APRIL 2017 EDITION

While on vacation last week, the eventual “What do you do?” question would arise. I don’t know but maybe because of my “sun bleached “ hair (LOL!), I was asked, “Are you retired?” I invariably answered “No, I have no plans to retire. I love what I am doing.”  I have heard it said, “If you love what you are doing, you will never work a day in your life.” I think that this is true. Sure, there are difficulties. I have not drawn a regular salary since 2014, but I have always maintained that a lack of money does not negate God’s call on your life. Having been in ministry now for forty years, I have seen God provide in many miraculous ways during that time.  Additionally, in a calling like ministry, tangible results are often hard to measure. One can fall into the trap of gauging ministry success only by numbers.  Numbers are important but not an end in themselves.  It is my understanding that being faithful to God’s call on your life and striving to be excellent in His service should be the measure of satisfaction. My goal in life is, at the end of my life, to hear our Lord say, “Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into your rest.”

Today, I am just as busy as I was twenty-five years ago when Net Work Ministries started.  My constituency has changed over that time. My men’s group makeup has altered. We have all aged together and now face different challenges in life than we began to meet together. Our issues are different now. I hope that we have grown and matured in both our everyday lives as well as our spiritual lives. I still continue to meet with men individually for counsel and encouragement on a regular basis.

 In my new role as volunteer pastor to the staff of Young Life in the Southeast Region, I have a younger constituency.  My hope is that I can share the accumulated wisdom of my years in ministry to those who are just beginning their ministries. Perhaps, I can steer them away from some of the pitfalls one can encounter in ministry.  I meet with the male staff face-to-face as often as possible while communicating with the entire staff on a monthly basis through social media. It is a privilege to meet weekly with the regional staff and attend the twice-yearly staff conferences.

My sense about retirement is that it is a recent phenomenon.  Up until the twentieth century, most people worked until they were incapable of working. It was true that theirs was a much more of an agrarian society, but others of that day, who lived and worked in cities, worked all their lives.  

Perhaps, instead of using the word “retirement” we could use the word “refocusment” and look for ways to continue to be productive in society.  One often hears of men who are dead within five years of retirement.  So many men‘s identities are wrapped up in what they did for a living. In their work life, they may have held positions of power and recognition but upon leaving all that is gone. When that part of their life goes they feel lost and purposeless. Some say that one can only fish so much or play golf so much.  I do know men who say after they retired that they don’t know how they ever found time to work because they are so busy now.  That is great!  I only hope that they are spending some of that time in service to others. There are many who could benefit from the wisdom and knowledge that one has acquired over the years.  

Men, God is not finished with you! Your life, given in His service, can fill the remaining years of life with joy, satisfaction and fulfillment. There is a world out there waiting to utilize the gifts God has given you. The last stage of your life can be the best!

Some of you who read this are nowhere near retirement age. Still I would ask you to consider a lifetime spent in His service to others as an addendum to your present situation. Ask yourself, “How can I serve God by serving others in my workplace or elsewhere?”  Then, when your career is over you will have a head start on a fulfilling and joyful time of “refocusment.”

I am grateful to all of you who have stood by me through the years with your prayers, encouragement and financial support May God shower you with His richest blessings.

Forty-two years ago tonight, April 29th, I surrendered my life to Christ. Peggy and her friends had been praying for me for a year. I am grateful to God for those prayers, for Dan Hayes, who shared his testimony that night and gave an invitation to receive Christ and God's Spirit to move in my life at that time. Wow, what a ride it has been! I am a truly blessed man and a poster boy for God's grace!

MARCH 2017 EDITION

Our Friday Morning Men’s Group watched an Andy Stanley video last Friday.

The show had an Easter theme.  It had the tag line:

”Jesus’ closest followers believed he was dead...and would stay dead.”

I guess I always knew that but never thought about it. The thought of Jesus rising from the dead never crossed their minds during that dreadful time after they saw Him breathe His last on the cross. All of their actions, post crucifixion, indicated that fact. Most of His followers went in hiding for fear of that, same death sentence would be their fate. Only a few of the women, who deeply loved Jesus, would venture out to finish the job of preparing Jesus’ body for burial, which was delayed by Passover. With the heavy load of embalming materials, the women  set out for the tomb, knowing full well that the body would have begun the process of decay, but they went out of love.

Here is the amazing thing. If they had completed the task, the entire world, from that day forward, would have been irreparably changed forever.  Our very measurement of the passing of time would be different. Some of our most noble efforts of architecture, literature, art and music would not exist. Many of the great institutions of charitable works would not be established. The valuation of human life and the dignity of men and women would suffer greatly. Although I will say this: “Both the valuation of human life and the dignity of men and women are once again under attack as the assault on Christian values has been raised to new levels in today’s culture.” For many of us, the hope of eternal life and the forgiveness of our sins would not exist and as Paul said in his letter to the Corinthian church: “And if Christ has not been raised , your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.”

There was a poem written some time ago, “If Jesus Had Not Come”, from which gives rise to many of the thoughts I mentioned. However, think about this: If Jesus came, lived thirty-three years, did and said some amazing things and then died, would we even know He existed at all? Perhaps, in some obscure history book, He might be mentioned as a noble man whose life and lessons might be instructive on how to live a good life like many other historical heroes both real and imagined. He even might be labeled a brave but fallible superhero soon to be forgotten.

However, here is the thing, when the women arrived at the tomb where Jesus was laid on Good Friday, His body was not there!. At first, they were dismayed and confused. They ran and told some of his followers that the body had been taken, still not realizing what had really happened. Only when the two Mary’s went back and encountered one they thought was the gardener who was actually and Angel of the Lord.  He told them the Good News of Jesus’ resurrection. Shortly thereafter, they encountered Jesus Himself who instructed the women to go and tell the disciples to meet Him in Galilee! 

Here is a poem by Cynthia Pearl Maus that comments on  “One Solitary Life”.

“Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another village, and that a despised one. He worked in a carpenter’s shop for thirty years, and then for three years He was an itinerant preacher. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never owned a home. He never had a family. He never went to college...He never traveled, except in His infancy, more than two hundred miles from the place where He was born. He had no credentials but Himself. While still a young

man, the tide of popular opinion turned against Him. His friends ran away. One of them betrayed Him. He was turned over to His enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed on a cross between two thieves. His executors gambled fo the only piece of property He had on earth, His seamless robe. When He was dead, He was taken down from the cross and laid in a borrowed grave through the courtesy of a friend.

Nineteen wide centuries have come and gone, and today Jesus in the centerpiece of the human race, and the leader of all progress.  “I am well within my mark when I say that all the enemies that ever marched, all the navies that were ever built, all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that have ever ruled together has never affected the life of  man upon this earth like this one solitary personality. “All time dates from His birth and it is impossible to understand or interpret the progress of human civilization in any nation on earth apart from His influence. Slowly through the ages man is coming to realize that the greatest necessity in the world is not water, iron, gold, food or clothing...but rather Christ enshrined in human hearts, thoughts and motives.”

PRAISE GOD, CHRIST IS RISEN,..HE IS RISEN INDEED!

MINISTRY NEWS

I continue to facilitate the Friday Morning Men’s Group. We are discussing a series of Andy Stanley videos.

I meet with men individually for counsel and encouragement.

I am enjoying my role as volunteer pastor to the staff of Young Life in the Southeast Region, meeting with individual staff members also for counsel and encouragement.

I attended our 30^th annual reunion of my Young Life friends. Sadly we lost one of our members this year to heart failure. There are now eleven of us.

Blessing to you, my dear friends for making all this possible through your prayers, encouragement and financial support.