I have been many things along my life's journey. I grew up a farmer and have been a mechanic, a computer programmer, a security guard, a funeral director, to name a few. I have done these things to pay the bills as I worked through school and the early years of ministry. But one thing I have never been is a poet. I am no poet and I know it. But I have made the effort for you, dear reader, to add to your holiday cheer. Enjoy.

Read to the rhythm of The Night Before Christmas 

Twas the night after Thanksgiving, when all through the house, 

Not a stomach was settled, not even the mouse.

The carcass was stuffed in the bag full of trash,

The leftovers lay there, just some turkey hash. 

The children were stuffed and sprawled on their beds,

Sent there to sleep right after their meds.

And Granny with a shoe off and Grandpa with a snore

Were slumped in their rockers and taking no more.

When out in the street there arose a loud flurry,

A Wal-Mart truck down shifting to stop in a hurry. 

I threw the door open and yelled to the night,

"HEY, BUTTON IT UP AND GET OUT OF MY SIGHT!"

The diesel vapors spewed through the bare trees, 

And fogged up the night and stank up the breeze.

When what to my red, itchy eyes should appear. 

But an angry driver with a crowbar held near.

The mean looking driver looked tired and worn,

His coat was in tatters and his jeans were all torn.

He beat his bar on that big truck,

I sighed with relief for I was in luck.

"YOU SORRY OLD TRUCK, OH HOW I HATE YOU!

OH WHY CAN'T I GET A TRUCK THAT IS NEW?"

His feelings were clear, he wasn't mad at all,

Just frustrated with his rig and ready to bawl.

"Hey, buddy, is there a real big problem for you?

Is there something you need, or I can do?"

He whirled around, saw me and sighed.

"No sir," he said weary, "But with this truck now has died."

I have driven all night to get to Wal-Mart out here,

So people who abide can have their Black Friday cheer.

But lo, this junk cannot take this grade, 

It is not worth the money my employer has paid."

Within my heart there arose a great fear,

No Black Friday, no shopping, no joy this year?!?

"Now wait, my friend, perhaps I can aid.

AAA is close by and to them I have paid."

They came in a hurry and fixed that old truck, 

And it did not cost me, not even a buck.

The driver was so happy, he gave me a hug,

"Black Friday is saved! To the store I must lug!"

With a smile he turned and to the cab he did scamper

The motor ran fine, not even a whimper.

His joy was complete as he slammed in the gear, 

And he shouted aloud, "Happy Black Friday this year!"

------With apologies to the Rev. Clement Clarke Moore who wrote 'The Night Before Christmas' for his children.

  

                                      

Imagine....All the wonderful smells of an awesome Thanksgiving meal. Guests begin to come in. Lots of hugs, handshakes and backslaps. Laughter, talk, comments on the meal. And then, everyone sits down at the beautifully set table and the hosts bring in the meal. Before everyone begins to eat, they go around the table and express what each one is thankful for. This is done so all can see the need for thankfulness. Say the gathering is a group or family of Christians. They are thankful for the family, their church, God's provision, all of those things. Then the prayer and the feast begins.

This is the pattern many Thanksgiving meals follow. Absolutely nothing wrong with it. The children are taught the need to be thankful, the adults are reminded that the blessings they experience are from to the Lord. A very nice thing, a very important part of Thanksgiving.

But another question comes to my mind; What are you unthankful for?

Uh, what now? It is Thanksgiving. We are supposed to be thankful, not unthankful. Right? 

Certainly. We should be thankful. Ephesians 5:20, Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; There, you see, we are to be thankful all the time!  This is true, but is this the primary emphasis of the verse?

In this case, the paragraph begins at verse 15 and runs through verse 21. It is a passage that deals with Christian conduct. Verse 20 indicates it is not just the outside conduct, but also the inward conduct, which is a Biblical theme. In this case, it is being thankful for all things.

Well, of course I am thankful for all things! OK. What about that job or that family member or the weather or your special sports team or school or whatever. The anger and frustration you feel is not thankfulness. 

While in seminary I worked for a while with a group of home builders. Mitchell Brothers' Construction. Three brothers that all looked just alike. Weird, really. Anyway, my job was to mix the mortar that went in the joints to hold brick or block together. I would carry the brick or block to where it was needed and then roll the wheelbarrows filled with mortar to where the work was happening. Really a hard job. I had been in the ministry for several years and was working to finish my education. I had the stresses of school, the church I served, the job I had and my small family. I was thinking of chucking seminary and going back to Miami, where I had opportunities to serve and friends to hang with. I was disgruntled with everything around me and I wanted the comfort of the past. I was working in the basement area of a new construction. I had just brought a wheelbarrow of mortar to the basement area and was bent over by the unfinished block wall that separated two sections of the basement. Just then, one of the Mitchell brothers called my name. I stood up, but the block wall was just a bit higher than my head. I stood up on several blocks to be able to see and hear him. I was grumbling inside, wondering what the master wanted me to do right then. To my surprise, all he said was 'Let's call it a day!' Wow! Cool! 

And then a thought came to my mind. The block wall was like all the things in my life. The wall in my heart had gotten higher and higher and was blocking out God. Oh, I was in seminary, I was a Youth Pastor. In both of those endeavors I showed all the marks of a very good Christian. But that wall was getting higher and higher. Soon there would be no place for the Lord. I had to do something. And what I did was I began to turn it all over to the Lord.

It didn't happen right away. But it did happen. What is the evidence? I could lay out a lot of things, but let me give some things many of you are familiar with. April 2017, they were going to do a triple heart by-pass on me. The wife and son and daughter-in-law had been ushered out. The very pregnant nurse was making me ready. Tears were falling off her face. "Are you OK?" She looked down at me and smiled. "Yeah, I'm fine. But they have detected a problem with the heartbeat in the baby." I reached up and took her hand and began to pray for her. When I was done, she was weeping. She was giving me a big hug when transport arrived. As we rolled down the hall, I thought, 'What a blessing! This makes it all worth it!' Over the last six years of that ministry at the Indiana church, I spent a lot of time in hospital and doctors' offices. In those places I got to share the Lord. The illnesses were not pleasant, but I got to share the Gospel with many I would never have met. Moving to Ohio after retirement I very soon had the joy of a toe amputation. When everything related to that was over, I had spent three weeks in the hospital and rehab. In every instance, I worked to not build a wall in my spirit. I shared the Gospel at every opportunity. The one thing I truly love to do, ministry, I cannot do right now. But I still share the Gospel. I am not perfect. I have my bad moments. But the wall is not being rebuilt.

Express your gratefulness on this day, but also be true to the Lord and start working on the unthankful things that cloud your mind.

Oh, and that pregnant nurse went into the hospital that night in distress. They had to do an emergency C-section. The baby was fine, mama was fine and it worked out. God is good!

Blessings.                                                            

I have been thinking. I know that it is a surprise, but I have been thinking.

How many times does the Bible talk about prayer? Well, the words pray, prayer and prayers occur in 508 verses in Scripture. Thanks and thanksgiving occur in 100 verses. Those are the easy ones. O Lord and other phrases occur many times. And then there are the Psalms, which are songs, but most are prayers, as well. Isaiah and Jeremiah are full of the same things. Daniel, in the den of lions, lifted up his voice. I don't think anyone has ever counted the moments of prayer in the Word. Let's aim low and say that verses dealing with prayer number around 2,000 to 3,000 times, although I expect it to be much more.

Before a Bible Study begins, I would ask what they wanted to study. One time the class, in unison, said The Book of the Revelation. So, we started. After about the third week and still on the first chapter, someone asked, "When are we going to get to the good stuff?" Well, they had a long wait. The good stuff, the plagues, the death, the destruction and all that stuff doesn't even start until after the third chapter. But they wanted the good stuff. The birth of Jesus? Just a small portion of Scripture. The death, burial and Resurrection of Jesus? Quite a bit more, but still not as much as prayer.

Prayer is not interesting, it is not exciting (unless it leads to a miracle), it is filler, at best. And yet.....

Years ago, while I was staff clergy at a funeral home, the owner and I were discussing something to raise moral amongst the employees. I suggested a Bible study at 7 AM on Wednesday mornings. The owner loved the idea. I decided I would do the study and I asked another worker to do prayer time. Really, I was just trying to involve him. As it progressed, it became apparent that the group was coming for the prayer time. These people went to many different kinds of churches, most of which followed a strict schedule. They had never been exposed to real prayer. What an eye opener to me and to the others, as this humble and quiet man took us to the throne of grace. Gradually, employees were praying together in the offices, out in their cars and eventually, with distraught families at visitations. We became joyous in prayer. 

Try this on; praise is empty without prayer. The feeling of Christmas is empty without prayer. The good feeling at church or with family is empty without prayer. There is a reason prayer is probably the most talked about thing in the Bible; IF WE ARE PEOPLE OF PRAYER, WE WILL UNDERSTAND WHAT GOD HAS FOR US. 

Thanksgiving. The act of giving thanks, is prayer.  

Blessings to you.

                       

Some of you may read this and not really understand the thinking, but here goes.

There is an ethics code among pastors and those in the ministry. Some churches require the new pastor to sign the code and some denominations, such as the United Methodist, some of the Lutheran denominations and others, require the prospective pastor to sign the ethics code before they can pastor one of their churches. It certainly is not a bad code. It covers things such as sexual misconduct, financial correctness and things of that sort. The very things you would expect a pastor to be circumspect about. 

Several years ago, a Methodist pastor was brought up on charges that he had performed a civil union ceremony between two homosexual men, one of which was his son. This went against the ethics code he had agreed to when he was ordained by the denomination. He was to be dismissed and his ordination revoked. There was outrage among homosexual groups all across the country. In the end, the denomination backed down and allowed him to retain his church and his ordination. But the issue wasn't really about the homosexual part of all of this. The United Methodist denomination was already headed in the direction of acknowledging homosexual unions. The real issue was that he had agreed to it in writing and then broke that promise. The ethics code used to be serious stuff. 

I learned about this code in school, and I had two reactions to it. The first reaction was that it was a pretty good code. The second reaction was that I would never sign it. Our denomination did not require it, but we were told that some churches would require a signature. My feeling was that if you didn't trust me, then we were at odds right off the bat. A lot of pastors lie about anything just to get the call, so there might very well be a need to have a signature, but I knew I would not lie. The day came when I talked to a church, and they brought out the ethics code for my signature. I gave them my reasons and they considered it, and decided it wasn't necessary and we had a great ministry there.

But even though I wouldn't sign the code, I have still endeavored to live by it. Even now, in retirement, I choose to live by the ethics code.

Which brings me to a conundrum of sorts. One line of the code states that when a pastor leaves a church, he (or she, as the case may be) is not to have anything to do with the church for a period of five years. The pastor who has left is not to return to do weddings or funerals or baby dedications unless the church is without a pastor at that time. A former pastor who was well thought of might get asked to do a funeral of an old friend or a wedding or whatever. The reason this goes against the code is because it makes it harder for the new pastor to establish himself as the pastor. The former pastor may be contacted by the new pastor and asked to perform whatever service is required, but the former pastor is not to initiate the issue.

Obviously, that is not something that is carried through all the time. I have known many pastors who have violated this part of the code, even when they had agreed to it in writing. I have had it happen to me at every church I have pastored, and I have let it slide. My feeling is that at the time of a death the family should have who they want. But it does make sense and I have refused to do a service many times after I left a church.

Which brings me to my current situation.

I told you all that I was going to do an on-line Bible study. As I have thought of this, I have come to the conclusion that this is not good. I continue to write my blog, and that is fine since it is just a blog. But a Bible study is more the province of the local church, its pastor and leadership. A particular teacher might buy a Bible study for their class, but that is a method of preparation. To subject a group of people to a study that might go counter to the opinion of the teacher or pastor is, in my opinion, wrong. The largest single group that reads this blog are people from my former church. In my thinking, for me to do a Bible study would not be acceptable. 

Now, you may not care about any of this, but it is important to me. I will not be doing the Bible study.

On another subject, this morning in church, the speaker (the pastor was on vacation) answered a question I have often wondered about. The Bible says that in the gathering away, the dead in Christ will be taken first and then those who remain will be caught up in the air. But why are the dead raised first? The speaker, quoting Dr. Jeremiah, said that the dead are raised first because they have six feet further to travel.

Hey! Have a blessed week!                                                                         

It was an accident, I suppose. I doubt the young man was targeting the car, although it would have been hard to blame him.

We were headed to a doctor's appointment for Marsha. So, as I reported before, I was driving her car. I really don't like the car, but when I am transporting her, I have to drive it. Traffic was pretty heavy, but not abnormally so.  It had snowed the night before, but it was around noon and the roads were no worse than with a summer rain.

We were stopped in a turning lane, waiting for the light. Just sitting there, waiting. Suddenly there was a loud BANG and the car was pushed forward. I glanced in my rearview mirror and saw the front grill of a large Ford pick-up filling up the rear window. Marsha, being Marsha, immediately yelled, "What did you do?" I said we were hit. Once she said she was OK, I got out of the car. The driver of the truck was already out of the truck and was checking the damage. When he saw me he asked if we were OK. I replied we were, and I asked about the people in his truck. Everyone was fine.

I had a sinking feeling as I got to the back of Marsha's car. I mean, the truck was huge. When I looked down the road was covered in black plastic pieces. The other driver was stunned.

Every piece of plastic was from the truck. On Marsha's car, there was not a mark. Not a scratch, not a dent and not a scrape in the paint. No cracks in the taillights, no damage whatsoever. His grill was bent, the facia was shattered and the man looked like he was seeing something horrible for the very first time. The wife was climbing out of the truck in a panic. First thing she said was 'the baby is OK.' The next thing she said was 'where did all this plastic come from?' She was looking at Marsha's car expecting to see huge damage. Instead, it was like it had just come off the showroom floor. She looked at the front of the truck, saw the damage, looked at her husband and said, "What...?" Then she started picking up plastic. 

"I can't believe it!" the husband said. "Your car should be smashed! How does this happen?" There is something in me that sometimes just comes out. It is called sarcasm. "Well, you know, the commercials proudly say 'assembled in America.' But the parts come from everywhere. Now this car, my young friend, is totally built and assembled in the good old Republic of Korea." He looked like he could scream. I figured he had just smashed his truck, there was a baby inside and his wife, for some reason, was picking up all the plastic. I tossed him a bone. "No damage to us. No need to call the police unless you want." That cleared his face. "Yeah, yeah, no police." I took his information, and we parted ways.

Maybe it was a God thing. The hand of God protecting the back of Marsha's car. But I think it is more because the fact that while American trucks are getting bigger and bigger, they are also using more and more plastic. In Ohio, any vehicle in a funeral procession has to have a flag fixed to the roof of the vehicle. They say FUNERAL and they attach with a strong magnet. You cannot put a flag on top of the newer trucks because there is so much plastic in the vehicle. They call it a 'composite,' but most of the composite is plastic. As we go along it seems everything is built much more cheaply and, yet, cost so much more.

We see that more and more in Christianity, as well. Bible studies on video have all manner of changing scenes. Pictures to highlight the point, scenes that fade in and out, the Gospel delivered on an attractive plate complete with someone to spoon feed you. Devotions, sermons, studies. Many canned. A growing trend in Christianity is the mega church that has mission churches, and those churches often times air the sermon that is being preached at the main church. No one actually preaches at the individual churches. 

We can't control what goes into our vehicles, but we can control what goes into our Spiritual gas tanks. Don't sell yourself short. Do your own reading, your own investigation. If you read and study while being led by the Spirit, you get more than what you get by being spoon fed. 

You good folks have a great week.                                                                           

    When I worked at the funeral home, I was usually the one who went out on late night calls when someone, under Hospice care, had died at home. (If they weren't under Hospice care and they died at home, the coroner was called as it was immediately assumed to be a homicide until proven otherwise.) I occasionally helped retrieve the deceased, but usually I was there in my role of staff clergy to calm the families down and tell them what was to happen next. I always asked if I could pray with the family, and I NEVER was refused in nine years. Even if there had never been a prayer uttered in that house, they always said 'yes' to prayer.

    In nine years there was only one time that I responded and found a pastor there already. Granted, the calls came in at one or two or three o'clock in the morning, but a good and loving pastor should get out of bed and go to see to his people if he is at all physically able. Pastor Darin Avery is such a pastor.

    I had been in Indiana just a very short time when one of our people was transferred from the hospital in Ft. Wayne to the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland. Fearing that this gentleman might pass before I could get there, I called Pastor Avery and asked him if he could possibly go to the Clinic and pastor that family. He was fifty miles distant, but that was a lot closer than my three hundred plus. He never hesitated. 'Not a problem, Brother. Don't you hurry. I'll go.'

    In the few months before we moved to Indiana, Marsha and I attended Pastor Avery's church. It was a new start church and was growing at a nice, steady pace. They met in the same school building I had gone to high school in and that afforded them some interesting opportunities. They met in the cafeteria and every week someone would bring pastries and make coffee. Everyone sat at the round tables scattered around the room. Having coffee and pastry during church made Marsha and me uncomfortable, but it didn't stop us from having coffee and pastry. It was a comfortable setting. Their music was all praise music, which didn't really sit well with either of us, but the preaching was good and the coffee was hot and they were growing in grace and in numbers.

    After we had moved, Pastor Avery got involved in a much bigger ministry, shepherding almost one hundred churches in the greater Cleveland area. He became a pastor to the pastors, something he is extremely good at. This ministry cannot afford a full timer, so Pastor Avery continues to pastor his church and also do all he can for those churches and their pastors. Obviously, he is a busy, busy man.

    Sunday, October 29, I finally made it out there to visit the church. I went early so I could visit with some of the folks I knew before church. I walked in and the pastry table was full. The coffee was hot. But just two men stood there. Usually, a half hour before church, the place was full. 'Well, you see, Pastor is awfully busy and it has kind of fallen off.' Because this was not my church and never had been, except for those few months, I didn't say anything. But my mind kicked into gear. So, the pastor has been busy??!!!?! So what??? What about the people of the church??!? I took a breath and sat down. It is okay. Probably a hundred and fifty or so. A little down, but OK. 

    Pastor came in and headed straight for me. We talked until time to start. I hadn't noticed the crowd until then. Thirty people. That is a big 3-0. Still the same snack bar, still the same praise music. And all of thirty people.

    I left after church and went to Lake Erie to process this information. Knowing Pastor, I figured the energy he had poured into the church in the beginning he was now pouring into this other ministry. From the worn look on his face, I figured it wasn't going to be long until he isn't pouring energy into anything. A person can take only so much. But in the early days of the church, he had become used to doing everything that needed done to stimulate growth. Without his realizing it, the people were coasting. The folks were not inviting people to church, much less to Jesus. Oh, someone took care of getting people to make the pastries. There were four or five in the praise band. A couple ran the sound and the video. But once church was over, that was it until next week. The real WORK of the church was neglected.

    So here is the point. Praise music does not cause a church to grow. Sharing the Gospel, in word or deed, is the starting point. Then, it could be completely traditional or contemporary music and there would be growth. Controlling your temper and your language would be the next step. Being humble, accepting responsibility and looking for opportunities is the next step. Don't let your service in church be your only service to the Lord.

    The county I now live in is the smallest county, by land area, in Ohio. The population is 234,000 people. The county I just moved from in Indiana is Wabash County. Population 31,000. My current county is about seven and a half times larger in population while being much smaller in land area. My county has about half the churches of Wabash, so every one of them should be full to over flowing. But most run about sixty people on Sunday morning and most have praise music and other amenities to make them more attractive. It doesn't work.

    We are told in the Word to go out and share the Gospel. Tell others about Jesus. How much time is spent in the New Testament telling us how run our Sunday mornings and how much time is spent telling us how we should live and what we should do?

    The Bible tells us that the fields are white and ready to harvest. You don't have to be much of a farmer to know that the fields are outside of the barn.

    Blessings.

Obviously, things change. There was a time when McDonalds was strictly a walk-up place. You stood on the outside and spoke through a window to the people on the inside. And you paid less than a dollar for a drink, fries and hamburger. Then, eventually they made an inside lobby, but you still went in and then came out with your food and went to your vehicle. But the order was still under a dollar. In time, a new McDonalds was built only ten miles from me and they had an eating area. Wow! Talk about high class! Still, the food was under a dollar. On my first date with Marsha, I picked her up in our farm truck, which was a no-no. Then we stopped at McDonalds and I went in and left her sitting in the truck. I paid less than two dollars for both meals. Then we sat in the parking lot and ate in that smelly, old truck. She assumed I was ashamed to be out with her. I wasn't ashamed of her at all. It is just what I had always done. She told me years later that I was lucky I was so cute, or that would have been our last date. Hmmmmmm.....

Anyway, I am talking change. I assume that few people complained when dishwashers came out. When microwaves arrived, people complained that the food didn't taste the same, but everyone has one now. When people discovered that you could draw pictures on sheep's skin with a piece of charcoal, they quit writing on rock faces. When parchment came on the scene, sheep everywhere breathed a sigh of relief because people quit sheep skin. When inks were figured out, they got rid of charcoal. Folks found out the tip of a feather, dipped in ink, made writing so much easier. In the 1800s it got fast and furious. In 1848, an American inventor by the name of Azel Storrs came up with the first real fountain pen. Birds everywhere breathed a sigh of relief. In 1868, a group of American inventors filed a patent for the first typewriter. Then, in October of 1888, John J. Loud, an American inventor, filed a patent for the first ball point pen. All of these inventions were accepted pretty quickly (except for those who struggled through typing classes) and writing became much easier. In the 1960s the word processor was developed which allowed the writer to see the last sentence he/she had written and enabled them to correct any mistakes. This was an expensive little thing and they were not bought by individuals very often. But they were a boon to offices.

And then, the advent of the personal computer. We got our first one in 1994. I had worked with computers, had even done some programming. This one, though, came with programs in it, but you could still add some things. We got it on sale for only $2000. We made the purchase so our son could learn on it.

But I found it quite helpful, too. In 1985 I had been called to a church where the pastor wrote a monthly newsletter article. The lady who put it together told me to just write it out with a pen and she would type it out for the newsletter. With the computer I was able to type it out, put it on a floppy disc and give it to her. She could load it into her word processor and ta-da!!! Less work for her.

The computer has become a valuable and useful tool. I use it for everything. I have at least a thousand sermon outlines, just as many funeral outlines and a ton of Bible studies which I have transferred from computer to computer. Not to mention all of these articles/blogs. The computer has been great!

Until it broke down.

OK, get it fixed. Has to be cheaper than buying a new one, right? Actually, no. This laptop is only seven plus years old, but it is ancient in computer life. It could be fixed, but the information probably couldn't be transferred. Since the hard drive had crashed, the information on it would be fragmented. Transfer was possible, but it wouldn't be complete. And that transfer would be really expensive. Why don't you buy a new computer? You can play all kinds of games.......

I am not a gamer. Still, I was faced with a real problem. Part of that problem is that I am frugal. Some would say I am cheap. Maybe so, but I did not want to part with the money. Back when I wrote with a ball point pen and the pen quit, I bought another for about seventy five cents. I couldn't see my way clear to spend the money they wanted for the computer.

On the way back to the apartment I saw a little mom and pop repair shop. OK, I thought, if I must spend the money, I am going to keep it close to home. 

WOW! Seventy percent less than the big chain store and no pressure to buy new. I hated to part with even that money, but I can live with it. And the old girl has life.

Lessons learned; first, always check with the mom and pop places when you need to buy something. Keep it local. Two, when you are doing something for the Lord, He will provide. These blogs are all I have right now as far as ministry is concerned. I do it for Him. And three, I wear the same clothes for years, I drive a nine year old car and I have one computer that is seven years old and another one that is fifteen years old. Quit being a cheapskate!!! So, you know what? I went out and bought a new shirt! I am so excited!

OK, enough of that. Mondays will be a regular blog and Thursdays will be a Bible study. We are starting in Galatians for reasons that will be explained.

Blessings.