Dear Children and Grandchildren,

I have enjoyed the Word of God more than I ever have since I am no longer preaching 3 or 4 times a week and am not pressed for time. Some times I find things I'd like to share with all of you, or some of you individually. With your mother's encouragement I'd like to start a "Bible Blog" and share some of my thoughts with you. Last night I told Joanna that I opened a can of "Pork and Beans" for supper, (your mother is in Arizona helping Becky while Adam recuperates from a serious operation) but I found no pork so I renamed it "Beans and Beans". With a hearty laugh she wondered if I had "looked under every bean?' I trust what I send you will have some "pork" but if you find it to be only "beans" just push the delete button.

Ps.119:168 "I have kept Thy precepts and Thy testimonies: for all my ways are before Thee," As you were growing up one of the things I was careful to emphasize in our daily devotions was that the time would come when you would no longer be under the eye of Mom and Dad but you would never be out of sight of God's eye. What an encouragement we find here to keep God's Word. "all my ways are before Thee,"

"Experience makes many a paradox plain, and this is one. Before God we may be clear of open fault and yet at the same time mourn over a thousand heart-wanderings which need his restoring hand."--C.H. Spurgeon

"I may hide Thee from my eye, but not myself from Thine eye."--Wm. Gurnall

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

What's Your Batting Average?

Dear Children,

Today I was blessed in reading I Corinthians 16 and I want to pass on to you the reason for the blessing. After reading and meditating on the great problems found in the church at Corinth that Paul had to deal with--church splits, sexual immorality (fornication, adultery, incest and homosexuality), lawsuits among believers, marriage and divorce, meat eaters and vegetarians, how much to pay the preacher, short and long hair, the Lord’s supper, spiritual gifts, meaning of love, tongues, the resurrection and second coming)--it was a relief to read a chapter with no major problems and even see where Paul had some doubts and issues of his own.

I found that Paul didn’t always bat a thousand when determining the Lord’s will. I recently celebrated my 55th birthday as a child of God. So many times over those years I have had to make decisions that I wasn’t absolutely sure were the right ones. Even now after walking with the Lord for more than 5 decades I often find myself questioning the Lord’s will when a decision has to be made. So often I hear Christians saying, “The Lord told me.” I have never used that expression, because I feel that would put the Lord to blame should whatever He “told me” prove wrong. Of course many who use that expression always find a way to justify the outcome regardless of how it may look.

Another reason I don’t use that expression is that I don’t know that the Lord has ever “told me” anything. The Lord has often shown me things in his word and I have acted on them. Even there I keep in mind I am fallible and can make mistakes in my application. I know the Holy Spirit leads us and gives peace and assurance in knowing the will of God. However there are times I am turned off by those who seem to have a heavenly, infallible, spiritual GPS. I have made some decisions over the years that I was absolutely certain of, that I prayed over, and they turned out to be wrong. I thank the Lord for closing those doors! How often have I heard someone say after making an absolutely dumb decision, “I prayed about it” as if that justified it.

Back to I Corinthians 16. I read, “If it be fitting that I go…”(4); “It may be....I winter with you…withersoever I go” (6); “I trust (hope) to tarry a while with you if the Lord permit” (7); “Now if Timothy comes…” (10); “…I greatly desired him to come unto you…but his will was not to come at this time; but he will come when he shall have convenient time” (12). Paul didn’t bat 1,000 and neither has your dad!

“My Love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen"

Dad

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

"Owe no man anything except to love one another." Romans 13:8

Dear Children,

I will turn 76 this week and I know I can’t have much more time on the downhill side. I give thanks every day for your mother’s and my good health. Neither of us know anything of prescription drugs or medications. I liken myself to the poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes, “The Deacon’s One-Hoss Shay.” The deacon built it so well that it never wore out or needed replacement parts until one day, suddenly it completely collapsed.

One of the things that accompany old age is concern for your children and grandchildren and what they will face when you are gone. That came home to me recently when an uncle called me to ask if I knew what our governor had in mind when she resigned. I assured him that He knew as much about that as I do. Then he reminded me of our childhood (he is 3 weeks older than I) and how we were brought up through a depression and WW II. We knew what it was to do without many things that are taken for granted today.

Jobs were created by the Roosevelt administration like the WPA-Workers Progress Administration. My dad called it “We Poke Along.” The OPA-Office of Price Administration he called “Other People’s Affairs.” It regulated prices on everything. I still have my ration book from the war years when we had to use stamps for food products like sugar and soap and other items. Gasoline and rubber products were rationed. Plastic hadn’t been invented yet, so that didn’t replace many things like it does today. You weren’t allowed to use gasoline for pleasure trips. Once while we going on a fishing trip, Dad told us that if we got stopped by a cop we were to tell him that we were going to Buzz Wagner’s funeral. He was a local flying hero who was shot down in the Pacific. I’m sure a cop would have believed that when he saw the fishing poles and how we were dressed! We never owned a car until I was 7 or 8 years old. We had to hire someone to take us to a funeral. We did a lot of walking and hitch hiking. My uncle and I talked about the difference then as compared to today.

Today you may be taking for granted things you have always had in your lifetime. If you can’t afford something you can always use a credit card. As I look at the present administration and its stimulus packages and the trillions of dollars of debt you will inherit, I tremble to think what you will have to go through after I am gone. Much that is available now you will no longer be able to afford. The temptation to borrow to buy what was a luxury yesterday and has become a necessity today will be great.

One of the many blessings your mother and I have benefited by in our 51 years together has been our mutual agreement not to go in debt. We took God at His word: “My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). We believed his promise that “No good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly” (Psalm 84:11). We determined to not go into debt other than to buy a house, and we never took longer than 5 years to pay that off. We agreed to tell no one but the Lord what we needed. I cannot recall ever having a disagreement with your mother about finances. We had both seen too much heartache in marriages over that. I write this not to criticize any of you who may not agree with our way of doing things. We have often responded when others have made known their needs. We simply want to share with you how God has blessed our lives in this realm. We will continue to pray for you.

To God only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen.”

Dad

Monday, June 8, 2009

THE GLORY OF MAN

Dear Children,

Your mother asked me to write you a synopsis of the message I preached yesterday, June 7.  I am preaching through I Peter, and I’m sure the blessing I’m receiving in preparation and delivery of the messages is much greater than anyone might receive in hearing them.  The text was I Peter 1:24,25: “ALL FLESH IS AS GRASS, AND ALL THE GLORY OF MAN AS THE FLOWER OF GRASS.  THE GRASS WITHERETH,  AND THE FLOWER THEREOF FALLETH AWAY: BUT THE WORD OF THE LORD ENDURETH FOR EVER.  And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.”  This is in caps because it is taken from Isaiah  40:8.  Actually the text speaks for itself and my main job was to keep from messing it up with my preaching! 

I reminded everybody that all the GLORY OF MAN does not last any longer than the withering of the grass and the flower which suddenly appears and very quickly disappears, especially in Alaska.  This glory which disappears so quickly can include our physical appearance, our material possessions, or anything else we seek so fervently to aspire to in our brief stopover here.  Then I strongly emphasized the need of spending our time in THE  WORD OF GOD WHICH ENDURES FOREVER.  Not so much in the number of chapters read or even the length of time spent but in quality of the time spent.  I asked the folk if they would like to see the time they spent in the Word of God this past week written on a blackboard in front of the congregation.  One elderly gentleman,  absorbed in the message, said aloud, "NO!"

Does the Bible “live” as you read it, and do you often lay it down reluctantly when you must turn away to take other responsibilities? Does it bring real joy to your heart, or is the reading of the Word of God a burden that you take on as a salve to your conscience?  Do you read your three chapters so you can keep a schedule that gets you through the Bible in a year? Or are you sometimes “arrested” by a brief portion or perhaps even one verse that you must stop to meditate and pray over?

I concluded with “a preview of coming attractions” as they used to show in the matinee movies I attended as a boy.  I said next week I would be continuing with the first three verses of chapter 2. If there is no "life” in your reading of the Bible and you find it dull or boring, your problem could be that you are not born again of the incorruptible seed of the Word of God (verse 23),  or your appetite has been spoiled as stated in chapter 2:1-3.  I said that I would be preaching on the “wherefore” which begins chapter 2.  And I told them to ignore the chapter division found there as the first three verses in chapter 2 are a necessary continuation of chapter 1.

My wish for each of you is that you are finding the reading of Word of God the best part of your day as I can honestly say I do.

Peace be with you all that are in Christ Jesus, Amen.

DAD 

Friday, May 8, 2009

Diamonds in heaven!



Dear Children,

We have children who are in dire need at this time. When I pray for them I include children of pastors and friends of mine who have special needs. I have prayed for some of these for so long that sometimes I wonder if the Lord hears my prayers? This devotional was a blessed encouragement to me to keep crying out to the One who puts all my “tears in His bottle” implying, as here stated, “that they are caught as they flow.” I trust it will be an encouragement to you also.
The diamonds of heaven!

(Charles Spurgeon)

"Behold--he prays!" Acts 9:11
Prayers are instantly noticed in heaven. The moment Saul began to pray--the Lord heard him. Here is comfort for the distressed, but praying soul. Oftentimes a poor broken-hearted one bends his knee--but can only utter his wailing in the language of sighs and tears. Yet that groan has made all the harps of heaven thrill with music; that tear has been caught by God and treasured in the lachrymatory of heaven. "You put all my tears into Your bottle," implies that they are caught--as they flow!

The suppliant, who can only groan out his words, will be well understood by the Most High God. He may only look up with misty eye; but prayer is the falling of a tear! Tears are the diamonds of heaven! Sighs are a part of the music of Jehovah's court, and are numbered with the most sublime strains which reach the majesty on high!

Do not think that your prayer, however weak or trembling--will be unregarded. Our God not only hears prayer--but also loves to hear it. "He does not forget the cry of the humble." True, He does not regard proud looks and lofty words. He has no concern for the pomp and pageantry of kings. He does not listen not to the swell of martial music. He has no regard the triumph and pride of man. But wherever there is . . .
 a heart full with godly sorrow,
 or a lip quivering with agony,
 or a deep groan, 
 or a penitential sigh
--the heart of Jehovah is open! He marks that prayer down in the registry of His memory! He puts our prayers, like rose leaves--between the pages of His book of remembrance; and when the volume is opened at last, there shall be a precious fragrance springing up therefrom!

“I thank my God, making mention of thee always in my prayers” Philemon 4

Love, Dad

Ps. 142:1 "I cried unto the Lord with my voice..."

Dear Children,

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading, studying, and meditating on Psalm 142 this past week and would like to share some thoughts with you. A lady testified in our Sunday service recently that she has trouble with wandering thoughts and imaginations while praying. I have found that when I pray out loud like David in verse one of Psalm 142, where we find the words “cry” and “voice” each used twice, it has helped me in the problem mentioned above. I’m not advocating that there are not other ways to pray. I believe, as C.H. Spurgeon says, “There is a voice to the great Father in every cry, groan, and tear of His children: He can understand what they mean when they are quite unable to express it.” But I write from my own experience that when I pray aloud it is easier for me to keep my mind from wandering.

I know this may be difficult for many of you who are unable to find a place where you are out of earshot of husband, wife, children, or others. After living for the last three years in a fifth wheel trailer and a small, unfinished basement, I can readily sympathize. After several years of working in a steel mill and shooting on firing ranges in the military without ear protection (we didn’t have that back in the 50’s, believe it or not) plus hunting for 23 years in Alaska, I have found your mother can pray as loud as she likes and it doesn’t bother me! Funny how of late everybody mumbles when they talk. However, your mother’s hearing has really sharpened with age. I have found it best not to even mumble unless I’m 100 yards away--that is, if I don’t want her to hear.

When I arrived at BJU, we students were told there was a prayer room on each hall. I tried it only once! A dozen students were in the same room praying, many of them audibly. I soon found my car was a welcome refuge for prayer.

Prayer may be the most difficult of all graces. Those wandering thoughts don’t just “happen” to come at that time. There will be times when you will almost “feel” the opposition when you try to pray. Don’t give up!

“I thank my God, making mention of you always in my prayers.” Dad

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

THE RESURRECTION AND THE FEAR OF DEATH

Dear Children,

As we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord this week, I trust you will take time to sit down with your children and impress upon them the truth of the resurrection and where we would be without it. Perhaps it would be a good time to read and explain to your children some of the things in the 15th chapter of Ist Corinthians that point out where we would be without a resurrection (verses 14-19).

For my own part, one of the greatest blessings of the resurrection has been deliverance from the fear of death. Even as a young boy I worried about death and what would come afterwards. Perhaps WWII and the daily casualty reports had something to do with it. When I saw pictures in Life Magazine of the bodies of Marines strewn on the beaches of Iwo Jima, I asked my
mother, “What happens to them after they die?” She explained in the best way she could by telling me it depended on how they had lived and if the good outweighed the bad. That didn’t help me at all.

Years later after climbing Mt. Suribachi during a maneuver and viewing graves of most of the almost 7,000 Marines who died there, I again experienced a sobering time that made me think. While in the Marines I did a lot of flying between bases and on “hops” we took on furloughs. Some of them were on C-119’s which were dubbed “flying coffins” because of how often they crashed. We were even issued parachutes on some flights. “One long whistle, put it on, two long whistles, jump out!” were the words I vividly remember. I was always scared to death in flight. After my salvation, by God’s grace, in 1954 I lost that fear, and now I fly regularly from my home on this island in small single engine “island hoppers.” I have seen people shaking, holding on to seats or the person next to them. Recently a woman moaned, groaned, and at times screamed every moment of our 20-minute flight.

One of my favorite Bible passages is “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” Hebrews 2:15.

This week I purchased two burial plots in the Blough Mennonite Cemetery where your grandparents are buried. This is located about two or three hundred yards from my old home place. Your mother and I decided we’d like to be buried where it would be easiest for you all to visit, since half of you live in Alaska and half in “the lower 48.” I like graveyards where you can be “dead yet speaketh” (Heb. 11:4). In many cemeteries now you have to have a GPS to find a flat marker limited to a name and date. I know preachers say we should not think about death but of the Lord’s return. The way things are going since January, His return looks imminent, but just in case either your mother or I go up before that grand event, it has given us peace to know this part has been taken care of. The plots were only $150 each. Some of you might like to buy one!

Augustus Toplady, the hymnist who gave us that immortal hymn “Rock of Ages” wrote: “The terrors of law and of God, With me have nothing to do, My Saviour’s obedience and blood, Hide all my transgressions from view.”

Grace Be With You, Amen.

DAD


Left arrow: Blough Church and Cemetery Right arrow: Blough Home
Grandma Bea's childhood home is the farm from which the picture is taken.
Photo by Aunt Annie Lou

Gravestone of Grandma and Grandpa Blough - Photo by Aunt Annie Lou

Friday, March 27, 2009

Still Have Your "First Love"?


My Dear Children,

It has been more than 54 years now since the Lord found this poor lost sinner on the troopship, General A.E. Anderson. In the flyleaf of my Bible I carry a picture of it as it sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. This week I was invited to an “Andy” reunion in San Antonio in September. I had located some of the crew through my VFW magazine. I was one of more than 4,000 Marines aboard returning to the U.S. in 1954. I got in touch with some of the crew but was never able to locate the Marine who led me to the Lord. His name was “Jerry” and he was from Minnesota, but that is all I know.

My “first love” (Rev. 2:4) took over and I told everyone I knew, or met, about the peace I felt in knowing my sins were forgiven. From Treasure Island where we landed, I told my fellow Marines on the train going east to Quantico, Virginia. I witnessed to my Mormon buddy until he got off in Salt Lake City. Then when I arrived home in Pennsylvania, I told my Dad, Mom, and family. I witnessed to my relatives, high school friends, and prior to leaving my church I made sure the preacher, deacons, relatives, and other members had heard my testimony. I wasn’t always wise in the way I did it, and I know some were offended. I said some things I regret to this day. I could not imagine anyone not wanting what I had found, and when things were said I didn’t like, I replied in kind. I’d like to go back and do some things differently. I hurt some whom I loved dearly. Today as I was reading Letters of John Newton I came across this word of comfort.

I believe the over doings of a young convert, proceeding from an honest simplicity of heart, and a desire of pleasing the Lord, are more acceptable in His sight than a certain coolness of conduct, which frequently takes place afterward, when we are apt to look back with pity upon our former weakness, and secretly to applaud ourselves for our present greater attainments in knowledge, though perhaps (alas, that it should ever be so!) we may have lost as much in warmth as we have gained in light.


In Revelation 2:2-4, we find the Lord knew of the labor, patience, and separated stand of the Church at Ephesus. How “for His name sake” they had labored, and not fainted (even to the point of exhaustion is the meaning), and yet we find they were in danger of being rejected because they had left their “first love.”

The Grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen

DAD

Friday, March 20, 2009

False Saviors

Dear Children,

Lately my thoughts have been drawn more and more toward the passage in Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 where we are told there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven. I always smile when I think of Dr. Bob Jones Sr. telling us that the “time to refrain from embracing” in verse 5 was while we are on the BJU campus.

The time I’ve been thinking of is in verse 2. “There is a time to be born and a time to die.” At 75 I am living on borrowed time—I have already passed my “three score and ten” by more than 5 years. Then my thoughts go to my children and grandchildren who will face difficulties unprecedented in the history of our country. I feel a great responsibility not only to pray for you but to exhort you to continue in the faith, for you must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God (Acts 14:22). I am reading through a series of books by Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones on the book of Acts. I want to quote from Victorious Christianity, Vol. 3, which was written at least 50 years ago.

Oh the ugliness and foulness that is in our perverted natures as the result of the fall. You can put in new houses, but they don’t change our natures, and we may turn our homes into pig sties. You can give us learning and knowledge, but that does not change the rot that is in the soul. You can give us wealth, but it does not make us new people….That is the story of the world’s vaunted civilization, its boasting, of its understanding and sophistication.

The world is always ready to believe in saviors; it is always ready to believe in emancipators and liberators and redeemers. Rome was ready to believe in the Caesars, France in Napoleon, Italy in Mussolini, Germany in Hitler, Russia in Stalin. And this is still as true today as it has ever been….Even in recent history, we have tended to turn men into gods. We have been ready to accept leaders at their own valuation….The world is eager to bow down before such men, and while it does, it rejects the One whom God has raised up to be the one and only Savior.

Look at those it is ready to worship, praise and follow. Listen to their arrogant boasting; look at the attitudes they strike as they address the populance. Our Lord put this perfectly: ‘I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye shall receive’ (John 5:43).

False saviors exalt themselves; they give themselves titles; they set themselves up on pedestals and build monuments and statues to themselves….They plaster cities and walls with their photographs….They have their “cheerleaders” to organize applause, to tell the people when to cheer and when to stop….Fancy fooling themselves to that extent! That is the mentality of the world.

This could have been written this week! I know this is long, but I implore you to read it carefully so you can understand better what you are facing.

Grace Be With All You Who Love Our Lord Jesus Christ in Sincerity,

Dad

Friday, March 6, 2009

"Redeeming the time." Ephesians 5:16



Dear Children,

Do you remember when I used to read poems and essays in our family devotions? I credit my BJU English and Speech teachers for creating a desire to read and memorize good literature. As one who minored in speech I had to memorize long portions of Tennyson’s “Enoch Arden” and a large portion of “The Yearling.” These stick out in my mind because of the lengthy portion memorized, but I was exposed to many other poets and their works both secular and sacred. Every father wants to see his sons imitate good things they have learned from their dads, but in my case I think somewhere that love for poetry has not been passed on to my sons or sons-in-law. I’m glad that at least one grandson has memorized some of the poems I used to read to you while sitting around the kitchen table. He will be reciting “A Fence at the Top of the Hill or an Ambulance at the Bottom?” next week in a public meeting. Remember that one? (A lesson is there that would be good to learn in Washington DC.)

You dads may be thinking that reading and memorizing Scripture is all that is needed. Certainly that is primary, but taking time to read biographies of godly men like Adoniram Judson, William Carey, Hudson Taylor, John Paton, and Robert McCheyne (these names should sound familiar) and instilling a love for good poetry and other classic writings would not hurt your children.

I’m in the midst of transcribing 50 years of my diaries onto my computer. This week I noted that on May 17, 1976, “I read the kids Ronald Reagan’s March 31st message to the nation. We discussed politics for a long time.” Only 33 years left to transcribe with this finger! (I can no longer type since I can’t open my left hand.) I know you don’t have time for all this. I can appreciate that, but I also know that as you grow older time goes by more rapidly, and what can be sadder than to look back over the years with regret! While commercial fishing as a deckhand about 20 years ago I heard a grizzled old sea captain say over the VHF radio to another captain, “My biggest regret in life is that I didn’t spend more time with my kids”. Video games and the TV are a poor substitute for hands-on time with your children.

I still have a love for reading and read a poem every day but now I have the added advantage of “googling” the author. Yesterday I googled “Hannah More” (1745-1833) since I am including her treatise on “Redeeming the Time" in this letter. After a tumultuous life which included several broken engagements, Miss More was converted at the age of 40. “Her religious conversion was not a sudden event that cannot be precisely dated, it nevertheless changed her life. Two of her new friends were John Newton (Amazing Grace) and Member of Parliament Wm. Wilberforce.…Her poem “Slavery” was instrumental in the fight against slavery.…She was one of the most successful writers and perhaps the most influential woman of her day.” Her essay listed below left me convicted as I do not manage time very well in my old age.

Love, DAD

"Redeeming the time" Ephesians 5:16 by Hannah More


Christians should especially be on their guard against a spirit of idleness, and a slovenly habitual wasting of time. We must guard against a habitual frivolousness at home; and an abundance of unprofitable small-talk, idle reading, inane drowsiness, and a quiet and dull frittering away of time.

We must seriously consider--what a large portion of life we have unwisely squandered; what days and nights we have wasted, if not sinfully--yet selfishly; if not loaded with evil--yet destitute of good. In the day of judgment, the thin disguise which our treacherous heart now casts over vanity and sloth, will then be torn off.

We are guilty of the strange inconsistency of being most wasteful of what we best love--and of throwing away what we most fear to lose--that TIME of which life is made up. It is not so much a lack of time--as a wasting of our time--which prevents life from answering all the ends for which God has given it to us.

Few things make us so useful of the world, as the prudent use of our precious time. We should not only be careful not to waste our own time--but that others do not rob us of it! The "stealing of our purse" is a serious wrong to us. But the "stealing of our time" should grieve us even more! Pilfering of another's time is a felony for which no restitution can be made--for time is not only invaluable, but irrecoverable!

Every particle of time is valuable. No day can be insignificant--when every day is to be accounted for. Each one possesses weight and importance. What a scene will open upon us, when, from our eternal state--we shall look back on the use we have made of time--when we shall take a clear retrospect of all we have done, and all we ought to have done!

"Almighty God, I adore Your infinite patience, which has not cut me off in the midst of my follies. Let me no longer abuse that precious treasure, time. Let me bid adieu to all those vain amusements, those trifling entertainments and sinful diversions--which have robbed me of many valuable hours. Let me no longer waste my time in ease and pleasure, in unprofitable studies and conversation; but grant, that by moderation and temperance in my enjoyments, I may be able to give a good account of it in the day of judgment, and be accepted in and through the merits of Jesus Christ, my only mediator and advocate. Amen."

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Cares of This Life

My Dear Children,

This morning I was arrested in my Bible reading by Luke 21:34. I had written to you on that verse just before Christmas, but present-day circumstances lead me to write on this again. Luke 21 centers on the Lord's return, and there is much in this chapter that pertains to us today: "Take heed that you be not deceived: for many shall come in my name saying, 'I am Christ' (vs. 8); "wars and commotions" (9); "nation shall rise against nation"(10); "great earthquakes," "famines and pestilences," "fearful sights and great signs from heaven" (11); "persecutions, being brought before kings and rulers, for my names sake" (12); "betrayed by family, relatives and friends" (16); "distress of nations with perplexity; the sea and waves roaring" (25); "men's hearts failing for fear" (27). "When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh."

All these things ought to be a wake-up call to us, but the verse I want to emphasize here is "take heed to yourselves, lest at anytime your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and CARES OF THIS LIFE, and so that day come upon you unawares" (34). I was struck with the fact that "cares of this life" are put on the same plane as drunkenness and surfeiting (a cousin to drunkenness). It reminded me of Ephesians 5:18, "Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit." With our present day economy in shreds, and many of the moral principles we espouse being trampled on by the present administration, it is easy to relegate "the cares of this life" only to that. My concern is that you be not so taken up with personal cares "so that day come upon you unawares." I don't like to name possible "cares of this life" you may have, lest some of you limit yourselves to what I list. In general they are just the cares of everyday living. "Eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage" as in the days of Noah (Matthew 24:38). I know for a fact that some of you are extremely busy making a living; that some of you are in financial straits; that some of you are in stress over family relationships and problems, and you have difficulty seeing any way out. Cares that hold you in their grip may be your health or that of a loved one. For some of you, " the cares of this life" may include sin that holds you captive.

In closing this epistle, I would ask you to get alone with the Lord and let Him search your heart. Should you find that any "cares of this life" are dominating your time and concern, driving a wedge between you and your relationship with Him, ask Him to forgive you and deliver you from whatever the "cares of this life" may be.

"To God, only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen."

Dad

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Even So Come Quickly

Dear Family,

I have been so overwhelmed by the events in our country the past couple of weeks I've found it difficult to condense any of it into a message to you. As you know, I believe it is important to observe what is being reported by the news media and then try to bring it into a Biblical context. This is not always easy because the media reports are no longer the relaying of events as they happen, but they are filtered through a mostly left wing opinion mill, and we receive a "condensed," left-leaning, anti-Biblical, twisted opinion. Remember, too, they are the ones who pick and choose what they want you to hear.

Back in the 70's and 80's I had a weekly radio broadcast out of a local station. I'd watch the ticker tape news briefs and wonder why they chose what they did to put on their news broadcast and why they rejected what I thought were good news items. Then I realized that it was because someone at the station deemed what was good for us to hear. And that was after it had been filtered down to them from the first responders from the large media outlets.

My daily Bible reading consists of a portion in the Old Testament, plus Psalms and Proverbs where I am currently engaged in writing my verse by verse thoughts. I read a chapter in the Gospels and the book of Acts and am reading through from Romans to Revelation. I tell you that because I just happened to be in the last part of Revelation and the first part of Genesis when the events of the past two weeks unfolded. I did something I have never done before. I opened my Bible and read as I watched the presidential inauguration and listened to the news.

I have never preached much on prophecy and the events leading up to the Lord's return. One reason is that I have had a hard time accepting a lot of the ideas and views that have been advanced by expositors with their charts, etc., over the years. I am not nearly as dogmatic in my views on eschatology as I used to be. I know the Lord is coming back, but when, where, and the time that takes place between events, etc., pose some difficulties for me. However, the events of the past weeks in Washington along with my reading of Revelation and Genesis have given me some "goosebumps" concerning the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ! I will not share how my reading produced "goosebumps" except to say that some of the bills our new president signed in his first two days in office and the approval of both political parties in trying to solve our financial mess have given me much to think about.

There may be very difficult days ahead for believers. We will need much grace to boldly take a stand for the Word of God. I exhort each of you to "examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?" II Cor. 13:5. Remember, "There is therefore no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit" Romans 8:1.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen. Dad

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

III John 4 “Walking in Truth”

To my 5 sons and 4 daughters,

My greatest concern as I begin a new year is that the verse I sent you in my last devotional may not be a reality in each of your lives: “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth." My concern is not that you "made a decision for Christ,” or "accepted Christ as your Saviour,” or that you know the date when you did any of those things (none of those clichés are found in the Bible). Some of you can give a Biblical explanation of salvation better than I can, but if it does not include an ongoing walk, I find little assurance that you are "in Christ.”

There is no "great joy" in hearing anything that falls short of my children walking in truth. What you did in the past, good or bad, counts little if you are not walking in truth at present. Walking has to do with making progress. A justification without an accompanying sanctification will not stand well on judgment day. The Third Epistle of John has only 14 verses, and the word "truth" and "true" are used 7 times. Verse 11 says, "Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God: but he that doeth evil hath not seen God." I have joy every time I see or hear of any of you walking in truth, but the "greater joy" can only come when I hear that all nine of you are walking in truth. Until then the joy is mingled with tears.

In Christ, Dad

Friday, January 2, 2009

"I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth." III Jn. 4

Dear Children,

My Amish and Mennonite forefathers, from five or more generations back, handed down to me a paper called "INSTRUCTIONS TO MY CHILDREN" translated from the German. The earliest date we have for it is 1808 but it is probably older. These instructions are replete with counseling on salvation and Godly living. It was passed on to me by Sem Johns whose great, great grandfather, Amishman Joseph Johns, was the founder of Johnstown.

Sem writes in this paper: “On the 20th of August, 1933, I was permitted to hold the first child of the 5th living generation, great great grand-child Ronald Earl Blough. He was not quite four weeks old...I am now past 83 years, and as Joshua said (Josh. 23:2), ‘waxed old and stricken in years’...I admonish you to believe the whole Bible as the inspired word of God. II Tim. 3:16, Rev. 22:18,19…”

There is a wealth of material and Godly instruction in this paper--it is yellowed with age and fragile, but we were able to have it copied. If you are interested in having a copy, let me know. Dad

"Parents must see to it that their children know the fear of the Lord, and they must beg the Lord Himself to teach them this truth. We have no hereditary right to the divine favor: the Lord keeps up his friendship to families from generation to generation, for He is loth to leave the descendants of His servants, and never does so except under grievous and long-continued provocation. As believers we are all in a measure under some such covenant as that of David: certain of us can look backward for four generations of saintly ancestors, and we are now glad to look forward and to see our children, and our children's children, walking in truth. Yet we know that grace does not run in the blood, and we are filled with holy fear lest in any of our seed there should be an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God." (C.H. Spurgeon commenting on Ps. 132:12)