Some Miscellaneous Thoughts

I am very grateful to God for the swift recovery of Linda. The knee replacement surgery went very well. I was gearing up to a wrenching time of watching her suffer and telling her to get back on the "torture" machine. It wasn't like that at all. Of course she had quite a bit of pain, but she is amazing on her recovery. Why this quick recovery? Part of it is Linda herself. She is a strong person. She has a strong will and is willing to push herself. I suppose that a lot of credit should go to her doctor. He obviously did a great job on the surgery. But, as a believer, I think the fact that Linda and I had "bathed" the surgery and recovery in prayer -- together with a lot of people from all over praying is what really did the trick. Thank you God!

We needed some equipment for the recovery. We decided to rent a wheel chair to get her home from the hospital. I intended to buy a walker. While renting the wheel chair, one of my long time members from First Baptist Chula Vista came in. She said, "You aren't going to buy a walker are you?" "Yes, we need one." " I have two that I will loan to you. One is a regular walker and one is the deluxe model with a seat and wheels." Just like that, God saved us some money.

Let's Celebrate Marriage

I actually wrote this post last Thursday -- July 9th. My wife was undergoing surgery and I didn't have access to a computer -- I actually wrote it with pen and paper! I have been busy with hospital visits etc. until today. Here are some thoughts regarding an article from The Atlantic July/August issue of 2009. The article title was "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off", written by Sandra Tsing Loh.


Here is my post:


In this article, the author chronicles her infidelity and decision to divorce. She then discusses the marriage (and upcoming divorces) of her friends. She gives some good information re the divorce rate which is quite disturbing.

What disturbed me about the article was that she took her experience, adds in the stats of marriage/divorce and promotes a rationale against marriage. She touts her belief that human beings are not meant to be monogamous. I must admit that I also subscribed to some of these ideas when I was young and unmarried. My parents were divorced in the'50s and my grand parents divorced in the '20s. I also liked lots of girls. Marriage seemed like a lost cause.


Then I met Linda. I had actually known her for years , but she was just a kid. I "met" her when she was 18 and I was 23. We married when she was 22 and I had just turned 28. This month we celebrate our 44th anniversary. I loved her then and I love her more today!


God created us to be whole in marriage. God blesses and uses singles -- but for most of us we are not complete until we are married. A few thoughts that may be expanded upon in later posts:

• Love is a set of actions, not a set of feelings,
• Feelings are a result of love, they are not love itself,
• It is commitment to our vows that sustain our marriage,
• The author is correct in saying that our high divorce rate is exacerbated because of our tendency toward individuality and narcissism,
• The relationship of marriage is about giving, not receiving.

These are a few thoughts written while my love is undergoing a painful surgery to replace her right knee. I know God is going to use the surgery for her healing, but I hurt -- because my love, Linda hurts.Marriage is a gift from God. Thank you, Lord, for Linda.

On to Green Lake

Finally, I am finding time to write. Usually the problem is with me. I want to write, but find any excuse to keep me from writing. However, this time I have an excuse. I had minor surgery last week! I can assure you that "minor" doesn't have anything to do with the discomfort of the patient. So I spent most of last week, and the beginning of this week laying around and feeling sorry for myself. I kept telling myself that I should write, but I replied that I just didn't feel like it.

Now I feel like writing. I actually feel quite good. But, I am feeling pressure. Saturday morning I am leaving for Green Lake Wisconsin. I am part of Holy Spirit Renewal Ministries. We put on the Holy Spirit Conference at Green Lake Conference Center every year. It is a great conference. If you are near Wisconsin, you could still register. See the conference description at our HSRM website. General information on the conference center can be found on their website. I will try to give updates while I am gone -- and send some pictures. It is a beautiful place.

Reading the Bible in 90 Days

Bay View Baptist Church will be starting an unusual program next Monday. It is a program to read the Bible, cover to cover, in 90 days. Why is this so unusual? Certainly Bible reading is not an unusual activity in a Baptist Church. We say things like, "I believe every word it says -- from beginning to end." Part of the problem is that there are a lot of people who say this who have never read every word it says. The Bible says a lot of radical things. So this program is an attempt to get people to really read the whole Bible. This program is different for several reasons:

• The whole Bible is read -- not just selected verses
• The Bible is read from beginning to end -- like a novel (of course we know it isn't a novel -- and there are many different kinds of literature)
  
• The Bible is read in 90 days -- a relatively short time -- allowing the participant to "get the whole picture" before forgetting where they started
• It is not a study -- it is a reading
• It is not devotional in nature -- it is a reading

I am excited about this. Certainly this program wont end all of our problems and our people wont be Bible scholars -- or even Bible students. But they will have a basic understanding of what is in the Bible and how this information is presented. At least this is a start. If we are people of the book -- we need to read that book!

More info is found about this program at http://www.biblein90days.com/

Our World; Our Oikos

Jesus told us to be in the world, but not of it. How do we do that? Of course, we obviously live in the world. Just because we have become Christians, we don't disappear from normal life. We continue to work, socialize, live in a neighborhood -- carry on our normal lives. But, we realize that this is not all that there is. We have entered into a relationship with Jesus Christ that is more real than all that we see, hear and feel in the world around us. When we try to articulate this we sound more than a little crazy. But, it is true.

The real issue is how do we continue to really be a part of our normal world while still holding onto this new spiritual reality. We have all heard the phrase, "they are so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good." If we live like this, we aren't really in this world. Well, most of us are really here -- but only a small part of the world really knows us for who we are. This is our Oikos.

I have been teaching on the principle of living fully in our Oikos for the last few weeks. What do I mean be living fully in our Oikos. First let me give a working definition of the word. Basically it is a Greek word meaning household. In the Bible, it is more that merely family -- it includes the extended family, servants, workers attached; all the people that a person relates to regularly and closely. Thus, for a working definition we say that our Oikos is that 8-15 people that we relate to regularly. These are the People that God has placed around us so that we can live out our lives as witnesses to Jesus Christ. They are really our world.

On the one hand, these are the people that we are called upon to reach, to evangelize. But, on the other hand, these are the people who really know us and can "keep us honest." The people in our church have now identified their oikos (this can change over time), they have committed to pray for their oikos daily, and to pray specifically for the salvation of those in the oikos who don't know Jesus, and finally to pray for an opportunity to share with those who don't know Jesus. I am doing the same with my Oikos.

The House of Abba

This is a small note from our third issue of Our Life Together that really surprised me. As I read through these old newsletters, I find that the way I remember it doesn't always match with reality. What was it that surprised me? Two things; 1) I don't remember the House of Abba meeting in the sanctuary and 2) I thought that the attendance at the coffee house was beginning to dwindle by 1973.

The House of Abba, which was our coffee house; no coffee, just music, teaching and Christian fellowship, started in 1970. The start of this ministry coincided with the beginnings of the Jesus People Movement. We were fortunate to have some very talented you people. They were talented in music, drama, art and in teaching. They began to reach people that our church had never reached before. Soon our church was filled with young "hippies". Many of these you people were really on the street and strung out on drugs. This is why we started our community households; how could you lead someone to the Lord and then send them out on the streets. This was a great time. During the 18 month period of Jan 1970 - June 1971, 750 people were baptized at our relatively small church -- we were certainly no mega-church.

When the coffee house started, they met in our old "Scout House". This was a small structure in our parking lot that had been used by the boy scouts. The room was pretty small. They used to keep the doors and windows open so that people in the parking lot could hear what was going on. Very soon they moved into the main building. Our "fellowship room" (which actually had been our first sanctuary) was converted for coffee house use. The walls were soon crowded with art. A patchwork carpet was placed in the building. People would sit on the floor. I do remember that even this room became so crowded that people were standing outside the room, and even out the front door of the church. An interesting side light was that we (early on) had to have a ministry that we called the floaters. There job was to circulate around the property -- particularly the dark places to see that no drugs were being used on the premises. These young "floaters" were also wonderful witnesses and would present the gospel to the person in the shadows.

I just don't remember the next step of moving into the sanctuary. I also thought the movement was losing steam in late 73 -- but it seems that they were still expanding. This was a great time. Ah yes, I remember it well.

An Easter Surprise

I mentioned in my last post that I had a great Easter. But wait! There's more! I had a real Easter Surprise! My best friend in high school (Bellflower HS class of '55) was Don. We were together virtually all the time (except when we were with our girl friends -- this happened in our Junior year). Don had a troubled home life so he spent a lot of time living at my house. We were both good students. I remember as the Summer was ending before our Freshman year that we made a pact to be good students. We felt that High School would determine our college and that would determine our lives. I ended up number 2 in my class and Don was number 4. We were both on the tennis team (Don told me that he still plays). Here Don was number 1 and I was number one on JV or number 10 on the Varsity. He was a lot better than I was.

At graduation we went our separate ways. Don went to UC Berkeley and I went to UCLA. We kept in touch and saw each other on football weekends and such things. Then, during our senior year, Don decided to get married. I really didn't get that, but since he was my friend I accepted it. I even journeyed to Berkeley to be his best man.

Finally school ended. I went to Graduate school -- and then the military called. I entered the Navy's Officer program and received my commission. I saw Don once after my commissioning. It wasn't that great a time; we were moving in different directions. This was in 1961. I never saw, nor heard from Don again. I thought about him a lot. I never took the effort to look for him. Then, Sunday afternoon, Don called. It was good! Inside I felt like a kid again. We talked and laughed about the old times. Then we talked about what had been happening during the last 50 years. I had a Naval career and a ministerial career, a 44year marriage, two children and three grandchildren (this is the brief summary). Don had a career in social work and had spent time all over the US and abroad, he was on his third wife. None of that mattered! We were just young guys reliving our youth. Don was my friend.

He was a great Easter Surprise. (By the way, the picture really isn't Don and I -- just some Giraffe friends)