RESTORATION: JESUS-STYLE
Our family has just gone through a very difficult season. Late last summer, one of Carol’s sisters, Norma, was diagnosed with terminal cancer and given just a few months to live. The level of care that she needed was not available in her area (about an hour east of us) and so we moved her into a private care facility not far from where we live. Needless to say, our home became the hub of a huge amount of activity. Because of the gravity of the situation, relatives from across the nation made special trips, some more than once, to spend time with Norma. Brothers (three) and sisters (three) and many of their children came to visit and cheer her.
Carol was with her sister at the care facility every day, sometimes twice or three times a day, for almost three months. Norma wanted to live until December and she made that a part of her conversation with the Lord. At three minutes after midnight on December 1, Norma very quietly and gently “left” us and went into eternity to be with her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Just a word about Norma. I knew her for slightly more than 42 years. She was a gentle, strong, caring, artistic person. She was very talented both musically and artistically. Above all else, Norma loved and served the Lord and was incredibly evangelistic right to the very end and beyond. She asked us to send a notice of her death to all her high school classmates along with an evangelistic tract that she especially liked, and so we have done that.
With a certain amount of alarm, I watched the physical and emotional toll that Norma’s sickness and care was taking on my wife. There is a love and a bond between siblings that is different from the love and affection shared with an outsider who marries into a family and I recognize that. It concerned me as I watched my wife expend herself into exhaustion day after day, and I struggled to know what to say, as this was her sister.
Carol and I did talk about the exhaustion and she did at points try to slow down, but her sister was dying and that would not go away. My wife has a glorious but not rebellious stubborn streak in her. Her husband will give her a stern admonition about something, his wife will look at him with just the hint of a smile on her face, and when he finishes his excellent, if somewhat illogical argument, she will nod and then go and do what she was doing before. I love the strength in my wife; she is nobody’s doormat and never has been, and that includes me.
It’s been six weeks now since Norma died and life is not fully back to normal. I was praying for my wife a few days ago, talking with the Lord about her being refreshed in body, soul and spirit, and the Lord took me to the first verses of Psalm 23 and showed me some things I had not seen before.
“The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul” (Psalm 23:1-3a).
Green pastures. I am a city boy. When I think of green pastures, I see a lush lawn, a beautiful park, a green field. While those are certainly true pictures, they miss the import of what the Psalmist was describing. The sheep really loved to be taken to a part of the pasture where the new shoots of grass had just pushed through the soil. They were refreshed by the grass that was new, fresh and really good eating. This grass was not older and ready to go to seed; it had not been dried by the sun and beaten around by the wind. This was new, succulent grass that was full of everything that was nourishing and refreshing.
What a powerful point of understanding! If we will let Him, He will lead us to where the grass is green and the eating is good and refreshing! I have written before about what I call “comfort food” and that devotional is worth rereading. You can look in the blog archives at what I wrote on September 10, 2007, or if you send me an e-mail and request it, I will send you an e-mail attachment with the article.
Still waters. Shepherds in the Holy Land knew that their sheep would not drink from fast-moving rivers or streams. The shepherds would create small, quiet pools at the side of the stream so that the sheep could drink and be refreshed. What a wonderful picture this is of our loving and caring Shepherd. He knows that we are fresh from the battle and that our lives have been stretched and our nerves are on edge. Out of love and respect, He creates for us a sanctuary of prayer where it is not only quiet and refreshing but the feeding is good. He wants us to be able to drink of Him and drink deeply until we are replenished.
He restores my soul. The traditional thinking on this phrase is that it is referring to the soul who has been lost and is now being restored to its rightful place in God. And while that interpretation is right, it falls far short of what this psalm is saying. This is a restoration promise for those who are already a part of the family of God. This is for the tired and exhausted worker who has toiled through the heat of the day, through the fierceness of the battle and now, to them, comes the “refreshing hand of God and they are quickened by Him.”
God’s hand reaches to the tired and weary and He says, “Let me lead you, and feed you and restore you! This is a gift and I give it freely to all who will receive.” This is a picture of a caring Shepherd who personally guides our restoration; He makes us lie down; He leads us beside the still waters—and He restores our soul.
Restoration is a process; it takes time and it cannot be rushed! I heard Dr. Jack Hayford once say, “Repentance is instantaneous but restoration takes time.” How wise is that!
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Sunday, January 20, 2008
SEEK HIS FACE!
“When You said, ‘Seek My face,’ My heart said to You, ‘Your face, LORD, I will seek’” (Psalm 27:8).
What did David mean and why did he say this?
The church in the western world is overly enamored with all the blessings that come from being a Christian. Look down the list of current best-sellers in Christian bookstores and you find titles like Become a Better You or 8 Steps to Create the Life You Want. Scan down the list of programs on Christian television and you find program after program like “Changing Your World” (not the world, your world) or “Creating Your World” or “Winning in Life.”
Most of the seminars for church leaders today feature only the pastors of mega-churches and revolve around their stories of success in building a big church. In essence, the seminars/conferences are saying, “These leaders are the measuring stick by which you can gauge your level of success.” The unspoken message here is: “If you want to be considered a success then you have to have a big church or ministry.”
We have reached a new low in the church by suggesting that success for believers is measured by the number of blessings that we can stuff in our pockets or that success for a local church is gauged primarily by its size.
The western church has lowered its sights to seek what the hand of God can do for it. The focus of the church has become increasingly self-centered as it has shifted to temporal and material issues rather than eternal truths and principles. The church has begun to seek the hand of God and not the face of God; the church has begun to seek the benefits of relationship with God rather than the relationship itself.
When we seek what God can do for us rather than to know Him, we do not honor the Lord in the manner that we should. Could I be so bold as to say that when we seek His hand and not His face we dishonor the Lord? When we set our priority to seek Him, to seek His face and do so without reservation, then He extends His hand on our behalf.
In Psalm 27, David rehearses the testimony of God’s faithfulness in keeping him in the midst of attack after attack. Verse four gives us a key to understanding why David was a “man after God’s heart” and was so blessed by God.
“One thing have I desired of the Lord,
That will I seek:
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord
All the days of my life,
To behold the beauty of the Lord,
And to inquire in His temple.”
It is out of David’s rehearsing God’s faithfulness and out of his own heartfelt declaration that he begins to pray in verse eight. “When You said, ‘Seek My face,’ My heart said to You, ‘Your face, LORD, I will seek’”. David did not let his prayer get consumed with the benefits of his relationship with the Lord; instead, he refocused his attention on what was really important—and that was to know God, to seek His face.
It is so easy to simply focus on the benefits of knowing Christ rather than actually getting to know Him. We see this principle played out at Christmastime. If children are not taught what Christmas is about, their experience will be focused only on what gifts they receive. To the child who only gets a few gifts, Christmas is defined as being a failure. When Christmas is defined only by what we receive then we have lost sight of the real meaning of Christmas.
The Lord said to David, “Seek my face.” David’s response is important to grasp: “My heart said to you.” Everything within David responded back to the Lord, “Your face I will seek.” David understood that his victory, his success, his power did not come from focusing on the benefits but from knowing His God.
It is not wrong to enjoy the blessings and benefits of our relationship with God. David said in Psalm 68:19, “Blessed be the Lord, Who daily loads us with benefits, the God of our salvation!” The benefits are the overflow of a personal and growing relationship with God. We seek to know Him and build on that relationship; we don’t seek His hand, for then there is little to build on.
What did David mean and why did he say this?
The church in the western world is overly enamored with all the blessings that come from being a Christian. Look down the list of current best-sellers in Christian bookstores and you find titles like Become a Better You or 8 Steps to Create the Life You Want. Scan down the list of programs on Christian television and you find program after program like “Changing Your World” (not the world, your world) or “Creating Your World” or “Winning in Life.”
Most of the seminars for church leaders today feature only the pastors of mega-churches and revolve around their stories of success in building a big church. In essence, the seminars/conferences are saying, “These leaders are the measuring stick by which you can gauge your level of success.” The unspoken message here is: “If you want to be considered a success then you have to have a big church or ministry.”
We have reached a new low in the church by suggesting that success for believers is measured by the number of blessings that we can stuff in our pockets or that success for a local church is gauged primarily by its size.
The western church has lowered its sights to seek what the hand of God can do for it. The focus of the church has become increasingly self-centered as it has shifted to temporal and material issues rather than eternal truths and principles. The church has begun to seek the hand of God and not the face of God; the church has begun to seek the benefits of relationship with God rather than the relationship itself.
When we seek what God can do for us rather than to know Him, we do not honor the Lord in the manner that we should. Could I be so bold as to say that when we seek His hand and not His face we dishonor the Lord? When we set our priority to seek Him, to seek His face and do so without reservation, then He extends His hand on our behalf.
In Psalm 27, David rehearses the testimony of God’s faithfulness in keeping him in the midst of attack after attack. Verse four gives us a key to understanding why David was a “man after God’s heart” and was so blessed by God.
“One thing have I desired of the Lord,
That will I seek:
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord
All the days of my life,
To behold the beauty of the Lord,
And to inquire in His temple.”
It is out of David’s rehearsing God’s faithfulness and out of his own heartfelt declaration that he begins to pray in verse eight. “When You said, ‘Seek My face,’ My heart said to You, ‘Your face, LORD, I will seek’”. David did not let his prayer get consumed with the benefits of his relationship with the Lord; instead, he refocused his attention on what was really important—and that was to know God, to seek His face.
It is so easy to simply focus on the benefits of knowing Christ rather than actually getting to know Him. We see this principle played out at Christmastime. If children are not taught what Christmas is about, their experience will be focused only on what gifts they receive. To the child who only gets a few gifts, Christmas is defined as being a failure. When Christmas is defined only by what we receive then we have lost sight of the real meaning of Christmas.
The Lord said to David, “Seek my face.” David’s response is important to grasp: “My heart said to you.” Everything within David responded back to the Lord, “Your face I will seek.” David understood that his victory, his success, his power did not come from focusing on the benefits but from knowing His God.
It is not wrong to enjoy the blessings and benefits of our relationship with God. David said in Psalm 68:19, “Blessed be the Lord, Who daily loads us with benefits, the God of our salvation!” The benefits are the overflow of a personal and growing relationship with God. We seek to know Him and build on that relationship; we don’t seek His hand, for then there is little to build on.
Monday, January 14, 2008
THE OX IS IN THE STALL
I never have been able to keep a tidy desk. I gather my working tools around me: my files, my books, my notes, my pens, my phones, my incoming correspondence, my daily journal, my cup of coffee, my computer and I am ready to go. I know where everything is--well almost--and I go to work.
My desk has been a source of contention for several of my bosses. They would come into my office, take one look at my desk, and do one of two things: retreat or give me a word that usually could be boiled down to, "Your desk should be tidier!" It may not have helped that I had a sign on my desk that read "A CLEAN DESK IS THE SIGN OF A SICK MIND!" Probably not the most tactful sign to have on my desk.
One of my early bosses walked into my office and told me, "Last night I was praying for you and the Lord gave me a scripture for you." I broke out into a panic-driven sweat when he said this. I was thinking, "Oh, I am in doo-doo now!" (Doo-doo is Texas talk for "manure.")
He quoted me Proverbs 14:4: "Where no oxen are, the trough is clean; But much increase comes by the strength of the ox."
Strange as it may seem, this verse has come to have wonderful meaning for me over the years...but only after I got over the complex of being compared to an ox. (I had to watch Dr. Phil for over a year to break the image in my mind and I still have the occasional nightmare about it.)
Simply put, this verse is saying: "If there is no ox in the stall, there will be no mess on the floor. It's better to have to get out the shovel and clean up the mess, because from the strength of the ox comes the increase. No ox, no mess; no mess, no increase!"
One of the weaknesses of our culture and its approach to measuring people is that we are accustomed to putting too much effort into finding out what people's weaknesses are. I learned a valuable lesson from reading about how the Japanese approach hiring new staff. Japanese businesses tend to focus more than we do on people's strengths, what they are good at. They want to be aware of what the weaknesses are but they do not disqualify a person because they have weaknesses. They accept the fact that strong capable people often have weaknesses that are quite visible. One of the reasons Japanese businesses surged so strongly in the later portion of the last century was because they embraced this approach.
It is much more profitable to understand where people's strengths lie and help them build on them than to concentrate on their weaknesses. You may not like this idea but it is better to have to clean up a little mess now and then because you have a strong ox in the stall than it is to have a mediocre ox that makes tiny, neat little messes but just never does get the job done.
The ox was the work animal of the ancient world. Smart farmers that had a team of oxen took good care of them. They understood that if the oxen were properly fed and cared for, they would be able to plough more land in a day. They would be able to drive a grinding wheel longer in a day because it was through the ox's strength that the strength of the farmer was multiplied and made abundantly fruitful. So a smart farmer/employer/person knew it was important to nuture the strength of the ox.
It is often difficult for us to understand exactly where our own strengths lie and frequently we need the help of others in this. I am grateful that the same boss who impressed Proverbs 14:4 was caring enough to help me begin to develop some of my strengths that I could not see in my self. There are also some wonderful assessment tests available to us.
The word "increase" as it is used here means gain, profit, fruitfulness, or revenue.
I think the Apostle Paul understood this principle because of the way he used it in 2 Corinthians 10:15: "Not boasting of things beyond measure, that is, in other men's labors, but having hope, that as your faith is increased, we shall be greatly enlarged by you in our sphere."
Build on strength and watch the increase come!
Okay, enough of this Dr. Phil is about to come on.
My desk has been a source of contention for several of my bosses. They would come into my office, take one look at my desk, and do one of two things: retreat or give me a word that usually could be boiled down to, "Your desk should be tidier!" It may not have helped that I had a sign on my desk that read "A CLEAN DESK IS THE SIGN OF A SICK MIND!" Probably not the most tactful sign to have on my desk.
One of my early bosses walked into my office and told me, "Last night I was praying for you and the Lord gave me a scripture for you." I broke out into a panic-driven sweat when he said this. I was thinking, "Oh, I am in doo-doo now!" (Doo-doo is Texas talk for "manure.")
He quoted me Proverbs 14:4: "Where no oxen are, the trough is clean; But much increase comes by the strength of the ox."
Strange as it may seem, this verse has come to have wonderful meaning for me over the years...but only after I got over the complex of being compared to an ox. (I had to watch Dr. Phil for over a year to break the image in my mind and I still have the occasional nightmare about it.)
Simply put, this verse is saying: "If there is no ox in the stall, there will be no mess on the floor. It's better to have to get out the shovel and clean up the mess, because from the strength of the ox comes the increase. No ox, no mess; no mess, no increase!"
One of the weaknesses of our culture and its approach to measuring people is that we are accustomed to putting too much effort into finding out what people's weaknesses are. I learned a valuable lesson from reading about how the Japanese approach hiring new staff. Japanese businesses tend to focus more than we do on people's strengths, what they are good at. They want to be aware of what the weaknesses are but they do not disqualify a person because they have weaknesses. They accept the fact that strong capable people often have weaknesses that are quite visible. One of the reasons Japanese businesses surged so strongly in the later portion of the last century was because they embraced this approach.
It is much more profitable to understand where people's strengths lie and help them build on them than to concentrate on their weaknesses. You may not like this idea but it is better to have to clean up a little mess now and then because you have a strong ox in the stall than it is to have a mediocre ox that makes tiny, neat little messes but just never does get the job done.
The ox was the work animal of the ancient world. Smart farmers that had a team of oxen took good care of them. They understood that if the oxen were properly fed and cared for, they would be able to plough more land in a day. They would be able to drive a grinding wheel longer in a day because it was through the ox's strength that the strength of the farmer was multiplied and made abundantly fruitful. So a smart farmer/employer/person knew it was important to nuture the strength of the ox.
It is often difficult for us to understand exactly where our own strengths lie and frequently we need the help of others in this. I am grateful that the same boss who impressed Proverbs 14:4 was caring enough to help me begin to develop some of my strengths that I could not see in my self. There are also some wonderful assessment tests available to us.
The word "increase" as it is used here means gain, profit, fruitfulness, or revenue.
I think the Apostle Paul understood this principle because of the way he used it in 2 Corinthians 10:15: "Not boasting of things beyond measure, that is, in other men's labors, but having hope, that as your faith is increased, we shall be greatly enlarged by you in our sphere."
Build on strength and watch the increase come!
Okay, enough of this Dr. Phil is about to come on.
Monday, January 7, 2008
HIDING IN THE BLESSINGS!
In Genesis 3:8 and 9, we read that God came down into the Garden of Eden to walk and fellowship with Adam and Eve; however, Adam and Eve were nowhere to be seen. Of course, God knew where they were because He is God! But still, He called out to them and asked, “Where are you?”
“Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God” (3:8). Adam and Eve had sinned and their sin was a cataclysmic turning point for all mankind. When they failed, they were embarrassed and afraid and no longer wanted to be in God’s presence, so they hid among the trees of the garden. The word “presence” in verse eight can also be translated to mean “face.”
All the trees in the Garden of Eden were fruit bearing (Genesis 1:11). God had put them there for Adam and Eve to enjoy and to be fed from, but now they were using the trees illegitimately to hide from the presence of the Lord. The disobedient always hide themselves from the presence/face of the Lord. “Hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne!” (Revelation 6:16).
“Where are you?” God called out to Adam and Eve. I believe He was calling them back to Himself, giving them a reference point to begin to move back toward. I don’t believe He was angrily chiding them or rebuking them. He was lovingly calling them to intimate fellowship with Him as a concerned father would call one of his disobedient children to himself. This is the cry of a heartbroken Father reaching out to the children He knows have lost their way.
I believe God wanted Adam and Eve to fully enjoy the abundance of the Garden. He wanted the lush vegetation to be refreshing for them, to bring shade when it was hot, and cover when it was wet. The trees were not only beautiful but they bore fruit and in their harvests they provided more than ample food for the family of God.
For Adam and Eve to be using the trees as a hiding place was a perversion of what God had intended. To take what God had planned for blessing and use it as a hiding place was not what God had planned. To take the blessing of the Lord and use it to try and replace fellowship with the Father is heartbreaking, I believe. God wants His people to enjoy the Garden/His blessing and its fruitfulness but not to hide in it.
Psalm 67:1-2 gives very significant detail as to the purpose of God’s blessing to His people.
“God be merciful to us and bless us, And cause His face to shine upon us, Selah That Your way may be known on earth, Your salvation among all nations.”
I believe the church of 2008, with its over-emphasis on what God can do for me, on what I can get from God, on how God’s blessing will bring me temporal success, has caused the church to go into hiding among the trees of the Garden. Embarrassed by our carnal response, we have gone into hiding among the blessings of God. We are using the blessings of the Lord in a vain attempt to cover the nakedness of our foolishness. We have gone into hiding among the trees rather than encounter God’s face because we are embarrassed and afraid.
The prophetic call of God’s Spirit to the church is, “Where are you?” The call is that of a loving Father reaching out to His children and calling them out of hiding and back to Him. It is a call to come out from under a tree and back into our rightful place in intimate fellowship with the Father. In fellowship with the Father we enjoy the intimacy of our relationship with Him and we enjoy the fullness of the fruitful Garden.
“If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14).
“Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God” (3:8). Adam and Eve had sinned and their sin was a cataclysmic turning point for all mankind. When they failed, they were embarrassed and afraid and no longer wanted to be in God’s presence, so they hid among the trees of the garden. The word “presence” in verse eight can also be translated to mean “face.”
All the trees in the Garden of Eden were fruit bearing (Genesis 1:11). God had put them there for Adam and Eve to enjoy and to be fed from, but now they were using the trees illegitimately to hide from the presence of the Lord. The disobedient always hide themselves from the presence/face of the Lord. “Hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne!” (Revelation 6:16).
“Where are you?” God called out to Adam and Eve. I believe He was calling them back to Himself, giving them a reference point to begin to move back toward. I don’t believe He was angrily chiding them or rebuking them. He was lovingly calling them to intimate fellowship with Him as a concerned father would call one of his disobedient children to himself. This is the cry of a heartbroken Father reaching out to the children He knows have lost their way.
I believe God wanted Adam and Eve to fully enjoy the abundance of the Garden. He wanted the lush vegetation to be refreshing for them, to bring shade when it was hot, and cover when it was wet. The trees were not only beautiful but they bore fruit and in their harvests they provided more than ample food for the family of God.
For Adam and Eve to be using the trees as a hiding place was a perversion of what God had intended. To take what God had planned for blessing and use it as a hiding place was not what God had planned. To take the blessing of the Lord and use it to try and replace fellowship with the Father is heartbreaking, I believe. God wants His people to enjoy the Garden/His blessing and its fruitfulness but not to hide in it.
Psalm 67:1-2 gives very significant detail as to the purpose of God’s blessing to His people.
“God be merciful to us and bless us, And cause His face to shine upon us, Selah That Your way may be known on earth, Your salvation among all nations.”
I believe the church of 2008, with its over-emphasis on what God can do for me, on what I can get from God, on how God’s blessing will bring me temporal success, has caused the church to go into hiding among the trees of the Garden. Embarrassed by our carnal response, we have gone into hiding among the blessings of God. We are using the blessings of the Lord in a vain attempt to cover the nakedness of our foolishness. We have gone into hiding among the trees rather than encounter God’s face because we are embarrassed and afraid.
The prophetic call of God’s Spirit to the church is, “Where are you?” The call is that of a loving Father reaching out to His children and calling them out of hiding and back to Him. It is a call to come out from under a tree and back into our rightful place in intimate fellowship with the Father. In fellowship with the Father we enjoy the intimacy of our relationship with Him and we enjoy the fullness of the fruitful Garden.
“If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14).
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
IT'S NEVER TOO LATE
I first met Dr. Ed Cole in the late 1960’s when he was pastor of a church near the San Francisco Bay Area. I was David Wilkerson’s Crusade Director at the time and we had some very large crusades in Northern California. Dr. Cole and I maintained our contact over the years and in the late 90’s I began to do part-time work for him and his ministry, The Christian Men’s Network.
Until his death in 2002, I helped Dr. Cole with some of his men’s events around the nation. I occasionally traveled with him and handled the scheduling, planning and management of his events and speaking engagements. Dr. Cole will always be one of my favorite teachers—his teaching for men was simply superb. If you have not read his book Maximized Manhood, do so; it’s a classic. Here is the website of The Christian Men’s Network: www.cmnworld.com.
Dr. Ed Cole is looked upon by many as the father of the modern men’s movement. When Dr. Cole started writing, teaching and traveling with a focus on men in 1977, there was no men’s movement in the nation. Promise Keepers did not exist and there was almost nothing being done for the men of the church on a regional or national basis. It was in one of Ed Cole’s men’s events that a football coach named Bill McCartney was touched by God’s Spirit, and out of that spiritual encounter Promise Keepers was birthed.
Dr. Ed Cole was 55 when he founded The Christian Men’s Network in 1977 and he maintained his focus and calling right up to his death.
A few days ago I read a brief article about the founder of the J.C. Penney department stores. I was more than intrigued, because the world headquarters of J.C. Penney Company is about a mile from my home.
J.C. Penney launched his first chain of stores, “The Golden Rule” stores, in 1907. The stores apparently did well until the stock market crash of 1929 and J.C. Penney lost $40 million. In 1932 he was forced to sell out in order to satisfy creditors; his spirit was crushed, his health began to fail, and he was virtually broke. While in a sanitarium in Battle Creek, Michigan, one morning Penney heard singing in the distance and went to investigate. Staff members of the sanitarium gathered each morning for worship before beginning their work day and the words of the song that Mr. Penney heard were from the song “God will take care of you.”
"Be not dismayed whate'er betide,
God will take care of you;
Beneath His wings of love abide,
God will take care of you."
Penney slipped into the back of the room and listened. He left a short time later a changed man, his health and spirit renewed. He went out and started over with the J.C. Penney Company; he was 56 when he started the long climb back.
As far as we know Joshua was about 85 years of age when he assumed leadership of the Jewish nation and led them into their conquest of the Promised Land. Joshua 11:23 says in summarizing Joshua’s life: “So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the Lord had said to Moses; and Joshua gave it as an inheritance to Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. Then the land rested from war.” Not a bad epitaph.
“So (your name inserted here) did all that God had laid on his heart.” I could rest with that on my grave marker!
It is never, ever too late to step out in faith and do something that the Lord has put on your heart.
Until his death in 2002, I helped Dr. Cole with some of his men’s events around the nation. I occasionally traveled with him and handled the scheduling, planning and management of his events and speaking engagements. Dr. Cole will always be one of my favorite teachers—his teaching for men was simply superb. If you have not read his book Maximized Manhood, do so; it’s a classic. Here is the website of The Christian Men’s Network: www.cmnworld.com.
Dr. Ed Cole is looked upon by many as the father of the modern men’s movement. When Dr. Cole started writing, teaching and traveling with a focus on men in 1977, there was no men’s movement in the nation. Promise Keepers did not exist and there was almost nothing being done for the men of the church on a regional or national basis. It was in one of Ed Cole’s men’s events that a football coach named Bill McCartney was touched by God’s Spirit, and out of that spiritual encounter Promise Keepers was birthed.
Dr. Ed Cole was 55 when he founded The Christian Men’s Network in 1977 and he maintained his focus and calling right up to his death.
A few days ago I read a brief article about the founder of the J.C. Penney department stores. I was more than intrigued, because the world headquarters of J.C. Penney Company is about a mile from my home.
J.C. Penney launched his first chain of stores, “The Golden Rule” stores, in 1907. The stores apparently did well until the stock market crash of 1929 and J.C. Penney lost $40 million. In 1932 he was forced to sell out in order to satisfy creditors; his spirit was crushed, his health began to fail, and he was virtually broke. While in a sanitarium in Battle Creek, Michigan, one morning Penney heard singing in the distance and went to investigate. Staff members of the sanitarium gathered each morning for worship before beginning their work day and the words of the song that Mr. Penney heard were from the song “God will take care of you.”
"Be not dismayed whate'er betide,
God will take care of you;
Beneath His wings of love abide,
God will take care of you."
Penney slipped into the back of the room and listened. He left a short time later a changed man, his health and spirit renewed. He went out and started over with the J.C. Penney Company; he was 56 when he started the long climb back.
As far as we know Joshua was about 85 years of age when he assumed leadership of the Jewish nation and led them into their conquest of the Promised Land. Joshua 11:23 says in summarizing Joshua’s life: “So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the Lord had said to Moses; and Joshua gave it as an inheritance to Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. Then the land rested from war.” Not a bad epitaph.
“So (your name inserted here) did all that God had laid on his heart.” I could rest with that on my grave marker!
It is never, ever too late to step out in faith and do something that the Lord has put on your heart.
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