Below are some updates on my Dad’s health and other related things.I’ll be posting updates, with date and time so whoever wants too can follow this and pray for us! The older posts are below the Read More link.

7-24-2008, 3:12  PM- Dad is now in a Hospice of the Valley facility. It’s Gardiner Home, 1522 W, Myrtle Ave, PHX, just west of 15th Ave on Myrtle. It’s close to my parents house, and is the exact place we were hoping he could go. This will make it so much easier for Karen to get Mom there, for Monica to see Dad, etc.

I just arrived back in Kingman and had a phone call from Karen. Just before they came to move Dad to hospice he sang a few hymns from his hospital bed and lifted his hands to God. We praise God for his faith and courage through all this.  The family would also like to ask everyone to pray for a dear friend of our family named Janice, who is very seriously ill with an aggressive form of cancer. Thank you.

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It’s odd the kind of strange thoughts that pass through your mind isn’t it?  I mean I often have the strangest thoughts that are often totally disconnected from whatever I’m involved with at the moment.

I think this is even more true when you go through trying times, like I and my family is doing right now.

As I was driving down to Phoenix this morning I knew that the odds were my father was going to end up in hospice and heard an old favorite song of mine. The closing lyrics haven’t left me yet.

I’m getting closer to my home
I’m getting closer to my home
I’m getting closer to my home (repeat until fade). [Source]

The song is I’m Your Captain, by Grand Funk Railroad. As far as I can determine the song has absolutely nothing to do with our current situation.

But that doesn’t matter to me at all. Not one bit!

I just keep hearing those lines echoing in my mind, and thinking about how my Dad is getting closer and closer to his eternal home with every passing second.

Of course, we are all getting closer to our eternal homes, whatever that destination might be! But we don’t think about it very often, until we have too.

Now I have too, and I’m trying to let it soak in and make me a wiser and better man.

A fitting goal as I continue down the road that will take me to my home. And a goal I know my father would completely agree I ought to follow.

If you’ve been following my blog at all lately, then you know that right now my family and I are locked in a very difficult struggle. It’s a struggle with death itself, and in the end it can only end one way.

My father will die at some point since the death rate is still one per person. But as Christians we believe that death is not the end, and that whenever Dad finally does go through death’s door he will be ushered into the presence of our Lord Jesus.

It’s great to have hope like that, but it really doesn’t make the life and death decisions we are facing much easier. As many of you know, it’s a hard thing to be called upon to make a choice for someone else that may cause them to die. But that’s where we are becasue Dad can’t make any decisions for himself right now, and neither can his wife of 62 years.

So it’s down to us. Three middle aged siblings who are tired, stressed and very emotional.

Which brings me to the Question of the Day: How does one make these kind of life and death decisions?

My short answer is - I have no idea!

My slightly longer answer is - prayerfully, carefully, courageously, and with our eyes focused on what’s best for Dad, not what’s best for us or what we want.

For some reason this Scripture keeps popping into my head: By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.  Hebrews 11:8 (ESV)

I don’t know exactly where some of these decisions will take us either. So I’m going to make them in faith, trusting God for the wisdom I need, and the grace to cover any mistakes I might make in the process

We are fallen creatures living in a fallen world trying to do the best we can. I’m sure when this all said and done I’ll be able to look back and see things that I could have and should have done better. I’m also sure that won’t matter at all.

What matters is being faithful to our Lord and to our earthly father’s wishes, and doing what’s best for him.

That’s what I’m trying to do, and that’s where I’ll rest when it’s all over.

If Dad could address this whole subject right now, I know he’d tell us that if we do our best, however imperfect that might be, it’s all we can do, and that’s good enough. I believe he’d be pretty proud of us too, and I’ll be more than happy to rest in that as well.

How do you make life and death decisions?  One at a time, as best as you can, with as much support and prayer as you can get. So we step boldly into the unknown, trusting God to get us where He wants us to go.

I’ll rest in that too.

I here by give my official permission for Meredith ****** not to read my blog.

The above mentioned permission will be good as long as she wants it to be, and may be disregarded from time to time if she would like to occasionally check in and see what’s happening here!

Note - I told you not to dare me!!

Postscript - she says she still needs prayer - so please pray for her!

[Note: I'm re-posting this from last year. I wrote it about the slaughter at Virgina Tech, but it applies just about all the time, and certainly right now. Hope you find it helpful.]

I haven’t written anything yet about the horrible crime at Virgina Tech because I didn’t have anything new or different to say about it. I don’t see the sense in repeating what you can read elsewhere.

I probably still don’t have anything new to say about it, but something occurred to me today that I thought I’d pass on in hopes that it might be helpful. It fully applies to what happened at VT, but it also applies to a whole lot of other parts of life as well.

When things like this happen I hear a lot of people talk about how senseless it is. And of course they are right. Slaughtering 32 other people because you are miserable and your life sucks, makes absolutely no sense at all.

Once we firmly establish that it’s senseless, we then turn to “experts,” friends, neighbors, etc. to try and make sense of it anyway!

Frankly, that doesn’t make sense either!

As hard as it seems to be for modern people to accept, the fact is that life is full of things that don’t make sense. Mass murder is only one. How about child abuse or cancer or a tsunami or any of a hundred other inexplicable things? They are senseless and seemingly random, and they happen everyday.

A husband or wife betrays and leaves their family, a Pastor betrays his vows and church, it’s all there and often on public display. These senseless things range from the worst human behavior, to the slightly silly, such as tax law and airline fee schedules.

No one can quite figure them out.

And that’s my point. There comes a point when I need to stop asking why and start asking what. And the sooner I get to that point the better off I’ll be.

Why did this happen? Why did he or she do that? Who knows? We’ll never fully understand why people do certain thing. Heck, I don’t even completely understand why I do somethings, so how on earth am I supposed to figure out why somebody else does what they do?

Why did cancer strike this particular person? I don’t know and short of heaven I’ll never know!

Even if I did know, would it really make me feel any better? Knowing why it happened won’t bring back one person from the dead.

So my little suggestion to you is simply this - don’t ask why, ask what!

• What can I learn from this?
• What is God trying to teach me from this?
• What can I do to keep this from happening in my life or the lives of those I love?

You’ll get a lot farther and be a lot more peaceful if you learn to ask what and trust God to deal with the whys. We’ll never understand most of that in this life, but He can be trusted to hold those mysteries and unveil them to us when the time is right.

May God bless all those who are suffering at VT, and all those struggling with the unexplainable.

If you’ve read this blog much, you know I love John Stott. I wouldn’t exactly say I have a man crush on him mind you - but his deep insight into Scripture, long study of the Word and the world we live in, plus the adroit way he expresses all that - well it just really knocks my socks off!

I found the following quote from his Daily Thoughts which I just subscribed too in my Google Reader. Notice how effortlessly he dismantles a lot of the shallow “teaching” we hear today. And also note how he does it in love, with a lot of class as well!

It is sometimes claimed that the command to love our neighbours as ourselves is implicitly a requirement to love ourselves as well as our neighbours.  But this is not so.  One can say this with assurance, partly because Jesus spoke of the first and second commandment, without mentioning a third; partly because *agape* is selfless love which cannot be turned in on the self, and partly because according to Scripture self-love is the essence of sin.  Instead, we are to affirm all of ourselves which stems from the creation, while denying all of ourselves which stems from the fall.  What the second commandment requires is that we love our neighbours as much as we do in fact (sinners as we are) love ourselves.

–From “The Message of Romans” (The Bible Speaks Today series: Leicester: IVP, 1994), p. 350.

One of the reasons this spoke to me today is because of how, in my mind at least, it ties into what I preached on this morning, being a prisoner of the Christ Jesus. I’m preaching through Ephesians and today taught on Ephesians 3:1-13. Paul begins that passage by saying he’s a prisoner of Christ Jesus, while sitting in a Roman jail, eating Roman jail food (yuck!) and being chained to a Roman Solider 24 hours a day, 7 days a week!

Paul saw his life from a heavenly perspective, not a human one. I think one of the reasons we’ve been subjected to so much psychology disguised as doctrine in the last 30 years or so, is because we don’t look at life or the Bible that way!

We’ve lost much of our ability to do so, and so instead of grasping the profound truths of what the Bible teaches, as seen in Stott’s commentary above, we settle for simplistic little psychological slogans instead.

Which isn’t to say all psychology is evil or anything like that. But all psychology is under the authority of God’s Word - just like everything else!

As I start this new week, I’m going to try and view things from that Heavenly Perspective and not my usual human one. I hope you’ll join me, if for no other reason to keep me in line!

Exegetical Notes, #6
Ephesians 3:1-13

Chapter three is the final section of the first half of Ephesians. Paul has been laying out all that God has done for us in Christ. He continues and wraps this up in chapter three by doing two things. First he shows us how it has impacted his life, and then he prays one of the greatest prayers in all of Scripture for his readers.

Remember Paul may not have known we’d be reading this, but that prayer is for us as much as it was for the original readers in Ephesus. But we won’t get the prayer till next week so hang on and let’s get started.

In verses 1-6 Paul recaps what he just told us about the Mystery that God had revealed to him in Christ Jesus. But he puts a personal twist to it, showing us how it has impacted him personally.

I believe this is important because Paul knew, as all great communicators do Jesus being the best example in history, that people remember and respond to stories. True stories most of all, but stories draw you in and make the truth relate able in ways that mere eloquence does not.

For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles– Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you, that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets. This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 3:1-6 (NIV)

In my sermon I’m skipping all of this passage except for verses one, two and seven. The reason I did that is because the content is so repetitive from last week. I think one sermon made the point sufficiently, however in these notes I’ll go through each verse and see what they say.

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We have reached the end of yet another week and are rapidly approaching 100 editions of Short Rounds! I can barely believe that!  Anyway - enjoy all the goodies below!

Podcast For Myanmar

MVM (Myanmar Vision Ministries) now has a podcast!  Hosted by Phil Barrera this first edition also features his wife Kim talking about her trip eariler to Putao (I didn’t get to Putao - but I’m not jealous!)

You can listen to it at the link above, or get it through ITunes. Just search their podcast directory for Myanmar and it’ll pop right up. It’s well worth your time and help you understand this troubled land and the dedicated believers who are working for God there much better.

Maker of Shirtless Mormon Missionary Calendar Excommunicated

No, really, I’m not kidding, this has really happened!

If you don’t believe the Fox News story, then click here and check out all those hot Mormons on the calendar’s website!

Okay - now I may really have heard it all!

Blog Posts You Ought to Read

Pagan Christianity - a book review - Ben Witherington really nails it with this one, and shows how far George Barna has fallen. From a man who was once a trusted source of information thousands of Pastors used and could count on, today he’s just another shrill partisan for an offbeat point of view.

Why 5 Am is Important in China - set those alarms! Seriously, I believe it.  When I was in northern Thailand a few years ago the grade school kids got up, ate breakfast and were in class learning Chinese by 5:30 AM!

Thoughts On Evangelism, Pt. 3 - excellent follow up to the link I posted last week.

The Currency of Hope - not what you’re expecting I’ll wager!

Pastors - Get Out In Front! - Good advice, which I’m working on taking myself!

Pastors, Church Planters - Beware, Pt. 1 - Great stuff here, as I’ve learned through experience!

Review of “Arminian Theology: Myths and Realities” by Roger E. Olson - Excellent review of this book by a Calvinist! Nice to see some civil discussion of this topic on the Net.

That’s all folks - have a great weekend and GO TO CHURCH!!

Normally when you read reviews they are reviews of a new book or movie, CD, etc.  I’ve done quite a bit of that, and intend to do more.

However I’ve been thinking about all the great books written in the past that are far to often unknown and neglected today. So I’ve decided to do an occasional Classic Review. Naturally I and I alone will be the one who decides that these books and CDs have reached classic status.

Hey, it’s my blog, what did you expect?

This book is relatively new, it was copyrighted in 1986. But I think in our fast moving, here today gone tomorrow world, 22 years is long enough for something to be considered a classic. I have long loved Stott’s books and consider him one of the best authors Evangelicalism has produced in a long time. Even though he has recently retired, we are blessed to still have access to his wit and wisdom through his many books.

The Cross of Christ is a book that helped me understand the cross on a much deeper level than I ever had before.  In fact it was the first book devoted solely to the cross that I had ever read.

It’s no secret that the doctrine of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross to forgive our sins is greatly played down in today’s preaching and teaching. In fact if you listen to most “evangelistic” messages today you’ll hear precious little about the cross at all. You might here a reference to the cross as a sign of just how much God loves us, but it’s very unusual to hear anything about God’s wrath at our sins being poured out on His Son upon the cross.

Instead of presenting the full, rich and wonderful message of the cross as found in the Bible, we usually serve out a thin gruel of love, love, love, God loves me and forgives me, and let’s not talk about the price it cost Him to do so okay?

Fortunately Stott ignores all such foolishness and in this book outlines the necessity of the Cross, the full cost of it, and the amazing benefits that Christ’s dying on the cross offers to every man, woman and child.

As usual Stott takes in the full scope of church history, often quoting church fathers and theologians, many of whom I’d never heard of! Of course Stott leans toward European commentators, which is understandable since he’s English. However this turns out to be a good things for us Americans. We usually aren’t that familiar with our rich European heritage of Biblical study and thought, and Stott gives us a glimpse of that in this book.

Personally I consider this book a must read. If I was compiling a list of books that would be required to be read and studied before entering the ministry - The Cross of Christ would be high on that list!

In our “I only want to hear things that make me feel good” world, it’s a must!  And by the way, well before the end of this book you will feel good, even great! Because you’ll have a much deeper grasp on what our wonderful Savior did for us on that old rugged cross.