Goodbyes are hard. I often think of the song by the Muppets: http://www.metacafe.com/watch/83654/muppets_saying_goodbye/
In this song it says, "Somehow I know we'll meet again; not sure quite where and I don't know just when. Your in my heart so until then, it's time for saying goodbye."
I know of a place where there will be no goodbyes. This life is full of meetings and partings but up there heaven is just a long hello. I pray that through Jesus Christ you are going there.
Here are the lyrics to a Billy Sprague song that expresses these thoughts (http://www.everydayhealth.com/forums/new-here/topic/christians-loved-forgiven-real-people-striving-together-encouraging?page=266):
"Heaven's a Long Hello"
Hello hello
It's good to know
We can go home, forever
Heaven is a long hello
Good-bye Jesus said
To his dearest friends
Who were shaking their heads
Tomorrow I will be gone
But believe when I say
I'll be back before long
Next day they carried Him to a tomb
Then spent some lonely days
Locked in their room
Oh I wished I could have been
together with them
to see the look on every face
When the Lord said
Hello, hello,
I told you so
And now,
And now you know
You'll know
it lasts forever
Forever
Heaven is a long hello
Hello Hello
It's good to know
Oh, it's so good to know
We can go home
Forever
Heaven is a long hello
Farewell, adiós
and all the good-bye words
that hurt us the most
they will be obsolete
no more bon voyage
no arrivederci
there's no need
for Auf Wiedersehen
When there's no where to go
to get back from again
And I'll look at you
for an eon or two
or three or four
or more
And say Hello!
Oh how I've missed you so
And then
We'll know
Forever
and have ourselves
a long hello
Hello hello
Oh, it's so good to know
We can go home
Forever
Oh the time will come
when time will pass
and we will have
forever together
and when
at last
I see your face
We'll stand an age
embracing, embracing to say
Hello
Heaven is a long hello!
Long hello
Heaven is a long hello!
Long hello
Heaven's a long hello!
Long hello
Can't wait to see you!
Heaven's a long hello!
Hello, hello hello hello!!
Philippians 4:8 "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."
It had been a blessing to minister with the Monterey Church of Christ. Please click on this web site to learn more about the church: http://www.montereychurchofchrist.org/
Well, major changes are in store for us. Pleasant Ridge Church of Christ in Aurora, Indiana has offered me the position of being their preacher. I accepted their offer. Everyone has been supportive in the midst of their tears. Our last Sunday here is August 29. This decision has been difficult and filled with prayer. Our hearts are heavy but filled with excitement. Please keep us in your prayers! This week we are cleaning and packing.
This week we did the following things:
Last Monday Otto and Dottie Conley came. They are going to help us all the way up to Indiana. What a blessing!
On Tuesday through Saturday Crystal, Otto, Alex and Andy went to Indiana to find a rental for us. They were not successful. Therefore, we are going to move into the parsonage at Pleasant Ridge. It is small for our needs and so we will continue looking for our own place. In the meantime we have to make it work. We are thankful we have a place to go in the transition.
While they were gone I said goodbye to many of my friends in hospice and the church. It is bitter sweet. I hate goodbyes. Thankful that in heaven there will not be anymore goodbyes
On Friday I took the dogs to the vet to get them ready for the move. Turns out they have heartworms. But it is not bad and today we took them to have a procedure to start getting rid of the heartworms. We are praying that this works!
Yesterday Ann, my sister, came for church and to spend the afternoon with us. We will miss her and her husband Richard. However, we know that we will see them from time to time in Indiana.
Some prayer requests:
1. Pray for the Monterey Church of Christ as they begin searching for a new minister
2. Pray for us as we move to a new area, new church (Pleasant Ridge Church of Christ), and a new position.
3. On Friday Dottie, Zach and Zane are taking a train to North Carolina.
4. While they are gone, we are getting a moving truck and filling it up. We should have everything in the truck by Saturday evening.
5. After my final sermon at Monterey, we are going to Indiana. We should arrive on Monday and Monday night we are going to unload the truck. We will put most of our things in a storage area at the church property.
6. On Wednesday September 1 Otto and Crystal are going to North Carolina. Alex and Andy will be with me until Crystal brings back Zach and Zane by the weekend.
7. I have September 5 off from preaching. It will be good to catch our breath.
8. On September 7 I get to work at Pleasant Ridge. I plan on preaching at Pleasant Ridge on September 12.
(3 John 1:2 NIV) Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.
I love Peanuts. One video I like is It's Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown. Here is a brief description: It's homecoming at Charlie Brown's school, and Charlie Brown and Linus are among the escorts for the Homecoming Queen and her court. During the Homecoming Parade, Linus tells Charlie Brown that he will be the escort for the Queen, but Charlie Brown is shocked when he sees the Queen is none other than the Little Red-Haired Girl herself (whose name is revealed to be Heather). He is even more shocked when Linus tells him about the Homecoming tradition—that he has to escort Heather and give her a kiss on the cheek before the first dance. Hearing this, Charlie Brown hyperventilates and falls off the float.
Charlie Brown arrives at the dance so nervous he can barely walk. But remaining faithful to his duty, Charlie Brown escorts Heather to the middle of the dance floor and somehow summons the courage to kiss her on the cheek. From that moment forward everything is a composite blur, with Charlie Brown having euphoric visions now that he has kissed the Little Red-Haired Girl—an accomplishment previously thought to be unattainable.
Charlie Brown wakes up the next morning, having no memory of anything that happened after the kiss. He walks to the wall, his usual hangout, and meets up with Linus, who proceeds to tell Charlie Brown that he definitely took the honors at the dance. According to Linus, Charlie Brown surprised everyone when he kissed Heather, but even more so when he took to the dance floor with her—and even the other girls in the court—doing all of the latest dances. In essence, Charlie Brown was the life of the party according to Linus.
In disbelief, Charlie Brown replied saying "What good is it to do anything, Linus, if you can't remember what you did?" Regardless, Linus reminds him that at least it was his first kiss and the story ends with Charlie Brown smiling with quiet satisfaction.
This reminds me of delivering a sermon. I study and prepare and make sure everything is ready. I get nervous before the sermon and sometimes I feel like I can barely walk to the podium. After the first few minutes, I start to settle down and I seem to go from the beginning to the end. It is such a blur. If someone mentions something I said or did, I can barely remember. It is like I am having a euphoric vision like Charlie Brown. (I know I am exaggerating but when I am not self conscious and delivering the sermon it seems that way)
Maybe there is something to this. If we do God's will and give ourselves over to him, no matter how nerve racking it is, it seems like we do things far beyond what we could ever hope or imagine. Things that on our own we would never do. Psalm 2:12 tells us to Kiss the Son. When we do we better be ready for a wild ride!
A church in Indiana, Pleasant Ridge Church of Christ, near Cincinnati, has offered me the position of being their preacher. As of Tuesday night, I accepted their offer.
My family and I have been praying for God’s direction and we want to do His will for our lives. We have sensed the need for a change in our lives and in the ministry of the church here. This church in Indiana is where the Lord has led us. We will be leaving in 2 weeks, my last Sunday being August 29.
This church in Indiana is an answer to our prayers. This new position in Indiana will get us much closer to my family. My dad will be 2 hours away. My grandmother will be 4 hours away. The plan for my mother is for her husband Lou to retire in 2 years and they will move back to Indiana. Crystal’s parents are from Kentucky and they still have family there. They love to travel and so they can visit their brothers and sisters and then come a couple hours farther north and visit us. We have the desire to be closer to family. Difficult to be 16 hours away.
Another answer to prayer is that this church in Indiana has agreed to pay for my schooling to get a Master’s Degree. I was trained to be a youth minister and so I didn’t take all the courses that I now know would have been good for me. Also, I have done some volunteer hospice work while I have been here and this additional schooling would help if the Lord leads me into chaplaincy with hospice in the far future.
Paul Avery called me up and we began to talk about my situation. I thought he would not like our current situation and pass us by. However, we set up a trial sermon date. Then came a response I was not expecting. “Do you need any help until the trial sermon? We want to help you. We don’t want to see another man leave the ministry.”
Why did the Lord lead us here to only stay such a short time? For nothing else than to stop a preacher from leaving the ministry. Many of you have stated that for us to effectively minister, we must heal from our past. You have helped us to do that. Warm place in my heart because of this.
I know that in the past couple of months some upsetting things have happened. The elders have resigned. From that, however, we now have ministry teams. We need them now more than ever. We have some people who have come back and are now serving. We have some others who came once in a while but now are coming most Sundays and willing to serve. Still need to work on getting some elders but in the meantime, this is good. The music is back to where it once was. Brother Paul is able to fill in and preach and so the preaching of the gospel will continue in the short term and long term.
I believe some good days are ahead for the Monterey Church of Christ. Seeds have been planted and a harvest is going to be gathered. (Gal 6:9 NIV) Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
I did a funeral for a hospice patient I have been visiting for at least 6 months yesterday afternoon. I enjoy my volunteer ministry with hospice. I hope to continue it when I get to Indiana. Maybe in the far future I can expand my ministry with hospice. The church can benefit a great deal by being involved with hospice.
As Cicely Saunders (the founder of hospice) sees it, the community of the dying both receives and gives back benefits. Dying people need the comfort and strength of the church. But the church needs the community of the dying as well: to summon up eternal issues, to teach us to listen, to provide a way of serving Christ by serving others in his name.
I have wondered if the greatest loss we must grieve is our limits. It drives us to humility before God and others like little else.
Consider the following list of your limits:
1) Your physical body- Your body is dying and will return to dust one day. You must sleep, eat, and drink in order to live. All the plastic surgeons in the world, ultimately, cannot stop your aging process. We will finish our lives with unfinished goals and dreams.
2) Your family of origin- Your family, ethnicity, country of birth, culture all gave you a gift and limits. Whether you had two parents, one parent, or were adopted, all of us enter adulthood with limits given to us by our families.
3) Your marital status- Both marriage and singleness are limits given by God. If you have children, the number and kind of children is a limit.
4) your intellectual capacity- None of us is brilliant in literature, mathematics, engineering, carpentry, physics, and music at the same time.
5) your talents and gifts- Jesus has all the gifts. you may have ten. I may have three. Only Jesus has them all.
6) your material wealth- Even if you are a millionaire, you are limited in your resources. Our level of prosperity limits us.
7) your raw material- God has given you a certain personality, temperament, "unique self." Every one of these things are full of gifts and full of limits.
8) your time- You have only one life to live. You can't do it all. I would like to try living in Asia, Europe, Africa, and a large metropolitan area in the United States. I would like to try a few different professions. I can't. My time is running out.
9) your work and relationship realities- Our work is hard. We never totally finish. There is always a grief in never having complete fulfillment. Relationships will not be perfect until heaven. Who wouldn't like a perfect, loving church where everyone has the time, energy, and maturity to love everyone else perfectly! We must grieve that limit also or we will deman from them something they cannot give.
10) your spiritual understanding- God has revealed himself to us in his Son, Scripture, creation, and other ways, but so much of who he is remains incomprehensible.
(1 Pet 5:5 NIV) All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."
If you're wise you'll pray, 'Lord, who do I need in my life at this time?' and, 'Who do you want me to help?' The first question requires humility, the second requires unselfishness.
Many ministers have a defect in their lives. They have a problem accepting help from others. They always are helping others but for others to help them, well, that's a different story. It does require humility to acknowledge that we need people in our lives to help us along the way.
Why don't you pray for your minister and ask the Lord to supply whom he needs? If you are a minister, it might be time to admit that we are not super saints and pray for the help and friendship of others.
A few nights ago I watched the movie Bicentennial Man. This film follows the 'life' and times of the lead character, an android who is purchased as a household robot programmed to perform menial tasks. Within a few days the Martin family realizes that they don't have an ordinary droid as Andrew begins to experience emotions and creative thought. In a story that spans two centuries, Andrew learns the intricacies of humanity.
The thing that strikes me about this movie, as Andrew, the robot, slowly makes the transition to being a human is the issue of immortality. Andrew had the opportunity to live forever in this world. Toward the end of the movie (sorry if I give it away) Andrew falls in love with one of the Martin family. At this time he is so human he can have an intimate relationship with a woman. He wants the government to recognize his marriage to Portia but they refuse. The reason they give is that being a robot makes him immortal. He will live forever (as long as he receives regular maintenance) while humans will continue to die.
His lover, Portia, continues to age. In one scene she warns Andrew that she will age and die while he will live on. Andrew assures her that he will do everything in his power to make sure that she lives. Portia says that she doesn't want to live in this world forever. This makes Andrew make a dramatic step and he makes himself fully human. He is grieved and filled with pain over the many deaths of the members of the Martin family. He has seen generations come and go. Now he realizes that his lover, whom he loves so much, will do the same. He grows tired of this life and becomes mortal. He wants to be fully human and die like a human.
It all began in the garden of Eden. This world did not know death. Everything was to last forever. Mankind sinned by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and death is now a law of nature. In the Garden there was also another tree, the tree of life. God made sure that mankind, in his sinful state, did not eat of that tree. Why? This is the reason God gives in Genesis 3:22- "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever."
We might think that God is cruel by not allowing mankind to live forever. The punishment for their sin was death but if they took of the tree of life that punishment would be removed. They could continue to live forever and enjoy paradise. Oh wait, it was no longer paradise. From Genesis 3 we know that the earth was now cursed. This place is cursed and if we lived forever we would be forever condemned to live here. Would you want to live on this earth forever? I am often amazed as we grow older we are more eager to escape this life and go to another one. Sure, our bodies age and that is a major reason but there is more. This place is cruel. God is not the one who is cruel and God knew that we would not want to live here forever.
In the last scene of Bicentennial Man Andrew dies and Portia, who also is near death, says to Andrew, "See you soon."
(Rev 22:1 NIV) Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb(Rev 22:2 NIV) down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.(Rev 22:3 NIV) No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him.
Last weekend Crystal and I went to my family’s reunion in Indiana. I saw relatives there I haven’t seen for years, cousins, aunts and uncles. Lee, my brother, and I played horseshoes. Lee scored all of our points but we got beat soundly. We got there on Saturday and I had a little sniffle in my throat. By Sunday it was a full fledged cold. By Sunday evening I had no voice left. One young lady asked, “Have you ever lost your voice before?” In a whisper all I could say was, “Close.” From that time on my voice was gone until Tuesday or Wednesday of last week. I couldn’t even whisper. What if I did lose my voice? How would this change my job and ministry? What would this do to my self esteem? How would this affect my family and marriage?
As you can see I worry to0 much. However, it sounds like the beginning of a good sermon. I think Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, in Luke 1 would make a good text. Well, I better get to it.
Chuck Booher, a preacher in California, and Cam Huxford, a preacher in Georgia, recently had Sunday mornings where hundreds of people were baptized into Christ.
Here is the story of how Chuck Booher came to the reality of the importance of baptism.
"Our guitar player, Jimmy, had to go to Federal Court to apply for aslym to the US because of religious persecution. If he went back to Indonesia he knew that he would be killed. I came into the courtroom to testify that Jimmy is a Christian. We are in Los Angeles Federal Court, I have all of these reasons and arguments to state that Jimmy is a Christian. I'm going to talk about how he leads worship at the church. I'm going to talk about how he does his quiet time. I'm going to talk about how Jimmy is a man of prayer. I have all of these things I am ready to say. "
"At this kind of a hearing, the judge is the only one who asks any questions. The judge turns to me and says, "Do you know Jimmy?" I said, "Yes, I do." The judge only asked one more question. "Do you know him to be a baptized believer?" I said, "Yes, I do." The judge said, "That's all I need to know."
"The interesting thing here is if Jimmy wasn't a baptized believer he would have been deported that day. On the way out I asked an attorney why only this question. Two reasons:
1) People who are in radical Islam always say they are Christians. But they will never say they are baptized. The reason being is that they take it so seriously. Do we?
2) The Federal Government considers baptism the acting out of one's faith. If someone says that they are a Christian but they are not baptized, the Federal Government says that this person is not one who takes their faith seriously. "
Chuck told this experience the next Sunday and said if you are serious about your faith, then you need to be baptized. Hundreds came forward after the sermon that day.
