” KJV
The words of the “Old Preacher’s” last message that stuck with me were this. Don’t cast away your confidence in God. Trust Him that He always does the right thing. I don’t know why things in my life haven’t worked out the way that I planned them, but I have confidence in God that I will receive my reward and that He knows what is best.
Yes, just as I had remembered it, the Preacher had a Message and that Message was for me. I am thankful I got to hear him preach one more time.
Just a thought! God Bless!

View of the Father's House, Second Look...

Have you ever made the wrong decision? I know that is a silly question to ask. Yet often people act as if I am the only one who has ever made the wrong decision and they never have. Sometimes I find myself acting that way toward others. Shame on me!
There are many different factors involved in making a decision. Factors such as how we are feeling, things we have recently experienced, other experiences in life. Our goals and objectives in life or in the situation, which we are facing, play a big part in making a decision.
I remember one time when I was principal of a Christian school. We had a 15-year-old student who was failing because he had stopped doing schoolwork. The teacher had tried to work with him and encourage him to no avail. He was attending school on a scholarship, not an academic one obviously, so I called his mother and sat up a meeting with them.
As we sat down together, I asked the young man why he was not doing his schoolwork and at least trying. He rather got a bit of an attitude, which really surprised me (note the sarcasm) so his mom jumped in to explain. Now I must admit Mom was as much of his problem as he was. She said that he had decided he did not need school; he was going to get a job when he turned sixteen. He was a big boy and so he was making his own decisions.
The second thing I must admit is this, that made me angry or maybe frustrated is a better word! I took several deep breaths, and then turned to the student and asked if this was true. He got a bit of a smirk on his face and said that it was true. I then asked him why he did not think he needed to finish school to get a job and make a good living for his family. I went on to explain to him he had nothing on which to base that decision. He had never worked a job nor even applied for work. He had never paid a bill, raised a family, or done any of the things he would be doing for the next fifty years trying to make it through life. I told him there would come a day when he would look back and dislike that fifteen-year-old boy that made the wrong decision that affected the rest of his life. I am sorry to say that he had already made his decision and he did quit school. Within months it was obvious to everyone who knew him he had made the wrong decision.
There were a couple of decisions in the Father’s house, which come to mind. They were what I would have to say, “Poor Decisions!” In Luke 15:11 Jesus tells us of a father who had two sons. We are aware of one of the decisions and this is the focus of the story. Actually, there were two decisions made and both were not good. Let me share with you my thought on this.
When the youngest son became of age he went to his father and told his father he wanted his inheritance. This was a decision that he had the right to make. The law of that day and that place allowed an heir to receive their inheritance prior to the death of benefactor, in this case his father. According to my understanding, he could do whatever he wanted with his inheritance when he received it. There were no regulations or restrictions. It was his.
One hoped that upon receiving the inheritance the heir would show wisdom and maturity in how he used his inheritance. One hoped they would invest it in a wise manner so that it would be a blessing to them in the years to come.
However, we know this young man made the wrong decision concerning his inheritance. He chose to waste it on good times and high living. He lacked a real appreciation for his inheritance. He did not understand the sacrifices that made to bring about such a rich a precious gift, for that is just what it was. Because of the cavalier attitude, he took regarding his inheritance it was not long until it was gone and he had nothing. Worse yet, at the same time he found himself spent, famine came to the land in which he had chosen to live.
I find this to be so like many people in Churches today. They are tremendously blessed. They have received so much as an inheritance. They are born into the Church of the living God. In an instance, they become joint heirs with Christ. They have all of the blessings of God at their fingertips. They have the power and authority of God at their disposal. Truth has been sought and revealed and is given to them. Fields have been plowed, harvests reaped, and they are able to enjoy the benefits. Yet the day comes when they feel they should take their inheritance and leave the Father’s house. Then because they have never developed an appreciation for their inheritance, they have never developed a love for their heritage. They recognize a freedom or liberty. They become careless when they feel there is no restraint. They make the wrong decision and use their inheritance foolishly. They awake one day in a land they have traveled to, spent, bankrupt and finding no sustenance in the land of their choosing. They have made a bad decision in the Father’s house.
The elder brother made the second wrong decision. From reading the scripture, account that Jesus told we know the elder brother also received his inheritance at the same time as the younger brother. Verse 12 says that the father divided unto them his living. Later the father also said to him that all he had belonged to him. He had the same opportunity to enjoy his inheritance at that time.
As the story progresses we find the younger son returns home. He is ashamed of what he has done. He is repentant for the disgrace he has brought to his father. He has realized his mistake and desires to become part of his father’s household if only as a servant.
It is at this point that we become aware of the second bad decision made in the father’s house. Upon hearing of the festivities that are, taking place the elder brother inquires as to the cause. He finds his prodigal brother has returned and his father has thrown a celebration in his honor. The eldest becomes angry! In fact, he is angry to the point that he confronts his father and questions why he would honor the disgraceful and not honor the loyal.
The father explains to the son that his motivation is his love for his son that has returned. He is thankful and this is reason to rejoice! The elder sons upset with this answer and in a petulant manner exclaims that he never gets anything done for him! To this exclamation there is a rebuke given by the father and that is, and I quote: “…all that I have is thine.” Luke 15:31
The bad decision made by the elder brother was not to take advantage of his inheritance and use it. He had received his inheritance along with his brother. He had the opportunity to use it, to spend it or to invest it. He obviously was the more cautious, in his lifestyle, of the two of them yet he went so far in being cautious that he cheated himself out of so much. He had never even killed a fatted calf and thrown a party.
Again, I find this to be so like many people in Churches today. They are tremendously blessed. They have received such a great inheritance. They are born into the Church of the living God. In an instance, they become joint heirs with Christ. They have all of the blessings of God at their fingertips. They have the power and authority of God at their disposal. Truth has been sought and revealed and is given to them. Fields have been plowed, harvests reaped, and they are able to enjoy the benefits of their heritage. Yet when it comes time to claim their inheritance they fail to do so!
They are happy to continue in their traditions. They carry on with life as usual. They persist to live below the privilege that is theirs as a son of the father. Their goal in life is to maintain what has always been their lot in life. There is no vision! There is no dream! They become discontent with their “lot” but only when they see someone else receive a blessing. Then they want to take the blessing away from the blessed!
What would have happened if both brothers had had a bit of the other in their outlook on life? What would have happened if the younger brother had said, “I have been tremendously blessed? I will use this to bring honor to my Father and to impact my world!”
What would have happened if the elder brother had said, “I have been blessed and from the Father’s house I can make a difference? So much has been given to me and now I can give!”
What would have happened if both brothers had had an attitude that said, “I have received what my father has labored for? Now I will take it and add to it from my own labors and be a blessing to my world and to my heirs?” How would the story have been different?
Let us take it a step further and ask what would have happened if the brothers would have worked together with their inheritance? They both had strengths! They both had weaknesses! Consider how strong they would have been if there had been unity in the Father’s house.
What would happen if you and I, as Christians today, were to look at what we have received from the Father in a different light? We are so blessed! We have such a great heritage! We have been give power and authority from God. Others have dug out truths and shared them with us. Methods have been tried and tested with time and now we can use then and build upon them. What would happen if we took advantage of our inheritance to change our world?
Again, let us consider what would happen if we worked together. We all have our strengths! We all have our weaknesses! What could we do if there was unity in the Father’s house?
Are we wasting what we have received by not valuing it? Are we wasting what we have received by not using it? Are we making bad decisions in the Father’s house?
It’s just a thought! God Bless…

Prayer Needed for Little Jared

Last fall I was a member of a online social group and came across a post by a mother asking people to pray for her little boy Jared. The name caught my attention because I have a son also named Jared and have a huge soft spot in my heart for kids.She shared that Jared, at age 9, had been found to have a brain tumor. I won't go into all of the details, but this fella was just the bravest little guy. I wrote Lora and got permission to contact Jared and for the next several months, as long as I was able to remain active on that site, I contacted him almost everyday. He couldn't hear to well but loved pictures so I and many others began sending him pictures of animals and all other types of things that would interest him. Many members of the site were good to visit him on a regular basis, trying to encourage him.Since leaving that site I have remained in contact with Ed and Lora by email. We have started a group on FB that just prays for Jared and his family. Today I received a email from Ed, which I will share. I cannot even begin to imagine what Ed and Lora are dealing with and feeling right now. The Drs have said there is nothing more than can do for Jared, it is in God''s hands. My heart breaks for them, but at the same time I know we serve a God who is just and caring and will do what is best for Jared and his family. I know God can heal him completely and I also know there are times when God says that isn't my plan. Please join me in praying for them. Ed, Jared's father, wrote:"donald we went to Cincinnati.childrens today and they found the tumor growing its in last stages we so need prayer for jared please pray they said hes in gods hands which we knew but ask god for jareds life with us,its so so hard please pray"God Bless

View of the Father's House, First Look...

We have read and heard the story of the prodigal son told in so many ways and so many times that it can easily become “old hat.” There is a danger when that happens because then we tend to miss some of the less obvious truths that Jesus is trying to get across to us. I know I have a tendency to gloss over passages that are familiar to me. Just today I was reading a familiar story in the Gospels, it is told in three of the four, and found a small bit of information I had never noticed or heard anyone else mention. Not earth changing, it is just interesting…ok, I will share. Did you know there were two demoniacs in Gadera? That is right; you will find the account in Matthew 8:28. However, Mark and Luke only speak of one in the same account. Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Jesus shares with us a story of a father and two sons in Luke 15:11. Jesus is trying to convey to His listeners how exciting when you are able to restore that which was lost. He is trying to help them understand the blessing that comes in finding what was lost! He speaks of some natural things to which His listeners will relate. If they had ever lost a sheep they would understand how excited the shepherd is when he is able to return with the lost sheep! Anyone who has ever lost some money, especially a goodly sum, knows how excited he or she was when he or she found the lost money!

Jesus takes the lost and found stories just a bit further as He speaks of a father with two sons and one decides it is time to leave home and strike out on his own. I will never forget the day my oldest son left home.

I remember quite vividly the time just before Justin got his drivers license. I was so troubled and disturbed. It was not that I did not want him to drive or did not trust him that was not the problem at all. I recall sitting with Melinda in a restaurant that was close to the freeway near where we lived. The lights of emergency vehicles flying down the freeway caught our attention. It seemed they kept going by forever. Just a while later, as we were heading home, we passed the scene of a tragic accident and later found out that a person had gone down the wrong side of the freeway and ran head on into another car.

As we passed, I began to weep. Melinda looked at me as if I were crazy and asked what was wrong. It was at that point that I realized what had been bothering me about Justin getting his drivers license. Up to that point, I had been able to protect him. Now, along with the independence gained by him in having a license to drive there was the fact that I would not be able to protect him as I had in the past.

Just a few years later, just weeks before his twentieth birthday, I recall standing on the porch of our home and waving goodbye as he walked to his truck and headed for Arkansas, leaving us in California. Now the plan was that he would be traveling with his uncle and his family. He was going to live with some friends of ours. We were planning to move to Arkansas within a week ourselves. Yet I knew that it would never be the same and it has not.

I can feel for this father as his son came and asked for his portion of the inheritance. This was not a bad thing! It was legal and acceptable in the time in which they lived. At any time, an heir could ask for their portion of their inheritance and receive it. Yet I am sure the father was aware that things would never be the same as before and it was not.

The son, after a couple of days, left home and journeyed to a far away place. The independence that he had so recently obtained became an unrestrained lifestyle. The young man made foolish choices. The results were devastating and it was not long until he spent the whole inheritance, leaving nothing!

The Bible says the young man “came to himself” which leads me to believe that he had not been thinking right. He experienced a brief moment of “temporary insanity” that came from having more money than he was accustomed to. Adding to that unbridled freedom. From that lifetime “high”, he slams into an all time “low” as he struggles for survival without any money, any friends and a famine in the land where he is living. It would be enough to make you unaware of who you are or even where you are.

I can picture the father, in my mind, getting up every morning and looking outside to see if maybe his son had returned during the night. I can see him looking anxiously toward the door every time it opens unexpectedly. I can just imagine him walking to the front porch and looking down the road, hoping to catch a glimpse of his son returning. However days and weeks go by without a word. The rejection of the son to his father sets in to the point that the mourning and loss of the father are as if his son had actually died.

Yet in a distant land, the son comes to himself. He realizes he does not have to continue this lifestyle. He is not destined to a pig pin. Yes, he has made a mistake and yes, he has done wrong. Yet in his heart, he knows the heart of his father and knows that if he returns and asks forgiveness his father will at least find it in his heart to let him be a servant. Being a servant in the Father’s house is better than taking care of the hogs in a distant land. Being a servant in the Father’s house is better than anything he had experienced.

He returns to his Father’s house. The picture in his mind of what will take place is much different from the actual event. He expects chastisement but instead of a rebuke for his foolishness, he is welcomed with open arms. He has pictured a time of making amends and earning his father’s love or maybe just acceptance. However, after a few words of repentance and remorse his father expresses his love and acceptance.

What the son finds on his return to the Father’s house is compassion and restoration. He had made a mistake. He had rejected the Father and all that was his. He had lived a life that brought shame and disgrace to the Father. Yet on his return all, the Father needed to know was that his son was sorry and wanted to live in the Father’s house. Upon seeing him, the father had compassion! He ran to him, grabbed him in a bear hug, and kissed him. Upon hearing his words of repentance, he turns to the servants and declares that his son who was dead is alive and it is time to have a party in his honor.

This reminds me of a passage of scripture that is so dear to me. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1John 1:9
John warns us in this passage we will all make mistakes. How certain he and the other disciples had been in their ability not to ever fail, yet they had. He is alerting us to that fact; there will be times of failure. He is making us aware that anyone can and will fail. Yet, he is also letting us know that in those times of failure we can be certain to find compassion and restoration from our heavenly Father. If we repent, He will forgive and restore.

We as Christians can learn so much from the Father. Be quick to show compassion. Be quick to restore those who have fallen. Lift them up and let them know they are welcome in the Father’s house. Compare the spirit of the Father to that of the eldest son. The Father’s house is a house of compassion and restoration.

Just a Thought…God Bless!