Category: Christian Living

You Are the Best!

by Dale, posted in Christian Living, Family, Marriage

PA Trip Sept 2014 893

In keeping with my theme of gratitude for this week, I must tell you about one particular person that tops them all.

  • She prays constantly with great passion and assurance.
  • She studies the Word because she has a personal relationship with its Author.
  • She knows me better than anyone, and yet she loves me unconditionally.
  • She is my number one cheerleader.
  • She is a lady of character.
  • She loves the ministry, especially with children and women.
  • She has always been by my side.
  • She truly fears the Lord.
  • She knows how to make a house a home.
  • She thirsts for discipleship.
  • She memorizes the Word.
  • She lives what she believes and knows about her God.
  • She is unselfish.
  • She loves to laugh and once-in-awhile be ornery.
  • She is willing to try something new and out of her comfort zone.
  • She takes the hits sometimes that are unwarranted, unkind, and directed at me.
  • She has given her life to the best mom possible.
  • She continues to do the best thing for her husband, daughters and son-in-laws, pray.
  • She weeps with those who weep and rejoices with those who rejoice.
  • She speaks with wisdom.
  • She works hard.
  • She rises early.
  • She is hospitable.
  • She has overcome my unreal expectations and become a humble, faithful servant.
  • She is an excellent teacher and a good learner.
  • She has endured trials that have broken her heart.
  • She sings with a melodic, soothing voice that comes from her heart.
  • She makes me proud to call her mine.

She is my precious wife that God gave me over 33 years ago. She is the mother of our three precious daughters.  She is the “Tonto” that keeps me from being the “Lone Ranger.” Outside of my personal salvation, she is the greatest grace gift God has bestowed on me.  Thank you, Sweetheart, for who you are and what you do.  You are the best!!

So Thankful!!

by Dale, posted in Christian Living, God's Word

As I read the following blog post, Undercover At Oprah Conference, my heart responded with gratitude as well!  I am so thankful the Lord has led Boones Creek Bible Church to use the Answers In Genesis Sunday School material to instruct the whole congregation in a harmonious study of God’s Word.  I am so thankful that God’s people are learning to give a biblical response for what they believe (1 Peter 3:15).  I am so thankful that more and more people are getting on board and growing together in community through Sunday School.  I am so thankful that we are learning the Truth, personally applying the Truth, proclaiming the Truth, and watching the Truth change lives.  I am so thankful we will one day stand face-to-face with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Who is the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14:6), and live with Him forever!

Really?

by Dale, posted in Christian Living

Teacher: “So why didn’t you get your homework completed and handed in on time?

Student: “Well, I left it on the table and my dog ate it!”

Teacher: “Why were you absent from school yesterday?”

Student: “I didn’t come to school yesterday because I was feeling like I was going to be sick, but thankfully I wasn’t!”

Pastor: “We missed you last Sunday?”

Church Member: “I worked late all week and was too tired to get up.” “My son had a ballgame.” “We needed to spend time with the family.”

Pastor: “Why haven’t you been attending church?”

Church Member: “I like a smaller church.” “There’s too many hypocrites down there.” “The church isn’t friendly anymore.” “The church doesn’t meet my needs.”

People are experts at making excuses. We use excuses to make an allowance for a failure, to make us look good, to shy away from having to fulfill an obligation, and to soothe our conscious, just to name a few.

In Luke 9, we find Jesus responding to three excuse-makers who really did not want to follow Christ. As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” 58 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” 59 To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 60 And Jesus[g] said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” 61 Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” 62 Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:57-62). These three excuses were wrapped up in “creature comforts, family ties, and divided loyalties,” and they all sounded legitimate.

Are you into making excuses for not being a sold-out follower of Christ? May I kindly say that many of the excuses used are a manifestation of elementary Christian living equal to the boy’s excuse of the dog eating his homework. The bottom line is, we can do anything we ought to do, and we do what we want to do.

Question: How will your excuses work for you when you stand before Christ at the Bema? “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.” (2 Corinthians 5:10)

A Better Life Now

by Dale, posted in Christian Living
 
Better to be lowly and have a servant, than to play the great man and lack bread (Proverbs 12:9)

Better is little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure and trouble with it (Proverbs 15:16).

Better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a fattened ox and hatred with it (Proverbs 15:17).

Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues with injustice (Proverbs 16:8).

Better to get wisdom than gold! To get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver (Proverbs 16:16).

Better to be of a lowly spirit with the poor than to divide the spoil with the proud (Proverbs 16:19).

Better is dry morsel with quiet than a house full feasting with strife (Proverbs 17:1).

Better is a poor person who walks in his integrity than one who is crooked in speech and is a fool (Proverbs 19:1)

Better is a poor man who walks in his integrity than a rich man who is crooked in his ways (Proverbs 28:6).

Are you living the better life now as you await the best life in Glory or does selfishness, strife, sin, and spoiled kids and adults reign in your home and world?

A Broken Down Shuttered House

by Dale, posted in Christian Living, Death, Heaven, Hope, Joy

Recently while visiting with a dear saint of God, I listened as she reminisced about her old home place and said, “The last time I was there, the house was run down and the grass had grown up around it.  Why, it didn’t even look like it used to.  Even the church I attended is not as pretty as it used to be, and they only have one or two services a month.”  As I sat there looking at what age and the curse of sin had done to this dear lady, pinching its wrinkles in her face, causing her to use a walker for stability, and making her wish for times of fellowship at church and in town with her friends, this passage of Scripture  came to my mind.

For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, 3 if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. 4 For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. 5 Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. 6 So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. 7 For we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. (2 Corinthians 5:1-8)

While listening, I could not help but notice the twinkle in her eye accompanied by the precious smile etched on her face as she recounted days gone by.  Within moments, she said, “So many people are unhappy these days.  Me? I’m happy.  I’m content.  I’m ready to go Home whenever the Lord is ready to call me.”  It did my heart good to listen to the lilt in her voice and to see her God-prepared confidence that someday soon she would exchange the old broken down shuttered house for a glorified habitation not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

The Life and Death of a Vapor

by Dale, posted in Christian Living, Death

While eating dinner yesterday in celebration of a dear lady’s 89th birthday, the server came to clear off our table.  The “birthday girl” was still working on her plate, and she said to the server, “I’ll be finished in a moment.”  With that I said, “Take your time.  You’ve waited 89 years for this!”  That sounds like a long time.

Yesterday evening, my wife and I attended a memorial service for a man found dead in his apartment at the age of 38.  The words spoken by his father during the service were, “My son lived 78 years in those 38 because he got all he could out of life!”

Interesting, that in the same day, my wife and I would celebrate a birth and then later on sit through a memorial service; life and death.

The truth is, no matter if you truly live to be 89 or try to squeeze 78 years into 38, time is fleeting and life is but a vapor.  James 4:14 reminds us, For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.

A gentleman who spoke at the memorial service is a well-known artist in Kentucky and pastor.  In his message, he said, “I used to make good money painting, but that is not my goal anymore.  It is telling others about the brevity of life and the gospel.”

So the question comes, what will you do with your “vapor”?  What are you doing right now with your “vapor”?   James goes on to give us the answer to those questions, Instead you ought to say, If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that. But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil (4:15-16).  The Lord wills that you be born again, The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).  God wills that you have a true view of Him and His Son, for only when you do are you really ready to live! God is in total control of your vapor.  He started it, and He knows when it will end.  Life is a vapor, but only God can give substance to what is so fleeting (John 10:10, 28-30).

An Abounding Advancement

by Dale, posted in Christian Living, Prayer

Boones Creek Bible Church

My earnest desire and prayer for the congregation of Boones Creek Bible Church this week:

And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, 10 that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, 11 being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. (Philippians 1:9-11)

Sneak Attack

by Dale, posted in Christian Living, Marriage

Today is one that has gone down in infamy in the history of this great land of ours.  I remember exactly where I was the morning of the first strike on 9/11.  Even as I write this, there is sadness in my heart for all who lost their lives and were injured as well as anger toward the aggression of our enemies. There is much to be said about these attacks that came without warning.  This was a day that changed our country forever.

Every day, marriages are also under the aggressive attack of the Enemy.  Since marriage is the first divine institution created by God (Genesis 2:18-25), is a picture of Christ’s relationship to the Church (Ephesians 5:18-32), and is the very foundation of society, Satan will do all he can to destroy it!  His devilish plan—sneak attacks.  He doesn’t just “show up” at your front door and say, “I’m here to destroy you!”  He worms his way into your relationship in small ways along with his accomplice, your old sin nature.  Before you know it, your marriage is weakened and eventually gone forever.

What are some of his sneak attacks (temptations):

  1. If you are a believer, you did not read God’s Word and spend quality time in prayer this morning. And you think that just one morning without meeting with God won’t hurt anything.  Then, the next day the same thing happens.  Before you know it, you have gone a week without spending time with your God. You cannot have a great relationship with your spouse unless you are involved in an intimate, heart, life-changing relationship with Christ.  You think you can get by, but unless your vertical relationship is right, your horizontal relationship will not be right.  Don’t think you can outbox God on this one! (Luke 10:38-42; 2 Timothy 3:16-17)
  2. You let that small irritant in his or her words or actions go without being resolved. You dwell on the offense through the day, and that small thing becomes huge in your sight.  You start adding up offenses.  Instead of attacking the problem, the enemy has you attacking and blaming the person.  In the words of Barney Fife, you must “Nip it in the bud!”  If not, the enemy has built up a stronghold in your marriage, and down you go!  (1 Corinthians 13:4-8a; Ephesians 4:25-32).
  3. You think the grass is greener on the other side! When you were pursuing each other, dating, and absolutely enthralled with one another, you believed that life would just be an empty existence without the other person by your side forever!  Now, you are just two individuals existing in a marriage without any spark, life, fun, enjoyment, edification, and commitment.  Now, instead of her being your “drop-dead gorgeous honey,” she’s the old lady.  Instead of him being that “hunka, hunka hunk of burning love,” he’s the old man!  No more terms of endearment.  No more hugs.  No more passionate kisses.  No more opening the car door for her and treating her like a lady.  No more respect and encouragement given to him.  So, that girl at the office or that man next door starts looking enticing.  BE CAREFUL!  No marriage is beyond repair and restoration in the sight of God (Romans 5:20-21)!!!!!!!  This whole decline started small.  There is hope (Genesis 18:14; 1 Corinthians 10:13).  Run to the cross, humble yourself and repent (James 4:6-10).  Confess your sins to each other and start praying together again (James 5:16). Go back to your dating days and do the things you used to do and the things that God intended for you to enjoy in marriage.

9/11 was a day you will never forget in American history!  The day your marriage is history because of those sneak attacks that you never took care of is a day that will go down in infamy.  Just as America is constantly trying to ward off those sneak attacks, do the same in your marriage.  Start today!

 

Tom & Roger

by Dale, posted in Christian Living, Death, Heaven, Hope, Trials

March 18, 2007, I stood on the parcel of ground where Oak Ridge Baptist Church is now located.  There, Pastor Tom Craig, Pastor Gary Ledbetter and myself gathered in prayer for the future construction of their church building.  As we joined our expectant hearts together before the Throne of Grace, we asked God to do a mighty work for His glory.  God answered our prayers as well as the prayers of a host of others. Not only was the building constructed, but greater still, lives were and continue to be transformed and built for God’s glory.  Tom was sure that would happen.  He discipled, loved, cared, and ministered the Word of God with grace and balance.

Interesting enough, that March 18th morning, another individual who impacted Gary’s and my life through his music, Roger Bennett, passed into the presence of the Lord after a long bout with leukemia.  The connection with Roger and his ministry team, Legacy Five, was the primary purpose for Gary and I being in Oak Ridge that weekend.  I remember walking into the Hampton Inn to meet Gary and his family on that Friday afternoon.  There in the front lounge area was Tom and Bobby cheering on their UT Vols in the college basketball tournament!  How surprised he was to see us.  He thought he had missed some conference in the area.  🙂

Tom and Roger, two men from two completely different ministry orbits, but today in the presence of the Lord! Both involved in a journey with cancer now forever over. How thankful I am for those the Lord brings into our lives to edify, encourage, exhort, and enjoy!  Thank you, Tom, for being such a man.  Gary and I will continue to sing and preach the Word until we join you on the other side.  Until then, My Hope Is Jesus.