CHOICES

Life is full of choices some are important choices like getting married and some are not as important like what do I have for breakfast. Every choice that we make changes the course of our life to some degree. Marry the wrong person and life can be very difficult. Eat certain foods all the time and clog your arteries. Our choices are so often made with very little thought because we think of them as ordinary.

We are sometimes called upon to make a choice that will result in vital life changes. This kind of choices requires not only a lot of thought and careful planning but also a lot of prayer. When you consider making major changes do you spend enough time in prayer? Have you made God part of the process in directing your life? These are important questions that only you can answerer.

Moving from one state to another requires prayer. Getting married requires prayer. Changing your career requires prayer. Committing your life to Christ requires prayer. Joining a church requires prayer. Daily seeking the will of God for your life requires prayer. 

Life, Liberty and Pursuit

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness…”

These words for the Deceleration of Independence are often quoted on the fourth of July and should be.  They are declared to be our God given rights for all humans even though the “men” who wrote them thought of them as rights for only men and at that did not cover their slaves. Still it was a beginning for the idea of God given rights of individual people.

LIFE: We have the right to be born and live out our lives with out threat from the government. Life itself is sacred and should be protected. There are times when governments do take lives when a jury of our peers convict someone of murder or other capitol crimes and inflicts the death penalty.

LIBERTY: We have the right to move about at our own discretion with out hindrance of our government and to do as we please unless it interferes with the rights of other citizens. That right can be curtailed by the courts if we violate the law and are convicted of it.

PURSUIT: We have the right to pursuit of happiness but that does not mean we have to find happiness. We can look for it in what ever way we choose as long as we do not violate the law or the right of others in the process.

All of our God given rights are precious but come with responsibility for our actions in exercising them in a civilized society.  Lives were given in the past for the support of these rights and are being given even now. Let us dedicate our selves on the forth of July to preserve them for ourselves and our fellow citizens now and in the future.

Remembering A Dear Friend

Becky Ritter was a Hospice nurse and a really good friend of mine. I met her at a Chillicothe, Missouri community meeting and during our discussion she discovered that I was a minister and asked me some questions about the bible. I was about to start a new Basic Bible Study at First Christian Church so invited her to try it out. Becky said, “But I am not a member and I am not even a Christian.” I told her that it would be OK by me for her to attend and she did. About three-quarters of the way through the bible study She wanted to be baptized and she joined the church. Two years later this Hospice nurse had cancer and after a long battle died. Becky had a personality that infected people with joy even through her struggling last days of her fight with cancer.

I still miss my friend Becky and her awesome faith in God during her last days on this earth. 

How Many Times???

In the Gospel of Matthew Peter approached Jesus and asked how many times he should forgive some one and then said “As many as seven times?”

Peter wanted to know the limits of forgiveness. How far does a follower of Jesus need to go in tolerating and reconciling with those who sin against him? Peter very likely thought that seven times was very generous as the law only required the Hebrews to forgive an offender three times.

It is tempting for us to want to say to someone who is irritating us: “Sorry, but you have used up the number of times that I am required to forgive you.”

Jesus teaches us that since there is no limit to God’s forgiveness of us, then we need to forgive others without limit as well. As long as someone asks us for forgiveness we are to forgive. Remember that in the Lord’s Prayer we pray to God to forgive us in the same was we forgive others. As I count the number of times that I have the opportunity to forgive another child of God I am in awe of this part of the Lord’s Prayer and the teachings of Jesus on forgiveness.

Miss-Quotes

Political ads are creeping in to all kind of unsuspecting places. Both sides are doing it so there is lots of blame to spread around. On a social media site there have been what at first looks like quotes from President Abraham Lincoln. The wording however is very modern English and sounds like a certain political view.  

This is nothing new as people have put words in the mouths of long dead people who can not defend themselves for thousands of years. People write down things they wished the ancient hero had said and apply it as a quote. Then others copy and reuse the miss-quote until it seems real.

One very ancient miss-quote is people say that the bible says; “God helps those who help themselves.” That is no where to be found in the bible but a lot of people believe that it is because it has been miss-quoted so often. We want to believe these things so we accept them with out checking and pass them on as real.

In this political season with the country so divided and so far apart we need to be aware and do a lot of  fact checking. Before I use or repost anything I need to ask my self, “Is this real?”   It may very well be what I want to be real but if it is not real I should not pass it along. 

Life Changing Moments

Father’s Day had me thinking about the births of my darling daughters. Both of them were life changing moments for me. I have not been the same person since.

The year was 1969 the day that the first men to land on the moon splashed down on July 24^th a momentous day. We lived in Smithville Texas where I was Pastor at First Christian Church. At one minute after midnight Katherine Ann Groh came screaming into the world. No doubt indignant at being evicted from her comfortable abode for the previous nine months. When the nurse handed her to me she was still screaming. I looked into her beautiful eyes and my life changed. I said, “It is alright Katherine your daddy loves you.” She became quiet and looked up at me and smiled.

Now I had known that I would be a parent/father but at that moment I became a daddy. As I looked at her all I could think of was to be the best daddy for her that I could be. It was not always easy but that is still my goal to this day. She is now a mother of my adult grandson William and I am very proud of my eldest darling daughter.

My youngest darling daughter was born in Fort Worth where I was in Seminary at Texas Christian University. It was Christmas Eve of 1972 and her mother went into labor and after the Christmas Eve service we headed to the hospital. Laura Lea Groh was born one minute before midnight. These two are sisters in many ways but Laura was quiet from the beginning. When I held her for the first time it was the same feeling as before. Here was a girl that depended on me to be the best daddy possible. I felt the love and adoration for her and still do. As I told her how much I loved her I felt an intense sense of pride she was now a part of my life.

One of my dedications to my baby daughters was to be the kind of daddy that when they became adults they would be happy to be my daughters and that our relationship would be filled with love and joy. They changed my life and I am the better man for it.

Accepting and Offering Forgiveness

As those forgiven by God, we are called to exercise forgiveness. 

As those grace by God, we are called to extend grace. 

Sometimes we ourselves have the greatest need for forgiveness and grace to experience freedom. We may struggle with accepting God’s forgiveness or offering forgiveness to another precisely because we have never been able to forgive ourselves. We know it is the same with grace:  we find it hard to struggle with grace because we find it hard to extend grace to ourselves and others.