Don't You Dare

The phone rang. On the other end was a daughter's desperate plea. "Dad is dying. And he's backslidden."

His parents had been pastors. And they were gone. ("To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.") They had been praying for their son a long, long time. And can you just imagine their despair over his walking away from Jesus? (Selah~pause to reflect)

But now the doctors were giving him a week to live. And I was going to meet him.

"You know what you need to do," I said to him. "You need to get right with God and you need to do it now."

There was no hesitation. There was no pushing it away. The dad (the son!) who'd long since left the Lord and walked his own path ~ and whose faithful parents died while he was still in that state ~ he prayed the sinner's prayer with me and was reconciled with God.

I preached at his funeral a little over a week later.

Now somebody needs to hear what I'm about to say. And then you just may need to use my same words with somebody else. Here goes...

You don't dare die on your kids and leave them wondering if you made it to heaven or not. You don't dare die on your kids that way.

And don't you dare let your parents (and other loved ones) suffer over your unfaithfulness to Christ. Are you hearing me?

Don't you dare.

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• How to Receive Christ (in 30 seconds)
• I Was in the Room When She Died

She's With Jesus

“‘Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have perfected praise.’” (Matthew 21:16)

She was a member of our church. She loved the Lord with all her heart. And she suddenly died. I was speaking to her as the last one leaving our church on a Sunday morning and the next Monday afternoon she was discovered on the ground in her front yard. (I saw her there.)

It was a graveside funeral. It was a beautifully sunny day. And it was the kids I remember most. Some of them were her nieces and nephews. Some of them were in her Sunday School classes over the years. (She'd even taught a few of the adults there in the crowd, too, when they were little.)

I got down on my knee with them (the children) right before the service started. They were sitting on the grass in front. “I’m sorry, you guys,” I said, “but we know where she is. She’s with Jesus.” They shook their heads “yes.” (Oh, how kids have such great faith.) “She’s with Jesus,” I went on, “And we’ll see her again some day, you know.”

They knew. (Selah ~ pause to reflect)

And then they went on just being kids right there in front of the casket.

Thank you, Jesus, for the hope only You can give. We trust You with our life (and death).

“‘He who believes in Me will live even if he dies.’” (John 11:25b)

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• Deathbed
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Held in His Arms

My kids are almost all grown now. I remember when I used to hold them in my arms (back in the day). I would carry them around (dads, isn't it true?) and wherever it might be. As they got bigger (and heavier), it would hurt my back. ;)

I would hold my kids in my arms in the store. (Not all three of them at once although they would want that.) I would hold my kids in my arms at the park. I would hold my kids in my arms at the pool. I would hold my kids in my arms in the rain and snow. (That's Theresa 12 years ago in the pictures. Click to enlarge. I still call her: "Baby boo." She looks at me quizzically.)

I would hold my kids in my arms at church, at home, when they went to bed, when they had a bad dream, in the day or night, in the front yard or back, when they got hurt, were scared, when their mom was gone from home, when they were happy, sad, felt danger or despair.

I would hold my kids in my arms.

God holds you in His arms, too. (Who needed to hear it?) Let it sink in. #Godislove

"'I have loved you with an everlasting love.'" (Jeremiah 31:3b)

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• 10 Wrong Thoughts About God
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Baby Bird

My 12-year old daughter busted in my room calling for help. Her brother was outside fending off two cats that had a baby bird surrounded. I dashed out, grabbed the shovel and actually konked (lightly) one of the cats on the head as it was about to pounce. There the bird was in the middle of the yard chirping quietly. It seemed in shock.

For the better part of the next hour and a half, we tried to figure out what to do. Finally, my oldest daughter (the pipecleaner expert) fashioned together a makeshift nest. I laid the baby in it. And there it would breath its last.

Sometimes in life we do what we can and it's not enough. (It not only happens with baby birds, but with human beings, too.)

We want to help. We even help a little. But the story doesn't turn out like we hoped. Our loved one dies of cancer (etc).

It is then that we need to remind ourselves of God's sovereignty. He alone is in charge. He alone is crafting life's events after the counsel of His will. He alone is causing all things to work for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. #peace

"'Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.'" (Matthew 12:29)

To listen to "That's The Way It Goes" ♫ by Phil Keaggy (w/Randy Stonehill), click here.

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• Help For When Your Ship’s (Life’s) Falling Apart
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A Mountain Top Prayer

I climbed to a mountain top recently. It wasn't just any old mountain top. It was the mountain top where I had prayed for a wife many years earlier. I prayed there, "Lord, I want to get married. It needs to be a woman who loves You just like I do." And so this was the very same mountain top on which I now stood. But this time it was different. You see, my wife was with me (the one I'd prayed for so many years earlier) and along with her, our three kids, ages 18, 16 and 11 were also there. Wow. Talk about cool. When I'd prayed for a wife long ago it never crossed my mind we'd be there in the future standing together like that. But God knew we would be. Actually, He planned it that way. And did you know that prayer isn't so much us asking God to do something as it is us agreeing with God as regards what He's already decided to do? And so it was really God who prompted me on that mountain top to pray for a wife so that what He had planned would come about. Wow. That's cool, too. "This is the confidence which we have before Him (Christ), that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him." (1 John 5:14-15) "But He knows the way I take." (Job 23:10) (That's my little one, Theresa, in the picture at Coyote Hills in Newark, California.)