Our Daddy: In Heaven

As the 4th watch of the night was just ten minutes away, yes at approximately 2:50 a.m. Monday, November 17, 2014, The Old Ship of Zion picked up our Daddy, Capt. Billy, and transported him to Heaven. 

At daylight when we left the Hospice House, double rainbows formed for about ten seconds after a gentle sun-lit rain. Our loss is Heaven's gain. 

Godspeed Daddy. We will come to you one day. You showed us that Jesus is our Way. 

Grateful 

Journey On, Weary Pilgrim, Journey On!

Sometimes we grow weary as pilgrims journeying through this land on our way Home. My week has been somewhat wearisome. However, I will keep my face to the wind until I one day reach that worthy Land called Heaven.

As I write this blog post, I am watching the sunset in a beautiful cloud cradle of orange across the ocean. I am reminded of the life-slogan I once adopted as my own: "My dream holds to sail beyond the sunset."

Just the thought of arriving one glorious day in a place called Glory adds strength to my weariness. I pray that we will meet on that beautiful shore someday. Yes, in that Land where there will never be a bad report only glad news. 

Until then, please keep your face to the wind, anticipating a time when being weary will only be a faint memory, if that. Finally, I leave you with the Word of the Lord: "The Joy of the Lord is your Strength." Mine, too.

Journey on, weary pilgrim, Journey on.

 

Grateful  

Volume 4: "Christmases Past"

I miss many things about "Christmases Past" and today I'm thinking about those miracle moments when I was a participant in community Christmas parades. Yes, for six Christmases, from ages 12-17, I marched and played drums as a part of East Carteret County school bands. The Christmas parades were always the highlight of being in the band for me personally.

Music has been and continues to be essential in my life and is such a wonderful part of the Christmas Season year-after-year.

Honestly, playing drums gave me a tangible way to connect hands-on with The Holy Days and it also helped to connect my heart to the season through the simplicity of seasonal songs. There's even a favorite seasonal song titled "The Little Drummer Boy". 

As I write this post, I am sitting on a Saturday evening in our local church sanctuary listening to one of the most beautiful tenor voices God ever created practicing Christmas Carols. Yes, Brian Arner is giving me a private concert. I am overwhelmed in my soul in such a wonderful way.

Brian will be singing in both of our worship services in the morning as we celebrate The Christ Child on the first Sunday of the Glorious Advent Season. My heart is presently warmed as my mind reminisces about "Christmases Past".

One thing is for sure. As much as I treasure yesterday's musical memories, no way in the world would I ever trade what I am feeling at this very moment or the expectations today's Christmas music gives me for the future.

In my own opinion, Christmases keep getting better and better. And just maybe singing and hearing Christmas music in December is the closest thing to experiencing Heaven we will know while on Planet Earth. 

Think about it and be inspired deep in your eternal soul. Blessed Christmas to you and to yours. 

Grateful

Citizens

Philippians 3:20-21 (GWT) We, however, are citizens of heaven. We look forward to the Lord Jesus Christ coming from heaven as our Savior. Through his power to bring everything under his authority, he will change our humble bodies and make them like his glorified body.

I love my country, but I am much more a citizen of heaven than a citizen of America.

I'm often quite homesick for Heaven... HOME! I am so glad the Spirit of the Living God lives in me here until I arrive There.

Grateful

Lust is the Unholy Heartbeat of Sin

As a pastor, but mostly as a believer, I can say with all of my heart that I hate Sin and the devil. It pains me to see Sin and the devil destroying holy marriages, precious families, and individual lives.

Lust is especially an ugly thing. Lust is self-centeredness clearly exposed. I have heard it said that "Lust is the rawest form of selfishness." It's true. Lust is the Unholy Heartbeat of Sin. Lust allows the devil to take over the controls of our lives and to lead our eternal souls to Sin's destination -- eternal devastation. Lust will leave us lifeless.

My Dad has told me many times this truth about sin:

Sin will take you further than you ever wanted to go.
Make you pay more than you ever wanted to pay.
Keep you longer than you ever wanted to stay.

I plead with everyone reading this blog today: Please choose love over lust, life over death, Heaven over Hell and The Life-giving LORD over the life-stealing devil. I plead with you to minimize future regrets later on in your life by allowing The Blood of Jesus to cleanse you of all sin, now. Please.

John 10:10 (GWT) -- "A thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy, But I came so that my sheep will have life and so they will have everything they need." -- Jesus

Grateful

The Hammer, The Nails, The Cross

One of my Tuesday morning prayer patrol partners, Gene, wrote this poem leading up to Passion Week. It seems perfect for Good Friday, especially. While it is a poem, it is also a transparent testimony.

I carried the hammer. I carried the nails.
I refused to hand them to the soldiers.
Not because I was trying to protect You,
I used them to nail You to the Cross myself

My nails pierced Your hands.
Your eyes pierced my soul.
You had already forgiven me,
Before my hammer made it's final blow
-- Gene Stainback

Lord, we thank you for the Cross.

We agree with Max Lucado who wrote: "The Cross says that God would rather go to Hell for us, than go to Heaven without us."
Grateful

Our Link to the King

Prayer links the King on the Throne with the Church at His footstool.
-- Andrew Murray

‘The Lord says,
“Heaven is My throne.
The earth is My footstool.
What kind of house are you going to build for Me?
Where will I rest?"

-- Acts 7:49

Is prayer the missing link to the King in our lives?
If so, let us pray, now.

Thank you, King Jesus, for linking us to You through prayer.
Grateful

What Makes God Laugh Out Loud?

Sometimes God must laugh out loud at our plans. In fact, I once heard someone say, "If you want to make God laugh, tell Him about your plans."

I've had one of those days. While I've had peace throughout the whole day, the plans I thought were in place for today have been totally rerouted. (And "totally rerouted" is not an over-statement.) While I set out early this morning to complete the things I thought were "the plan", God had other things in mind for me. So, I've just sort of chuckled inside as I've gone with the flow -- His flow.

Oswald Chambers taught that "God engineers our circumstances". So, if we really trust Him, going with His flow really is the only way to go. We must believe that God is trustworthy even when we cannot understand what He is up to. As a matter of fact, I think the number one thing that breaks our Lord's heart, is when we somehow wrongly imagine that He doesn't know what He's doing when he "totally reroutes" our routines by taking our lives off the beaten path of our own preferences.

In Heaven, it will be glorious to see the other side of things. Yes, now we have a limited perspective, but There we will understand what God was up to all along. Do you suppose we too will laugh out loud then?

Until Heaven is our reality, let's remember this:
God's ways are immediately mysterious yet ultimately marvelous.

Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
-- 1 Corinthians 13:12 (NIV)

Deo Volente -- Whatever God Wants!
Grateful

Made For Another World

“If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”
-- C.S. Lewis

Click here: Heaven is our Home by Kathryn Scott - YouTube

This world is not our Home. We're just passing through!
Grateful   

Pride is From Hell

Blessed are the meek...

-- Words of Jesus in Matthew 5:5a (KJV)

There is no way to get to Heaven except by meekness, by entirely dying to our pride, and by living entirely in the lowliness of Jesus. Pride gives no rest. Pride is from Hell. Pride must die or nothing of Heaven can live in us.

-- Andrew Murray

Let us surrender our lives entirely to the Blood of the Lamb, exchanging our pride for His meekness.
Grateful.

The Sailor's 23rd Psalm

I was raised on an island where the sea meets the land. The imagery that inspires me most deeply is ocean imagery. I recently found in my research this sailor's paraphrase of the 23rd Psalm. I hope it encourages you as it does me:

The Lord is my Pilot, I shall not drift.
He guides me across the dark waters.
He steers me through deep channels.
He keeps my log.
Yea, though I sail ‘mid the thunders
and tempest of life,
I shall dread no anger, for He is with me;
His love and His care, shelter me.
He prepares a quiet harbor before me.
He anoints the waves with oil
My ship rides calmly.
Surely sunlight and starlight
shall guide me on the voyage I take,
And I will rest in the Heaven's port forever.

Here's a favorite old song of Seaside souls:
Click here: YouTube - Bessie Griffin: Old Ship Of Zion

Peace, be still...
Grateful

Pre-Christmas Childlike Anticipation

I cannot explain it, but about this date every year, yes, on or about December 23rd, I get a fresh dose of childlike celebration from an undeniable Pre-Christmas anticipation that spreads like a strange and wonderful warmth throughout the depths of my soul. It's as if my heart is a welcoming manger and the Bouncing Baby Boy of Heaven, Jesus the Baby King, is laughing out loud because of the Life and Hope He knows He has brought to me from Heaven when He was delivered on Christmas Day.

Lord, my heart is Bethlehem. Thanks for being born again within my eternal soul. Amen.

O Holy Child of Bethlehem
Descend to us, we pray
Cast out our sin and enter in
Be born to us today
We hear the Christmas angels
The great glad tidings tell
O come to us, abide with us
Our Lord Emmanuel!

I posted this Youtube once already this month. Hear it again.
Sarah McLachlan's "O Little Town of Bethlehem:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyPMDD8fGeA

Grateful

Peace... No Matter What Happens!

During these days of Advent, with Christmas just days away, "Peace" is showing up with renewed emphasis in my prayer life.

Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to all whom God favors.
-- Luke 2:14 (NLT)

May the Lord of peace Himself always give you His peace no matter what happens. The Lord be with you all.
-- 2 Thessalonians 3:16 (NLT)

ALL JOY TO THE WORLD! ALL THE BOYS AND GIRLS, NOW!
Grateful

Were It Not For Grace

The words of this Larnelle Harris song touch me deeply:

Were It Not For Grace

Time measured out my days
Life carried me along
In my soul I yearned to follow God
But knew I'd never be so strong
I looked hard at this world
To learn how heaven could be gained
Just to end where I began
Where human effort is all in vain

Chorus
Were it not for grace
I can tell you where I'd be
Wandering down some pointless road to nowhere
With my salvation up to me
I know how that would go
The battles I would face
Forever running but losing this race
Were it not for grace

So here is all my praise
Expressed with all my heart
Offered to the Friend who took my place
And ran a course I could not start
And when He saw in full
Just how much His would cost
He still went the final mile between me and heaven
So I would not be lost

Repeat Chorus

Forever running but losing this race
Were it not for grace

ALL JOY TO YOUR WORLD!
Grateful

Under God or Gone Under?

"If we ever forget that we're one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under." -- President Ronald Reagan

Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and heal their land. -- 2 Chron. 7:14 (NLT)

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

Bored to Tears in Heaven?

If your heart takes more pleasure in reading novels, or watching TV, or going to the movies, or talking to friends, rather than just sitting alone with God and embracing Him, sharing His cares and His burdens, weeping and rejoicing with Him, then how are you going to handle forever and ever in His presence? You’d be bored to tears in Heaven, if you’re not ecstatic about God now! — Keith Green

Link for "Oh, Lord, You're Beautiful" sung by Keith Green:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQ3lvN4tQmY&feature=related

A single day in Your courts
is better than a thousand anywhere else!
I would rather be a gatekeeper in the house of my God
than live the good life in the homes of the wicked.
-- Psalm 84:10 (NLT)

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

The Same Faithful Forecast

With our Faithful God, yesterday's forecast of faithfulness will be repeated today, again tomorrow, and for forever:

God the Father -- reigning. God the Son -- shining. God the Holy Spirit -- blowing the breath of Heaven, Hope, and Holiness into every open soul.

But whatever is good and perfect comes to us from God, the Creator of all light, and He shines forever without change or shadow.
-- James 1:17 (TLB)

Great is His faithfulness; His loving-kindness begins afresh each day.
-- Lamentations 3:23 (TLB)

...You are near, O Lord; all Your commandments are based on truth. I have known from earliest days that Your will never changes.
-- Psalm 119:151-152 (TLB)

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
-- Hebrews 13:8 (TLB)

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

We Can't Even Imagine

"No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined
what God has prepared for those who love Him."
-- 1 Corinthians 2:9 (NLT)

My Loving Lord, Your Word is my mind's inspiration for the present, flooding my soul with anticipation for the future. Yes, even now, Heaven comes down and glory fills my soul. I can't even begin to imagine Your wonderful works underway for those who love You, so I quite simply but very sincerely give thanks in Your matchless name, my Jesus. Amen.

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

Only Over My Dead Body

But God put His love on the line for us by offering His Son in sacrificial death... Romans 5:8a

Supporting Scripture Readings: Isaiah 53; 2 Corinthians 5:11-21

It was early-spring 1992. My photography schedule led me to an elementary school along the Carolina coastline to photograph the basketball team and cheerleaders. After the photo-shoot ended, I left out the front doors of the old field house. In my mind, I was focusing on a message I would be preaching in my first revival meeting as a bi-vocational evangelist that night. I whispered under my breath to God: "How can a loving God send people to Hell?" As soon as the thought slipped through my mind, a passionate whisper within my heart cried out: “I am a loving God. I don’t send people to Hell. Set your camera cases down. I’m about to give you a visual illustration of My love.” I sat my cases down immediately and buttoned my coat to shield my neck from the bone-chilling breezes.

God’s breathtaking-visual-illustration was already underway.A kindergarten teacher had her class outside for recess. As she stood with her back against the school house, her students were in the midst of a simple but profound running exercise. The children were told to run away from their teacher about 50 yards, touch a chain-link fence, and then return back to be reunited and congratulated by their teacher.I noticed that a few boys were exercising rebellion. They were not touching the chain-link fence and returning. They were instead trying hard to climb over the chain-link fence. On the other side of the chain-link fence was the community cemetery. The graveyard was their goal.As I picked up my camera cases and continued my trek to my vehicle, I passed close by the teacher. Most of the kids were returning to her applause and affirmation. She lovingly said to each returning student: "You’re a winner!" Yes, everyone who finished won the race. In between affirming those who were obeying the rules of the exercise, she continued to call out to the boys who were scaling the cemetery fence.

God’s whisper within my heart now seemed more passionate: "The chain-link fence is Calvary. Life, like this kindergarten recess exercise, is a race intended to be a run to the chain-link fence and back to Me. On the other side of the chain-link fence is death (Hell). When my Son died on the Cross, My Love drew a line in the sands of time, erected a fence, so that anyone who goes to Hell will have to climb over the fence of my Son’s crucifixion. Even while some are climbing the fence, I continue to call them back to Me. In other words, in His sacrificial death, my only Son, Jesus, was crying out, 'Only over my dead body will people go to Hell. I don’t send people there, but they can choose to scale the fence.'”

With the lesson on God's Love learned, I smiled at the teacher and said: "I think all the kids are coming back to you now. They look really tired running in these cold breezes." With a smile she said: "Yes, I’ll take them inside now, give them milk and cookies, and let them get some rest." WOW! I thought. The teacher's words were the exact reverse of Hell -- Heaven.

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