Abusers of His Grace

Today, not only am I going to give you TWO illustrations, I’m going to follow up on the topic I discussed in my last post. 

“Grace” means we get the salvation that we don’t deserve – for free, we don’t have to do anything to get it.  A friend recently posed a thought to me, “Don’t you think God makes salvation too easy?”  In essence, if we had to work at it a little more, don’t you think followers of Jesus would take their salvation more seriously?  Let me illustrate this kind of grace by telling you about my cousin Gregory, whom I admire deeply.

In the late 1960s, Gregory walked into a barber shop and said to the barber, “Sir, I don’t have enough money to pay for a haircut right now, but if you’ll let me work in your shop, sweeping up hair or whatever, until I have earned enough to pay for a cut, I’d really appreciate it.”  The old barber looked at him and motioned for him to sit down in a chair.  “Any young man who actually wants a haircut these days can have one.  It’s on me.”

That’s grace.  Gregory didn’t ask for anything for free, but the one who in charge of haircuts offered it for free – no work to be done before or after.  All Gregory had to do was sit in the chair and receive what the barber offered him.  Easy Peasy.  Let’s catch a word from our Sponsor:

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)

For followers of Jesus, salvation is free.  Oh, it cost plenty!  A sinless Jesus, who was pronounced innocent by the highest legal authority, was crucified – an extraordinarily cruel, painful, and humiliating death between two pirates.  But it’s free to us and sometimes we treat free stuff (“you get what you pay for”) with disregard.  I once recommended a teenage Christian rocker rename his band “Abusers of His Grace” – because that’s what we do.  We abuse the free gift God gave us.  He saved us from the consequences of sin, but all too often, we take that salvation from sin as a license to sin.  Follower of Jesus, are you an Abuser of His Grace?

There’s no quick cure for this.  The Holy Spirit works in our lives (see John 16) to draw us away from sin and move us toward righteousness.  It’s a life-long process and it’s never complete.  (If you know a perfect person, please point them out to me.)  For me, a major step toward desiring not to abuse God’s grace was to see sin the way God sees it.  Every sin is a hammer-strike driving a nail into Jesus’ hands.  It’s a thorn digging into His brow.  It’s a rivulet of salty sweat running down into a back lashed open with 39 strikes from a metal-tipped whip.  Every sin – past, present, and future – caused a mother to watch her innocent son tortured and killed.  You think your white lie, your gossip, your moment of lust, your anger, your pride… you think it’s no big deal?  Follower of Jesus, stand by Mary at the cross and tell her, “No biggie, I’m saved.” 

Catch a load of this piece of junk pictured on the right.  I can call it junk, I’m not the insurance company that covered this “work of art” for $1,081,644 only to have it accidentally “cleaned up” by a janitor – ruining the art installation.  (Read the full story.)  You see, the artist intended the sculpture to look like a bucket that had caught rainwater which had leaked from the ceiling and subsequently dried in the black tub below.  Talk about “shabby chic”.  The janitor thought it was a mess that needed to be cleaned up – that was her job!

You know where I’m going with this, right?  God wanted to clean us up, He sent His Son to do the dirty work.  But we, followers of Jesus, often times find it fashionable, even preferable, to keep on looking like the trashy world we are supposed to be saved from.  Make sense to you?  Me neither, but it’s the story of my life.  Like I said, there’s no quick fix, but if you are serious about following Jesus, you will make progress.  Bookmark this post and the one from Feb 20.  Mull all this over for a while.  Make a note on your calendar to come back and read these two posts and see if you’re making progress on your own or if you need to cry out to God begging for help getting cleaned up.  He’s like a barber I know, He’s always eager to help someone who really wants help.

Clark H Smith

“No” Means “No”

Every family has its own unique style of humor.  I don’t think the Smiths and the Cowans (my mom’s family) are more unique than any other family, but we’ve been known to be pretty quirky.  Here, let me illustrate:

Carl and the gal he went a'courtin'.

My dad, Carl, met his future bride, Ruth at college in Texas in the ‘30s.  Love blossomed quickly.  One summer, Carl wanted to be around Ruth between semesters so he traveled down to the Texas Hill Country to be around the Cowans – one in particular.  He spent the summer cutting cedar trees for fence posts.  Word got around that Carl was going to ask Ernie, Ruth’s dad, for Ruth's hand in marriage.  Ernie was a sweet man with a wry sense of humor that permeated throughout his family.  Word found its way (through the feisty Cowan boys) back to Carl that “no matter what Carl said, the answer was going to be ‘NO’.”   You know I love a cliff-hanger so let’s break here for a word from our Sponsor:

For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. …  For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. (Romans 7:15, 19)

Followers of Jesus, it is expected, want to say “No” to temptations from Satan… and to the sin that follows if we do not resist temptation.  Followers of Jesus understand this tension between knowing what you should do and what you actually do.  Paul may well have been the most mature Christian who ever lived, but he did not experience perfection.  HOWEVER, Paul was never satisfied with imperfection.  He constantly strove to say “No” to Satan and “Yes” to the higher calling of Jesus’ perfection (see Philippians 3).  Followers of Jesus must never let the tension between good and evil overcome us.  Daily we pray for guidance and encouragement to just say “No” to temptation.  It’s not easy, but it is the only path to victory.

Well, back at the ranch, Carl knew what Ernie’s answer was going to be long before he ever asked the big question.  That turned out to be quite an advantage for the strapping young lad from the Panhandle.  As my dad liked to say, “I screwed my courage to the sticking-place” and met up with Papa Cowan – knowing full well, the answer was going to be a resolute and final “NO”. 

“Mr. Cowan, do you have any objection to me marrying your daughter?”

Papa Cowan and the daughter he "lost"
due to an unforeseen flip of the script.
(And your hosts tiny little forehead
in the foreground.) 

Half the Hill Country fell silent as Carl flipped the script.  But Ernie Cowan’s word was his bond, he surrendered, “No.”  That’s the kind of cleverness and humor that’s imprinted all Carl and Ruth’s kids and their kids.  Early on in my sons’ lives I told them that story and then tested to see what they’d learned.  Expectant young lads would enter the room and begin their plea, “Dad…”.  I’d cut them off at just the prologue.  “The answer is ‘No’.  What is your question?”  They new something was afoot.  Isaac, the oldest, figured out quickly how to flip the script.  Noah, the Cookie Monster, knew that he needed to reverse something, but couldn’t always work it out… “May you please not let me have any more cookies, please?”  They always got their permission, but they also received an ancient blessing of humor from the salt cedar groves of central Texas.

Follower of Jesus, the struggle against sin is difficult and life-long, but don’t give up.  I do not pretend to simplify a battle that has raged since the Garden of Eden, but I want to plant this in your mind as a starting point.  When Satan tempts you, “Wouldn’t you like some wealth / popularity / gratification / fill-in-your-particular-blank?”, is saying “No” the right answer? 

Personally, I’d love some wealth today, maybe some immediate gratification while I’m at it.  “No” is not the true answer.  “Yes” is what I want to say.  So let’s try this, “Yes, the temptation you put before me is exactly what my life-on-earth would like.  Nice selection.  But Satan, I’ve already said ‘Yes’ to the higher calling of following Jesus, so I’m going to continue pursuing that.”  Flip the script and call upon the Holy Spirit to remind you of your upward journey.  You said “Yes” to Jesus.  “Yes” means “Yes”.

By the way, Carl and Ruth, they lived happily ever after.  Amen.

Clark H Smith

“On Tilt”

Leonard Cohen wrote a song so powerful and beautiful that he’s found himself suggesting performers strike it from their audition lists for a while.  “Hallelujah” has become the go-to, “pull out all the stops” anthem for American Idol contestants (among others) to the extent that the author fears its becoming clichéd.

“I've heard there was a secret chord

That David played, and it pleased the Lord

But you don't really care for music, do you?

It goes like this

The fourth, the fifth

The minor fall, the major lift

The baffled king composing Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Your faith was strong but you needed proof

You saw her bathing on the roof

Her beauty in the moonlight overthrew you

She tied you to a kitchen chair

She broke your throne, and she cut your hair

And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah

With a little Samson mixed in for good measure, Cohen speaks sympathetically of King David’s “minor fall” and “major lift.”  David was a songwriter, too, and sung his own version of Hallelujah in Psalm 51:10-12:

Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

The story of David and Bathsheba is found in 2 Samuel 11.  It is surely one of the most read, discussed, and sermonized passages in the Bible.  But I’ll wager that not one of my readers have ever heard a sermon on 2 Samuel 10.  Note this word from our Sponsor about how the David and Bathsheba story begins:

Then it happened in the spring, at the time when kings go out to battle. (2 Samuel 11:1)

Do you know why March is named “March”?  In ancient times, the annual calendar began in the Spring.  You think tulips and bunnies; ancient kingdoms thought swords and battering rams.  With winter weather over and travel easier, “Spring Break” meant “Forward, March!” – March being named after Mars, the god of war.  Samuel chapter 11 takes place while the war is waging.  (Remember David sends Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, out to the battlefront, hoping he will die.)  But what caused the war in the first place – that is the more compelling story.

The prior chapter, 2 Samuel 10, is full of international diplomatic intrigue, deception, ego-driven posturing, and bluff-calling.  Please read the passage yourself very soon.  Basically, the Ammonites (in modern day Jordan, east of the Jordan River) humiliated two of Israel’s minor ambassadors.  An old-school Cuban Missle Crisis blew up only this time the two sides actually went to war.

Put aside any potential pious bias for a minute and ask, “was this war necessary?”.  It all began with a misunderstanding.  Two emissaries got humiliated – their pants taken off and beards shaved half off.  Is that worth 40,700 men dying?

Here’s my take, in Chapter 11 King David was “on tilt”.  In poker, when a player suffers a “bad beat” (an unexpected loss with the last card dealt), it is said that he plays the next few hands “on tilt” – or playing based on anger and humiliation rather than the shrewd tactics that had gotten him into the big game to begin with.  David swelled up and took grave offense at an immature act by the Ammonites and 40,700 sons, husbands, and fathers died.  Make that 40,700 + 1 – Uriah died, too. 

And while “all the kings men” were out waging war, David (accompanied by the unholy trio of wounded ego, jangled nerves, and guilty conscience) was pacing the roof tops of Jerusalem – he was on tilt.  Hardly anything good happens when you’re on tilt.  You’re irrational, irritable, and frequently self-destructive as well as reckless with and toward others.

When you're "on tilt", you feel like you're
right side up and it's the world that's
out of balance.  That's usually not the case.

Followers of Jesus are not immune to tilt.  Day after day the world gnaws at us.  Sometimes it seems that we lose big bites out of our back side.  When that happens we do stupid things.  We wound the ones closest to us and we lose our courage to face the conquerable challenges of life.  The entire trajectory of our life – take David’s for example – is thrown off-course because we failed to find balance.  Anything can cause tilt, but as David’s story reveals, it always starts with how you handle rejection – real or perceived.  You didn’t get a promotion, the trash didn’t get picked up, you suffer some gossip, your spouse is cranky with you, a product at the supermarket is priced wrong, nobody mentioned your birthday… maybe you had to go to the post office today – “going postal” is an extreme case of “on tilt”.  I have a relative who committed suicide when the toilet overflowed.  No foolin.  You don’t think he was “on tilt”, do ya?

The remedy is simple, isn’t it?  Our sponsor invites us to “cast all your cares upon Him because He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7).  I believe that is true, but this also calls to mind a child’s wisdom when he told he had a friend, Jesus, up in heaven, “I know, but right now I need Jesus with skin on.” 

From personal experience, I can tell you it is critically important for every follower of Jesus to have at least one friend, close as a brother/sister, who you can call out to when you’re on tilt.  When you find yourself on tilt, let a confidante know that you’re hurting and need someone to right your ship.  Men, especially, need to learn it’s better to be vulnerable and transparent than to live on an island.  As my friend, Nathan Jones, puts it so well,  "we all need someone to lean on."  (I believe he's remind us old-timers of a great song from our ill-spent youth!)

Listen to wisdom – create or nurture a relationship that may well save the world your version of 40,701 dead men.  Listen to wisdom.  If I can be that kind of friend to you, I promise, I will be.

Clark H Smith

I did my best, it wasn't much

I couldn't feel so I learned to touch

I told the truth, I didn't come to fool you.

And even though it all went wrong

I'll stand before the Lord in song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah

This LOL'd House

I’ve lived in my current home for 11 years.  Other than my childhood home where I lived for 12 years, this is the longest I’ve lived in one place.  The house was about 20 years old when we bought it – not very old in house-years.  But over the last decade, I’ve been surprised by the upkeep I’ve had to pour into the house.  

As soon as we moved in, the one-year-old roof started leaking.  Within a year, the exterior paint was screaming to be overhauled.  And the carpet throughout the house has ripples in it.  There are a few other annoyances around that house that show the place just hadn’t been maintained well before we bought it.  Every Saturday morning I wake up to a honey-do list of repairs.  I also wake up to the memory of a conversation I had with the seller after we’d closed the deal.  It went something like this:

Me:  So, Ed, you’re a lawyer.  What kind of legal work do you do?
Ed:  Oh, you know, divorces, DUIs, defense work for misdemeanors and small felonies – the kind of stuff [cases] you get sitting at bar.  I go to Johnny’s after work and just talk to people.

And then, connecting another passing conversation, it dawned on me – Ed’s clients were also his housing trades contractors.  All the work had been done with trade-out labor.  Ed represents old Bob on a DUI in exchange for laying some new carpet.  Dwayne and the Missus split up so Ed got a new roof out of it for just the cost of materials.  My entire house has been “kept in shape” by Johnson County’s criminal element.  Makes sense now.  Let’s grab a couple words from our Sponsor… look out, here come da’ Judge!

They were utterly astonished, saying, “He has done all things well; He makes even the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.” (Mark 7:37)

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. (Philippians 4:8)

Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might; for there is no activity or planning or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol where you are going. (Ecclesiates 9:10)

(This last one is kind of funny.  I know a pastor who brags about saying this to his son all the time.  It’s kind of weird because it actually says, “You’re going to die and be buried, might as well do a good job today.”  Encouraging words?)

Throughout scripture, followers of Jesus are called to excellence.  The way we live our lives is a testimony to our sense of self-worth and also the value we find in God loving us.  Long before Jesus was revealed to be our Savior by conquering Death, He lived excellently.  He didn’t feed five people, He fed 5000.  We didn’t wade in water, He walked on it.  He didn’t say “I’m sorry you feel bad”, He told the lame man, “pick up your bed”.  

Yes, many things Jesus did were miracles, but even more of His life was revealed in His speech and His daily activity.  He didn’t slack off or do things half-way.  I really think somewhere in Israel right now there are a couple kitchen chairs that are just over a couple thousand years old - built to last by the Carpenter of Nazareth.  Followers of Jesus are called to follow Jesus’ excellence as well.  People should be saying about you, “he/she does all things well.”

I’m going to stray off the reservation here to relate another personal story.  When I’m not writing illustrations about following Jesus, I yack about barbeque restaurants.  A few weeks ago, I had an experience that was not so great and I wrote a review that reflected as much.  I shared the review with the restaurant owner.  To my amazement, I got the sweetest email back from him.  In short, he re-committed himself to the claims he’d made about his joint.  We’ve dialogued several times since then.  I’ve discovered that he, too, is a follower of Jesus and he’s mentioned he wants to be excellent in all the areas of his life – consistent with his claims of being a follower, and a barbequer.  My heart soared when I heard that.  Philippians 4:8 (above) is one of his favorite passages.

Follower of Jesus, what does this illustration say to you.  Have you been giving God “trade-out” value – a get-it-done-and-get-it-over-with approach to following Jesus closely throughout the day?  Wouldn’t now, right now, be a good time to commit to staying right on Jesus’ heels and living a life that reveals the excellence He expects.  Let me hear from you.  I’d love to encourage you on your excellence adventure.

Clark H Smith

Pants On The Ground

X Games medalist SNBer
Sebastian "Seb Toots" Toutan

With the Winter Olympics still two years away, the Winter X Games provide a nice snowbunny hint of grander things to come.  I’m amused at the “Big Air” competition.   Snowboarders race five hundred feet or so down a hillside, run up a forty foot ramp, soaring over and landing on the backside of an eighty foot hill.  The stated goal is to fly higher, and farther, and do more flips and spins than your competition.  If you’ve ever watched X Games, you can’t help being struck by the richness of the ski bum sub-culture, especially among the snowboarders who seem to have a deeper, richer, subber sub-culture.  Unkempt long hair, graffiti graphics on apparel and gear, “chill, bro” hand signals copped from the surfing sub-culture, and sloppy, baggy clothing.  Before I start sounding like everyone’s dad, let’s hang loose with a word from our awesome Sponsor:

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  (Hebrews 12:1-2)

This memorization-worthy passage is the climax of Hebrews 11, the “Hall of Fame of Faith”.  The writer of Hebrews admonishes all followers of Jesus to keep their eyes Him and commit themselves to our chosen, long-distance race.  Three keys are alliterated here:

•  lay aside every Encumbrance
•  lay aside  the sin which so easily Entangles us
•  run with Endurance

Avoiding a life detained by sin is the obvious course for followers who want to stay close to Jesus.  But what of these “encumbrances”?  Think of a baseball batter warming up.  He has those “donuts” on his bat – extra weights to force him to work harder.  But no batter goes to the plate with those donuts.  They’d just slow down the swing.  Do you have encumbrances in your life?  Bad habits like laziness and procrastination are dreadful encumbrances.  Failing to grow in our faith, remaining “baby Christians” may not seem like a sin, but it certainly diminishes the purpose of following Jesus.  Followers of Jesus seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit to learn how to lay aside encumbrances.  My guess is you already have a pretty clear sense of the things that are weighing you down and holding you back from a close and swift pursuit of Jesus.

Now where was I?  Oh yeah, pickin’ on the young’uns.  I get frustrated with people who claim to have an objective and then doing things counter-productive to achieving it.  Remember I mentioned “baggy” clothing.  What do bags do?  They hold junk… like air.  “Big Air” athletes can sure turn their tricks and flips, but their baggy clothing encumbers them from excellence.  Compare the picture above to this one of a world-class ski jumper.  If you were a betting person which one do you think has a better chance of getting “Big Air”?

For me, the larger question is WHY?  Why would someone compromise their performance with these counter-productive clothes?  We mentioned the reason in the first paragraph – culture.  My observation is that these athletes are more committed to the safety of their peer (pressure) group than they are excellence.  The first one to break out and wear functional gear would blow the competition away.  Why not borrow some togs from Eddie the Eagle and go for the gold?

SNBer Torstein Horgmo
gettin' air and
droppin' trou.

I’ll stop picking on the kids and prod you one last time.  Are you ready to “put on Christ”?  Are your ready to spend an hour in prayer with God?  Are you ready to memorize a verse that God could use to minister to someone else?  Are you ready to tell someone your “secret” to enduring the hardships of life?  (And I don’t mean a generic status update on Facebook.)  Are you ready to step up to the clear opportunity to start a Bible study at your workplace or in your neighborhood?  Are you ready to stop letting fear hold you back like anchor?  Follower of Jesus, is NOW the time you'll take off your baggy, sloppy excuses and demonstrate Excellence in your pursuit of your Savior.

Clark H Smith

Living, Simply to Serve the King

Devin Rose is a personal, deeply personal friend of mine.  We have served in ministry together and walked down both rugged and joyous paths together.  I tell Devin all the time that he spends too much effort “trying to teach reindeer to dance” – he likes going against the flow.  But Devin’s heart is the heart you’d wish your best friend had.  Please check out Devin’s reindeer dancing blog at RethinkReligion.

As a junior in high school, I went to Maranatha Camp at the Lake of the Ozarks. I listened to a speaker stomp back and forth on the stage challenging us not to get saved (most of us were church kids), but rather, if "we knew that we knew that we knew we were called to vocational ministry", to come forward. I stayed at my seat. At 18 I was already a little leery of the Christian camp spiritual hype and didn't want to base my life's work on an emotional moment.

Nevertheless, I went to a Christian university, majored in Christian Ministry, and wound up working in the church anyway. Many times, I wanted to get out, to get a new job, and to have a different life. Through a series of choices, unfortunate circumstances, and Providence I found myself no longer working in the church, but running a coffee house and pub. Before I attempt to reconcile those jobs, a word from our Sponsor (as my host would say):

Go then, eat your bread in happiness and drink your wine with a cheerful heart; for God has already approved your works. Let your clothes be white all the time, and let not oil be lacking on your head. Enjoy life with the woman whom you love all the days of your fleeting life which He has given to you under the sun; for this is your reward in life and in your toil in which you have labored under the sun. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might; for there is no activity or planning or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol where you are going. Ecclesiates 9:8-10 (NASB)

The problem with my church job wasn't my job; it was me. I did not start first with the understanding that the works God set before me was the thing I was to do and do it as well as I could. I spent so much time trying to find the right thing I was never right, myself.

This is much like my single friends who are always looking for "The One" when, the truth of the matter is, even if they found the "perfect one", they themselves were imperfect and would doubtlessly ruin the relationship.

Running a cafe and pub is just a job like any other: there are things I like and things I don't, people I like and people I don't; however, my approach to the job makes it perfect for where I am in life. We teach our staff that this is not a job like any other because we start with the belief that a person's life can be impacted by a great beverage and caring about the person you are serving it to.

Nothing has meaning until we give it meaning. When we are externally focused on something or someone else making us happy or fulfilled we miss what God is trying to do in us and then through us where we are in life. I began seeing the way I did my job as a reflection of my identity in Christ. It's not about what I was doing, but how I was doing it. Was I loving other people where they were? Was I speaking truth into their life? Was I treating my boss and employees with respect? Was I listening to the Holy Spirit as to what I should do next?

Each moment you are in is an opportunity to write history, your own obituary, and live the identity that God has given you.

Our calling isn't a magical moment at a camp where God chooses some "A" team of pastors and missionaries, but lifestyle in which we live as servants to the King, doing His work wherever we are.

Devin M. Rose

ReThink Religion

I'm honored that my good friend, Devin Rose, invited me to write an article for his tilting-at-windmills blog, Rethink Religion.  I hope all my Follow Illustrated readers with drop by Devin's blog and see what I have to say about "whose job it is to be a Christian".  And be sure to tune in here tomorrow for Devin's guest post on this blog.

I’ll Fix It Myself

We're stalled out in the swamps between the end of college football season and the 54th Annual Grammy Awards on Feb 12.  Howzabout an illustration from each category to illustrate a very important point.

Play By Play #1:  On Oct 29, 2011, Stanford faced USC for a college football game.  With a tied score and 3:15 to go in the game, everyone’s projected top NFL draft pick, Stanford QB Andrew Luck, threw an interception that put Stanford down by seven points.  On the sidelines after the interception, Luck got the attention of his intended receiver and tapped himself on the chest as if to say, “My bad.”  Stanford recovered and scored with 38 seconds to go, tying the in the game in regulation and eventually winning in the third overtime.  After the game, ESPN’s Erin Andrews noted Luck’s distress on the sidelines and asked, “How did you calm down.”  Luck replied, “I had to realize we still had time left, still had time to atone for your mistakes.”  By “your mistakes”, I’m quite sure Luck meant “my mistakes”.  I guess there is no “I” in “team”, after all.

Play By Play #2:  On February 20, 1991, Bob Dylan accepting Lifetime Achievement Award at 1991 Grammy Awards (see video, Dylan’s comments begin at 1:50).  The audio is poor - here what he says:

Well, my daddy, he didn't leave me much, you know he was a very simple man and he didn’t leave me a lot, but what he told me was this, he did say, “Son…”, he said, he said so many things, you know?  He say, “You know it's possible to become so defiled in this world that your own father and mother will abandon you and if that happens, God will always believe in your own ability to mend your ways."

Dylan, an alleged creative songwriter, is actually plagiarizing an old rabbi (who like Catholic priests were called “father” / aka “daddy”), Rabbi Shimshon Rafael Hirsch, who grossly misinterpreted Psalm 27:10.  This is how our Sponsor originally worded His own thoughts: 

Though my father and mother forsake me, the LORD will receive me.

Is it true that “God Helps Those Who Help Themselves”?  Granted, the whole testimony of scripture is God working on behalf of His faithful followers.  There’s no disputing that.  But there is a dangerous dark side of this coin that is called “works righteousness” or “works salvation”.  It is the core of every religion other than Christianity, especially Hinduism and Islam.  It’s the idea that you don’t need salvation delivered by God if you are, by and large, a righteous person as demonstrated by your works – if you atone for your own mistakes. 

Rather than “believing” in us to “mend our ways”, God offers to receive us in our un-mended condition.  (Aren’t we perpectually “un-mended”?)  This misstatement is really alarming, but not unheard of.  Another word from our Sponsor really clarifies God’s position on this.

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

If you “mended your ways”, then you wouldn’t need a gift from God for salvation, you’d be perfect.  (How’s that working out for you, anyway?  Perfect much lately?)  If you did such great work that God wanted you as a trophy on his heavenly mantle, then salvation would be a reward for your good work, not an escape from your bad work.  I do believe in rewards in heaven, but I don’t believe in heaven as a reward.

Followers of Jesus know this much:

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

If we could mend our ways, we wouldn’t be at risk of perishing.

If we could mend our ways, we wouldn’t need the gift of eternal life.

If we could mend our ways, we wouldn’t need to believe in Jesus, we’d believe in ourselves.

Problem: I know how “if” turns out.

Followers of Jesus thank our Father for knowing we can’t mend our ways and loving us anyway and giving us eternal life through our faith in Jesus.

Clark H Smith

New Year’s Resolution – BURN!

“Most men lead lives of quiet desperation.”  Thoreau

Illustration #1 - (I’ve lost my original source for this.  I’m sure my readers trust that I’m not making this up?)  In the late 1990s, I saw a biopic of Elvis Presley’s life.  In one very early scene, Elvis is sitting in church studying the dynamic, flamboyant moves of his Pentecostal preacher.  The church audience was enthralled, engaged, and responsive in the service because the speaker virtually reached out and grabbed their attention.  A little later in the movie we find Elvis performing at one of his very first concerts along with some run-of-the-mill musicians of his day.  The audience sat quietly in rows of chairs nodding along to the beat of the music.  Concert goers chatted with each other; all but checked out of concert.  The movie shows Elvis, mid-performance, reflecting on his charismatic preacher and how he engaged the church audience.  The next thing you know… Elvis bolts over a low railing between the stage and audience.  Volume and energy amp up as he puts that pelvis of his in high rpm.  The crowd goes wild.  The rest is history.

Illustration #2 - Wisconsin’s Door County “Fish Boil” is a food phenomenon that I’d never heard of elsewhere.  You may have never heard of it at all.  Tourist-focused restaurants all over this picturesque region host evening Fish Boils at set times and at a handsome price.  The evening rolls out as follows:  Make reservations for one of two or three “seatings” in the evening – in at 7, out by 8.  You’re invited to gather outside as much an hour earlier to watch… water boil.  [Watch the video I’ve posted below for the full visual effect.]  A large fire is stoked under an large cauldron of boiling saltwater.  Baskets of potatoes, onions, and finally Great Lakes whitefish are lowered into the pot.  At the last moment, the man who’d been tending the fire takes a coffee can full of kerosene and dashes it on the fire.  An ecstatic explosion of fire and boiling water results.  You see, hear, smell, and feel the comestible conflagration.  Tasting the delicious result is the only thing left.  People pay a premium price and spend an extra hour before their meal to watch this curious spectacle.

What do Elvis and Door County Fish Boils have in common?  I’m sure you’re way ahead of me.  This quote says it best: “If a man will set himself on fire, the world will come to watch him burn.”  High school gyms are full of rock-star wannabees who lack the passion to entertain that Elvis had.  It’s the process, the performance that makes a plate of fish and potatoes special.  Dr. Bell-Curve taught us that most people group together in a huge middle herd.  Only the standouts get attention.  Crowds don’t gather to hear a grandma read nursery rhymes.  Ramen noodles in dorm microwave don’t attract any attention.  Likewise, an apathetic Christian doesn’t impact the world anymore than an apathetic atheist.  Let’s check in late here for a word from our Sponsor:

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. (Romans 12:1)

Exceptional words.  Challenging words.  What happens to sacrifices in the Old Testament (the context in which this verse is written)?  They are “holocaust” – burned whole in the altar’s flame.  Paul urges followers of Jesus to become wholly consumed by the mission of their faith.  It’s not a part-time gig, it’s not a job that can be done half-way.  If you’re just smoldering, chances are the world isn’t going to think you’re soon to catch fire.  Let a follower of Jesus fully commit himself/herself to the cause… and the world will attend to the fire that burns within you.

Crowds do not gather to watch a fire smolder.  They want to see a blaze.

Clark H Smith

A Bowl of Red

Esau said to Jacob, “Please let me have a swallow of that red stuff there, for I am famished.” (Genesis 25:30)

And thus, for that bowl of chili, Esau traded away his birthright – the privilege of being a forefather of Jesus.  I wonder if that chili was even half as good as the red stuff I make throughout the winter?  How did I learn to make such great chili?  Well, lemme break it down for ya.  If you want chili, you’ve got a few options:

You can let someone else do it all for you.

You can buy a can or a package of spices to add to ground beef.

You can follow tedious a recipe.

You can make it from scratch.

Which do you think is the best?  My experience is the homemade stuff I make “by the seat of my pants” is always preferable.  I’ve won more than a few church cook-offs.  I learned the fine art of chili-making by buying Wick Fowler’s 2-Alarm “kits” with individual spice packets.  By adding these one at a time (instead of dumping them in all at once like the recipe calls for) I learned what each ingredient contributed to the pot.  After a year or two of doing that, I learned to reach into the spice cabinet instead of the store shelf.  I knew the taste I was after and because I know the character of each ingredient, I could steer the savory stew in the direction I wanted it to go.

Now I’d like to jump from the kitchen to the study.  The first time I taught an adult Sunday school class, I subbed for a teacher who would simply take Warren Wiersbe “Be…” series books, copy a chapter, and highlight the parts he wanted to stress.  He handed me his photocopies for the week and I struggled to parrot what someone else had said.  The second time I taught, I stumbled around with my Bible and a poor commentary, but I wrote my own lesson.  In time, I got better tools and more of them, but only what aided my study – nothing that I repeated directly.

Now, if you’re thinking to yourself, “Good for you Clark, but I’m not a teacher, not a preacher.  I can’t do all that Bible studying stuff.”  You’re not alone.  I’ve heard church elders say that and every Sunday, pulpits all over the world are filled with pastors who bought (or stole) the sermon in front of them.  There’s even a joke at seminary, “All work and no plagiarism makes Jack a dull preacher.”  Makes me sick to think of it.  But this post really isn’t about plagiarism.  It’s about you being able to feed yourself first, then others.

Let’s go back to the kitchen, the restaurant kitchen.  You walk into a nice restaurant, take a seat, and look for the waiter to hand you a menu.  Instead the waiter says brightly, “Tonight we have chili.”  But you don’t want chili.  You ask what else is available.  Waiter, “That is all, chili, but I’m happy to tell you the chili is prepared by none other than Clark H Smith, an excellent chili cook.”  But really, it’s late June, you worked in the yard all day and you just don’t want chili, even if it’s prepared by an eminent chiliologist.  You see where I’m going with this.  We all have unique spiritual appetites and nutritional needs.  I can whip up a dynamite bowl of evangelism, but if you need a soothing plate of encouragement, you’re going home hungry.  What God has to say to me probably isn’t what He wants to say to you.  You’ve got to learn to “cook” for yourself.

I’m not going to dance around the subject anymore, Follow of Jesus, I’m asking you directly, are you willing to improve your skills so you can sit down with your own Bible and discern God’s wisdom for your life from what you read?  I spent many hundreds of dollars on resources that helped me dive deep into the guts of scripture.  If you want help putting together a library, email me, and I’ll share some thoughts.  But I’d like to give you something for free that I believe will immediately enrich your time in the word.  Take this list of simple questions, print it out, and tuck it inside your Bible.  The next time you read a passage of scripture, go through this list:

Is there a command to obey?

Is there a promise to claim?

Is there a sin to avoid?

Is there an encouragement to share?

Is there a lesson to learn?

Is there a truth to apply to your life?

Write down the answer that applies (could be several).  Then, close your study with prayer.  Commit to God to follow through on the observations you made.  Ask God to remind you of your reading throughout the week.  If at all possible, share what you’ve read with a friend or spouse.  If you will do this, you’ll quickly find a whole new dimension open up in what may sometimes seem like tedious reading.

Now, if you’re out of time, thank you for reading this far, tune in again soon.  If you have a few more minutes, I’d like to share an example.  At breakfast Sunday morning, my wife, Alyse, and my son, Gideon, talked about his biblical namesake.  The story of Gideon is told in Judges 6, 7, 8.  Note this verse – a word direct from our Sponsor:

Then Gideon and the 300 men who were with him came to the Jordan and crossed over, weary yet pursuing. (Judges 8:4)

My Gideon is a wrestler.  He’s really good, earning a varsity letter in each of his first two seasons.  A couple times he lost his composure as a match wore on and he was not gaining an advantage.  I pointed out to him that Bible Gideon experienced the same thing – fatigue and the temptation to drop personal discipline.  I pointed out that victory isn’t announced at the beginning, but only at the end.  Even fatigued and possibly injured, the job’s not over until the work is done.  That’s a lesson to learn.

The same truth applies to other tests of endurance – like marriage.  I’ve told many couples, “If you can survive the first year, you’re going to make it.”  We talked with Gid about the long journey of marriage.  I feel sad for people who make it ten or fifteen years only to hit a rough patch (yes, sometime very rough patches) and give up on the relationship.  Yes, you’re weary, but keep pursuing.  The victory is so close.  If you quit, the best is you can do is start again at the very beginning, but you’re still going to have to do all that hard work all over again.  Pursue victory now, while it is so close.

Now wasn’t that good chili?  Keep cookin’.

Clark H Smith

“Oppressive Piety”

Dear Follow Illustrated friends, the following is a pure and simple rant.  This is angry-Clark.  It isn’t often pretty, but I hope it gets a point across.  Send me your thoughts, I’ve got ears to listen.

In the half-time of the Dec 11, 2011 pro football game, Denver Broncos vs Chicago Bears, NBC’s Bob Costas did another round of hand-wringing and head-shaking over the inexplicable Tim Tebow. He gleefully quoted a Frank Bruni op-ed in Dec 11 New York Times.  The Frank Bruni / NYT article is classic snarky atheist pablum.  This line, though, was especially irksome:

“Tebow performs a sort of self-righteous bait-and-switch — you come for scrimmages and he subjects you to scriptures”

The author is a “journalist”, a non-producing leech on society’s backside screaming “right-to-free-speech” every time someone nods left and right instead of up and down. “You come for scrimmages and he subjects you to scriptures”  Oh, you poor darling.  How dreadful you didn’t get to tell Tebow what to say.  How dreadful that the fake laws of your profession don’t allow you to rewrite his Sunday school tripe.  The suffering these people go through is heart-wrenching.  I propose a fresh batch of three minute TV spots with Sara McLaughlin yodeling under images of the heads of atheist reporters exploding every time they’re waterboarded with “Lord & Savior Jesus Christ”.  Something must be done to protect these valiant God-haters from having their precious sensibilities wounded. Talk about your first world problems.

The cherry on this I Scream Sunday is this phrase: “oppressive piety”*.  Despots everywhere – Noriega, Idi Amin, Hussein, Hitler, Ceausescu, Duvalier, Pol Pot – deeply appreciate the four level downgrade of what it means “to oppress”.  Yup, that Tebow, he’s one tough desperado. I say set up outside his house blaring 130db of (old) Def Leopard and projecting (young) Tawny Kitaen videos until Saint Timothy runs out in broken repentance and says “dadgummit” or “I have lusted in my heart”.  ANYTHING that will once and for all put an end to the reign of terror that is his own personal, private piety.

Christians are the only minority which can still be safely persecuted in this freedom loving country. 

“In God We Trust”

Clark H Smith

* “oppressive piety”??  I was not aware that personal piety could oppress others.  Is the fact that Tebow is not a whore-monger and substance-abuser somehow ruinous of other’s lifestyles?  I think the NFL still has plenty of night club shooters, wife beaters, and coke snorters to go around.  Let’s not blame little Timmy with ruining everyone’s party.

New Year’s Resolution: Entertain Angels

If you don’t have your New Year’s resolutions nailed down yet, can I suggest one more?  Keep your eyes open to new possibilities.  Let me spin you a yarn…

As I’ve said elsewhere, my dad was a carpenter and he had a wry sense of humor.  Those two attributes came together in the Summer of ’69 when dad was doing some work on the new sanctuary of University Baptist Church in Fairbanks.  This picture shows Dad and some other men scuttling around the sanctuary.  As in most churches the “business end” of the sanctuary is a platform raised on top of the main floor.  This was Dad’s project on the day I joined him as his carpenter’s helper.  Mid-afternoon, Dad called me over just as he was putting the final piece of plywood on the raised deck .  With a benignly-wicked smile scratched across his face, he pointed down to the sub-floor.  More on my nutty dad after a word from our Sponsor:

Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it. (Hebrews 13:2)

Do you need more motivation than that to show kindness to all people?  I would hate to think I snubbed an angel (who then reported to HQ!).  I’m not sure what the writer of Hebrews had in mind, but the downstream application is quite clear… followers of Jesus should not pick and choose who we show kindness to.  Followers of Jesus should consider all people as created in the image of God and we should do whatever is in our power to bless others.  That is part of the calling “Follow Me”.

happy to have my family
join me at my childhood church

In June 2009, I was privileged to take my family back to Alaska.  On June 21, the longest “day” of the year, my family joined me at University Baptist Church where my spiritual foundations were laid and where I occasionally helped my dad, the carpenter.  I asked for permission to say a brief word to the congregation.  I stepped up on the platform my dad had built – exactly 40 years earlier, probably to the day.  I thanked the congregation for their dedication to the Lord’s work and I told them I had been called into ministry myself.  Four decades earlier, none of those dear people had any idea that the knucklehead kid of Carl and Ruth’s would become a pastor.  (In fact, they probably would have doubted it seriously.)  Then I stepped over to the far right side of the stage and stomped my foot.  I told the congregation of the day my dad pointed to the sub-floor before sealing the upper decking.  Carl A Smith, in his own inimitable way had written with his broad carpenter’s pencil, “What are you looking down here for?”  He then took a plank of plywood and sealed the message away for posterity. 

For four decades no one but Dad and I knew that message was down there.  The same is true of the people that cross our paths every day – we don’t know what untold story is written on their hearts.  We don’t know what need they have that must be met and we don’t know what gift they have which will bless others richly.  We don’t know.  But God does and He calls followers of Jesus to “join Him in what He is doing”.  In my last post, Emily Kemak’s brother had no idea that seventy years later some knucklehead in Kansas would be retelling his good deed, quietly done between brother and sister.  He displayed his kindness because it was the right thing to do.  As you make your way into the new year, won’t you add “be kind to strangers” to your list of virtues you want to nurture.  I can’t promise you that people will be singing your praises when the new century dawns, but you never know.  That’s the point, isn’t it?  You never know.  I promise to be good for goodness sake.

Clark H Smith

This New Year, Be Generous

Just a couple days before Christmas, my son and I were in a local grocery store.  I spotted something fascinating as I walked down an aisle.  We grabbed what we needed and scooted on to the end of the aisle where I stopped Gideon and asked him to tell me what he saw back down the aisle.  He peeked around the end cap full of sodas, “a guy buying mac’n’cheese.”  I told him to look again and tell me what the guy was doing with hands.  This time it took Gid a while longer, but eventually he said, “looks like he is counting change.” 

The man was doing just that.  I asked Gid if he had any cash in his pocket (I’m strictly a debit card man).  Gid was tapped dry, too.  “Come on,” I barked, cutting short the rest of our list.  We jumped into the express lane and I requested cash back.  By the time, we were done, the tall, husky man had paid for two microwave cups of macaroni and cheese, with his change.  I quietly hustled up beside him, handed him some bills, and simply said, “Merry Christmas and God bless you.”

Most adults understand the scope of what I’m describing – most of us have been there!  Walking out the door, I began to explain that the only reason a person counts their change in the store like that is because that’s all the money they have and they want to get as much filling food as they can afford.  I’m not bragging about what I did.  I’m just following another example.  I told this story to set up one of the greatest acts of generosity I’ve ever experienced.  But first, a word from our Sponsor:

Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ. …  Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.  So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.  (Galatians 6: 2, 9, 10)

Tuck that word away for a moment while I tell you about one of the most severe and demanding people I’ve ever known.  Emily Kemak was the principal of Nordale Elementary, the school I attended and where my mother taught for 16 years in Alaska.  Kemak looked like Cruella Deville.  She opened her mail by slicing envelopes over her sharp cheek bones.  She kept her Size 4 figure by feasting exclusively on the bones of orphans.  She kept better watch over her charges than Sheriff Joe Arpaio does his pink jump-suited criminals.  When she said, “Quiet” church mice were in awe of the silence she commanded.  Ok, you get the point.

Bear all that in mind as I tell you the trepidation I felt years later when I received what amounted to a “summons” from Emily.  I was in college in Denton, Texas and she was visiting Dallas.  She asked if, on such and such a date, she could host me for lunch at her hotel – The Fairmont (back when it was the best hotel in town).  On the appointed day I headed off to Dallas.  I’d spent the prior six years in a town of 1000 people in rural Texas.  I’d never been into Dallas on my own before.  I certainly didn’t know what to anticipate.  My head already buzzing with anxiety, I took a gut shot when the only available parking was in The Fairmont parking garage… and it was clear they would want money to let me out.  Well, not only didn’t I have a debit card (in 1977), but I didn’t have any other visible means of support.  I didn’t know that I would need money to have lunch someone else is springing for.  Her plan perfectly crafted, I assumed this is where Cruella would do me in.

An hour later, I had just enjoyed lunch with one of the kindest and most thoughtful people I’ve EVER met.  Emily was cordial, inquisitive, actually inspiring.  I had found a friend and encourager that I really needed at that time.  Then came dessert.  With butterflies in my stomach, I acquiesced to a piece of cherry pie.  When I finished that, Emily was adamant that I order a second piece.  That’s when I felt the worst.  “Well, actually, Mrs. Kemak, I have to tell you.  I parked in the hotel garage and I didn’t realize that they would charge.  I don’t have any money to pay my way out.”  This formerly-evil-now-endearing lady looked lovingly at me and said:

That is no problem.  I had already planned to give you this.  (She slid a crisp $20 bill across the table to me.)  You see, when I was a young woman in college, I didn’t have a penny to spare.  I certainly could not have driven 30 miles and parked in a hotel garage.  I’ll never forget the day my older brother visited me and took me to lunch.  At the end of lunch he handed me a $20 bill.  It made such a difference in my life.  I’ve tried to pass on that kindness as often as I could.  I’m so delighted I could pass it along to you.  Now I know you’ll do the same for someone else when you can. 

And while saying all that, she had also mysteriously summoned another piece of cherry pie for me!

As I walked out of the grocery store with Gideon, I repeated something to him I’ve said often and I want him to embrace personally, “whenever you can, be generous”.  (I can happily say that I have re-gifted that $20 bill many times over – sometimes as a blessing, sometimes as a lifesaver.)  Followers of Jesus, get this, we fulfill the law of Christ when we bear one another’s burdens.  What a privilege it is to honor the highest expectations of our Savior when we lighten the burden of those around us.  Won’t you follow Jesus today?  Won’t you follow my dear friend Emily’s example and be generous to someone at just the right time.  Following no other law will give you such joy.

Clark H Smith

The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones. 

William Shakespeare

It should not be so!  And it is only so if those of us who live, who have been blessed by the goodness of others, do not continue to speak forth the praises of good people.  Today, I sent an email to the Dean of Students at SUNY Geneseo (where Emily's brother gave here the $20) and shared this story of former students.  I'm getting website traffic from all over upstate New York.  I also looked up and snailmailed a hard copy of this article to the descendants of her brother.  I urge my readers to do the heavy lifting of tracking down people who have blessed you and thank them for their kindness toward you.  Even if it is a great niece who gets the news, imagine how grateful they will be for your remembrance.

Hand-Me-Downs

(As the year closes, please consider this article as a challenge to think carefully about what you are handing down to your descendants.)

My wife loves barns.  It was one of the first things I learned about her.  I like to tell people, “our next house is a barn”.  The barn* in the picture to the right is affectionately called “StarBarn” by our family.  The photo, itself, is entitled Red, White, and Barn and it's dedicated to my bride.  These days the old barn just stores hay.  I had a bright idea.  I tracked down the owner of the land and explained to them that I had a great photo of their barn.  Since it only holds hay now, I wonder if they would allow me to cut the star out of the barn, repair the hole, and present the star to my wife.  It was worth a shot.  The response I got was even sweeter than the idea of possessing that star.

By phone I spoke to the old farmer’s wife whose parents had immigrated from Scandinavia to raise wheat in the promising fields of the New World.  She actually was sympathetic to my romantic gesture and I’d like to think she gave it a half minute’s consideration before replying, “Well, no, we don’t want to see that star go.  You see, my mom painted that star on that barn soon after my dad built it.  It was something they did back in the old country and she wanted to keep that tradition alive here in America.  We actually have an old picture of my mom painting that star on the barn.”  Wow, now I’m feeling like I should ensure the preservation of that star – maybe a nice moisture-controlled, hermetically-sealed case.  What a treasure!  Let’s catch a word from our Sponsor:

For I [Apostle Paul] am mindful of the sincere faith within you, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am sure that it is in you as well. (2 Timothy 1:12)

You see, Paul’s disciple, Timothy, was custodian of a Star as well (see Numbers 24:17).  Grandmother Lois had become a follower of Jesus.  In turn, Lois’ daughter became a follower.  Then the third generation, Timothy, became a follower of Jesus, himself, honoring the legacy handed down to him.  Before Timothy ever drew breath, something of great value was awaiting him.  He went on to become one of the most influential leaders in the young Christian church – all because his ancestors handed down to him something of enduring value to them.

In the Smith family, we do Christmas gifts a little differently than most.  Each child gets four gifts, The Jesus Gifts – gold, frankincense, myrrh, and swaddling clothes.  I’m not sure, yet, what the boys think about this year’s Gold, but it was a long labor of love from their parents – literally.  I spent the summer and fall downloading old VHS tapes, scanning print photos, digitizing ancient slides and negatives, and pulling old cassette tape content onto my computer.  Every media-borne memory is now on my computer.  (And my computer is now on Carbonite!)  For Christmas, I edited 30 to 50 minute “Human Highlight Reels” for each of our four boys.  For me, it brought the sweetest flood of memories reaching back over a quarter century.  Our new daughter-in-love cried watching the 24-year life-span of her groom unfold before her eyes.  Forgotten, but not gone moments in each child’s life are now back within their grasp – every boy’s media memories loaded onto their own portable hard drive.  If not now, in due time, this may be their “star barn”.  That was Gold – a gift of enduring value. 

Frankincense, the gift that reminds of us of our spiritual connection with God, is also on those hard drives in two parts.  Part 1 is 100 Hymns of the Faith.  They may never listen to them, but in some future decade when a “far advanced” civilization mentions the word “hymn”, at least my sons will know where to find one.  “…pavilioned in splendor and girded with praise...”  Yeah, that’s lame sauce.  Frankincense Part 2 is special to our family.  My oldest son remembers me thundering away in the pulpit, but the three younger boys were usually in children’s church when I was “shucking the corn”.  Now, they have videos and audio going all the way back to my ordination sermon, and even one special sermon I did based on the biblical characters after whom they were named – Isaac, Noah, Joshua, Gideon – all mentioned in Hebrews 11.

Every generation has to figure out what of their parents’ world they will embrace and what they will release – what hand-me-downs to cherish and when to get new stuff.  I’m sure there was a time that the old farmer’s wife would’ve paid me to paint over that dumb star.  Now, it is a family heirloom.  My boys are young adults, reorganizing the furniture of their new, mature world.  Whether in the pulpit or at the dinner table, we’ve given them a foundation – firm and secure.  Like Lois and Eunice, my wife and I pray that our sons enter their worlds boldly and create a whole new legacy that rises high above this foundation.

My mom’s favorite hymn was “Wherever He Leads, I’ll Go”.  Mine is “He Leadeth Me” (as performed by the Martins).  They’re both in the Top 100.  Followers of Jesus don’t go the direction their parents tell them to. Followers of Jesus follow where He leads.  And we’ve handed THAT down to our children.

Clark H Smith

* StarBarn is at the northeast corner of US 81 and River Bottom Road (Co Rd 352) 3.5 miles north of Concordia, Kansas.  You can see it on Street View on Google Maps.  The current owners were so very kind to send me a copy of the photo of grandma up on a rickety scaffold painting the star as grandpa looked on.  I framed both pictures together.  This hangs in the front entry of our home. (click the pic to enlarge)

The text in the middle is a wonderful word from our Sponsor:

The LORD will command the blessing upon you in your barns and in all that you put your hand to, and He will bless you in the land which the LORD your God gives you. (Deuteronomy 28:8)

‘Twas The Day After Christmas

Today, I’m thinking about change.  It is usually negative things that change us most quickly.  Like my dad falling through ice into a river.   That changed me.  Now I hate even the thought of a cold shower.  I think ice-water-swimming, “Polar Bear” clubs are a gang of idiots.  (I notice that not a lot of people do that solo.  Must be peer pressure.)  Personally, I’m a slow learner – I stuck my tongue on frozen metal TWICE before I figured out that a wise man would not do that.  Speaking of Wise Men, and I prefer Magi, let’s get a word from our Sponsor about how they changed “the day after Christmas”:

And having been warned by God in a dream not to return to Herod, the magi left for their own country by another way. (Matthew 2:12)

Now, I know as well as you do, that “by another way” simply means a route based on different GPS coordinates.  But don’t you also think the Magi, themselves, were DIFFERENT after their encounter with the Babe?  Our Sponsor tells us that the shepherds who met Jesus also “went back another way”:

The shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as had been told them. (Luke 2:20)

Most of my years in ministry have been as an associate pastor.  That means I got to preach when the big dog didn't think there'd be much of a gathering - like the Sunday after Christmas.  I always chomped at the bit for an after-Christmas message.  It's full of opportunities to challenge followers to actually live out the message of Christmas.  I loved preaching about the Magi and the Shepherds.  Christmas is supposed to change us.  December 25, yes, that’s supposed to be an encounter with Jesus.  I hope your family began the day in Matthew 2 or Luke 2.  I hope you explained that the reason we give gifts is to honor God the Father gifting us God the Son (that’s the point of John 3:16).  But I must point out that followers of Jesus are expected to have an encounter with Jesus daily.  Scriptures, throughout the Old Testament and New, call us to engage God/Jesus daily, just as the first followers did.  Christmas is a celebration of Jesus’ birth.  Did not Jesus live throughout the full year?  Should not we celebrate all those days, as well?  Be a follower of Jesus, follow him “day by day”.  Please don’t be a C&E (Christmas and Easter) Christian.

Preparing to write this article, I asked myself what single experience has changed me most.  I keep coming back to one thing – death.  I’ve held hands with a husband as life support was removed from his beloved, brain-dead, 63 year-old wife.  I've ushered a mourning widow from the hospital room, leaving behind her groom of 65 years.  I loved a young couple throughout an emotionally whipsawing three dozen hours with an non-viable newborn.  I’ll never forget standing in the middle of an intersection with my hands on the shoulder of a man who’d been blithely going about the pleasures of 20something life 45 seconds earlier.  Now, his car had been t-boned outside my office and, given the nature of his injuries and his unresponsive convulsing, I can’t believe that he ever lived a normal life again.  All I could do, in my dread terror and evangelistic urgency, was to whisper to him, “Jesus loves you.  I want you to know that.”

Death is the worst thing that can happen to a human and it is something we all instinctively dread every day of our lives.  At this moment, late on Christmas night, my mom, age 96, is rattling doors upstairs, getting herself ready for bed… or for the start of the school day, we never know what she’s thinking – she never knows either.  First thing in the morning, I’ll check to see if she is still alive.  Death is near.  Let’s be honest, tomorrow is not guaranteed for any of us, let alone tomorrow night.  For this reason I despise all this modern silliness with zombies, the ancient fascination with “Halloween”, and all other excuses to “play” at death.  I don’t wear black clothes.  It's a matter of personal preference, but, for me, black is too closely associated with death.

Here's what does matter and is NOT a matter of personal preference:  Followers of Jesus, live urgently!  Live each day urgent to feel the presence of God in your lives and live eager to share that presence with others.  Followers of Jesus, live urgently to say “Jesus loves you” to someone BEFORE they’re at peril of death.  Followers of Jesus, like shepherds and Magi, be changed by your daily encounter with Jesus.  The color of your clothes isn’t any matter to me; I urge you to “put on Jesus” (see Romans 13:14).  Whether celebrating a new birth or awaiting the pangs of death, LIFE is urgent and beautiful when you follow the Author of Life.

Clark H Smith

A Personal Note:  I’m posting this article the day after Christmas which for the last… uh, very few years… has been the day the world celebrates the birth of my dear wife.  I was changed forever the day I met her.  (I proposed to her two days later.)  She was changed forever the day she met Jesus.  Every day she shows me, her family, and her wide world that she is a follower of Jesus.  Happy birthday, DollFace. 143.

Wishing You A Mary Christmas

The New York Restaurant Critics’ 1982 calendar featured Barbetta Restaurant on its front cover - a coveted honor.  Celebrities such as Elizabeth Taylor made a habit of dining at Barbetta (in New York’s Theatre District) after taking in a show.  On a visit to New York in ’82, Alyse, I, and a good friend made an “out-of-our-league” pilgrimage to Barbetta.  This friend “had a friend” who formerly managed Barbetta.  She told us to present ourselves at Barbetta as her guests and we’d receive the star treatment.  She was right!  The current manager anticipated our arrival and seated us at a prime table.  Appetizers were on the house.  For entrées, I probably got chicken parmesan or something pedestrian.  I don’t remember what our friend ordered, but I’ll never forget what Alyse ordered – or better – HOW she ordered.  She studied the impressive menu like it was a college textbook.  When our waiter came to take our order, Alyse folded her menu, laid it on the table, looked directly at the waiter and said unequivocally, “Tell the chef to cook for me whatever he would like me to have.”  The waiter, my friend, and I responded with stunned silence.  She made her request with such certainty that the waiter dared not even double check her intentions.  It was a spectacular moment.  Back to the table after a word from our Sponsor:

While Jesus was saying these things, one of the women in the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, “Blessed is the womb that bore You and the breasts at which You nursed.” But He said, “On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.”  (Luke 11:27-28)

There is a strong inclination to revere the mother of Jesus, reasonably so.  Some people go so far as to call her “the Mother of God”.  I’m not going to admonish others on what to say, but I’ll point out that Jesus did admonish the woman.  When a “woman in the crowd” tried to elevate Mary, Jesus quashed the thought immediately.  “ON THE CONTRARY!”  Jesus wasn’t having any idol-worship even if it was for His own mother.  But let’s note who He did say was blessed, “those who hear the word of God and obey it.”  But hold on here, I happen to remember another word from our Sponsor:

And Mary said, “Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word.” (Luke 1:38)

My wife’s middle name is Alyse.  Her first name is Mary.  What my Mary did in Barbetta in 1982 is exactly what Jesus’ Mary did 2000 years ago.  They both trusted the one who was in control of the outcome.  I’m a picky eater (or so EVERYONE ELSE says).  I imagine that chefs get a little annoyed at guests who “hold this” and “add that”.  They’ve put together the menu with thoughtfulness and pride.  Who am I to call a change up?  Well, I’m the customer, amn’t I?  After all, I’m paying for this meal.  I’m going to stuff it in my mouth.  “The customer is always right.”  Well, sure, if you’re talking about a brick and mortar restaurant serving food for the body.  But there is no spiritual parallel.  God knows what is best for us (see Isaiah 55:8-9).  I want to caution “cafeteria Christians” - picking and choosing what part of God’s wisdom to ingest.  “I’ll have a plate of No Killing, but hold the No Lying.  For dessert, I’ll have some Gossip with a dollop of Lust, but I’m watching my hate so I’ll stay away from the Anger cobbler.”  Mary, both of them, agreed with the one in control BEFORE they knew what the outcome would be.  That is FAITH.  “Blind” faith?  Give me a break.  My Mary trusted that Barbetta didn’t build a legendary reputation by stiffing tourists with a string of spaghetti doused in ketchup.  Jesus’ Mary trusted God.  She didn’t have to know the outcome to know that God would not give her more than she could handle.  Her faith was in God, not the outcome.  When you know the character of the one you trust, you don’t have to worry about the outcome. 

I’ve got to tell you the end of the story.  First off, no, I can’t for the life of me remember what Alyse ate.  Neither can she.  The experience totally eclipsed the dish.  But I can assure you, it was spectacular.  Secondly, this was our first trip to NYC and we didn’t understand the patterns and rhythms of the place.  We kind of stumbled our way around town without understanding how things work.  As we finished our meals, the manager – a cross between a Cuban refugee and Rodney Dangerfield – came to our table and said, “When you’re ready to leave, you let me know.”  At the right time, we signaled our departure.  The manager motioned to a busboy, whispered something, sent him out the door, and asked us to wait just a moment.  Here’s what we figured out during our wait - cabs don’t routinely travel on cross-streets looking for passengers, they stick to the north-south arteries.  Barbetta is on 46th Street between 8th and 9th Avenues.  Our busboy sprinted 200 yards west to 9^th Ave, hailed a cab, and rode it clockwise back to us – east on 47^th, back down 8^th, and west to Barbetta’s front door.  The busboy hopped out of the cab and held the door open for us!  What incredible service.

Friends, followers of Jesus agree in advance to the direction of God’s leading.  FAITH AGREES WITH GOD IN ADVANCE.  If you truly trust God to have only your best interests at heart, stop being so picky!  Close the menu and thank God in advance for He has planned for you.  You will NOT be disappointed!

And by the way, Mary Christmas!

Clark H Smith

Did you know that Barbetta was a BBQ joint.  Well, ok, not exactly, but if you find the history of words interesting, I think you’ll enjoy this post at another blog of mine.