I will give thanks to Thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart, and will glorify Thy name forever. Psalms 86:12
It’s been a productive week here on the blog, hopefully being purposeful, intentional, informative, reflective, sourcing both healing and renewal, and as always, to offer praise and worship to our Triune God. I’ve been told “the Father begets, the Son is begotten, and the Holy Spirit presides,” which I learned after I did due diligence this morning on the “Doxology” whose words are below:
Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
praise Him, all creatures here below;
praise Him above, ye heavenly host;
praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.
These lines are likely the most sung words now for more than 300 years in congregations. Perhaps the Doxology has been more instrumental in teaching the doctrine of the Trinity than all theology books ever written. More than a hymn, Christ-Followers regard it as an offering or sacrifice of praise for God’s continual flow of blessings to us the past week, but even millenniums.
Too often as a child, I remember the Doxology marked the climax of a long Sunday morning sermon signaling the final march of the pastor to the rear door to encourage or admonish those in attendance, at least those who chose not to skip out the other doors. I just realized how this concluding church routine is all is so similar to the stadium antics with the national anthem being sung immediately prior to the teams taking the field. We boys too, took to the parking lot when the Doxology concluded as the pastor simultaneously pivoted at the rear door. Of course, we all clamored for the other exits, and no, there was definitely no sports gear present!
Perhaps your memories with the Doxology are similar, or maybe, you’re totally clueless. However, of interest to us keen on history, is that the author was a bold, perhaps brash, outspoken 17th century Anglican bishop named Thomas Ken (1637-1711). Orphaned, he was raised by his older sister and her husband, Izaak Walton, noted for his classic The Compleat Angler. A scholar at Winchester College, he spent most of his life intertwined with Winchester, both College and Cathedral. There the small statured prelate, through his preaching and music, sought to uplift the spiritual lives of his students.
His illustrious career was stormy and colorful. For a short while he served as the English chaplain at the royal court in the Hague, Holland, but being so outspoken in denouncing the corrupt lives of those in authority at the Dutch capital, he was sent home. Evidently by then, Dutch anabaptists were enjoying the ensuing Dutch Renaissance’s economic prosperity that followed their earlier reformational persecution, as they were already perfecting their later popular stance of being the “quiet in the land,” or at least, in their pew.
Thomas Ken however, upon returning to England, continued to reveal the same spirit of boldness in rebuking the moral sins of his dissolute monarch. Despite this, King Charles II always admired his courageous chaplain, reminding me of biblical Daniel who uniquely I believed served three leadership regimes during his captivity, and always, was admirably capable! Perhaps the question begging to be asked today, is why is the church discouraging our brightest and best from seeking to fill responsible positions as Daniel did so well? Even the NYC mayor, Eric Adams is trying. See below.
Bishop Ken was lauded by historian Macaulay with this tribute: “He came as near to the ideal of Christian perfection as human weakness permits.” See Kenneth W Osbeck, comp., Amazing Grace: 366 Hymn Stories for Personal Devotions, (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications , 1990) p. 342.
Indeed, a most worthy or envious epitaph, especially during this moment of historical chaos, likely as during Bishop Ken’s life. Reminds me of the clip sent me yesterday of NYC mayor Eric Adams speech this past Tuesday at an interfaith prayer breakfast. I wonder if they concluded with the Doxology? Click the link below to learn more.
I’m thinking perhaps a similar fire was/is present in their bellies? All three were simply obedient, forgiven, transformed, and empowered to disciple TODAY! If you can, sing the Doxology today with gusto, whether during the commute or in your shower! Live the Joy! It’s our privilege, even our mandate.
If you didn’t read and listen yet to yesterdays post, I strongly suggest you do so before you tackle this one. I need say no more as Oswald’s March 2 reading here provides the frosting on the cake to yesterday’s message of Hope from God’s Three Assurances to His Followers;
Oh, that we too like Peter would respond in amazement and simply say, “Lord, you know all things….” and then just rest and bask in His presence, I pray we’re each prepared for that rare moment. Oswald states our Lord never asks questions until the perfect time. Even if it is the perfect time for Him and us, we may still duck and run since we’re frail humans, for whatever be the excuse. Assuredly, after we’ve matured and in another perfect moment, he’ll back us into a corner where once again, He will hurt us with His piercing questions, that always reveal the true me to myself, for He already knows. But do I know?
I prefer to think the test is not a pass/fail exam, but rather, a pass/repeat situation. God does not grade on the curve ever; it’s always a pass/repeat exam, meshing perfectly with His grace and mercy motif, at least, until Judgement Day! So go forth in abundant joy realizing you do love Him more than mere words can ever express.
Folks, this is the most exquisite practical teaching I can recall about “Putting Your Past Behind You!” Undoubtedly, this is the Number One debilitating affliction, if not curse, that the world’s humanity is suffering from today, and sadly, the church is not exempt. I can confidently state this 30 minute clip will rock your world.
For me, during this Lent season, considering the scars Jesus suffered and endured for me as proof of the job well done, but in his case, “by Him Who knew no sin…” whereas for me and you, our scars are the proof we’ve encountered His needed surgery so that our open festering wounds that we’ve either chosen, or been given by others, were indeed gloriously healed. Our scars are now the visible and verbal evidence to those in our spheres of influence, also suffering from their secrecy, hostility, dishonesty and the unforgiveness of their own unresolved, open and festering wounds! How timely to consider such healing as we approach the celebration of his resurrecting power and its ultimate healing for each of us.
Realize this clip is the first in a series of nine from Erwin Lutzer’s book so titled. His text is I Corinthians 10:12-13 “Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.” Bask in these words today. We’ve read them hundreds of times, but after listening to this clip three times this morning, I’ve been exquisitely warmed anew.
For you history buffs, many of us lived through these events as are brought to life today in his post, “Does It Take A War” by Seymour Hersh. But, for too many on the deck of life today who did not, and are now without historical moorings, in conjunction with his post I suggest you must read Romans 8: 22-39 from your favorite version to facilitate your internal moorings with His perspective, as that is the only one that will count in the end. Seriously! FYI, I prefer The Message Version here. Here’s Seymour:
There is an inevitable gap between what a president tells us about a war—even a proxy war—and the reality on the ground. It is true today as Joe Biden struggles for public support for the war in Ukraine, and it was true six decades ago as Jack Kennedy struggled to understand the war he chose to pursue in South Vietnam.
Early 1962 was a critical time for President John F. Kennedy. After his image and leadership had been tarnished by the Bay of Pigs disaster three months into his term, he had decided that he must make a stand in South Vietnam and confront the spread of communism there. The president spent the rest of 1961 secretly increasing American defoliation, bombing, and the number of US troops inside South Vietnam. His fight against international communism was on. His foil was Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, who had overwhelmed the young president at a summit meeting on June 4, 1961, with his knowledge, toughness, and lack of respect for Kennedy’s floundering in Cuba. “So he just beat the hell out of me,” the president later told New York Times columnist James Reston.
Nonetheless, America was smitten by the glitz and glamor of Jack and Jackie and their life inside the White House, with parties and social events that brought together the best America had to offer from the worlds of music, the arts, and the academy. So it was that David Herbert Donald, the most prominent Lincoln scholar of his time, found himself asked to give a private briefing in the White House. The small group he addressed—it numbered no more than twenty—included longtime friends of the president and some key members of his government. Donald would be the guest of the president and his wife. He was delighted.
Donald, who had won a Pulitzer Prize that year for his work on the Civil War, wrote a long chatty letter to an old friend a few weeks later about his night at the White House. I learned of the meeting during the 1990s while researching a book on the Kennedy Administration. Donald sent me a copy then of the letter, but urged me to publish very little of it in my book. I did what he asked. Donald died in 2009, after decades of teaching American history at Harvard University, and I’d like to think he would have approved of my quoting it at greater length here.
Donald reported in the letter that he talked for forty minutes about the difficulties of Reconstruction after the Civil War, and the trouble he and other historians were having, as he wrote, “in writing a new synthesis of the period.” There was a long period of chatter, with both the president and his wife Jacqueline actively participating. “Mrs. Kennedy,” Donald reported, was “extremely simple and unassuming, very young, very shy, and a little unsure of herself. . . . That radiant beauty which appears in her photographs and in her television appearances is not apparent, but she strikes me as an enthusiastic and highly intelligent young woman.”
The letter went on: “The President himself, too is far less handsome than his pictures. . . . The boyish look which his photographs give him is simply not there. . . . [H]e led off the questioning and continued very active in the discussion throughout; and afterward we had a long, private discussion. It is clear that this is a man determined to go down in our history books as a great President, and he wants to know the secret.
“One thing he said troubled me considerably,” Donald wrote. In discussing the great presidents, Kennedy “asked whether, in sum, did [it] not take a war to put a man in that category? I firmly denied this. He seemed to agree and, since he is bent on being a great President, I hope he really did.”
In a brief telephone conversation I had with Donald in 1996, two decades after the American debacle in Vietnam, the professor expressed far more concern about Kennedy’s view of greatness. He told me that Kennedy was fascinated with Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt because “he thought to be a great President you had to be a wartime President. That was scary to me. I came away feeling that this was a young man who doesn’t understand history.”
Donald’s chat with Kennedy came—as the professor could not have known at the time—at a crucial early moment in Vietnam. The president had continued moving, in secret, to increase dramatically the number of American military men flooding in the South under the guise of special advisors. He also was fascinated by the derring-do of those who fought in World War II in undercover units organized by the Office of Strategic Services. OSS agents often worked in enemy zones in Europe and Asia with partisans and guerrillas. The head of intelligence for the State Department at the time was Roger Hilsman, an army officer who saw combat and later served undercover with the OSS in Burma. After the war, Hilsman joined the newly formed Central Intelligence Agency. He left the Agency to get a doctorate in political science at Yale University. Now, in the early days of the Kennedy Administration, he had special caché at the State Department. He had been wounded in battle and was part of a team that liberated American prisoners, including his own father, from a Japanese prisoner of war camp.
With his experience, confidence, and academic credentials, Hilsman became a favorite of the president and his brother Robert, the attorney general, and both became avid supporters of an innovative solution that Hilsman was advocating. The plan promised to resolve a vexing issue of the war: how to separate the anti-government and pro-communist guerrilla fighters known as the Viet Cong from the peasant villagers who, willingly or not, provided them with food, protection and support. Known as the Strategic Hamlet Program, the concept won immediate approval from the US and South Vietnamese military as well from those Americans seeking more social programs for the peasantry. “It was Kennedy’s last hope for winning hearts and minds,” I was told years ago by an American intelligence expert. The historian Christian G. Appy, in American Reckoning, an incisive study of the limits of American exceptionalism, described the project that emerged as “a coercive plan that forced villagers off their land and relocated them in armed camps. . . . What they [Kennedy, Hilsman and the White House advisors] did not take into account was how the villagers might feel about being forcibly removed from their ancestral lands and stuck in fortified compounds behind barbed wire.”
I had learned firsthand about the ignorance and cruelty of forced peasant relocation while reporting on the My Lai massacre in 1969. The massacre had taken place in March of 1968 and most of the GIs involved had finished their tour of duty in the war and were back home—at work, in school, or doing nothing. The Strategic Hamlet Program was long gone but villagers in some contested areas were still being forced off their lands into resettlement areas to enable the American military to slaughter all who refused to leave with impunity. The evacuated areas were designated Free Fire Zones. My Lai was not such an area. Some of the GIs who had participated in the murders and rapes at My Lai justified their brutality by telling me, with much contempt, about how the mothers in Vietnam, when being evacuated from their native villages, insisted on being the first to hop onto the waiting helicopters. I was told again and again by GIs, who had grown up in a culture that called for children to go first, that they had to beat the mothers—sometimes violently with the butts of their rifles—to allow the children to board first. None of the GIs had been told that in Vietnamese society the mother always crosses a new threshold first, to assure that all who follow will be safe.
The Strategic Hamlet Program was a disastrous, and mysterious, failure for the young Kennedy Administration, and it hardened the resolve of the peasant population against the American interlopers. Jack Kennedy did not live long enough to learn that a major reason for the program’s demise was the work of a South Vietnamese army colonel named Pham Ngoc Thao, who had fought against the French with the nationalist and communist Viet Minh after World War II. Thao was one of eleven children born into a highly respected Roman Catholic family that held French citizenship, but joined the successful post-World War II opposition to the French led by Ho Chi Minh. Thao’s religion and social background, and his military leadership in the war against the French, made him attractive to President Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam, and his brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu, who ran the secret police. Thao was a logical choice to run the new American-endorsed and financed resettlement project for the nation’s Buddhist peasants.
It would not be known until after his assassination in 1965 that Thao had been one of North Vietnam’s most successful sleeper agents, one of many who had been infiltrated into the South’s military and political leadership. One of his first moves as overseer of the Strategic Hamlet Program was to rush the construction of the new villages. They were poorly built and poorly defended. Thao also ensured that the hated villages were placed in areas that were open to Viet Cong encroachment or attack with little fear of interference by the South Vietnamese army.
Jack Kennedy’s hopeful relocation project was doomed, as he could not know, even as he explained his view of presidential leadership, over cognac and a cigar, to an increasingly troubled Professor Donald. The setting—in the private family quarters of the White House—was dramatic, but in terms of the reality of the war then underway the two men could have been chatting in the captain’s quarters on the Titanic as the ship neared the ice flows.
Our current president, and his foreign policy team, in their unwillingness to seek an immediate ceasefire in the war between Vladimir Putin’s Russia and a NATO-backed Ukraine, could be on the same boat.
The Biden Administration is feeling no pressure from Congress or the American mainstream media about its fervid political, economic, and political support for Ukraine in its ongoing war against Russia. But protests and public anxiety over the war are surging in Germany, along with polls showing dwindling public support for Biden’s policy. Last weekend there were noisy anti-war rallies in Berlin, with crowds estimated at 13,000 by the police and 50,000 by the protest organizers. A “Manifesto for Peace” calling on German officials to halt the flow of weapons to Ukraine attracted 650,000 signatures in two weeks.
And I was so taken with it, now in Lent, I read the whole chapter. Then I got hung up on verse 21 about “coming down too hard on your children or you’ll crush their spirits.” And that ended with quoting three paragraphs from “Dreamland,” a 2016 book many grandparents should read since they now possess both motive and time. First, though, just absorb this blog. Quite unique!
Colossians 3:1-25 MSG
[1-2] He Is Your Life
So if you’re serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ— that’s where the action is. See things from his perspective.
[3-4] Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life-even though invisible to spectators-is with Christ in God. He is your life. When Christ (your real life, remember) shows up again on this earth, you’ll show up, too-the real you, the glorious you. Meanwhile, be content with obscurity, like Christ.
[5-8] And that means killing off everything connected with that way of death: sexual promiscuity, impurity, lust, doing whatever you feel like whenever you feel like it, and grabbing whatever attracts your fancy. That’s a life shaped by things and feelings instead of by God. It’s because of this kind of thing that God is about to explode in anger. It wasn’t long ago that you were doing all that stuff and not knowing any better. But you know better now, so make sure it’s all gone for good: bad temper, irritability, meanness, profanity, dirty talk.
[9-11] Don’t lie to one another. You’re done with that old life. It’s like a filthy set of ill-fitting clothes you’ve stripped off and put in the fire. Now you’re dressed in a new wardrobe. Every item of your new way of life is custom-made by the Creator, with his label on it. All the old fashions are now obsolete. Words like Jewish and non-Jewish, religious and irreligious, insider and outsider, uncivilized and uncouth, slave and free, mean nothing. From now on everyone is defined by Christ, everyone is included in Christ.
[12-14] So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it.
[15-17] Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with each other. None of this going off and doing your own thing. And cultivate thankfulness. Let the Word of Christ-the Message-have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God! Let every detail in your lives-words, actions, whatever-be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way.
[18] Wives, understand and support your husbands by submitting to them in ways that honor the Master.
[19] Husbands, go all out in love for your wives. Don’t take advantage of them. [20] Children, do what your parents tell you. This delights the Master no end.
[21] Parents, don’t come down too hard on your children or you’ll crush their spirits.
merlin commenting now: Ever think how the prodigal’s son father exhibited his “tough love?” Scripture states immediately after the request that “so he divided to them his livelihood.” It evidently was not after his accountant jockeyed his resources, or by shaming him by guilt trips, or threats of any kind. Having just read Sam Quinones “Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic,” the point is continually made throughout the book’s 353 pages that what fueled the advance of the Mexican cheap black tar heroin distribution system amongst the white privileged middle and upper classes during the last three decades, was primarily the failure of their parents, even once aware of the problem, to effectively facilitate and dispense tough love to their children, even years before the heroin finally showed up. It could be argued big pharma started it; parents just aided and abetted…
So the youth actually were set up by their parents removing them from the normal usual and customary age appropriate responsibilities, existing in a vacuum doomed for failure, especially when the predominate communication, is “what do you want or need?” And when the parents first encountered either their child’s addiction and the subsequent demands were forthcoming, there was no equity in their relational communication bank to facilitate either reason and/or, a cooperative spirit. The book reveals most parents refused to act on the evidence their child had a problem in their bedroom sanctuary, resulting in many “quiet” unknown deaths for the first decade.
Or consider the other extreme, shaming and threats that were enacted rather than admitting their worst nightmare was now just down the hall, requiring all the love they could muster, and a willingness to be transparent with their pain in order to learn from the many now vocal parents telling all crisscrossing America speaking to everyone who would listen to their experiential wisdom; and indeed, there was abundant hope, and that love was stronger than hate and fear.
I am including the following three paragraphs from page 323 as proof of how well- meaning churches and parents can get it all wrong. Perhaps, according to the prodigal son parable, it is first about how you have loved them, and then, if such events would ever dictate you sending them off as in the prodigal, first consider how much you are a loved parent in God’s care. Next, realize you too must be able to release your children from your care, if they so choose, but rest assured, they will always be in His care and protection while are learning their own life’s lessons, as difficult as that may be for you, since you’ll not be in control. You too, must live in hope for the day they choose to return and you’ll be ready for their embrace and as in the parable, their words of repentance will be lost in the ecstasy of the moment.
Bottom line, we are to love our children even before their conception, always displaying during these hard moments that demand tough love, that we may do so with all due diligence, complete and unreserved Godly obedience, His forgiveness, His transformation, His empowerment and especially, our zeal for discipling anyone living without His hope! That dictum is alive and well in this home, actually it is flourishing! Jewish tradition had it right with their Big Four Shares, remember the doorposts?
Pg. 323
” Russian Pentecostal junkie named John Tkach had started a rehabilitation clinic in the Portland suburb of Boring. Tkach saw the Russian Pentecostal churches trying to hide the sight of hundreds of addicted kids. Parents who asked a pastor’s help with their addicted child were shamed for running a sinful house. Tkach sold his trucking business, took out a second mortgage on his house, and opened a rehabilitation center. A church formed around it, the first to make the rampant opiate addiction of the Russian Pentecostal kids the focus of its ministry. God Will Provide, as the new church was called, rested on Jesus’s message of love, forgiveness, and transformation. Traditional Russian pastors called it blasphemy and sinful. Russian Pentecostal kids called it the Rehab Church. But soon God Will Provide had spread its church/rehab center to Sacramento, Seattle, and elsewhere.
There, Ella met Vitaliy Mulyar. Vitaliy had crashed since those heady days when he was one of the first Russians to sell OxyContin in Portland. In 2010, Vitaliy faces a two-year prison term if he failed another probation drug test. Terrified, he turned to God Will Provide, where he felt warmth in church for the first time. He kicked heroin, became a Bible teacher, and, with a judge’s permission, went on to a mission to the Ukraine and Austria as the church, fired by the new energy of its recovering-addict congregants, opened a school for missionaries.
A year into his recovery, Vitaliy encountered Elina at the center. He told her his story. She mistrusted her own capacity to change. But it struck her, the way he had risen from the street. A chaste romance followed, in keeping with the Russian Pentecostal tradition, though with a modern American twist. They grew acquainted via hundreds of texts while he was on mission. Vitaliy came home and asked Elina to marry him before they ever kissed.
Two years later, their daughter was born. They named her Grace.”
You catch the vision that God really intended here. And to think, it really wasn’t about the prodigal at all, it was about the brother that stayed home, and was in the pew every Sunday, maybe even taught Sunday school once, or twice! I’m done! It has been a good day. And you don’t know half of it. Praise God for His faithfulness.
By Erick-Woods Erickson Feb 25, Confessions of a Political Junkie.
Joy Behar thinks the people of East Palestine, OH got what they deserve because they voted for Trump. The National Transportation Safety Board says the braking regulation rolled back under congressional pressure by Donald Trump would not actually have impacted the derailment. It was a different issue. But Behar does not care. She does not like those people because they voted for Trump.
Over the past few weeks, left wing groups have trotted out a series of “studies” that “red states” get more federal government subsidization, have worse standards of living, have more crime, etc. Each another drip in smug justification to hate the people who vote differently, often with skewed framing and data to get the results just right.
Marjorie Taylor Greene wants her national divorce. The serial adulteress is holding herself out as the patron saint of Christian Nationalism in America. I’m guessing she’s all for it so long as the millstones aren’t brought back. She hates the left. The left hates her. They are two sides of the same coin.
There’s a small mindedness in these fights and a common thread is how very online so many of these people are. They don’t think the United States is great. They don’t think we are capable of taking care of ourselves and others. They have given up on each other, on their nation, and on a future that is better than yesterday.
Offline, driving across America, from red state to blue and purple and back, you have to work to really find people who want to break apart the country and not help those in need because of who they voted for. It’s easy to find online and hard to find out there where the people actually are.
“We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature,” Abraham Lincoln said in his in his first inaugural address. His words could not keep the country together for a time, but he fought like hell to keep it together.
Victory in sight, four years later, he said in his second inaugural, “With malice toward none with charity for all with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right let us strive on to finish the work we are in to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan ~ to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace…”.
We could all use more grace and charity towards each other to think differently, vote differently, work differently, live differently, and still be American together. We should listen to our better angels and not the people who entertain through national dissection.
And into this environment, a series of candidates will come on stage for 2024. I hope they embrace America for all, not just America for their supporters. Out there, away from the noise and the constant tweets, Americans love America and their neighbors. Our leaders, on both sides, should remind us of that instead of stirring the divisions.
merlin now:
So, considering Erick’s words and prodding you for your response, the question begging to be asked, “What could/should be the churches response? OR, their responsibility? Consider these three verses form the Sermon on the Mount from Matthew 5 from the MSG; actually all three chapters, 5 through 7.
[8] “You’re blessed when you get your inside world— your mind and heart— put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.
[9] “You’re blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God’s family.
[10] “You’re blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God’s kingdom. …
FYI, speaking of being away from all the noise, the clip below highlights “White Noise,” a movie released last fall, occurring even in the same town, eerily similar to the events in the Palestine OH tragedy that unfolded February 3. Simply more dysfunction? Family? Mechanical? OR?
Robert Rogers, shares recent continuing unplanned home going events in his family during the past weeks. Founder of Mighty in the Land Ministry, featured in the Sept ’22 Plain Values magazine from Winesburg, OH. Author of Into the Deep: one man’s story of how tragedy took his family but could not take his faith;7 Steps to No Regrets: How to find peace with God, others, and yourself;Rise Above:How to Heal the Hurts and Overcome the Worst.
Here’s current inspiration from my friend Robert.
…for everything serves Yourplans. If Your instructions hadn’t sustained me with joy, I would have died in my misery. I will never forget Your commandments, for by them You give me life.” (Psalm 119:91-93)
On January 28th, on an unusually warm and sunny day in the Louisville, Kentucky area, my brothers and I carried the coffin of our eldest brother – Dr. Paul Joseph Rogers – to his grave at Grove Hill Cemetery in Shelbyville, Kentucky where his earthly body was laid to rest until Jesus comes again. Lifting my brother’s casket from the hearse to the burial site felt so strangely surreal, somewhat like a dream, as if I was viewing a dreaded, unimaginable nightmare. I gently set my boutonniere atop Paul’s coffin, forming a cross with those flowers of the other six pallbearers. After placing mine, I kissed the top of the casket and traced a cross across the wood grains with my thumb, fighting back my tears as I genuflected alongside his crypt.
After the committal prayer by the pastor, the cemetery workers promptly began the ghastly process of interring the coffin into the ground. I had never witnessed this before at any other burial, including that of my own previous wife and our four children in 2003 after their untimely drowning deaths in Kansas from the August 30th flash flood. Entombing the coffin was usually left for another time after the family and friends had departed the cemetery.
But, today was different. The interment began immediately after the committal. None of us viewing this sacred moment could move. It was as if all of us were frozen in time like statues, entranced by this solemn and somber occasion, wishing we could stop time, pause the moment, or somehow rewind life a few months before Paul’s epic battle against pancreatic cancer had ensued. Siblings, parents, children, grandchildren, friends, and patients alike were all entranced in the instant, fixated on the abrupt brevity of such a vibrant young life. With each clinking sound of the entombment ratchet-lowering mechanisms, every inch of my brother’s coffin descended into his grave – until it was no longer visible from my view. As my heart sank within me, my knees instinctively hit the ground, my hands reverently made the sign of the cross over my body, and the irrevocability of Paul’s passing from this earth became more and more final.
As the youngest of eight children (five boys and three girls), Paul is our first sibling to pass. Paul is survived by us 7 siblings, our mother, his bride (of 39 years), 6 children and their 7 grandchildren. The death of any and every loved one is uniquely excruciating. I still feel out of balance, as though one of the limbs in our family body is gone.
As a family, and as the body of Christ, we are bonded by unseen ligaments of love. When someone passes from this planet, those of us who remain strive to regain our equilibrium after such a difficult loss, realizing that life will never return to “normal” again. The depth of our grief is a testament to the depth of our love for each other. The pain is excruciating because our love for those who passed was so passionate. Our hearts hurt so much because we love and miss them so much.
Just 11 months prior (February 2022), some cancerous cells were detected in Paul’s gall bladder. We covered him in prayers and scriptures, believing God for the best as Paul received treatments at Mayo Clinic and at the University of Louisville Hospital. His closest friend, Danny, said, “Paul, God has this. You have God, and we have you.” As Paul – with his bride and his extended family – waged a formidable assault against the diagnosis on all spiritual and medical fronts, the cancer later spread to his spine. Yet, Paul was still upbeat and active, even vigorously riding his bike just a few months before his passing, determined to kick it. When cancer cells were later found in his pancreas, his condition changed dramatically and quickly.
Just four days before he passed, my wife and I visited him in the Louisville Hospital ICU on January 19-20, 2023. As one brother described it, Paul looked akin to a “holocaust survivor,” just skin and bones. Yet, Paul’s spirit remained strong, even then. He seemed resolute to recover, and he truly embodied faith in action.
Upon entering his room, Paul’s first words to us were, “How is Cora?” He was asking about Inga’s mother who was just abruptly widowed only a few weeks prior on December 23rd after 45 years of marriage to Dr. Doug Fisher (a horse veterinary doctor) following a lengthy hospital stay for a pacemaker insertion and ensuing stroke complications. (Our immediate family is all still reeling from the grief of Inga’s Dad’s passing. I was a pallbearer twice in 3 weeks – both in the same month of January 2023. Tough times.)
When I shared with Paul about Cora’s difficulty answering people who ask, “How are you doing?” after the death of a loved-one, Paul’s immediate response was, “I am blessed of the Lord!” Amazing. Fighting for his life, my brother still declared the goodness of the Lord and bore witness to the fact that he was indeed blessed by Almighty God.
On our next visit to Paul the following day in the ICU, his first question was, “How are the kids?” He wanted to know about our 5 children. I was floored! Here is my big brother, battling the effects of cancer, and he’s still focused on others. Paul maintained his ever-present outward focus, never inward.
Paul was a humble, brilliant cardiologist with degrees from Northwestern University, Johns Hopkins, and a residency and fellowship in cardiology at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. He had a remarkable ability to make every patient, every individual, and every family member feel as though they were the most important person in the room (or on the planet for that matter).
Paul worked diligently to remember people’s names and occupations, and he made a point to display a genuine, vested interest in each person’s health, progress, family, and general well-being. He intentionally remembered and used people’s names, because he felt that the sweetest sound to someone’s ears is hearing their own name. He also encouraged others to never judge anyone – anytime – for anything.
By no means was Paul a physician for the prestige or the paycheck. He became a doctor so that he could minister to others. Paul loved to serve God by serving the body of Christ. He truly cherished the chance to help patients daily as he practiced cardiology for 10 years in Columbus, Ohio, 7 years in Cincinnati, and 15 years in Louisville.
One of the excruciating aspects of being treated for cancer for Paul was that he was unable to practice as a cardiologist daily. He deeply longed to give and serve others again, not just receive medical treatments for himself.
Paul was incessantly outwardly focused. He had boundless energy and was typically up every night until 1am, and then awoke at 5am to exercise and spend time in prayer and God’s Word before early hospital rounds. He blended his heart for Christ and his skill as a doctor on multiple medical mission trips to Honduras from 2012-2019 where, along with his wife and children, he taught residents and even improved cardiology facilities. His heart of compassion and love for working with Spanish-speaking people in Honduras inspired him to work at the free clinic in Shelbyville, Kentucky as well.
As my wife and I visited with him for those precious final, brief minutes in the Louisville ICU only days before his death, we prayed, sang hymns (“Great is Thy Faithfulness”, “Be Thou My Vision”, “Numbers 6 Blessing Lullaby”), and fought back tears as I lay my hand on his head and kissed his forehead. I asked my brother what he thought God’s purpose was through all this pain and difficult life season. He responded with one word, “Closer.” God was drawing us closer to Himself and our family closer to one another. Beautiful. Selfless.
As the medical staff abruptly entered the room, my bride and I knew we had to depart. Inga and I also sensed that it might very well be the last time we would see Paul on this planet alive, short of a divine miracle. Paul and I locked eyes and he gave me a glance that I shall never forget, as if to say, “I love you, brother. It’s almost time for me to go. I’ll see you on the other side – in Heaven.” He even gave us a hearty thumbs-up as we left the room. My wife and I collapsed into each other’s arms, embracing and weeping in the waiting room as we strived to process the enormity of what we had just experienced, and ever so thankful for the gift of time with which God had just graced us.
Thank God we were there. Thank God Paul was lucid enough to communicate with us. Thank God we saw him just days before he passed from this life. No regrets.
A few days later, with his bride and his children encircling him in the ICU, my brother’s spirit passed from this earth on January 24th. Moments before, they played this song which I had composed in 2003 shortly before my previous family passed away. I believe God’s Holy Spirit divinely inspired it for such a time as this. Even now, There Is Peace. https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/fvqze6/ThereIsPeace.mp3 A few days later, I was honored to sing and play it at Paul’s funeral service in Louisville.
“You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on You!” (Isaiah 26:3)
My wife’s father never said, “goodbye.” He always said, “See you tomorrow.” Similarly and ironically, my brother also never said, “goodbye.” He would always say, “See you later.” We are deeply saddened and we grieve heavily over both of their recent and untimely deaths. Yet, we grieve with hope that we will “See you (both) later” because of “Christ in [us], the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:27)
Do you have that hope? Have you put your faith alone in Christ alone? The worst regret of all would be dying and not going to Heaven to be with the Lord and with your loved ones.
Jesus said, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in Me. There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with Me where I am. And you know the way to where I am going. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:1-6)
Every death and every funeral starkly remind us of just how fragile life is, and of how thin the veil is between this world and the next. Every day is a gift from God to be cherished. That is why it is called the “present.”
Savor every moment with your loved-ones, and strive to KNOW GOD more, and make Him more known daily.
“Peace I leave with you; My peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” (John 14:27)
In the timeless words of missionary C.T. Studd, “Only one life,’ twill soon be past, Only what’s done for Christ will last.”
Amen. KNOW GOD personally, and Live a Life of No Regrets.
I would be honored to come and share our family’s story near you in 2023, bringing the Hope of God’s Good News. I share at churches of alldenominations, parish missions, revivals, schools, organizations, prayer breakfasts, conventions, banquets, and conferences (men’s, women’s, home-school, pro-life, purity, etc.).
Mighty in the Land Ministry thrives on word of mouth. Every time you tell someone about the impact of this Ministry, you play a vital part in helping us share God’s Good News through our family’s story. Please help spread the word.
Over 310,000 people have personally encountered the Gospel as I’ve freely shared at least 1,389 times since 2003 – all by invitation. Although my testimony has cost me everything, I still charge NOTHING. (No agent. No “fees.” Pure God.)
Thank you for prayerfully and materially supporting this Ministry in 2022. I am deeply thankful. Would you please consider investing in the Kingdom mission of Mighty in the Land Ministry to help others experience the Good News of Jesus in 2023 and beyond? I would be grateful for your support to help me continue to share the hope of Christ with others through Mighty in the Land Ministry. Your gracious contributions help to continue the mission of this Mighty Ministry – to teach others to KNOW GOD and Live a Life of NO REGRETS. I humbly thank you for giving as God leads.
Please pray for us. Thank you for praying. I am immensely grateful to you.
Gratefully and faithfully,
-Robert Rogers
Teaching others to KNOW GOD and Live a Life of No Regrets
PS – We trust God for your contributions to help further the mission of this Ministry to which I believe God has called me. If God prompts you to support the ongoing work of Mighty in the Land Ministry with a tax-deductible contribution, I would be deeply grateful to you. Here’s how:
As both of our pastors and spouses were in an Evana retreat event this weekend, we were privileged to have one of our own challenge and encourage our congregation this morning. Darrell’s interaction begins at 28 minutes with the children first. The text taken from Acts 20:7-12, is built around the event when a young man dozed off listening to Apostle Paul around midnight (perhaps they needed a worship band to liven things up) while sitting in a third story window and was killed. Never do I recall this text used prior. Darrell weaves his words from the acronym L I V E.
L for LOVING the fallen we meet in in our lives;
I for being INTENTIONAL; continually aware of our surroundings, always considering both its dangers and opportunities;
V is VICTORY being our constant focus, both expected and enjoyed;
E is ENCOURAGEMENT to ( and from) each other.
Upon opening the clip, advance to Darrell’s words beginning at 28 minutes. May his words bless you this week.
Recently I heard about preparing for our planet’s three days of darkness. I find this all quite interesting, especially now with the scientists even admitting they’re being baffled by our sun’s weirdness twice within days. Personally, beyond that, I feel Loretta and I are about to enter 37 days of darkness. Understand, my best friend and wife of nearly 50 years is at this moment, 3 AM February 18, 2023 at the CLE airport later departing for Honduras for her annual Central America Medical Outreach (CAMO) mission trip for two weeks. After that, she’ll be exploring Panama with our eldest son Ben and his wife Jill, who moved there last year when they recently retired.
Less than three months ago none of these 37 days of darkness for us were anywhere on our horizon. Then, Loretta got a phone call from the CAMO founder pleading she join the dental team once more as she did I believe 23 times prior the three years off for Covid. Sensing this was Spirit’s nudge to reconsider her earlier decision to discontinue any more such adventures, we began processing the possibility and it wasn’t long that a series of confirmations were provided to us, even including the three weeks in Panama.
We both know now our earlier confirmations for these 37 days are empowering us to fearlessly move forward in their implementation and fully trust His leading; both to empower us for the tasks at hand, as well as to protect us while in the palm of his hand, as we are being the obedient, forgiven, transformed, empowered, discipling Bond Servants of Jesus Christ serving as His ambassadors until death permits our retirement. And, only three months ago neither of us possessed the confidence or the peace of mind to even consider this adventure. Amazing.
Understand, I am omitting many details but fast forward to this morning as I awoke at 12:45 AM and I first scanned my daily reading for February 18 from My Utmost For His Highest, titled “Taking the Initiative Against Despair,” an extremely positive encouragement. “Rise, let us be going,” from Matt. 26:46. Recently, I’ve been consistently awakening 5-10 minutes before the alarm goes off (not this morning though), and I’m increasingly being aware that it’s His confirmation for me that I’m not only in the presence of God, but that it’s time to “rise and let us be going…” Also, I do not recall ever speaking as candidly from my heart as I will now and am not at all sure the path my words may take me, except, that I am to write as prompted.
Now I’ll try to explain the reality of living in real time in synch with Jesus from my infinitesimal understanding of “Taking the initiative against despair” as Ozzie lays it out for us today so simply. Understand I would be ecstatic if all I’d done amiss in my life was having gone to sleep three times, but I did, even more, and events were tragic for me. Yes, I know it is our Lord’s request we pray, that we are diligent with whatever, wherever, however, whenever, whoever…. Folks, my other shoe just dropped. Suddenly I recall this pervading thought of the coming three days of darkness. How many times will He return to summon me to “Rise, and let us be going….” Am I even living in His presence so I can hear “Rise, and let us be going…” May we become, if we’re not, the obedient, forgiven, transformed, empowered, discipling Bond Servants of Jesus Christ serving as His ambassadors until death permits our retirement.
Simply being aware that we’ve been asleep and oblivious to what is really, or about to really happen about us, as with Rip Van Winkle and historically, as I believe the institutional church is today, being “without a clue”. Simply being aware God “IS” begins Restoration Step 1. Aware God IS.
Next, as I see it, my potential for future despair (since my past despair is forgiven) has a taproot more tenacious than a dandelion. I offer you apostle Peter as an example of dealing with his despair from his disobedience as such usually occurs in public while avoiding embarrassment from our peers, friends, and family, etc. I suggest the root cause is perhaps because we doubt our identity in Christ. Listen to Getting your identity from God – Jamie Winship – 04/07/2019 youtu.be for a great introduction to our deception.
The solution for us after failing our identity test, is to do as Peter demonstrated, get real, recognize your sin, be obedient, forgiven, transformed, (let’s just call it OFTEDA) Ok, you got the routine. Understanding our complicity and complacency to deny our Savior is Restoration Step 2. or Denying Our Identity in Christ.
Next, comes the quantum leap. I just happen to believe now folks, and am living by and practicing that God’s Son Jesus never wastes ANY of our sins. No, I do not have a specific scripture for this deduction or conclusion on my part, nor have I ever taken time to really research it out, though I’ve shared it with those I’ve mentored or coached recently as a strengthening exercise to live in spiritual victory.
Though hidden from God’s sight because of Jesus’s blood, we as humans with yet functioning coherent memories, can and will recall our sinful acts of hatred against God and humanity as deplorable, despicable, and atrocious acts as they indeed were. Our huge step of faith occurs when we are able to rejoice in the fact of God’s provision for our “complete forgiveness removing them as far as the east is from the west!”
That miracle having occurred, so that none of our evil horrid sorry past will ever be seen by God, is basic to our living a life of joy, which is quantum levels above the happiness our culture is seeking.
Now, if I am so bold to conclude that none of this evil horrid sorry past will be wasted, I must explain further. First understand, when we’ve been forgiven, God can’t even see our sin; therefore, he will never be plagued with his memory reminding Him of our sin.
Second, even though we’ve been OFTEDA, we will on occasion be reminded of past sins. And when that occurs, I simply choose to “Rise, let us be going…. by:
First, commanding Satan that I am by the blood of Jesus and OFTEDA, a new creature in Christ and beyond his reach.
Second, I realize my prior discretions that led to my evil horrid sorry past are no longer temptations on the table since the joy of living with Jesus has removed them.
Third, as I intersect daily in my spheres of influence as His ambassador, I draw tremendous strength in my empathy from Christ to relate to individuals tempted to stumble on the road of life as I had fallen victim to earlier.
These three points indeed provide me the vital spark needed in Step 3 to ignite my spiritual initiative against any future despair the devil in his sly and cunning ways may be preparing for me by having me recall in living color and surround sound my prior sin. Without a doubt, it took most of my life to understand this and I’m just now verbalizing this illusive truth, at least for me, in Restoration Step 3. I pray you can power through to victory much sooner than I.
The word empathy as I used it above again comes to mind. I believe God desires to endow all of his children with His empathy and that it would be readily visible to others who are sorely in need of His OFTEDA rooted empathy. Unfortunately, I chose at times to use empathy selfishly and Satan quickly and effectively deceived me destroying both my spiritual intimacies with Jesus and humanity. I’m not at all sure why I felt the need to share that; perhaps you do.
FYI, in conclusion, I just noticed Ozzie identified the 4 D’s for which we need inspiration, after he introduces “The Inspiration of Spiritual Initiative,” on February 16 in the four days following, those being “taking the initiative against depression, despair, drudgery, and daydreaming.”
So, what’s the key word for Restoration Step 3.? I’m struggling with that. I was first reminded of “Waste Not, Want Not” but that from the century past is out of view for today’s movers and shakers, even though perhaps, being remotely applicable here. Ozzies last line today states “Never let the sense of past failure defeat your next step.” So very true! For now, I’ll just deem Step 3 is Choose Victory.
In summary, Restoration Step 1.) Be Aware GodIS; Step 2.) Know & Practice your Identity in Christ; & Step 3.) Choose Victory
Another note, I keep waiting to be invited somewhere locally to “a spark service being fanned into a consuming flame” from the Ashbury University Chapel. As of yet, I have not found it being livestreamed. Yesterday’s chapel from Friday Day 9 is being played now at 8:10 AM Saturday. Mark is speaking now of the Deep Spiritual Hunger being exhibited everywhere. And to simply Come as invited in Matt.11:28-30, to give away our “fake and fleeting” in exchange for His “real and permanent,” to indeed, experience the Abundant Life. Their chapel services are online anytime.
We indeed are experiencing such historic days on so many fronts. Like trying to get a drink from a fire hose. Are we awake, alert, and aware? And above all else, are we in prayer? Both individually and in our spiritual communities?
Click the link below to read what Ozzie wrote that inspired this document. Experience the power of his wisdom succinctly spoken. That is not me. This though is only my first draft.
Also, I’d be remiss not to solicit your prayers for Loretta and I during our 37 days of darkness until we’re reunited. Thank You.
Let everyone be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger. James 1: 19
Perhaps today in this age of email, we should add “slow to send” to this verse.
God in His great wisdom created mankind with two ears and only one mouth. Perhaps that was because He wanted us to listen twice as much as we speak. Most of us are really poor listeners. Bob and I rate this skill as one of the top priorities in having a good relationship. I guarantee if couples would take the time to become better listens, their relationships would be improved through better understanding and increased patience.
It’s important to remember, though, that women tend to be better listeners than men, probably because most men immediately want to fix what is broken and listening is considered a waste of time. To them, the solution is what’s important; they want to go directly to the bottom line.
So be brave and ask several of your trusted friends soon how they would rate you on your listening skills.Be prepared to take their honest answers and act upon the information constructively. Don’t get into the trap of thinking you are so much better at listening than so-and-so. Almost everyone is below par in this skill.
We will become better listeners when we realize how people value being heard. It gives people an awareness that we care for what they have to say and that we truly love them. Our own spirits are lifted up when those around us know we care for them.
Listening is truly an art form that can be mastered if we practice. Observe yourself in a crowd, or even one-on-one, to see how you do. Change comes when you know and act on Spirit revealed truth.
This morning I was reminded again, that James 1:19 compels us in our hearing, to not only distinguish truth from narrative chatter, but then in our “provoked human response,” be slow to speak and slow to anger. And as I alluded to above, perhaps we need also to be slow in our temptation of the moment, to “hit the SEND button.” Perhaps, like waiting a few hours, or even, to sleep on it! Just saying.
Inspired by and adapted from Minute Meditations For Women by Emilie Barnes
Prayer:
Father God, I know I frequently get into trouble with my relationships when I stop listening and start to open my mouth. Or, even hit the send button too soon. Please forgive me for the words that I have said or SENT OUT foolishly over the years. Heal the wounds I have left behind. I must improve my relationships. Let such begin with me TODAY. Amen.
Action:
Seek out a few friends and have them reflect on what kind of a listener you are to them. Be brave, loving, and willing to hear and act on what they have to say. Practice patience and above all, due diligence before SENDING and/or SPEAKING, especially when provoked!
