NFL Playoffs . . .

The playoffs have started. Both the Cowboys and the Houston Texans are in the hunt. The Texans were a Wild-card team and beat the Oakland Raiders on Saturday to advance, but their advancing any farther is quite unlikely as they next face the high-octane New England Patriots.

The Cowboys, on the other hand, have home-field advantage throughout the Playoffs. Green Bay beat the New York Giants Sunday night, so the Packers travel to Dallas next Sunday. The Packers are playing very well right now, but so are the 13 & 3 Cowboys. Moreover, they are hard to defeat on their home field!

Go Cowboys . . . this just may be a Super Bowl year! What a special thing that would be . . . the Cowboys winning a Super Bowl . . . in Houston!

 

Unfinished Business . . .

I am teaching Joshua in Sunday school this quarter. What a terrific book it is! I am really enjoying both my study and my preparations to teach. I have taught the book before, but it seems to be resonating with me in a fresh new way. I really like it when that occurs . . . I always interpret it as the Lord communicating with me in a fresh, new way.

Joshua, is the guy appointed and anointed to succeed Moses, that great man of God! Joshua trusted God in his youth, and acted on his trust. As the book opens, he is an old guy, amongst a bunch of young folks, and he is drafted to be their leader. The book opens with God telling him to “take the folks present there with him across the river Jordan and take possession of the land God had promised to their fathers.” He does . . . and they follow! The Jordan River is in flood stage, but God does a miracle equal to the Red Sea crossing . . . and the folks cross over! The inhabitants of the land are apprehensive, and the Jewish people are apprehensive . . . once they cross that river, three things occur:

1. They simply cannot turn around and exit;

2. The inhabitants of the land understand that these folks are there to take their land and homes . . . to forever change how and where they live; and

3. The Jewish people gained their identity from the Promised Land . . . when they occupied the land they were “the Jews . . . the people of God.” When they were outside the Promised Land, they were “the wandering Jews.”

Their first two obstacles were to cross the flood-staged river, and to claim the oldest and most secured city in the world at that time: Jericho.

Joshua received instruction from God and the people marched down and circled Jericho, then returned back to their camp. The folks inside the secured city were nervous and baffled at first, but by the 7th day, they were surely chuckling and saying, “how peculiar”! Then, there was the great trumpet blast and the war-cry shout of the people of God, and instantly the wall collapsed (the wall was said to be approximately 12 to 17 feet tall and 4.9 to 6.6 feet thick), which declares that it was God, and God alone, that took that Great Wall down! The Jewish people effortlessly took possession of its first city in the Promised Land!

Then, as Chapter 13 opens, God tells Joshua, “You are getting old, and there is still much land to be conquered.” As I read that, I thought of myself . . . as I tried to think about how God’s words would have impacted Joshua. As I understand it, Joshua was 101 years old at the time, and he would live another 10 years!

As I meditated on that, it occurred to me that:

1. God’s promises to the Jewish people did not commence with Joshua, and they did not conclude with him either! He was there in that moment . . . and in that place for a purpose . . . to serve the Lord! He had free-will and he made the wise and prudent choice.

Nothing about God commenced with me, and certainly would not conclude with me! I am a simple speck of dust in time, but God loves me in an amazing way! He has been so very good to me . . . in so many ways! I am here for a purpose . . . I, too, have free will to choose. I chose to serve the Lord.

2. Even at the advanced age of 101, Joshua still had unfinished work to get done.

Last month, I turned 66 years of age. I, too, have unfinished business! I still have things to do . . . fences to mend, apologies to offer, requests for forgiveness to be made, obligations to be fulfilled, debts to be repaid, a couple of books to be written, a couple of precious granddaughters to help guide, a class to teach, a children’s home to serve, a business that serves people to operate, and some faithful employees to look after.

As I thought about the subject of unfinished business, my thoughts turned to Mt Rushmore, likely the biggest, most visible object of an unfinished project in American history. That great art project began with such determination and commitment; however, has now sat unfinished for over five decades, with no work done in that long period, as the entire world looks on. It seems to me . . . that it is reasonable to assume that no one is even embarrassed or troubled by its unfinished status.

As 2017 begins, may I challenge you to think about the unfinished business that is holding you back, and may I encourage you to make both a commitment and plan to change that in 2017.

I apologize for meddling . . .

 

As Things Begin to Take Shape . . .

President-Elect Donald Trump announces his selection for Secretary of State: Rex Tillerson, the brilliant CEO of Exxon-Mobile . . . and the media and liberals freak out, declaring, “He is friendly with Putin . . . our enemy!” He is a Texan, and grew up in a modest home, raised by modest parents. As a boy of 12 years of age, he earned his Eagle Scout badge . . . a high honor most lads don’t reach until their upper teens. I would argue that Hillary was friendly with Obama . . . and I doubt the USA has ever had a more dangerous enemy than that dude, and that gang loved her. Just sayin’ . . .

How about former Texas Governor Rick Perry as Secretary of Energy? That just has to be good for the Oil and Gas industry and the State of Texas . . . as well my family. The State of Texas did quite well under his leadership. Some chuckle about his appointment as he had a moment of brain-freeze during a debate and was unable to name the Agency. I predict the Agency will never forget Rick Perry.

What about Dr. Ben Carson as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development? I predict that good man will do much more for the troubled inner cities that build small apartments and homes. I predict that he will help this generation of young underprivileged kids to adopt the American dream of the past, “Success is out there for those willing to set goals and work hard to achieve them.” I also predict that he will break up those vast concentrations of socially- and economically-deprived families living in small intercity sections that breed crime and enable the predators to prey upon the weak. I remind you that he grew up in the worst projects in Detroit, with a single mom . . . and he went on to become one of the foremost pediatric neurosurgeons in the world.

How about Senator Jeff Sessions as Attorney General? That office has been shamed over the past eight years and has lost much respect by the American people. I predict that Senator Sessions, a former law and order U. S. Attorney with a sterling reputation, will respect the Rule of Law and will restore integrity to that high office. I predict that he will strive to remove politics from the work of the FBI, an important component of the Judicial Branch that has been seriously tarnished over the past eight years.

And similar appointments are steadily being made as his Transition Team sets things in place.

Dang, this may be both enjoyable and beneficial having folks at the top who actually know what they are doing . . . and have a proven history and track record of successfully running things and having success in calling the shots!

What a novel notion . . . appointing folks with experience and success . . . as opposed to appointing folks with untried theories . . . folks who love the sound of their own voice! Appointing leaders who are willing to take huge cuts in pay to serve . . . as opposed to appointing unemployed idealists looking for a job! Appointing folks who will be able to land a serious job that pays 10 or 20 times as much . . . on the day they leave the federal payroll, and certainly not jobs as lobbyists and such!

But what would one expect from a man who has been an extremely successful business man ($79 billion net worth), who ran on the pledge to “Make America Great Again.” Did I mention that he has declined the salary that goes with the office of President? I have not heard any reports on the subject, but I would wager that many of his Cabinet appointments will also decline the salary that accompanies the position.

It Seems to Me . . . these folks are not interested in salaries and lofty positions. They are looking much like the government servants of times past who went to Washington, served their country, then returned back home and hooked the mule up to the plow and went back to earning a living. Certainly not like the gang of thugs that will leave Washington in the middle of January, 2017, with lucrative life-long retirement packages.

Good riddance to that pack of freeloading scoundrels . . .

Directional Leadership . . .

No one likes to be told which way to go,

Because we all tend to think we already know,
But many a man ignored his folks and ended up pretty low,
And became a victim of his own ego.

Many centuries ago, there was a group of recently-freed slaves,
Who refused Moses’ direction and wander for years, until they all ended up in graves.
Then an anointed man named Joshua told those folks’ kids,
“Get across that river, claim the land, and do as the Lord bids!”

The descendants listened and followed Joshua’s instruction,
Which most likely prevented their own destruction.
As they faced the enemies, the inhabitant of the land,
They grew in faith and strength, and faced tests from which others would have ran.

Over time, these folks learned they could trust the Lord,
And that things went well when they followed His word.
Then, Joshua called the people together to say he had grown old,
That he would soon die, and encouraged those people to be bold.

The wise man Joshua, the directional leader, knew the people had faced danger,
But soon they would face a greater trial than standing before a stranger.
This grave new danger would come from peace, prosperity, and plenty,
The very condition which had been the ruin of many.

Over time, Joshua died,
The people mourned and cried,
But over time their hearts grew cold,
And seemed to have forgotten what they had been told.

They grew comfortable, complacent, and ended their quest,
And decided to share the land with the rest;
And just as they had been warned would come to pass,
They discovered that their prosperity and comfort did not last.

Friend, the same continues to be true for us today,
We do well to pay heed to what our elders had to say.
Here is a thought for the wise to consider and ponder,
Wonder how many died doing what Mom had discouraged, and now live out yonder?

 

Trusting the Lord . . .

It was on December 23rd, 2014, I watched on as the world-class neurosurgeon studied the MRI that had been done on my body that very morning (actually three MRI’s that covered my entire body . . . three hours in that small noisy tube)! After about a half-an-hour of silence, he looked up, made eye contact with me, and said, “Well, it isn’t very good news, you have a serious injury to your spinal cord, and honestly I don’t know that I can repair it.”

The reason I was there that morning before Christmas Eve was because my legs had been giving out on me and I had been falling down some.

He went on to explain to Chris and me the problem was the location of the injury. He said, “It is directly under your heart, and I can’t access it from the front because of your heart, or from the side because of your rib cage. The only possible thing I could do would be to enter from your back, and work blindly underneath your heart. The danger is that I might hit your spinal cord and that could either paralyze you or even kill you!”

Not the sort of news one wants to get any time, certainly not a couple of days before Christmas. As I sat there in my wheelchair and processed his report, it occurred to me that I only had a couple of options . . . (a) to accept that this was something the Lord had allowed and that He had some purpose in it all, or (b) to reject that obvious truth and crawl up in a ball, feel sorry for myself, become an invalid, and ultimately die.

The hard truth is that sometimes in the life experience we are put to the test. I chose to trust the Lord, and I got up early this morning to report that He proved faithful and trustworthy.

Following the surgery, the surgeon told me that about the best I ought to expect was to be able to walk with arm crutches. I thought to myself, “We will see about that!”

I started a daily routine of walking in the pool. The pool has a reduced field of gravity and the danger of damages resulting from a fall are greatly reduced. The resistance of the water serves to strengthen the muscles of the body.

I am thrilled to report that in ten months I was able to walk without auxiliary ambulatory aides or devices! I don’t walk cool and smooth as I once did, but by the grace of God I can walk. In fact, in late December, I drove to the hospital and sat with a friend and then on to the mall to do some Christmas shopping!

Without any hesitation or reservation, I can boldly testify that regardless of what it is you are facing, you can trust the Lord. (The Scripture assures us, “cast your cares on the Lord, he will take care of you Psalms 55:22). That certainly has proved true in my experience. As I continue to go to the pool, folks ask me about my journey. I smile and say, “The Lord smiled on me and I have really worked hard . . . a good combination!”