- You are here:
- Home
- A Word With You
Friday, August 10, 2018
Download MP3 (right click to save)
It was #1 on the New York Times bestseller list and then a major motion picture. It was the story of one of the most famous race horses of all time, Seabiscuit. While many of us may not be excited about horse racing, the story, set against the backdrop of the Great Depression, illustrates some things that are pretty inspiring. Seabiscuit was the son of a champion but he was definitely not like his father. He had been forced to run with better horses so they would gain confidence by beating him. When he raced, he did what he was trained to do – lose. Because of the poor treatment Seabiscuit received, he became an angry, almost uncontrollable horse. Until he was given a chance by a trainer many considered to be too old and a young man most thought was too big to be a jockey – a man blind in one eye and bitter from his parents' abandonment.
Thursday, August 9, 2018
Download MP3 (right click to save)
Our sons both played lineman positions on their high school football team – which means they had to take their share of jokes about being big and dumb. Linemen's numbers are usually like seventy-something, and they were number 75 and 76. You know what the word was? Yeah, that the linemen wore their I. Q. on their jerseys. (Yeah, my apologies. Some linemen listening; listen, this is a joke. I didn't say this. I don't believe this. No, no, no.) It's probably a good thing most of us were never told what our Intelligence Quotient is and it's really a good thing it wasn't advertised on our jersey! But after all is said and done, there's a measurement of your capabilities that's far more important anyway.
Wednesday, August 8, 2018
Download MP3 (right click to save)
One of the large churches in our area started a new building and they announced it would be for community outreach. But they did something I've never seen a church do before. They gathered the congregation around the just-completed foundation of that new building and they asked them to throw something into the foundation. Now you've no doubt seen people's names on the outside of a building's foundation, especially on the cornerstone. But these folks were actually putting names inside the foundation-the names of people they care about who don't belong to Jesus yet; people they are hoping and praying will be in heaven with them some day.
Tuesday, August 7, 2018
Download MP3 (right click to save)
When our son and his family lived in another state, man, we cherished visits from him, his wife and our beautiful granddaughter. She was two at the time, but she seemed to have the vocabulary of like a five-year-old. Besides being unexplainably beautiful (being my granddaughter, that's miraculous), she really knew how to communicate – with words, with gestures, with facial expressions. We loved our time with her, and she seemed to love her time with us. But, well, this wasn't home. They lived many miles from here. She needed to be home ultimately, sleeping in her bed, playing with her toys, being around the people she loves there, and enjoying her personal world. This is where she visited. That's where she lived. She was in the car with Mommy and Daddy, all strapped in her toddler seat and ready to pull out of the driveway to head home. Oh how she cried! She begged me to get in. She begged me to sit down. Her crying broke a grandparent's heart. But once she was home she loved being where she lived. It's just that leaving is so hard.
Monday, August 6, 2018
Download MP3 (right click to save)
It's one of the most popular convention locations in the United States-Las Vegas. We can each guess as to what some of the reasons for its popularity might be. But it's become a popular destination for people other than conventioneers. You know, you might remember that advertising campaign; they were advertising Las Vegas as the place to go if you want to get away with something. Using some scenes that suggest some covert relationships and secret romantic liaisons, the tantalizing promise that flashes across the screen says: "What happens here stays here." Wrong!
Friday, August 3, 2018
Download MP3 (right click to save)
Okay, I'm sort of a news junkie, and I really like to watch a national news cast sometime before the day is over. But there are some words I cringe at when I hear them in the news, like "hostage". I mean, soon as you hear that word "hostage" you know that there is a potential life or death standoff going on between some angry desperate assailant and the officers. The law enforcement people are trying to save the hostages that he's holding. You know, recently I talked with a police officer friend of mine, and I asked him how they handle those dangerous rescues. He said, "First you want to use something like tear gas, or fatigue, or a marksman. Then what you've got to do is to immobilize the hostage taker."
Thursday, August 2, 2018
Download MP3 (right click to save)
Driving is never more exciting than it is during a major snow storm. In fact it is so exciting, you ought to avoid it. Sometimes you just can't. I was scheduled to speak at this retreat in the Poconos Mountains one January weekend and a major snow storm moved in right on the Friday when everyone was supposed to be traveling to Pennsylvania from New Jersey. So I waited all day for the call, I was sure it was going to come. "Sorry, it's been cancelled." Oh, I got the call; yeah, they were still going. And by that time it was dark, it was snowing very impressively and I got on the Interstate. I traveled at a very reduced speed and it looked almost impossible to make it until I spotted my friend up ahead. Well, my friend the snow plow. He was clearing a lane as he went. So I just fell in right behind Mr. Snow plow and followed him through the storm all the way to the Pennsylvania line. Oh, that works!
Wednesday, August 1, 2018
Download MP3 (right click to save)
I just don't understand why this beautiful girl at college didn't have love at first sight. I mean, when she met me, you know? I mean, it wasn't even love at second sight, or tenth sight. We met at college, and it wasn't as if she was holed up in her room studying all the time. She was very active socially-especially in dating some of the most sought-after guys on campus. I knew getting her wasn't going to be easy. So I carefully planned my comings and goings so I would be places that I thought she would be. Don't you dare call it stalking - no. I thought about things I could say that might impress her, and I ultimately let her know that I had more than a casual friendship in my mind. There were challenges, but there was no way I was going to lose this girl. I loved her, I relentlessly pursued her, and I got her! And what a wonderful life it's been together!
Tuesday, July 31, 2018
Download MP3 (right click to save)
The Lord's been good to our ministry and given us vehicles when we needed them through His people. It's been a wonderful thing. And I remember years ago, He provided our ministry with a used car. It was the easiest car to drive we've ever had up to that time. The windows were interesting. Looking out the windshield, everything looks clear. Looking out the side windows; that was another story. They were tinted for privacy. But over the years and the miles and all the heat, the tinting had started to create ripples in the glass. So everything you looked at through those windows just didn't look quite right. It's was blurred, it was distorted, it was dark.
Monday, July 30, 2018
Download MP3 (right click to save)
We tend to measure life by its milestones. Take our first born child, our daughter. There have been a lot of milestones in her life. I remember looking at the films of her learning to walk. Now, that's a big milestone from a long time ago. Her first piano recital; we have pictures of that of course. Her first band concert; that was a big one. Let's see, there was her junior high graduation, then her high school graduation, her college graduation, her wedding; man, there have been a lot of things. I remember that when she graduated from college there was a sense of completion I think for all of us. She had a double major in college. She graduated with honors. She got a degree from a great school, and I wrote something on her graduation card for all the work and all the money that that degree had cost. I told her there is another degree that she needs. One that is far more important.