YOU and GOD

When my wife and I were living in Dallas, Texas, for a couple of years in the late 60’s and early 70’s we were seeking to find a good church that we could attend. Just for the experience, we first visited the historic First Baptist Church of Dallas, pastored then by W.A. Criswell, a mega church before churches were called by that name. We visited on Sunday morning and on Monday evening there were people visiting from the church wanting to get to know us and wanting to tell us more about their church!  We were pretty impressed.  The small church we finally joined, just blocks from where we lived in east Dallas, an independent, fundamental Baptist Church, was pastored by an older man who, with J. Frank Norris and T.T. Shields, had been one of the founders of a seminary in the Ft. Worth area.  He was an old-fashioned Bible expositor, the kind of preacher one could listen to for hours and want more. I had indicated to him on several occasions that we were interested in joining the church and that we’d appreciate a visit from him to get to know more about the ministry. That visit never happened. It was a church of no more than a hundred on any given Sunday, and the only person that made any attempt to be friendly to this young couple with two small girls was the usher/greeter who would give us a big smile, a hearty handshake and a bulletin every time we entered.  I think his name was “Bucky” but though I may have forgotten his name I have never, 50 years later, forgotten his warm welcome and welcomed greeting. As a student preparing for ministry, I thought to myself that to have an usher like that would be a pastor’s dream come true.

Fast forward twenty-three years and I would find myself thirteen years into my pastorate in Indianapolis, Indiana when one Sunday in early January a couple joined our church. His name was Roy and his wife’s Thetta. It would not be long before Roy would volunteer to help in any way he could; and it just so happened that we needed help in our ushering department at that time, and he went right to work, assisting in any place needed. He never stopped until a few months ago when cancer sidelined him and a few weeks ago God relieved Roy of his post as head-usher here and called him to his eternal rest. His works truly do follow him.

Roy grew up on a farm just east of Indianapolis and his life, before he joined the United States Marine Corps, was not an easy one. His father was a tough disciplinarian and life consisted mainly of chores. It probably did not get any easier when Roy volunteered to become a Marine, but it was different and he ended up serving as a military policeman. He went strictly by the book and was all business and, his term having been completed, moved back to Indy. He and his wife came to our church from another church of like faith and I suppose Roy was in his mid-50’s when I became his pastor. He was, in fact, the usher that was in the back of my mind that day in Dallas when I breathed a sigh in my soul with the thought that “happy would be the pastor who had an usher like Bucky.” Well, in 1992, I became that happy pastor.

Roy was a right-hand man. He was meticulous in attention to detail. He dressed every service as though he were possibly going to meet the President. He arrived at church an hour early to begin to execute his duties, opening up all doors, turning lights on in every meeting room, setting thermostats to an appropriate degree, moving clocks forward an hour in the spring and backwards an hour in the fall on the specified Sunday, putting Sunday School reports in each teacher’s room so that they could fill them out and have them ready for him to pick up and tally; making sure the large flag that flew out front was not frazzled and if appropriate setting it at half-mast when there was occasion to do so; putting a glass of water on the pulpit for the preacher, organizing an ushering crew for each service, ringing bells indicating the conclusion of the Sunday School hour and a hundred other tasks.  On the rare occasions that Roy had to miss (he never traveled out of town on Sundays) we would divide his jobs up and assign two or three men to do what Roy would normally do. All that he did was with a cheerful spirit, a warm smile and hearty hand shake and his presence was ubiquitous throughout the congregation though in the most positive way. He loved to talk and would not hesitate to show you a picture of a fish that he had hauled in from some lake the past week.

To this pastor Roy was more than a co-laborer, he was a brother indeed. His service was selfless and always above and beyond. He was not deeply schooled in theological matters but his faith was genuine and his works were extraordinary. For twenty-seven years I was privileged to serve alongside of a man that exemplified the servant’s heart and a totally committed life of faithful service to His Master. Roy took his job as seriously as one could, believing that for Christ and His Church only his best would do. One Sunday it was discovered that someone, as a practical joke, had slipped a gold fish into the glass of water that Roy had placed for me on the pulpit. When he became aware of that, it shook him to the core. In fact, he, for the first and only time, was not in the next service. I quickly paid a visit to Roy and realized that he was devastated by the thought that he had failed in his work and was not worthy to continue on as lead usher. I assured him that he had not failed and that the incident was not meant in a mean-spirited way and that he should report for duty next service. We prayed and he was back on the job the next time the church met and that was the only time I ever had to exhort Roy to “keep on keeping on.”

So, Saturday last, friends, family and church members packed out our fellowship hall to celebrate the life of a servant of Christ who in flesh for thirty years, Sunday after Sunday, year after year, embodied the Biblical pattern of servanthood. All who knew him loved him. His kind come along only once in a while and I will ever be grateful that for the bulk of my ministry as a pastor God gave me the privilege of rubbing elbows with and learning from a man who never attended Bible School one day of his life, but lived out in real time what the Bible teaches about faithfulness, dedication, dependability. I will ever be grateful to God for sending to our church our very own version of “Bucky.” We have long since forgotten the messages of that powerful Bible expositor in Dallas, but I have never forgotten the smile, the welcome, the handshake of a Godly layman who was at his station, on time and in place, helping to prepare the hearts of those who would be sitting under the sound of the preacher, having received a welcome that made them feel as though they had come to the right place on that day.

“Moreover, it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful.” (I Cor. 4:2)

On May 17, 2014 Admiral William McRaven addressed the graduating class of the University of Texas with a speech the thesis of which was “If you plan to succeed in life, you need to learn the importance now of prioritizing the practice of daily making your own bed.” He wrote a best-selling book on the subject stressing the importance of good habits and consistently giving attention to the little, yet important, tasks of basic blessed living.

That speech, by the way, received 10 million views on YOU TUBE. It evidently resonated with a wide-ranging audience.  It reminded me of the basic life principles that followers of Christ need to adhere to in order to live a life well pleasing to their Master.  I further thought of the basic Bible convictions that should govern our lives. These could be called convictions as opposed to preferences.  How would you define a Biblical conviction? Here is what I came up with: “A firmly established belief or persuasion to which you tenaciously hold, based upon God’s Word, and for which you would die, if needs be, rather than surrender.” Obviously, Making Your Bed is a good life principle but it would not meet the standard of a Biblical conviction if one accepts the definition I have set forth. Martin Luther, when nailing his 95 theses to the church door in Wittenberg, expressed Biblical conviction when he said, “Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God. Amen.” It was for him a Biblical conviction that he would be willing to “to go to the stake” for.

So, what are some of the convictions Christians have held to and at this present hour are holding to so that, if called upon to do so, they would die for rather than surrender? What are your convictions?  I have listed some that, God helping, I could not give up even to save my life.  You may have others, more or less. Christians world-wide are dying for these Biblical convictions as I write this post and on every day of the year. It is worth having our “pure minds” stirred up to give the subject some consideration knowing that it is not unthinkable, in this present spiritual darkness, that any of us who name His name might be called upon to lay down our life rather than surrender what are our Bible-based convictions. Here are some of mine;

• Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the God-man, is the Way, the Truth and the Life and “no man cometh to the Father but by me.” (John 14:6). There is none other name under heaven whereby man can be eternally saved than His.  Salvation, eternal life, is only through Jesus Christ and through Him alone. Paul says that God “also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name. That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow…and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.” (Phil.2:9-11) Salvation is in and through Christ alone.
• Whatever the Bible says is so. It is my final authority for faith (belief) and practice (behavior). All scripture, Old and New Testaments, is given by inspiration of God and is profitable. “To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this Word, it is because there is no truth in them.” “Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.” (2 Tim.3:16,17; Isa.8:20; Ps.119:105) We may disagree with good men on matters of interpretation, but never on matters of inspiration. God’s Word is forever settled in heaven.  Here we must stand; we can do no other, so God help us. Amen.
• The main purpose for my living upon this earth is to glorify God. Not to “find myself;” or to milk every moment for maximum pleasure or to look out for “number one.” But to so live that my life will bring honor, praise and glory to my creator God. “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created.” Rev.4:11 Humanism says that we owe it to ourselves to find happiness-wrong!  We owe it to God to live for Him and to glorify His name.
• As a believer, my body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, God’s Spirit, and, therefore, I should glorify God in my body, not defiling it by what I put into it, or by how I use or abuse it. I Cor. 6:20: “For ye are bought with a price; therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit which is God’s.” We should glorify God by being good stewards of this marvelous body so intricately designed for our good here and for His glory. That conviction will govern both our dress and our diet and all other things appertaining to the body. Humanism says “It’s your body; you own it and no one can tell you what you can or cannot do with it; after all, you are only hurting yourself if you abuse it somehow.” Wrong again. As a believer, my body is God’s temple.  When I abuse it, I hurt God, hurt myself, hurt other believers including teachers/pastors; and hurt society where I live and where my light is dimmed or hidden by a selfish example.
• The local, New Testament church is the living organism through which God is fulfilling His divine purposes today, and therefore, it is incumbent upon me, a Christian, to be actively involved in the ministry of a local, New Testament assembly of believers, one where the whole counsel of God (the Bible) is taught; one that is engaged in worldwide evangelism in obedience to the Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-20); one that is burdened for lost souls and is endeavoring to bring souls to salvation through the gospel; and one to which I will be loyal in supporting by my presence, my prayers and my pocketbook. This present hour is crying for local churches that believe the Book, preach the blood and proclaim the Blessed Hope (of His soon coming again).
• That Children are an heritage of the Lord and that, as a parent, it is my awesome responsibility to train up the child that God entrusts to the care of my spouse and me in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. It is not the school’s responsibility; it is not the church’s responsibility; it is not the State’s responsibility, but it is my responsibility. Period. Ps. 127:3; Prov.22:6; Deut.6:6,7.
• I believe that I am a steward before God of my time, my talents and my “tithes,” and that I will one day personally give an account to Christ of my stewardship of these things. “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.” (2 Cor. 5:10)
• I believe that my citizenship is in heaven and that I am only a pilgrim passing through this land of shadows and that, therefore, my affections should be set on things above and not on things of this earth, Col.3:1. “Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.” I Pet.2:11

We have witnessed in our lifetime a morphing in many instances of what were once held “convictions” into now just preferences.  Using certain Bible verses there have been “convictions” about women wearing pants; about eating in restaurants where alcohol is served; about certain hair-dos on “godly” women; about what translation of the Bible is God’s preserved Word for English speaking people, about music and a myriad of other issues. One would not minimize the differences, but it must be acknowledged that often what were once firmly held “convictions” of yesteryear in the Christian community have now become at best preferences and more generally “non-issues” for today.  So, take another look at your convictions.  Are they Biblical?  Would you die for them rather than surrender them? It would do us well, in the light of this present evil age, to reexamine the issues.

“Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.” (I Thess. 5:18)

What I am going to say now could change your life; it could totally revitalize your life and the lives of those around you. I am not trying to sell you anything, nor would I ask you to sign on the line! But I am here as God’s spokesman with a message from His Word that could not only revolutionize your life but the life of the ministries through which you are serving your Lord.

There is a principle in Luke 6 that is so unconcealed that many people stumble over it and do not even notice it is there!  I am not alluding to or promoting a prosperity gospel, God forbid; but I believe if the people of God would get ahold of this basic Biblical concept, it could and would make a transforming course-correction in their lives.

God has written some fixed laws into the warp and woof of His universe. These laws, relating to cause and effect, cannot be changed but by God Himself. Some of the laws are natural, some are spiritual. Both are equally fixed.

One of God’s spiritual laws which is fixed is recorded in Numbers 32:23: “Be sure your sins will find you out.” Nothing any person could ever do can alter that spiritual law.

Another one: “The wages of sin is death.” Since Adam and Eve sinned and began to die, mankind has been keeping its unalterable appointment with death, for “the wages of sin is death.” It’s fixed.

Still another spiritual law: “Whatever a man sows, he reaps.” That is a natural law and it is a spiritual law. You cannot get around it; you’ll never circumvent it. Whatever you sow you will reap and if you sow nothing you will reap nothing.

So, I want to challenge you (and, I am aware that I am probably “preaching to the choir,”) to take another look at what Jesus said in Luke 6:38: “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.”

Now, note the PROMISE. You, individually, personally are the one who is to give. In verse thirty Jesus specified that His Kingdom followers should “Give to every man that asketh of you…and as ye would that men should do to you; do ye also to them likewise.” (Luke 6:30,31) Solomon, long before Christ, writing under the Holy Spirit’s superintendence, said that “He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord; and that which he hath given will He repay again.” Yes, I could write several follow up columns to this about how, in good faith, through the years, I have given to many people who turned out to be dishonest or at least disappointing in what they represented themselves as, but I have never regretted one time giving, lending if you will, to the Lord, knowing that He keeps the books and He will right all wrongs.  I just need to keep a sympathetic, compassionate, generous spirit and leave to results to God. Give, therefore, with no thought of getting back. My wife and I have given people in need thousands of dollars in 50 years of ministry, but I have never made any gift a loan; it was always given no strings attached and with no expectation of getting any part of it back again. By the way, when I say “I” or “My wife and I” I am keenly aware that we are simply two of millions of blood-bought, born-again believers who are so grateful to God for His abundant grace that giving with abandon is a joy, not a duty.  God’s people are, always have been and always will be, generous, liberal. “Cast thy bread upon the waters and after many days thou shalt find it.”  A widow in our church, years ago, sacrificially gave a missionary $50 to help meet a need and later testified that she received unexpectedly a check in the mail for $1,000. It is a story the likes of which is repeated time and time again; it is a fixed principle, established by God.

Second, note the PROPORTION. “Good measure; pressed down, shaken together, running over.” A wealthy merchant was responding to a missions need and, as he was writing his check, an associate handed him a memo conveying to the businessman that he had just sustained considerable losses, whereupon the merchant tore up the check and wrote another one, this time for a much larger amount, musing that “God is teaching me to lay up treasures in heaven.” You simply cannot outgive God. Lonial Wire, our song leader for decades at Thompson Road Baptist Church, was known for saying, “I shovel it (gifts) out and God shovels it back to me again, but His shovel is a lot bigger than mine.” My friend, Pastor Ron Allen, who pastored the Calvary Baptist Church in San Francisco, was known for going “over the top” in leading his church to give generously to missions and to missionaries.  It almost became legendary.  After Pastor Allen moved to Georgia so that he and his wife, Barb, could be near their daughter in law following the death of her husband, I invited Ron to lead in one of our missions’ conferences. It was pretty obvious by a casual glance that he needed a new set of tires on his car and it was a joyful privilege to be a part of meeting that need and of casting some bread upon the waters. That bread has, indeed, come back in a proportion to us and to our church, that it is incalculable!

Then, note the PROVIDENCES.  “Shall men give….” God in ways that only He could orchestrate, will work through men to bring back to you that you have given and more!  You could never anticipate the how or the when of it and that is exactly what makes it so very special.  It is a “God thing,” and it happens when you least expect it and in a way that you would never have thought of. Jacob, fleeing his homeland, vowed to give God a tenth all that God would entrust to his stewardship, and God used Laban over the twenty years following that promise, to make Jacob a wealthy man. God used the church at Philippi to take care of the Apostle Paul’s needs with the promise that “My God shall supply all of your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” (Phii.4:19) I could not count the times God put it upon the heart of some generous person or couple to give us a week in a condo on a beach or a spacious home to enjoy in a place we could never have dreamed of visiting much less staying a week or more at no charge! When God does the repaying through people, it is without doubt “pressed down, shaken together and running over.”

It is said that a crippled girl responded to an appeal that her pastor had given to the church body when a definite need had arisen.  The girl hobbled to the front of the church and gave a ring that she had worn; the pastor, noting what the child had done, sought her out afterwards and said, “We don’t feel right, dear, about keeping your treasured ring, so we’ve decided to give it back to you.”  The girl replied, “You don’t understand, I didn’t give my ring to you, I gave it to God.”

Next, note the PRINCIPLE: “For with the same measure….” If you are stingy, you will live in meagerness; if you are generous, you will receive generously. It’s a fixed law and the scriptures are replete with examples of how it works in real time.  Abraham was generous with his nephew Lot. Abraham became wealthy beyond belief. “It’s not what you’d do with the millions if fortune should be your lot; but what are you doing at present with the dollar and quarter you’ve got?”

Finally, the PLACE. Every believer, member of the Body of Christ, should be attached to and affiliated with a local, New Testament Bible-preaching church.  That is where our first responsibility belongs, our local church, supporting prayerfully and generously its local and worldwide ministry outreaches.  There are other worthy causes and ministries deserving our support, but our local church should be at the top of our list. We can give to missions, to ministries ministering to the homeless and many other outreaches, through the local church where there is not only responsibility but accountability. 

So, keep on giving. If you have been a bit hesitant to exercise the faith needed to give with no thought of receiving in return, ask God to give you His heart and mind in the matter so that you will have a new understanding and deeper appreciation for what Paul said in his challenge to the Corinthians: “But thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift.”

“Therefore, as ye abound in everything, in faith, and utterance, and knowledge, and in all diligence, and in your love to us, see that ye abound in this grace also.” (2 Cor.8:7)

The year was 1965 and the place was on New York Street in Indianapolis, Indiana. A 16-year-old girl, on October 26, was found by a policeman dead in the house of Gertrude Baniszewski. Sylvia Marie Likens and her sister Jenny were teenagers who had been left with Gertrude “Gertie” Baniszewski for the summer so that their parents could work in and follow a carnival.  They knew little about Gertrude before leaving Sylvia and her sister in the care of a lady who would later be described as the embodiment of evil.

I want to share Sylvia’s story though it happened over 55 years ago because of her connection with our church which at that time was called Grace Memorial Baptist Church, located on north Alabama Street near the downtown of Indianapolis.  Roy Julian was the pastor of what would become Thompson Road Baptist Church as a result of a church merger in the late 60’s.  Pastor Julian, as many pastors of that era, sent church busses out on Sunday morning to pick up boys and girls that otherwise would not be able to attend Sunday School.  Sylvia was one of those who rode our church bus and therefore Pastor Julian and our teachers and workers had an interest in both Sylvia and her family.

On at least one occasion during the summer months, Pastor Julian, informed by some of Sylvia’s teachers and bus workers that Sylvia and her sister had not been in Sunday School or Vacation Bible School that summer, made a front door visit to the last known address that the Likens sisters had been staying at, the Baniszewski residence on the 3800 Block of East New York Street.  Pastor Julian was unable to get into the house to assess the situation, and no one at the front door was willing to answer his questions as to the well-being of the Likens sisters.

Had Pastor Julian been able to have gained an entrance into the home, he would have seen a place that was “repulsive, not fit for a dog.” In fact, had the Likens mother or father bothered to meet “Gertie” and look over the accommodations their daughters would be subject to that ill-fated summer, they would have seen a place of squalor with little food, not enough beds, no stove and very few cooking utensils. (Indianapolis Star, October 2015). But sight unseen and without ever having met the lady to whom they would hand their daughters over to with the instructions that she should be firm with the girls, they left an advance of $20 with Mrs. Baniszewski and headed off to chase the carnival for the summer and into the fall months.

What happened the next three or four months to a strawberry blond teen defies a writer’s ability to portray.  Mrs. B, assisted by two neighborhood boys as well as two of her own children, all of whom would later be charged with murder, set out to torture Sylvia Likens, and their mission ended in the teen’s horrific death. Policemen who were first on the scene when her lifeless body was discovered described Sylvia’s crudely slashed abdomen: one of the neighborhood boys had carved the letters into her skin: “I am a prostitute and proud of it.” Cigarette burns framed the message. Her once pretty, youthful face was swollen, beaten and bruised; her scalded, mutilated body was lying on a stained mattress. An October 26, 2015 Indianapolis Star article recounting what would be at that time called “the worst crime in Indiana history” said that Sylvia had been “starved, clubbed, punched, smacked, kicked, scalded, cut, burned, branded, tattooed, and repeatedly thrown down or dragged up the stairs by Gertie, her children and the neighborhood children over a period of three months.” The East New York Street house governed by the devilish Mrs. Baniszewski had become a house of horrors where from July to October in 1965 there existed a torture chamber for one young girl who had her life brutally beaten out of her, in what was an unspeakable, unthinkable spiral of sadism, orchestrated by a woman who had to have been driven by the Evil One.

I became pastor of Thompson Road Baptist Church, fourteen years after the death of Sylvia Likens. It is a story that was at that time still alive in the memory of many of the church folk because of the contact TRBC had had with Sylvia as she attended our church. When all of this took place in the mid-sixties our church was then sending out 10 or 12 busses every week picking up boys and girls; we continued in an active, though scaled down, bus ministry until Covid-19 restrictions caused us to terminate that outreach ministry. We still do use a bus to pick up children from Perry Township public schools to take them to off-site locations for one-hour release time Bible lessons using the Abeka Book curriculum!  With all the sweat, toil and tears the typical bus ministry entails, and that is over a 50-year span, we have often been tempted to question whether the returns justify the investment. But if one Sylvia Likens came to Sunday School on a bus or to VBS and heard about the love of Jesus through a dedicated teacher as the Bible was taught, then case closed. Thousands of boys and girls heard and were saved.  We meet them all the time as we move about: “Oh, I attended Thompson Road Baptist Church when I was a child….”

As I reviewed this story in my heart and mind in order to share it with you, I have been reminded once again that the heart is desperately wicked, totally depraved apart from the transforming grace of God. It started in the Garden when our first parents disobeyed God at which time sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. The blackened blight of it was flushed out in earth’s earliest days when Cain slew his brother Abel, and the bloody trail of death is not hard to follow from there, through history to the present hour and as so graphically portrayed in the book of the Revelation, to the end of time as we know it. The world has become a literal killing field; witness what a few men, absent of any conscience or apparent fear of God, are now making of the beautiful country of Ukraine.

Thank God, the cure for killing and demented devilment has already been provided when the worst of the underworld threw its heaviest artillery at the sinless Son of God who died at Calvary as a sacrifice and substitute for mankind, paying for all who would believe and receive the penalty for the wages of sin, with the gift of God, eternal life. (Romans 3:23; 6:23). Paul the Apostle, once a supervisor in the arrest, prosecution, and execution of Christians, accepted Christ as Lord and Savior and would later write that “this is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.” (I Tim.1:15) Yes, he could save the most savage sinner or the most sophisticated one. He can save you, my friend.  Will you trust Him today?

“And he brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.” (Acts 16:30,31)

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I’ll just call her Lisa since that is her real name and since she gave me permission to do so. Ellen and I first met this special lady about 7 years ago when, after she and her husband, Dirk, had visited a church service at Thompson Road Baptist Church, having accepted the invitation to attend that one of our deacons had extended to them.

They lived in a modest house on Indy’s near southside, just two or three miles from our church. Lisa had been blind for many years and she and Dirk had been married, before he passed away, twenty-two years. They were not alone as, when one knocked on the door, a beautiful black dog, rather large, but never noisy, would come wagging its tail as if to say, “come on in.” We did, passing through the kitchen on into the living room where Lisa was sitting in her favorite spot on a couch, near her media equipment that enabled her, though blind, to converse on a phone and to send and receive emails.  Dirk would be found comfortably stationed in his favorite chair, and we were cordially invited to be seated on another smaller couch by a coffee table.  We were asked if we’d like a cup of coffee which, as I recall, I declined with a “No thank you,” but would on subsequent visits always answer, “Yes, please.”

Our first visit was interesting if a bit shaky. Lisa was diagnosed with blood cancer in 2015 and had been fighting it with various forms of treatment. We heard from her own perspective the battle that she had been fighting and had early on been given one to three years to live.  That is about the time we met Lisa and Dirk and she, having been saved at an early age in life, knew enough to reach out to God knowing that even the best of doctors and modern medicines would be to no avail if God were not guiding her health care with His unseen hand. We of course prayed for Lisa, beseeching God for His gracious intervention and asking, if it would please Him to, with or without the best of medical treatment, heal her. Our church had been alerted to pray also and special prayers were sent up to the throne of grace.  The doctors planned and proceeded with a bone marrow transplant, acknowledging that even if it did at first appear successful the cancer could return at any time.  That was in August of 2017 and Lisa remains cancer free today.

Lisa is a pleasant person. Her face is graced with a soft smile that connotes caring. Her marriage to Dirk was her first, his third. One would never pick them out of a crowd as a couple. He was all things mechanic, kind of rough around the edges, but he had thrived on hard work, mastering machinery and fighting back by returning deft blows in his battle in life’s school of hard knocks. He did not expect any handouts, was a patient and loving caregiver for his disabled wife who had been herself thrown into the ring do to battle with a deadly blood disease.

As the preacher and his wife sat on the couch that first visit, Lisa listened quietly as Dirk and I began to communicate about “You and God.” He had a lot of questions which merely conveyed an honest skepticism about spiritual matters.  He had never been a person of faith and though well read, especially in matters of religion, he had not embraced Christ nor any belief system. He was not antagonistic, but certainly not eager to receive anything said at face value.  He was polite but firm in his agnosticism. It was a challenging and, for this preacher, exciting exchange between one person who was saved, settled and satisfied and another who would best be described as seeking and sincere.  It would be the first of several such visits before Dirk, the host who would demonstrate more hospitality with every visit so that on one such occasion he pulled out of his freezer a loaf of his homemade fruit cake, soaked in rum, to send home with us to enjoy at Christmas, would acknowledge and accept Jesus Christ as his personal Savior.  Lisa would later tell me that Dirk loved reading the Bible and loved reading it to her.

God answered prayed for our friend, Lisa, and she is still alive. She had never been baptized after having accepted Christ as a child, so it was her desire and my intent that we would have a special baptismal service for this dear lady. Because of the fragility of her health and the tenuous logistics of getting her into a baptismal tank and out again, the plan was abandoned, but there was little doubt that her heart’s desire was to publicly confess Christ as Lord. She had been given 1-3 years to live and seven or eight years later she still has a life in her peaceful place on Indy’s southside, but her beautiful black canine, whose name was Raven, has since died; and her devoted husband who lived to see that Lisa was cared for, passed into eternity, not long after we first met Lisa and Dirk, in the early morning hours not yet daylight, having fought a gallant fight, slipping from life here to life in heaven where the Son light of Jesus’ presence was without doubt a welcoming sight to a man to whom life had served up some daunting challenges.  Dirk, who was thought to be healthy and strong when Lisa received her cancer diagnosis, was gone and Lisa still lives.

It was just a couple of weeks ago that Lisa reached out to us having heard that I now have a cancer similar to the one that she so far has survived. I have been retired since 2019 and even before then because of transportation and health issues Lisa had not been able to attend our church; so Ellen and I had lost touch with her though she has been in our thoughts often. It was so good to hear from this friend and to recall and recount the goodness of God to her through prayer, patient waiting, faith; and skilled doctors who with modern medicines, working as God’s instruments to bring about His will through intercessory prayer, have been able to stretch her life well past the 1-3 years.  I knew at the time and I am sure even now, Lisa would attribute her healing and health successes to God’s answers of prayers

Just another unusual twist on Life’s Pilgrim journey. I am glad that we got to meet this special couple and their dog Raven.  We always felt welcomed. Dirk made his peace with God in time and the love of his life, Lisa, lives on in her quiet world where she is never alone as she communes with God and her circle of family and friends. Just another chapter in the lives of this pastor and his wife, whose lives have been ceaselessly enriched over the past 50 years of ministry, privileged to have known, served and loved the Lisas and Dirks through whom God has mercifully blessed their lives.

“For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men.” (Tit.2:11)

“For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”  (Romans 10:13)

“

We are living in a power point age, so imagine with me that in one 24-hour period you were able to construct a power point that visually displayed everything you did in that time frame.  Were that possible, it would no doubt reveal how you had spent the day, indicating probably where your special interests were, what you spent any leisure time doing, how much TV you watched; time spent in spiritual enrichment (prayer, Bible reading, etc.); how many minutes or hours you spent on social media or on “the screen,” and so much more.  Aren’t you glad that assignment is, as of today, not in the realm of possibility?  Don’t assume that it will never be possible should time last.

Anyway, what is vitally important for each of us to know is that God doesn’t need a power point presentation to view your day or mine at any moment.  He has all knowledge and not a single moment, not an iota of disgust, not a word of thanksgiving, not a special compartment reserved for “self” where we can engage in lustful, covetous, bitter, angry, dark, deadening thoughts, desires, dreams escape Him. God knows it all; He sees it all and the Bible says that “the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.” (2 Chron. 16:9)

That statement, delivered from God through an Old Testament mouthpiece for God to one of Judah’s kings should give us all “cause for pause.” God is looking, looking, looking. He is out to find a person who has a perfect heart. But wait, before you say “that lets me out; I am NOT perfect and knowing myself I will never be perfect so will never qualify as a person to whom God will shew Himself strong.”

The good news is that “perfect” here and elsewhere in Scripture does not mean “flawless!” Our relationship to Adam sealed the fact that no one of us is perfect in the sense of without any imperfection.  We are all sinners; we are “damaged goods,” by virtue of our humanity; and even the new birth, which results in our becoming instantly a “new creation” in Christ does not mean that our old nature, which is totally corrupted by sin, has been eradicated.  Salvation by grace through faith means that we have now a new nature, with the indwelling Holy Spirit and the enlightening Word of God, and the ability to “walk in the Spirit” so that we now are not bound to “walk in the flesh” (Gal.5:16-18) and we can be all that God wants us to be, i.e., a full grown, mature, Christian who is learning what Jesus meant when He said, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” (Matt. 5:48).  We ever strive to be like Him, knowing that we will never in our flesh here on earth reach a sinlessness; but we can and will strive to be perfect in the sense that, having desired the sincere milk of the Word (I Pet. 2:1,2) we have grown into spiritual maturity so that we are able to skillfully read and apply God’s Word, discerning between good and evil, right and wrong, and sensing, by His Spirit’s confirmation in our heart, that we have reached some level of spiritual maturing and are pressing on to be even more adept in the use of God’s Word. (Hebrews 5:11-14)

Take heart, dear friend, you can be spiritually mature and a person of whom God would say, “that child of mine has a perfect heart.” Hezekiah, an Old Testament king who had faithfully served God, leading God’s people to spiritual revival, was stunned when Isaiah came to him and told him that he needed to get his house in order for God’s plan was to call him to his eternal home!  Not what this fairly young, spiritually devoted and in every way successful king had expected to hear, causing him to remonstrate, “I have walked before Thee in truth and with a perfect heart.” (2 Kings 20:3).  Could we have said the same yesterday had God made it plain to us that we needed to get our house in order? Read Isaiah 38-39 for the rest of that story. 

David, a man after God’s own heart, vowed, “I will behave myself in a perfect way. O when wilt thou come unto me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart.” (Ps.101:2) If I am walking before God with a perfect heart, I will be in private what I am in public.  I will conduct myself in a way that will please God even when there is not another human being (Dad, Mom, Pastor, Spouse) to observe what I am doing and how. David was a flawed, broken person in many ways as we read the Biblical account of his life and labors, but he could also say, at least at one time and surely more than one, that he was behaving himself in a perfect way. God commanded it in Deut. 18:13: “Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord thy God.”  David was given over to obeying God’s commands.

David had no doubt instilled this character trait into young Solomon’s heart who would when he had ascended to Israel’s throne challenge his people, “Let your heart therefore be perfect with the Lord our God, to walk in His statutes, and to keep His commandments as at this day.” (I Kings 8:61) A more careful study of the context of this verse will reveal that those whose hearts are perfect will confess that God had never failed to keep one of His promises (v.56); that He would never leave them nor forsake them (v.57) and that He would maintain the cause of His servant and His people at all times (v.59).

Back to Solomon’s father, David, the king. In I Chr. 29:9, after David had instructed the Israelites that it would be his son’s task to build the temple for God, something that David had longed to do; and after David carefully rehearsed how God had instructed him to have it built and then enabled him to give an almost incalculable sum of gold and silver and other precious things that would be required, we read in verse 9 that “Then the people rejoiced, for…with a perfect heart they offered willingly to the Lord, and David the king also rejoiced with great joy.” Walking with a perfect heart will bring rejoicing not only to you, but to family and friends with whom you associate.  It brings joy!

We need more of that do we not?  Heart felt rejoicing.  The key:  work and worship willingly with a perfect heart.  C.T. Studd, a great missionary servant of Christ in the 19^th century, said, “The difficulty is to believe that God can deign to use such scallywags as us, but of course He wants Faith and Fools rather than talents and culture.  All God wants is a heart, any old turnip will do for a head; so long as we are empty, all is well, for then He can fill us with the Holy Ghost.”

“A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you….” (Ezek.36:26)

There was a wedding a week ago Saturday, at Thompson Road Baptist Church. Pastor Joel Stevens officiated and the bride and groom exchanged their vows in a beautiful double ring ceremony witnessed by maybe 125 people on a late winter/early spring day here in south central Indiana that brought cardinals and robins out of their winter nesting places. But, the wedding…

Because the bride’s father was deceased, and because Ellen and I had the privilege of leading this couple in Bible studies and discipleship sessions for several months, the bride asked me if I would walk her down the aisle and “give her hand” in marriage to the waiting groom. Of course, that was an honor and I was able to do so proudly, responding to the Pastor’s question “Who giveth this woman to this man?” with an “On behalf of her father and mother, I do.” I then took a near to front row seat with Ellen to watch the rest of the ceremony. But this is not the story.

As the couple, having joined hands at the altar, ascended onto the platform, it was difficult not to notice that there was not your typical wedding party with bridesmaids and groomsmen attending the bride and groom.  It was the pastor, the beautiful bride and the dazzling groom, with a pianist.  But that is not the story.

The pastor, having greeted the guests on behalf of the couple, in his opening remarks mentioned that in his counseling and communication with the bride and groom, he had asked them if there were any verses special to them that they would like him to incorporate into the ceremony. They replied no special verses but not less than 70 verses, total.  I heard that and figured it was an exaggeration, but as the pastor proceeded with passage after passage, verse after verse, I lost count and concluded that there must have been considerably more than 70, all appropriate and part of the pastor’s challenge to the bride and groom. But that is not the story.

Moving on through the ceremony, the couple having exchanged rings, at the direction of Pastor Stevens, each read a statement to the other, expressing their dreams, desires and decisions that were in their hearts as they looked to the future with hope, trusting the never-failing grace and guidance of their Heavenly Father who had brought them this far. The “vows” were heart-rending, profound, Christ exalting and tenderly touching, spoken often through tears and or a quivering voice.  But that, though, is still not the story.

The story that I want to share about this wedding and this couple is the backstory, briefly, that preceded the events of February 26, 2022:

His:  The groom was reared in a home where there was little thought given to “religion,” “church” or spiritual matters. He became pretty self-sufficient and independent, giving little or no thought to God, attending and graduating from college with a full-ride scholarship having majored in mechanical engineering and living by the motto “If it’s so to be, it’s up to me.” He met Truth at a Christian retreat in the fall of 2018 when his life was transformed by the Lord Jesus Christ. A friend was instrumental in inviting him and sponsoring his attendance.

Hers:  The Bride grew up in an Indiana home where there was seldom any mention of God and no encouragement on the part of either parent to seek after God, not wanting to “influence” their children in one direction or another. Her father died when she was thirteen and it drove her away from wanting to know God if indeed there was one. She had some tough teen years, then attended college for two years in northern Indiana majoring in chemical engineering before transferring and finishing at IU majoring in Dietetics. Her college years were at best “turbulent” and typically filled with hedonistic living even though in 2011 at the age of 19 she had married (1^st time) the groom who then was 21. Neither of them had any spiritual foundation upon which to build a life, much less a home. Her personal assessment of her life at that point (she had a believing sister who had been praying for her and had witnessed to her for over ten years) in her own words: “My time at Indiana University was tumultuous and damaging to my spiritual well-being. It brought devastation to my relationship with my husband…I was consumed with feminism and defying God’s natural order of the world. I denied submission to authority (God) and to my husband.”

In 2019, her husband who had gotten saved on an intense weekend spiritual retreat in the fall of 2018, though pretty much a confirmed atheist at the beginning of that life-changing weekend, convinced his wife to attend a similar retreat for ladies, paying her way.  Guess what?  Away from all of the sights and sounds of society, the young lady now in her mid-twenties, (who once wrote “I was already convinced…that God was not real…I found the Bible confusing and unclear…there seemed to be contradictions and verses I found down right offensive. In my bitterness and hard-heartedness…I was convinced…I didn’t need a savior anyway”) was about to have the experience her own life-transforming weekend when, she, like her husband, found that peace with God made all the difference and that He would and could save her; she left the retreat a new creation too, with grace and forgiveness flooding her soul. Again, in her own words, “God worked in my heart that weekend and blessed me with the Holy Spirit. He offered me the gift of salvation and repentance. I accepted Jesus Christ into my heart as my Lord and Savior. I decided to publicly profess my faith by being baptized through water immersion…It was the turning point for me in my life. It was the beginning of life and a revelation of truth…there is still so much I need to learn.” The wheels for divorce had already been set in motion before the two had come to Christ and they were not yet strong enough to reverse that forward motion so the divorce was finalized. She goes on to relate that over the next couple of years the two divorcees began to search for a church. God eventually led them to Thompson Road Baptist Church where, having been reconciled to God through faith and to each other through forgiveness and grace, they were united as a married couple complete in Christ a week ago Saturday in a beautiful ceremony, leaving to begin anew their journey hand in hand, heart to heart, promising that for the rest of their days upon earth they will be committed to Christ and also to each other, to “have and to hold.”

And that, my friends, is the story.

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge….” Provs. 1:7 (A verse that the new bride is immersing herself in through meditation)

“And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward: not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God.” (2 Cor. 3:4.5)

Like yours, my heart is breaking over the travesty and tragic turn of events that the wonderful people of Ukraine are now suffering through. It is unspeakable and, as millions of God’s people worldwide, we are praying that God, who holds the hearts of kings in His hands, in ways known and knowable only to Him, will turn the table upon the mass murderer’s own head and deliver these precious people from what appears to be certain death or bondage.

I have in my mind memories that are flooding my soul of a trip, led by Natasha Vins, daughter of Georgi Vins, a Russian pastor who spent many years in a Siberian prison for his faith. Before being exiled to the United States in 1979 when then President Jimmy Carter swapped some Russian spies who were being held here for five “dissidents” that the Russians were holding captive, one of which was Georgi Vins. He was flown from his prison cell in Siberia and given a chance to remain in Russia if he would renounce Christ; Vins could never do that of course.  Read the rest of his compelling story for blessings that will stir your soul. The year that Evangelist Ed Nelson and I and a few laymen made our trip to Russia (Ukraine was then considered Russia) was just as the “Iron Curtain” was falling, thanks to the strength of President Ronald Reagan’s leadership and his influence on the then Premier of Russia, Mikhail Gorbachev. The year was 1989. We were among the first of a future host of westerners who made the trip to the soon to be former Soviet Union states.  Among the cities we worshipped with Russian believers in were Moscow, Kyiv, Kharkiv, Rostov on Don and Leningrad (St. Petersburg). It was, for this 47-year-old pastor who had grown up in Ottumwa, Iowa, a dream come true as I had prayed for the release of Georgi Vins for some time and was now on a trip to Russia with his daughter as our interpreter/guide.

 I am going to just quote from notes that I have saved which I jotted down in a journal day by day when on this trip. It was in early June of 1989 and the weather was beautiful and what I remember of Ukraine especially was that the people were friendly (more than in Moscow) and we enjoyed very much giving them gospel literature on the streets and interacting with them.  They were much more receptive to receiving our tracts than the people in most any major U.S. city would have been at that time.

Wednesday, May 31:  Arrived in Moscow and took taxi from Airport to the hotel and saw a huge billboard that read “In God We Trust.” Visited one of Moscow’s finest super markets and viewed our surroundings and concluded that a NYU professor that we met there and visited briefly with was spot on when he said, “Things here are 20-30 years behind what we have in America.”

Wednesday, May 31: our 1^st church service in an apartment where 40-50 people were packed into a small living room; service began at 7:00 p.m. and concluded at 10:00 p.m.

Thursday afternoon, June 1, had another meeting with 30-40 believers and enjoyed a meal of sausage, cheese, salad and some Russian candy.

Friday, June 2, to Kyiv where we found the folk on the street more friendly to what some have called “Ugly Americans.” We met about 20 minutes out of Kyiv in a pole barn with 2×6 benches; 100 were present, began at 7 p.m. and done at 10:00 p.m. Children, quiet and well mannered, sat in the front; we sang, with the Kyiv Christians, “What a Friend,” “How Great Thou Art,” and “The Old Rugged Cross.” There was lots of music, but notably, most was sung in a “minor” key. We had a Saturday morning meeting with 8-10 preacher boys and Dr. Ed Nelson spoke on “Interpreting Scripture,” and “Sermon Preparation.” We were asked questions on the Charismatic Movement and on what kind of music we have.  In a Saturday p.m. service, we met with 150 in attendance and Sunday, June 4, our service began at 11:00 a.m. and concluded at 3:30 p.m. Some of the town authorities were in attendance at this meeting. One woman, a cousin of Pastor Vins, publicly confessed Christ as Savior. We participated in a communion service with these Ukrainian believers; there was one common cup and I am not sure what the fruit of the vine was that went down my throat as I drank “in remembrance of Him,” but I can attest that it “burned” all the way down!

Sunday p.m., June 4:  We met at the edge of a forest with believers and had a question-and-answer session with them; they asked about the “New Age” movement and also about how our churches practice “church discipline.” We all sang, “God Be with You till We Meet Again,” the pastor read I Thess. 3:7-10 and asked us to take this back to our churches. It was a meeting where logs served as benches and where people walked to get to the meeting place; one of those moments melded into the memory of one’s mind; unforgettable.

Monday p.m., June 5 we were taken to the train station to depart for Kharkiv; about 100 people had gathered there to see us off, giving to each of us a beautiful bouquet of flowers and singing “What A Friend We Have in Jesus.” It was a tearful farewell and I later would journal “As I lay in a bunk thinking of Kyiv, I know I want to return. We gave out hundreds of tracts on the streets where people were more receptive to receiving Gospel literature than we had experienced anywhere in our own beloved country.”

Tuesday, June 6, Kharkiv: We met with 350 people in a pole barn outside of the city; a choir of about 30 people sang beautifully; three women professed Christ publicly as their Savior; here I experienced for the first time that in their services men do literally greet men with a holy kiss, and that not on the cheeks, but lips to lips. I prayed for special grace!

Wednesday, June 7 we met with 7 or 8 pastors, most of whom had served time in prison for their faith, including one dear man of God who had been imprisoned for 34 years; deep furrows of hardship and suffering had been plowed onto the faces of these 20^th century heroes of the faith and never has a pastor felt more unworthy to stand alongside of these stalwarts than this preacher did that beautiful day in Kharkiv. We had an afternoon meeting with 200 people gathered in a back yard under a shade tree; a brass ensemble played 2 or 3 hymns and a choir sang and Pastor Nelson spoke; then that evening we departed by train for Rostov, but not before saying goodbye to about 200-300 people who had gathered there to bid us farewell again with beautiful bouquets of flowers. Never has one felt so humbled; so undeserving as we were treated like celebrities by people who had suffered in prison for their love of Christ.

The remainder of the 10- or 11-day trip was pretty much the same.  Most every pastor we met on this tour said that they believed the freedoms that they were then enjoying would be short lived. Of course, they have been proven to be correct in that assessment. Evangelist Neil Cadwell made a similar trip to Ukraine about a year after we were there and he simply fell in love with the people, came home and founded the Slavic Baptist Institute making hundreds of trips to Ukraine, training pastors and Christian workers, both men and women, for ministry. Block courses were taught by pastors from the states who would teach subjects designed to fill a deep vacuum of specialized ministry training that these believers had been denied. Hundreds of pastors and teachers were sent out to start churches all over Ukraine, Belarus and other surrounding nations.  Bro. Rick Arrowood is the President of Slavic Baptist Mission now (rickarrowood@slavicbaptistmission.org). The bunk bed prayer that I had prayed 15 years earlier wishing to one day return to the beautiful country of Ukraine was answered when it was my privilege to assist Bro. Cadwell in two trips back to contribute in the teaching of his Bible Institute sessions; again, a life changing experience for which I will ever be grateful.