A Double-Blessing Friday Morning

Since my Dad's passing onto Glory in November of 2014, my Mom and I have talked on the phone most every day. We are separated geographically by 400 miles or so, however our hearts are always one together because of Jesus.

This morning I called my Mom and for about 30 minutes we encouraged one another in the wonder-filled thoughts of The Lord -- His Worthiness of our all and His Faithfulness to Dad in his dying and to us in our living. At the close of the call, Mom thanked me for talking to her. Her humility warmed my tender heart tremendously.

As soon as I hung up this text message came to me from a dear friend and a true lover of The Lord:

"Hello Pastor Kerry:
While praying for my compeers, comrades and co-laborers this morning, my thoughts remained on you for a while. May our gracious God edify you from His very presence today.
'Lord, guide every decision required of Pastor Kerry now. Revive his heart with Your powerful, living Word. May his love for You be Your joy and his. Strengthen him and remind him of the spiritual sons and daughters that are his. Amen.'"

It's been a double-blessing Friday morning for me and because those who are given much more, much more is required, I'd like to now share from the overflow of these blessings with you:

"Lord Jesus, please let Your Peace increase in the lives of my brothers and sisters reading this blog post this day. Make Your mighty miracles manifest in their daily needs and give them the desires of Your heart. Wherever they may be in the mix of life, make them strong by Your power and pure by Your presence. Let Your Kingdom come and Your will be done wherever they are, as it is in Heaven. Amen, in Your Holy Name."

Give away your life... to King Jesus! He's Worthy!

Grateful

The Answer = Jesus

In spite of his season of physical suffering, my Dad, Capt. Billy, is having one of his better days today. We shared a wonderful time of witnessing to one another on the phone this morning. We cried beautiful long-distance tears. Even Mom joined in. It was such a glorious season of stillness for our souls.

Dad said, "Kerry, I can't get that song, 'Jesus is the Answer', off my mind. You should get on that YouTube thing you have, find it, and listen to it."

Well, I will honor my Dad's request even now. Here's the link to Andre Crouch's classic song:

Click here: Andre Crouch--Jesus is the answer - YouTube

Indeed, "Jesus is the Answer. Now what was the question?"

Grateful

Steadfast Faith That is Anchored

As I am on sabbatical with about three weeks remaining, many of you know my Dad, Capt. Billy, has been completing a round of radiation for recurring cancer.

Dad is feeling new strength and has a great appetite. Last evening he told me he enjoyed the best meal perhaps of his life, as Mom cooked Stewed Carolina Blue Crabs for their supper.

On Tuesday, September 23, Dad goes to UNC Medical Center to get options for his future treatment. His inspiring comments on that upcoming visit were: "Nevertheless, I will not worry!" Some people wilt spiritually when suffering comes, but my Dad -- through His trust in our Almighty, Personal, and Very Present Holy God -- has gloried in it all. It's been amazing to witness.

A dear church board member, Debbie, sent me this message recently. It so touched my heart that I asked her if I could share a portion of her message to me with all of you on my blog. She agreed. Listen in:

Dear Pastor Kerry:

I sent these words from my devotion in a card to your Dad the other day and I thought I would share them with you. Praying they will be an encouragement to you.

"God enjoys our faith in any season in life, but the trust we display in the dark is far more precious than gold. Nothing overcomes the enemy's tactics or thwarts his desires more clearly than that. When everything seems stacked against us and we trust God, praise him, and lean on him anyway, we have won invisible victories that are visibly celebrated in Heaven. Our faith in the dark is treasured by God." -- Chris Tiegreen, Experiencing God's Presence

Celebrating the many victories you and your Dad have won because of your steadfast faith that is anchored in our Lord and Savior.

Blessings,
Debbie

Grateful (... and encouraged... me & my Dad)  

Our Assurance is in the Almighty

I recently had the thought: "I wonder how my two younger brothers are really dealing inwardly with our Dad's season of 'seeming' uncertainty during his cancer recurrence?" Then, my younger brother, Stephen, sent me this song on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSJZoEoVPy4

Our allegiance is to and our assurance is in The Almighty!

Enough said.

Grateful

"Then, Thursday Night Came..."

Here's another update on my parents, Capt. Billy and Lady Melba.

As you know from my earlier post this week, Dad is at home now and getting along in a wheelchair with Mom's help. 

Then, Thursday night came... That's when Mom tripped backwards over the end of Dad's wheelchair and fell hard on the wood floor. We were concerned she may have messed up her recent hip replacement. However, after X-rays she broke her pelvis in two places. 

So, now they are both somewhat crippled, Dad caring for Mom from his wheelchair and Mom assisting Dad from her walker.

Can I say one thing? "A husband and a wife staying together for better or for worse over the longhaul is a beautiful thing!"

Through sacred tears last evening Dad tenderly testified: "We are unoffended in The Lord."

My brothers and I are burning up the roads between Virginia and North Carolina these days. And it's all joy, my friends, all joy!

Grateful

Note: This is my 1600th All-Time Blog Post. So glad it is wrapped in Luke 7:23 (KJV).  

A New Heart and A Right Spirit

Today, I am remembering a few weeks back when my Dad was in the hospital and a heart technician came in asking him questions about his physical heart. My Dad said tenderly, "I am 73-years-old but you should know that when I was 27-years-old, I had a heart transplant." The technician smiled and said, "I have a feeling you are about to tell me about Jesus." She was right. That's what he did.

The Psalmist cried out to God, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right Spirit within me." (Psalm 51)

Do you have a new heart and a right Spirit yet? You can have both in Jesus' Name.
Grateful

Volume 15: "Christmases Past"

In the news of our nation, I just saw where two people won a total of 636-million-dollars by guessing the "right" numbers playing the lottery. I have news for the "winners". All of their new-won money will not buy them peace. Peace isn't found in new money. Peace is found in an old manger.

You know what I miss most about "Christmases Past?" I miss the sense that everyone was content and grateful with what they had. I know that ever since the beginning of Creation people have been grasping for more and more, however, when I was a boy at Christmastime, it seemed that most all of the families in our community were more content and grateful with what they had rather than desiring more monetary gain. People seemed more at peace with their own lives, more glad for their health and less focused on others' wealth.

Call it the naive perspective of a child, because maybe that's where my memories of "Christmases Past" originate? If so, then, I want to be more like a child these days, like I was in those days. I don't want success in my mind to be defined as more and more financial accumulation, but in more and more faith saturation.

As I write these words, December 18, 2013, my Dad is in the Greenville, North Carolina, Medical Center in severe pain. A few days ago, he learned that he has a tumor at the base of his spine. Operating is not an option because it could paralyze him. So, while we await the results of a biopsy taken yesterday, Dad's pain is severe. Hopefully, today, a desired diagnosis will be discovered and some form of treatment to reduce the size of the tumor and find Dad some relief will begin to happen.

In talking with Dad early this morning, he said tenderly, "I am in great pain, son, but I have good peace." In our conversation, financial accumulation had no relevancy. The only things that matter now pertain to internal and eternal priorities. Remember, it's our faith, family, and friends that deliver to our lives the essence of true peace.

Good News! It's "Christmas Present!" Don't focus on money and "winning" some big, complicated Jack-Pot. Simply, fall at the manger and find everlasting Jesus-Present, and LIVE at Peace with God and with yourself this Christmas and beyond!

Grateful            

Hang My Head... Up!

But you, O LORD, are a shield about me,
my glory, and the lifter of my head.
-- Psalm 3:3 (ESV)

But you, O Lord, are a shield around me;
You are my glory, the One who holds my head high.
-- Psalm 3:3 (NLT)

If you are going to hang your head, hang it up so you can see the face of God. -- My Dad, Billy C. Willis

Where there is no vision, the people perish.
-- Proverbs 29:18 (KJV)
Grateful

I Hope To See My Pilot

The Willis family celebrates Christmas together each year a few days before Christmas. It allows us to come together without the pressures of rushing through our immediate family time so everyone can hit the road to be present at other extended family gatherings. This year was no different. On December 20, 2010, Mom and Dad along with my brothers and their families were present at our home for about seven sacred hours together.

There was one touching highlight of the evening that crested above all the others. It was when Dad stood in front of the Christmas tree and read his favorite poem from a seven-dollar book I gave to him as sort of an extra "little personal gift" of Christmas.

When Dad reached the last two lines of the poem he began to cry. So did the rest of us. It was a good cry. A cry of Hope for the future to our Faithful God of the past and the present.

The poem is a piece of English literature that my sea-captain-fisherman Dad has quoted aloud from memory throughout all the years of my life. Here it is:

Sunset and evening star,
And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
When I put out to sea,

But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
Turns again home.

Twilight and evening bell,
And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
When I embark;

For tho' from out our bourne of Time and Place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crossed the bar.

The poem is Alfred Lord Tennyson's Crossing the Bar.

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow!
Grateful

My Dad's New Joy-Description at Age 70.

A PRICELESS STORY WORTH YOUR PRECIOUS TIME. I PROMISE.

My Dad, Billy, has been working on the water in and around The Graveyard of the Atlantic Ocean all of his life. Fishing, crabbing, scalloping, and mostly shrimping has been his livelihood. Old Salty would properly define him. Now at age 70, because Dad's retirement fund never really got funded, he's got a new job-description. (Most all of the commercial fishermen along the North Carolina coastline have experienced less than overflowing nets, especially over the past 20 years or so.) About that new job-description? Dad would see it more as His new joy-description. Yes, my Dad is now working twelve-hour-a-day shifts on a ferry boat for the North Carolina Department of Transportation. Though he's been a boat captain of his own vessel for more than thirty years, he now goes back to being a deckhand and an engine oiler -- both servant-jobs he performed everyday of his life, even while he was captaining his own shrimp boat. My Dad has been and continues to be the very definition of a servant leader. That's one reason he's a hero of the faith to his family.

Well, recently Dad shared a story as our family of fifteen had gathered at the water's edge to celebrate Dad and Mom's 5Oth Wedding Anniversary. Dad's story was about a boy named Jesse.

The story began with Dad loading vehicles for a ferry boat passage across the channel, when he saw an over-sized van pull onto the deck. A severely handicapped boy was riding as a passenger. When the van stopped and the ferry pulled away from the dock, Dad watched from the cabin window as the boy's father unloaded his son in an electric wheelchair to sit on the deck and watch the coastal scenery during the half-hour crossing.

Dad stood at a distance as long as he possibly could, but he's never been good at posing as an innocent bystander. He likes to get involved once he senses permission from the Holy Spirit to do so. So Dad made his way out towards the father-and-son duo. After friendly introductions and careful questions, Dad learned that the boy, who looked to be seven or eight, was actually fifteen. Yes, his name was Jesse, and though he was severely handicapped physically, he had complete mental capacities. Jesse could only control his body basically from the neck up. He was bent and totally dependent on his father for pretty much everything except breathing and talking. It broke my Dad's heart.

Dad elevated the conversation with Jesse by beginning to talk prayerfully about Jesus and a place of total healing called Heaven. Dad gently reminded Jesse about the great day coming when he would have a new body, a day when physical pains and human limitations would be things of the past. Jesse was encouraged by Dad's words and agreed wholeheartedly with Dad's forecast of hope. Jesse, indicated that he knew life would be more than wonderful for him soon enough. Dad, touched deep within, went back into the cabin, all the while keeping a close prayerful watch on Jesse and his dad.

Inside the ferry boat, Dad kept thinking on something Jesse's father had said earlier. Yes, Jesse and his dad were actually making their once-a-year trip on the ferry. Each year Jesse asks to make the ferry boat ride --thirty minutes one-way and then to make the return across the channel, to the mainland where he lives. Jesse's father told Dad that his dear boy just loves sitting on the deck in his wheelchair. Obviously, it is like medicine to his soul.

Finally, Dad said to the Lord, "I think I might be able to make Jesse's day." With that declaration, he went back to the deck and knelt down beside Jesse's wheelchair once again and asked: "Jesse, do you like ice cream?" Jesse gave Dad a big grin and said, "I think I do! I love ice cream, Mr. Billy!" Dad showed Jesse a five-dollar-bill and handing the cash to Jesse's dad said, "Jesse, I know there's a Dairy Queen Ice Cream Shoppe on the journey back to your hometown. When you and your dad pass by, I want you to stop and have a big, ice cream sundae on me." You guessed it! Dad was right. Jesse's day was made, indeed! His countenance was invigorating proof. Yes, Jesse's day was made by a silver-haired, should-be-retired-by-now (by this world's standards for success) boat-captain who took on the saintly joy-description of a deckhand and engine oiler at the age of 70. Could it be that being refired beats being retired?

As Dad walked back toward the cabin, Jesse's dad tenderly called out gratitude something akin to: "Thanks Mr. Billy. You'll can't possibly know how much encountering you on this two-way, ferry boat ride today means to Jesse and me." I know the feeling was mutual. You see, in making Jesse's day? Jesse, Jesse's dad, and especially Jesus had made Mr. Billy's day, too.

At the end of his story, my Dad was weeping big tears, and so were the rest of us listening around the table. Then Dad spoke to us his secret. "Each day when I wake up, I tell God the same thing. 'Today don't let people see Billy. Let them see Jesus in Billy.'" I'd say God is answering my Dad's daily prayer. Wouldn't you?

A vast crowd was there as He (Jesus) stepped from the boat, and he had compassion on them... -- Matthew 14:14 (NLT)

Then Jesus said to them, "Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men". -- Mark 1:17 (NKJV)

For this is the secret: Christ lives in you... - Colossians 1:27 (NLT)

Dad still has his shrimp boat, The Lady Melba. It's tied up at the dock most days in the Refuge Harbor on the west end of Harkers Island, North Carolina. My guess is, that Dad will probably wet his shrimp nets a time or two again before the Lord calls him home. But right now God has him witnessing on the ferry boat. Life is good, even without early retirement funds. My Dad, Mr. Billy (still "Captain Billy" to most of the people who know him best) is invigorating proof of that.

*A 2006 YouTube clip of my silver-haired Dad scalloping:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpnOoEN3OzA

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful

"Help My Unbelief!"

It was just before midnight. Because of snowy roads, I was driving my 22-year-old son to his night shift at the local radio station in my four-wheel-drive. We had a sacred and soul-searching talk about the Lord as we rode. Just before I dropped him off, and in light of our conversation about faith, my son asked: Dad, why do we tend to struggle trusting God concerning the future when He's always been so faithful in the past?

Mark 9:24 (NKJV) -- Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!"

This is my prayer and desire for me and my family, Lord:

For Your present and future favor, we ask!
In Your past and present faithfulness, we bask!

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful

"Crossing the Bar" & "The Sailor's Psalm"

Alfred Lloyd Tenneyson was an English Poet. His classic poem titled, Crossing the Bar was written in 1889, just three years before his death. This is my Dad's favorite poem. He has quoted it to me from memory many times over the years. Because my Dad has spent the majority of his life on the ocean as a shrimp-boat captain, the imagery of the sea is especially meaningful to him when it comes to understanding life and death.

The word "bar" in this poem, for example, has to do with "a final sand bar near a safe harbor before a captain puts his vessel out into the unknown deep". "Moaning" in this poem likely refers to "bad weather". Also, "Pilot" as used by Tenneyson is a synonym for "Captain". It is an endearing title given to "God" by sailors. You might be aware of the cherished hymn, "Jesus, Saviour Pilot Me."

Anyway, here's the passionate poem, Crossing the Bar, by Tenneyson:

Sunset and evening star
And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
When I put out to sea.

But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
Turns again home.

Twilight and evening bell,
And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
When I embark.

For though from out our bourne of Time and Place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crossed the bar.

Also, Psalm 107:23-31 is my shrimpboat-captain-dad's favorite Bible passage. I refer to it as The Sailor's Psalm:

(23) Some went off in ships, plying the trade routes of the world. (24) They, too, observed the LORD’S power in action, his impressive works on the deepest seas. (25) He spoke, and the winds rose, stirring up the waves. (26) Their ships were tossed to the heavens and sank again to the depths; the sailors cringed in terror. (27) They reeled and staggered like drunkards and were at their wits’ end. (28) "LORD, help!" they cried in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress. (29) He calmed the storm to a whisper and stilled the waves. (30) What a blessing was that stillness as he brought them safely into harbor! (31) Let them praise the LORD for his great love and for all his wonderful deeds to them.

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! -- God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful