Faith Story - Cheyenne

Recently I received an email story from a good friend of mine. It has a powerful message. The author suggested that those who read it might want to forward the good news story to others. I have revised the story to be able to make it fit the newspaper column (and this blog.)

The daughter of an elderly father tells the story. Four days after his sixty-seventh birthday, he had a heart attack. He survived. But something inside Dad died. His zest for life was gone. Offers of help were turned aside with sarcasm and insults. His friends stopped coming.

She and her husband, Dick, asked Dad to come live with them. Within a week, she regretted the invitation. He criticized everything. Alarmed, her husband sought out their pastor. At the close of each session he prayed, asking God to soothe Dad's troubled mind.

But it seemed God did not hear. Finally, she called a mental health clinic. Just when she was giving up hope, one worker suddenly exclaimed, 'I just read something that might help you!' The article described a remarkable study done at a nursing home. All of the patients were under treatment for chronic depression. Yet their attitudes had improved dramatically when they were given responsibility for a dog.'

The daughter went immediately to a dog pound. There she discovered the pointer. He was a caricature of the breed. Years had etched his face and muzzle with shades of gray. His hipbones jutted out in lopsided triangles. But it was his eyes that caught and held her attention.

She pointed to the dog. 'Can you tell me about him?' The officer said, 'Appeared out of nowhere and sat in front of the gate. We brought him in, figuring someone would claim him. His time is up tomorrow.' He gestured helplessly.

As the words sank in she turned to the man. 'You mean you're going to kill him?' 'Ma'am,' he said gently, 'that's our policy.' She looked at the pointer again. The calm brown eyes awaited her decision. 'I'll take him,' she said. When she reached home she was helping her prize out of the car when Dad came up. 'Look what I got for you, Dad!' Dad looked, with his face in disgust. 'If I had wanted a dog I would have gotten one.'

Anger rose inside her. She yelled. 'You'd better get used to him, Dad. He's staying!' They stood glaring at each, when suddenly the pointer pulled free. He wobbled toward dad and sat down in front of him. Then slowly, carefully, he raised his paw.

Dad's lower jaw trembled as he stared at the uplifted paw. The pointer waited patiently. Then Dad was on his knees hugging the animal. Dad named the pointer Cheyenne. Together they explored the community, making many friends. They even started to attend Sunday services together.

Dad and Cheyenne were inseparable for three years. Dad's bitterness faded, and he and Cheyenne made many friends. Then one night Dad died in his sleep. Two days later the family shock and grief deepened when they discovered Cheyenne lying dead beside Dad's bed. They wrapped him in the rug he had slept on. As they buried him near a favorite fishing hole, Dad's daughter silently thanked God for the dog and the help he had given in restoring Dad's peace of mind.

An Exercise in Faith Building

Recently the National News reported the results of a survey,
"More Americans Have No Religion, They say."
Since a religion is an organized system of values,
Giving lives meaning, purpose and faith for each and every day,
What does it mean when an increasing number begin to say,
"The foundations of our family heritage now get in our way"?
Is it possible when people say, "I have no religion,"
That their conclusion fails to come from a well designed position?
Often, it is only an expression of a popular secular cliché?
After all, it usually takes finding a higher set of values,
Not less values to say,
"I have given up our God. Our family's faith has been a facade."
It may mean that some, answering the survey, are saying,
"I no longer practice a regular ritual of praying,"
Or they mean "I am not, at this time, active in a religious institution,
Where I am regularly confessing my sins, seeking absolution."
Or maybe, " We no longer belong to a fellowship of believers,
In practicing sacrificial service to be better achievers."
If you are not at this time practicing being religious,
How you are going to fill your need to be more prodigious?*
Begin by making a list of your time consuming activities:
List the ones you practice regularly to meet your daily desires.
Rate them on a one to ten scale, as to how much time each requires;
Secondly, based on which ones, in a crisis, you will definitely keep,
Note the ones, in an emergency, that go to the garbage heap.
Now make a list of the different ways you spend your money.
Then circle the costly practices you will never give up,
Even if your income is cut to "half a cup."
Write a brief paragraph indicating where you need divine intervening.
To help you establish what is important in your search for meaning.
Then make a list of persons with whom you spend most of your time.
List some of the values in these persons, which you consider prime.
Move on to make yourself a list of things you "must do."
As if, you discovered that you have less than a year to live,
List the causes to which you would want to give.
Then make a note by ones calling you to be more active.
Now underline the ones you consider most attractive.
Write a prayer, asking for a focus to make you more proactive
Make a copy of the commandments you find in Exodus twenty.
Rate each one of these commandments on a one to ten scale,
With number one meaning "definitely not important to me"
And number ten meaning "very important for me,
To become the person I want to be."
Then write a paragraph on what your ratings of the commandments reveal.
Conclude with a one sentence prayer appeal.
The final test is to go and buy a paperback Gospel of John.
Read one chapter a day, and use a yellow highlighter to mark verses,
Which are saying something with which you totally agree.
In other words, do not focus on the sayings with which you disagree,
That exercise is for another day. Do you not see?
For now set aside the statements that are questionable to you.
Focus only on the teachings, you have no problem saying, "This is true!"
Then conclude this exercise by asking a special friend,
To discuss the verses you believe to be true for you.
Asking the friend to help in this "faith battle" to win.
Following each faith conversation with your friend,
Use the Scriptural verses to help write a letter to God's Son,
A letter, stored in your Bible, saying "Jesus, You are the One."

*receiving power beyond human limitations

Are You Religious?

Recently Fox News reported the results of a survey, "More Americans Say They Have No Religion." Since a religion is a system of values that give human beings meaning, purpose and direction for their lives, what does it mean for a person to say they have no religion. Is it possible to have no religion? It takes a system of values of some kind to make a judgment that one has no religion. It may mean that the one answering the survey is saying, "I no longer practice the moral standards of my traditional religion," or it may mean "I am not active in any type of religious institution, such as a United Methodist Church, or the Roman Catholic Church, or a fellowship of believers in practicing a special activity that gives meaning and purpose for my life."

If you no longer consider yourself religious, how can you get some insight into what your new religion is? Begin by making a list of the following: List the activities you practice daily or weekly. Rate these activities on a one to ten basis; first as to how much time each requires; secondly based on which ones, in a crisis, you would definitely keep.

Then make a list of the different ways you spend your money. Then circle the items that you would definitely not give up if your income was suddenly cut in half. Write a brief paragraph as to what these exercises reveal about what is most important. Then make a list of persons you spend most of your time with. List some of the values of each of these persons, and underline the values of each you consider most attractive. Make a "to do" list. If your doctor told you that you have less than a year to live, what would be on your list? Circle the activities you consider most important and make a note by each, stating why you have circled each.

Another test I would ask you to do is to open the Bible to Exodus 20 and make a copy of the Ten Commandments. Then rate each one of these commandments on a one to ten scale, with number one meaning "definitely not important to me" and number ten meaning "very important to me." Then write a brief paragraph about what your ratings of the commandments reveal about you. The final test I would ask you to make is to go and buy a paperback New Testament. Then open your new Bible to the Gospel of John. Read one chapter a day, and use a yellow highlighter to mark each verse or saying that is something with which you totally agree. In other words, do not focus on the sayings that you disagree with or that are questionable to you. Focus only on the teachings, that from your own experience, you have no problem saying, "This is true!" Then conclude this exercise by asking a person, for whom you have great respect, to sit down with you, looking at your Bible and discussing with you verses you have highlighted. After the conversation with your friend, take the copy of your highlighted Bible and use it to write a letter to God which you will keep in your Bible as a future faith builder.

Christ the Lord is Risen Today

Yamauchi was sought out and found by Lee Strobel, an investigative journalist who was determined to discover any corroborating evidence about the life and teachings of Jesus and the early church. After a long conversation and examination of historical sources in Professor Yamauchi's study the investigative reporter asked, "What do we know about Jesus apart from the teachings and witnesses of the New Testament?" He followed up his question by asking, "What if we pretend we do not have the evidence of the New Testament or that of historical writings by ancient Christian leaders, what would we be able to corroborate from ancient non-believing writers about who Jesus was?

Professor Yamauchi answered, "Even without the Christian writers we have several non-Christian sources that give us insights into who Jesus was. We have Josephus, the Jewish Talmud, Tacitus, Pliny the Younger, and others. From these records we know the following:

1. Jesus lived in the first century and was a Jewish teacher;

2. Many people believed that He performed healings and exorcisms;

3. Some people believed that He was the Messiah;

4. He was rejected by the Jewish leaders;

5. He was crucified under the authority of Pontius Pilate in the reign of Tiberius;

6. Despite his shameful death, his followers, believed He was still alive and spread the story so much so that a large group of Christians lived in the City of Rome in AD 64.

7. All kinds of people, across the Roman Empire, from cities and countryside -- men and women, slaves and free -- worshipped Him as God."(see Lee Strobel, "The Case for Christ" pp. 86,87).

In the early 1990's Clara (my wife) and I visited Jerusalem. We walked through the ancient city, tracing the last journey Jesus made through the city before his death. We stopped at the places, called stations of the Cross. These are places that tradition says certain acts of suffering happened to Jesus as He made his way out of the city to "place of the skull" to be crucified by the Romans, dying for the sins of all humankind. We ended the journey, outside the ancient city, at a place where a great stone cliff bears the image of a human skull. The scriptures tell us that Jesus was crucified out of the city at the place of the skull. Close by is an ancient garden. In that garden is an ancient grave, carved out of a large rock. It was there we paused for a worship service and including looking into the empty grave as some disciples did on Easter morning. Then we sang, "Christ the Lord is Risen Today." We concluded the service by the reading the Easter story.

Twenty four hours later we were standing in New Home Baptist Church near Trenton, Georgia singing with a wonderful choir, led by a member of our family, singing, "Christ the Lord is Risen Today." We thanked God for the many unknown witnesses who have carried the story of the death and resurrection to multitudes from the empty tomb outside Jerusalem to the dedicated group of Christian disciples in Dade Country, Georgia.

Lenten Insights From A Preacher*

We humans are part of creation; physical beings; considered the most complex of the mammals. We are also homo faber, the maker of tools; creating some wonderful and some monstrous ones. We are also the humanus, who can not only communicate with signs, but can speak. We not only maintain our existence, but also create and shape culture and civilization.

What is more amazing is we have an individual identity, like no other known created being. Soon after birth it is evident to those who care for us that we quickly become individuals. We each are a person, who becomes the 'I-Self' in union with the 'Thou.' We are also the creatures who are forever seeking to know ourselves, even while we flee from self. We are forever drawn and attracted to something higher than ourselves. We dream of 'eternity' and are forever trying to make an everlasting contribution.

Therefore, human beings have gods or a God, from whom we are seeking guidance. In other words, human beings are religious, always seeking a Higher Being; someone who can help us to make meaning and eternal purpose out of existence. Our sense of being related to a Higher Power drives us to seek to influence outcomes; not only in his earthly life span, but also in eternity.

Therefore, human beings are incurably religious, often even trying to substitute Self for God. We are never satisfied with accepting our physical and intellectual temporary existence. No matter how sophisticated and knowledgeable we become we are always homo religious. We are forever seeking to find meaning in our lives, not only for this life, but for eternity. We can no more rid ourselves of our homo religious nature than we can reject our need to experience life from the concepts of past, present, and future.

It is no wonder that from the time He was born until the present, 2000 plus years later, millions of human beings find in Jesus Christ the One who gives life meaning and hope.

During this Lenten Season we celebrate that in Jesus Christ, God became one of us; Even to the point of taking our sins upon Himself, in order to save us for God's eternal purposes.

*Curtis Schofield was moved by these insights while reading "Man In Revolt" by Emil Brunner.

(see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emil_Brunner)

"I Love to Steal Awhile Away"

Is there any hope to accomplish anything worth-while when your life has gotten off to the wrong start? Phoebe Hinsdale was left an orphan when she was only two years old. A member of her family , the keeper of the county jail, raised her amid drudgery and cruel hardship. She, who was destined to write one of the great Christian hymns, never learned to read until she was eighteen. In the three months she was allowed to go to school, she not only learned to read, but she learned about Jesus, and gave her heart to Him.

Later she married a house-painter, Timothy Brown. They lived in poverty in a very small unfinished house in Ellington, Connecticut. She had very little time for herself, with a demanding husband, four children, and a sick sister to care for. She had a strong need to find time to be alone with the Lord, but there was no place in their crowded small house to find a place to be alone with Jesus. Therefore, at twilight she would frequently slip away from the house and walk alone along the road as far as her neighbor's beautiful garden for devout meditation and communion with God. The owner of the garden confronted her one day by saying, "Mrs. Brown, why do you come up at evening so near our house and then go back without coming in? If you want anything, why do you not come in and ask?"

According to Carl Price, who wrote "One Hundred And One Hymn Stories," that very night with all the children in bed, except the baby in her arms, she wrote "An Apology for My Twilight Rambles, Addressed to a Lady." Her letter became the heart of one of the most famous hymns ever written, "I Love to Steal Awhile Away."

I LOVE to steal awhile away from every cumbering care,

And spend the hours of setting day in humble, grateful prayer.

I love, in solitude, to shed the penitential tear;

And all His promises to plead, when none but God can hear.

I love to think on mercies past, and future good implore;

And all my cares and sorrows cast on Him whom I adore.

I love, by faith, to take a view of brighter scenes in heaven;

The prospect doth my strength renew, while here by tempests driven.

Thus, when life's toilsome day is o'er,

May its departing ray

Be calm as this impressive hour,

And lead to endless day.

-Phoebe (Hinsdale) Brown. 1783–1861

BROWN, Phoebe Hinsdale, poet, born in Canaan, New York, in 1783; died in Henry, Illinois, 10 October, 1861. She married Timothy H. Brown. In 1824 she contributed to Dr. Asahel Nettleton's "Village Hymns" the popular lyric, "I Love to steal Awhile Away," and several of her hymns are in Cleveland's " Lyra Sacra Americana." One of her sons became a missionary in Japan.

http://www.bartleby.com/102/4.html

"Your Mission"

History records that Daniel March(1816-1909) said the hymn, "Your Mission" was a favorite of President Abraham Lincoln. March claimed that Lincoln especially liked the version sung by Philip Phillips during the Civil War. The hymn begain with "Hark, the voice of Jesus crying, 'Who will go and work today?"' and closed with the words, "Who will answer, gladly saying, 'Here am I, send me, send me.'"

After his graduation from Yale in 1840, Daniel March studied for the ministry and in 1845 received ordination .He became a pastor and was asked to preach for a special occasion before the Christian Association in Philadelphia. He wrote his own closing hymn to fit the text of his message which was from Isaiah 6:8, "Also, I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then I said, Here am I; send me."

Many believe that George Duffield was influenced by March's hymn when he wrote, "Stand Up For Jesus." Many disciples, who go to battle to protect their loved ones, their country, their church, the freedoms and the values which have made them strong, have been inspired by the third verse, "Stand up for Jesus. Stand in His strength alone. The arm of flesh will fail you. You can not trust your own. Put on the gospel armor. Each piece put on with prayer. Where duty calls or danger, be never wanting there."

Each of us has his or her own battles. Even though we tend to think that our primary adversary is some person or people, the Apostle Paul, writing to the Galatian Christians informed them and us, our conflict is not primarily with others, but our enemy is spiritual: "For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit...These two ways of life are antithetical, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day. Why don't you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence? It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness...yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions...But what happens when we live Christ's way? He brings gifts into our lives—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way...(Galitians 5:16-24, The Messenger Version).

To be almost saved is to be entirely lost

In the year A.D. 62 a well known Roman citizen was thrown into the city jail, because some business people, along with the support of some of the religious leaders, did not like the popularity of his message. Because he was a citizen of Rome he was protected from being abused by the locals. When it became evident that the local leaders were determined to build a false case against him, the prisoner appealed to the justice system to give him his rights as a Roman citizen to have his case heard by the Caesar himself. Therefore the local officials were obligated to submit official charges against him, to accompany him on his trip to be heard by the Caesar. Therefore, the prisoner, Paul, a leader of the Christian movement, was asked to state his defense before King Agrippa and Bernice, who were visiting with the Roman governor, Fetus. The defense of Paul is found in the twenty-sixth chapter of the Book of Acts of the Apostles. I believe you will be greatly impressed by the power of Paul's defense when you read it. At the conclusion King Agrippa said to Paul, "Almost you persuade me to be a Christian." To this statement Paul responded, "I would to God that not only you, but also all who hear me this day, were both almost and altogether such as I am, except for these chains that hinder me."

Once when Philip Bliss was listening to a well known pastor, preaching from this very same text, he was really moved when the pastor said, "He who is almost persuaded is almost saved, but to be almost saved is to be entirely lost." He went home and sat down and wrote the words to what would become a great hymn, which was used frequently in the camp meetings of the great awakening in 19th century. Many unbelievers were moved to step forward and proclaim their faith in Christ once the words of Philip Bliss's great revival hymn touched their hearts:

Almost persuaded now to believe;

Almost persuaded Christ to receive.

Seems now some soul to say, Go, Spirit, go away.

Some more convenient day, On Thee I'll call.

Almost can not avail.

Almost is but to fail.

Sad, sad, that bitter wail;

Almost but lost.

I personally like the affirmation of a man whose life was saved from being "slave trader John," to being "soul winner, Brother John Newton": "Amazing grace! How sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I am found, was blind but now I see."