Steve Crain

'Beyonce Has Her Baby' - Beulah Hill Baptist Church Sign 'Photo-Shopped'

2012-01-21T14:52:00.001-08:00

The Beulah Hill Baptist Church (Moore County, N.C.) sign was "messed with." Someone found a picture of the church's sign and placed (photo-shopped) the derogatory words shown above into that picture - then posted the doctored photo on the Web.

Ken Loyd of Moore County, N.C., and I write about the "sign" fiasco:

“Officials at Beulah Hill Baptist Church in Moore County, N.C., want to make one thing very clear: They do not think Beyonce [a famous popular singer] and Jay-Z’s newborn baby is Satan,” wrote James Halpin, staff writer for the Fayetteville Observer.

Halpin reports that Dr. Curtis Barbery, pastor at Beulah Hill Baptist, says church leaders have been inundated at home and work by callers from across the country wondering about a photo circulating on the Internet that appears to show the church’s sign with the phrase, “Beyonce had her baby. Satan is on Earth.”

Callers, apparently learning about the sign from celebrity gossip websites like TMZ.com, have been so numerous that officials at the church had to turn off the phone at one point, Barbery said.

The picture is a fake, Barbery noted, adding that the church has no quarrel with baby Blue Ivy Carter or her parents, Beyonce and Jay-Z, both singers. Barbery said he believes somebody doctored a photo of the church’s sign and posted it to the Web.

Ken Loyd, a retired elementary school teacher and a pianist for Beulah Hill Baptist, wrote an article about the uproar over the doctored photo. Here is Ken’s article about the nationwide attention his church received:

The photo was a fraud and had certainly been “photo-shopped” by a clever mischief-maker, still unidentified. But it went viral, gaining attention from local newspapers, TV stations, and some national outlets. Some were offended; some were outraged; others took it lightly.

Our pastor, Dr. Curtis Barbery, handled the incident graciously. He pointed out to interviewers that our church is not an extremist group; that our message is of the love of Christ, not one of condemnation. He employed his wit and wisdom to defuse the situation, both for his congregation and for a public that wanted to be reassured what the church was all about.

He pointed out that although the perpetrator may have wished to imply that Beyonce’s baby IS Satan, that is a total falsehood. He stated that no little baby is the devil and that our church has nothing but love for both baby and mother. He went on to say that Satan has been on this earth for a long, long time – all the way back to the garden of Eden.

Therefore, whoever posted the Internet message, whether their intent was humorous or malicious, inadvertently made two true statements. Not only is Satan in this world, the Bible acknowledges he is “the prince of this world.” Dr. Barbery enumerated another twenty names by which various scriptures refer to Satan. Some of the most descriptive ones are Father of Darkness, our adversary, the enemy, the tempter, the destroyer, father of lies, sower of discord, and deceiver.

Here are some points Dr. Barbery made in his sermon the Sunday after the Internet uproar:

1. Satan, or Lucifer, went from being an Angel of Light to Father of Darkness.

2. Satan rebelled against God and was cast down from heaven (as some believe is portrayed in Isaiah 14:12). He was cursed in Genesis 3:15. Sin was first found in him, then transmitted to humankind.

3. Satan endorsed Herod’s attempt to kill the baby Jesus.

4. Through his temptation of Jesus in the wilderness, he sought to destroy the Lord’s mission, ministry and testimony. He does the same thing to believers today: “The devil got into religious folks and hasn’t quit.”

5. God didn’t make sin, but He allowed it.

6. Satan wants to deceive the world as to the identity of Christ.

7. The devil also wants to pervert the Bible and make it of no effect.

In closing remarks, Dr. Barbery proclaimed that in His death and resurrection, Jesus took the keys to hell, death and the grave. Barbery chuckled and said, “The devil doesn’t even have the keys to his own house! What Satan thought was his victory [the crucifixion of Jesus] was his Waterloo.”

The prophet Hosea said: “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”

The apostle Paul quoted those questions and answered them in I Corinthians 15: 56-57: “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

In the end, the words on the church sign meant little in and of themselves. But they led to a renewed call for vigilance in a sin-sick world, where, as Peter says in I Peter 5:8: “Be self-controlled and alert. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”

Christmas Memories

2011-12-20T18:49:00.000-08:00

By Steve Crain

Many people have pleasant Christmas memories.

Jan Waters, who attends Faith Temple Church in Taylors, S.C., says, “One of my favorite memories about Christmas is when I was small I would sit by our fireplace. The fire warmed me to the bone. The heat coming from that fire is [like] the warmth I felt when Jesus came into my heart. My mom would peel me a navel orange, and I would sit by the fire and eat my orange. The orange was so juicy and sweet. I usually ate two of them. The smell of a fireplace was and still is so comforting to me. Now that I am on my own, I do not have the luxury of doing that any more. How times have changed.”

Christmastime may stir happy memories but can cause us to think of losses, too.

Brenda Locklear of Laurinburg, N.C., works in a carpet-dyeing plant. I recently asked Brenda, a Christian grandmother with Lumbee Indian ancestry, to tell me something about her childhood memories of Christmas.

“A shoebox,” she responded. Moisture filled her eyes, and she lifted a hand to wipe away a tear.

“A shoebox?” I asked, feeling nervous about possibly upsetting a longtime friend and coworker.

Brenda explained, “When we’d get our shoes to go to school each fall, Mama would say, ‘Keep your box.’”

Her late mother used those shoeboxes for her children’s Christmas gifts.

Brenda grew up in rural Hoke County, N.C. She had two older brothers and was born the third of six children (three boys, three girls). Her mother was unmarried.

“Did she wrap the boxes for you?” I asked.

“We couldn’t afford wrapping paper,” Brenda said. “In the box would be an apple, an orange, some nuts and candy – hard candy, Christmas candy, and there wouldn’t be much of that. That’s all she could afford.”

Brenda said she, being the oldest girl in her family, babysat younger siblings while her mother and brothers worked as sharecroppers, raising tobacco.

“I never knew my father – never knew what a father was,” Brenda said, noting that she and her baby brother share the same father. When she graduated from high school, a man she thought could be her father, told her he was.

She asked her mother if that man was telling the truth. Brenda recalls that her mother said, “Well, if he says it, you must be his.”

“She wouldn’t admit it,” Brenda said.

Brenda’s maternal grandmother, Nurseann Locklear, took her to church. (Nurseann’s husband died of a heart attack at age 29. She later became engaged to a soldier who died overseas before they could marry. Nurseann remained single until the end of her long life.)

“I always went to church,” Brenda says. “It was a little country church.”

She and her husband, Mike, accepted Christ early in their marriage, she says. They faithfully attend a Church of God of Prophecy and have two adult daughters, four grandsons and a granddaughter. I pray that Brenda enjoys a wonderful Christmas, this year, and that Christ continues healing hurts and disappointments she has experienced.

My early memories of Christmas include a drama presented at Gum Springs Pentecostal Holiness Church in Greenville County, S.C. I was old enough to read and was given a part in that “play” about a modern family at Christmastime. My 3-years-younger sister, Shirley, had a part, too. I recall the darkened church and the pulpit moved aside to make way for a couch. The troubled family featured in the play ended up having a Merry Christmas, with the Lord’s help.

In those days, Gum Springs Church usually gave a large grocery bag of fruit to each family attending the Sunday night service preceding Christmas. Nowadays, a bag of fruit might not mean much, but I recall one family who showed up at our church just to get a Christmas bag of fruit. (At least I, as a child, suspected that’s why that family came.) When fruit bags were presented at the end of the service, that family’s young mother left her two small children and her husband sitting on a pew near the back of the church. She walked forward and received a bag of fruit. I can still envision her thin face and long, wispy, straight brown hair. I never saw that family, again, but the presence of that mother and her family at that service caused me to think about people who lived outside our church. I wondered if they had the hope I had – a hope in Jesus Christ encouraged by folk in my church who took time to teach me about Christ, pray with me to receive Christ and patiently encourage me to participate in a Christmas play.

Father, please fill hearts with Christ’s love and healing during this Christmas season, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Abby Johnson, Prolife Advocate, Speaks in Southern Pines, N.C.

2011-12-03T14:16:00.000-08:00

Abby Johnson signs copies of her book, "unPlanned," after speaking in Southern Pines, N.C.

By Steve Crain

Abbey Johnson, an American prolife activist and author of “unPlanned,” spoke in the auditorium of Pinecrest High School in Southern Pines, N.C., on the evening of September 10, 2011.

She worked as a Planned Parenthood clinic director but resigned in October 2009, she says, after watching an abortion on ultrasound.

Johnson, 31, was raised in a “conservative, pro-life family” from Texas but began volunteering for Planned Parenthood after seeing its booth at a fair at her college. She said she hadn’t heard of the group before, didn’t know [at first] that they performed abortions. She stated that Planned Parenthood told her they wanted to reduce the number of abortions. Johnson volunteered in 2001and progressed to the position of community services director. She worked at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Bryan, Texas, for eight years, escorting women into the clinic from their cars and eventually working as director of that clinic.

She serves as the chief research strategist for Live Action, a pro-life organization known for conducting sting operations against Planned Parenthood clinics. She holds a B.S. in psychology from Texas A&M University and a M.A. in counseling from Sam Houston State University. She lives (in 2011) in Austin, Texas, with her husband and 4-year-old daughter.

On Sept. 10, 2011, Johnson, sponsored by the Life Care Pregnancy Center of Carthage, N.C., spoke to about 175 people gathered at Pinecrest High School.

Monsignor Jeffrey Ingram gave an invocation, praying, “Heavenly Father, you have given us your Son as the Truth. … Help us to have a great understanding and respect for human life … leave the culture of death behind and look to a culture of life, protecting those who cannot protect themselves.”

Suzanne Clendenin (pictured above)

Suzanne Clendenin, executive director of the Life Care Pregnancy Center of Carthage, introduced Johnson to the audience.

Abby Johnson, pictured above, speaks to an audience in Southern Pines, N.C.

Abby Johnson Tells of ‘Signs’

Johnson told the following two stories about people who received “signs” concerning abortion decisions.

She said that one girl was pregnant and wanted a sign from God as to whether or not to abort her baby. As the girl rode in the back seat of a friend’s car, she saw a pregnancy center billboard and typed the center’s number into her phone. She later called the center but received no return call.

The girl made an appointment for an abortion. As she was about to enter the abortion clinic, a young pro-life worker, stationed outside that clinic, called to the girl and asked what she could do to help.

The girl told her looking-for-a-sign story to the pro-life lady, letting her know she called a pregnancy center and received no return call.

“What if I’m your sign?” the prolife lady asked. “What is your name?”

The girl said, “My name is Elizabeth.”

“My name is Elizabeth,” the lady said.

“That was her sign,” Johnson said. “She now has a 6-month-old boy.

Johnson told another “sign” story.

A lady visiting an abortion clinic was sent to a nearby prolife pregnancy center to get a free ultrasound screening. Abortion clinics use ultrasound images to estimate how large a baby is before he is aborted.

The lady asked a prolife center attendant for the ultrasound screening but told the attendant she wanted no lectures about keeping her baby.

While performing the ultrasound, the pregnancy center attendant wondered what she could say to help the lady on the table change her mind about aborting her baby.
The attendant thought of these words and voiced them the lady: “Would you like to touch your baby’s hand?”

The woman on the table was startled but placed her hand on her stomach, as the technician directed her to do. Then, the lady on the table saw, on the ultrasound screen, her baby inside her body reach up and touch the top of her womb. Their hands were close.

“She now has a 2-year-old daughter,” Johnson said.

Getting Serious

“If the majority of Americans were really prolife, the abortion numbers wouldn’t be increasing each year. … One in three of those having abortions wouldn’t be ‘Christians,’” Johnson said. (She recommended Lifenews.com as a good source of prolife information.)

She said many ministers don’t take a stand from the pulpit against abortion. There are over 300,000 organized churches in the U.S., she noted.

“One of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do is look my parents in the face and say, ‘I have killed two of your grandchildren,’” Johnson said. “I believe this is a spiritual battle, do you? I see so many groups fighting each other. … Let’s get together for these babies. Four thousand children, every day, are dying, because we’re not really ready to get serious.”

Worked for Planned Parenthood

Johnson worked eight years for Planned Parenthood.

“One of the jobs I used to do was in the POC (Products of Conception) lab,” Johnson said. “You’re not allowed to say ‘baby’ in an abortion lab. There’s a POC person in each lab. They take the tissue and dump it into a Pyrex-type holder and piece the baby back together. If you’re missing a part of the baby, it could cause infection in the mother.”

John said the POC job didn’t bother her and that she thought the process was interesting.

“I had to buy leather tennis shoes,” she said. “I got blood on my shoes and had to throw them into the washer each day. Abortion is graphic. It didn’t bother me. I looked at that [body parts] in a dish all the time. It didn’t bother me."

The abortion clinic Johnson worked for didn’t get all the baby-parts retrieved from the body of one woman, and that woman ended up in the hospital a week later.

“We had left a leg in her uterus,” Johnson said. “We didn’t want her to go to the media. We needed to make her a monetary offer, for she was mad, ready to go to the media.”

The abortion clinic came up with money and told Johnson to give the woman an agreed-upon check and get her to sign off.

“We gave her $897,” Johnson said, noting that the lady had paid $550 for her abortion. “We thought that was fair. That’s how we treated women. You see, guys, when I hear about how Planned Parenthood helps people, I shake my head. I lied to women every day and didn’t even know it. … I was good at it.”

Selling Abortions

Planned Parenthood honored Abby Johnson as a regional affiliate employee of the year in 2008.

“I could sell about anybody on abortion,” Johnson said. “We gave them promise of a better career. … [Telling them that] to kill their child was a smart parenting decision. … Planned Parenthood knew the lies we were telling were very important. Planned Parenthood gave us this list – all of us who counseled women to have abortions. We had a sheet: ‘Answers to Tough Questions.’”

Johnson said question number one on that sheet was “Will my baby feel this?”

The scripted answer was “No, the fetus has no sensory development until 28 weeks.”

“They wouldn’t believe their baby was going to be in pain and [they then would] have an abortion,” Johnson said, adding that another question on the clinic prompt sheet was “Will God ever forgive me?”

Johnson said, “We asked back, ‘Do you believe God is a forgiving God? Don’t you think he knows you’re in a tough position, right now, and you’re doing what’s best for your family?’”

“We liked our jobs, our paychecks,” Johnson said. “It’s great, until one day you figure out that you’ve been lied to and you’ve been lying to other people. And that’s what happened to me.”

The Turning Point

Johnson said a doctor who was new to her clinic wanted her to help him with an ultrasound-guided abortion, which is a very unusual procedure at an abortion clinic. The Houston, Texas, clinic where Johnson worked was performing 75 abortions a day and open for business six days per week, she said. She was “called in” to help the new doctor perform the ultrasound-guided abortion.

“My job was to hold the ultrasound probe during the abortion,” she said, noting that she had been promised she would, in time, become the COO [“chief operating officer,” in charge of daily business] of the clinic. “I thought it would be good to learn a new technique [ultrasound-guided abortion].”

She said there was no medical reason for the ultrasound, but an abortion clinic can use an ultrasound image to measure the baby and know how much to charge for that abortion. (She inferred that charges for each abortion seemed to be based on the size of each aborted baby.)

Johnson saw the baby on the video screen, during the ultrasound-guided procedure.

“I’m looking at this screen and kind of have an anxious feeling in my stomach,” she said. “The fetus was 13 weeks along and wouldn’t feel anything, I thought.”

The doctor placed a suction tube into the patient’s uterus.

“I saw this 13-week-old fetus recoil and try to move away from the instrument,” Johnson said. “I saw this child try to flee. I didn’t want to look but couldn’t stop looking. This can’t be really happening, I thought. Arms and legs were flailing about. I can’t tell you for sure that the baby felt pain, but if someone walked into this room with a gun … we’d be screaming, running like wild bandits … and that’s exactly what I saw on that ultrasound screen. That baby was frantic.”

Johnson said she recalled the attending doctor saying, “Beam me up, Scotty,” as he turned on the suction.

“The worst part was standing there and witnessing this tiny defenseless child struggling and fighting for his life,” she said. “I watched a child die right before my face. The biggest tragedy is it’s happening 4,000 times a day.

“If we saw a 2-year-old stomped by her dad, what would we do? Would we show preference for a 2-year-old over 4,000 unborn everyday? Would we say to a 2-year-old, ‘You deserve better,” and to the 4, 000, ‘Not so much’?”

Johnson said the prolife effort is not just a movement.

“This is ‘the’ movement, the cause. … Everything else is secondary to the right to live,” she said. “Thirty-three percent of our population is not here because of abortion. There’s no gray, when it comes to the murder of children – none. Somebody’s waiting for you to get involved. We have to be doing this because this is the right thing to do. I do 10 to 15 events like this every month.”

Funds for Abortions

Johnson said some charities, such as the following, give money to Planned Parenthood: the March of Dimes Foundation, American Diabetes Association, American Cancer Society, Relay for Life and the Girl Scout Cookie program.

“The money you give to this organization [Life Care Pregnancy Center] – not a penny of it is going to kill babies. … I want to give to safe organizations, not those that deceive people. Don’t give to organizations that give to other organizations that kill babies.”

She said the U.S. government gave 366 million dollars of taxpayer money to Planned Parenthood “this year.”

Johnson referred to this quote from the Henry Hyde (1924-2007), a former U.S. House of Representatives statesman from the sixth district of Illinois:

“When the time comes, as it surely will, when we face that awesome moment, the final judgment, I’ve often thought, as Fulton Sheen wrote, that it is a terrible moment of loneliness. You have no advocates, you are there alone standing before God – and a terror will rip your soul like nothing you can imagine. But I really think that those in the pro-life movement will not be alone. I think there’ll be a chorus of voices that have never been heard in this world but are heard beautifully and clearly in the next world – and they will plead for everyone who has been in this movement. They will say to God, ‘Spare him, because he loved us!’”

“You can be the ‘sign’ for these children,” Johnson said. “They are waiting to be spared of death.”

Life Care Pregnancy Center of Carthage, N.C., “a Christ-centered ministry that promotes the sanctity of human life,” may be reached at 910-947-6199 or by e-mail at lcpc01@embarqmail.com.

A mother presents her baby for a hug from Abby Johnson, after Johnson's presentation in Southern Pines, N.C.

Pictured are some ladies associated with the Life Care Pregnancy Center in Carthage, N.C.

'Words Not Spoken' by Stewart Simms

2011-11-23T17:04:00.000-08:00

Stewart Simms’ “Words Not Spoken” is a book about “understanding the pastor’s silent hurts.” Anyone interested in human relationships can profit from reading this volume.

“This book will help you understand yourself and others,” says the Rev. Ken Hemphill, a Southern Baptist (SBC) strategist who wrote the foreword for “Words Not Spoken” (Yorkshire Publishing). “Stewart writes honestly about matters such as loneliness, resentment, comparison, prayerlessness, sadness, disappointment and family failures.”

Stewart Simms, Jr. and I sang together in the Greer High School (in Greer, S.C.) Boys Octet. He and his late father, then pastor of the town’s First Baptist Church, sang a hymn duet, “Hold Thou My Hand,” at our GHS baccalaureate service, Sunday, May 30, 1965. The Rev. Edmond Poole, father of Joe Poole of our class and pastor of Victor Baptist Church in Greer, delivered that evening’s sermon. On Thursday, June 3, 1965, at 8:15 p.m., 254 members of our 1965 class, listed as “candidates for diplomas or certificates,” exited high school after a ceremony – which included the GHS band playing “Pomp and Circumstance” – held inside the GHS football stadium.

During his high school years, when friends asked if he would “follow in the footsteps of his pastor father,” Simms said, “Not the way I see it now.” He says he thought of other careers, especially commercial art, but nothing seemed to be a “must” in his life.

“During my freshman year in college [Furman University], I attended a revival service in my home church and had the opportunity to spend time with my father and the evangelist,” Simms says. “I took a deep breath and said, ‘Dad, I think God may be calling me into the ministry.’”

After a long silence, his father said, “Son, I have known that for a long time. I said nothing because I did not want to be the one who most influences you. That is up to the good Lord.”

“The moment I spoke, the direction of the desire of my life changed,” Simms says. “I went from not knowing what I wanted to do, to knowing there was nothing else I wanted to do, or could do. It was a sense of a ‘divine must’… Answering the ‘call’ does not mean that other vocations are unimportant, but for the one called, nothing else is as important.”

Simms says a sense of “must” should not be viewed as compulsion and that some people enter the ministry for unhealthy reasons, such as: the expectations of parents or grandparents; trying to atone for earlier sin and rebellion against God; the result of making a “deal” with God in a time of crisis; escape from another unpleasant career; and the feeling that this is the only way to please and appease God.

Simms earned degrees from Furman University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (M.Div. and D. Min.) in Fort Worth, Texas. He began preaching in 1966 and has served as a pastor since 1971. He is married to the former Diane Lucas; they have three children and one granddaughter. Simms spent the last 30 years as senior pastor of Beech Haven Baptist Church (BeechHaven.org) in Athens, Ga., and wrote columns for the church’s newsletter. On Oct. 16, 2011, he announced his retirement from that church.

“I am not leaving the ministry,” he says. “After a brief period of rest, I will preach as often as I am able.”

Yorkshire Publishing entices us to read “Words Not Spoken,” Simms’ first book, with these words: “Ministry can be the greatest blessing in life and the greatest source of frustration at the same time. It is a joy to serve God. However, things happen that wound a pastor deeply. Who does he tell? Who is the pastor's pastor? Sometimes because of embarrassment or fear he tells no one, which can lead to serious consequences. This book explores some of those unspoken hurts and offers suggestions of what to do. Pastors will know someone understands, and people can learn how to return ministry to their pastors.”

In a chapter called “The Unspoken Burden of the Ministry: Disappointment,” Simms says disappointment can cause a pastor to become resentful, cynical and withdrawn emotionally.

“Surveys of churches that have dismissed a minister reveal that the number one reason is a fundamental lack of relationship skills by the minister,” Simms says. “Some failings by ministers deserve action. But other struggles, like those spoken of here [in “Words Not Spoken”], should not be fatal to one’s ministry, and in fact, deserve understanding and caring. Members of churches can provide that care to their pastors, if they will. That will often require simple understanding. Where people provide for their ministers the healing and encouragement they need, churches can profit greatly. By learning to extend graciousness and caring and listening to their leaders, churches may decide to extend those same responses to people outside the church.”

IDOP International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church

2011-11-09T16:27:00.000-08:00

By Steve Crain

November is the month to remember and pray for the persecuted church, through the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church (IDOP).

Believers in Afghanistan face death threats; Christians in Uzbekistan, Nigeria and other countries face violence, imprisonment and even death. There are places such as North Korea where persecution takes place, but we don’t hear of it. Brother Andrew of Open Doors said, “Our heroes are not with us simply because they are in prison.”

IDOP is a time set apart to remember thousands of Christians who suffer persecution, simply because they confess Jesus Christ as Lord. Please note that Sunday, Nov. 13 (Sunday, Nov. 6 in the UK and Ireland) is the designated date for IDOP.

Here are excerpts from recent stories posted by Stacy L. Harp at www.persecutionblog.com:

Nov. 9: “Burmese soldiers targeted Christian civilians and church buildings in a recent attack against insurgents from the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO). The military, which accused church leaders of being part of the KIO, reportedly burned church property and several homes.

“On Oct. 16, 2011, soldiers opened fire on a church in Bhamo District in Kachin state as the congregation prepared for Sunday service. No one was injured in the gunfire, but Burmese soldiers burned the property and detained five church leaders.

“Although the Christians denied being part of the KIO, soldiers kicked and hit them with their guns, demanding to know where the Christians stored guns and bombs. … The soldiers tied the Christian leaders’ hands with wire and forced them to carry heavy rucksacks … Before releasing the five men, the soldiers told them to tell the KIO that the army was preparing to attack their headquarters in Laiza. When the men returned to their village, they found their houses in flames.”

Nov. 8: “ARISSA, Kenya, November 7 (CDN) — Suspected Islamic extremists with Somalia’s al Shabaab militia threw a grenade into the home of the church guard of an East Africa Pentecostal Church (EAPC) congregation outside Garissa, Kenya on Saturday night (Nov. 5), killing an 8-year-old girl and another member of the church, sources said. Three other people were seriously injured in the 8 p.m. grenade attack on the house, which is near the gate of the church compound. Killed instantly were 8-year-old Winnie Mwenda Mutinda and 25-year-old church member John Kikavu. The child was the youngest daughter of church elder Patrick Mutinda, who also serves as the guard or watchman of the church building, sources said.”

The following Nov. 7-posted (by Harp) story is about Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, who is receiving international attention:

“Both the Christian Broadcasting Network and The Jerusalem Post are carrying stories today about Pastor Youcef. Please keep him in your prayers, as he still remains in prison and awaiting a decision from, the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

“‘The Jerusalem Post’ is reporting that Pastor Youcef has been given a book to read titled ‘Message of the Two Eras’ and is again being asked to recant his faith in Jesus and turn to Islam. It was reported previously that Pastor Youcef was given this book and did not deny Christ.

“David Parsons, spokesman for the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday the new development is ‘very troubling.’

“There need to be ‘three attempts to make him convert to Islam before they can kill him,’ Parsons said. He cited Shari’a Islamic law as the basis for the three attempts rule.

“Iran ‘is going through the motions’ and ‘trying to do it in a very public way for the Muslim world and maybe, in their mind, thinking they can placate the West. It is outrageous,’ said Parsons, a contributing editor to The Jerusalem Post Christian Edition. The case “should be an eye-opener for world leaders. They should know what Islam teaches in terms of ‘inferior religions’ like Judaism and Christianity.”

The “Message of the Two Eras” discusses the New and Old Testaments. “Through various narratives, the book claims Christianity is a fabrication and attempts to establish the superiority of Islam,” Harp writes.

Please pray. Jesus warned His disciples that in the last days before He comes again, “You will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me” (Matthew 24:9).

With Pa on a Saturday Afternoon

2011-11-05T06:40:00.000-07:00

Pictured are "Pa" Carl C. Crain and "Ma" Lillian Parker Crain in the 1950s.

By Steve Crain

Pa cuts the ignition of his 1939 earth-green-colored 4-door Ford as we near the downhill paved road that leads to his and Ma’s driveway, located three-quarters of a mile away in rural upper-Greenville County, S.C.

He’s doing it, again, after our usual Saturday afternoon visit to Ralph Fowler’s general store in the early 1950s. He’s seeing if he and I, his 6-year-old grandson, can coast the rest of the way home.

Pa, my paternal grandfather, grins as we glide silently past Ed and Martha Phillips’ house.

But the road levels out, and we only creep along at about three miles per hour as we near the long, red-dirt, sloping driveway that leads to his and Ma’s white frame farmhouse that sits down near the creek.

We inch forward, spending the last bit of motion left in the rubber tires of our silent chariot.

Will we make it? Sometimes Pa has to crank the old car to get a last bit of go-juice and enter the driveway.

But, today, it seems Pa has judged well. The Ford almost stops dead, but Pa turns his wheels to the right, and I feel rubber leave pavement and meet red dirt.

We did it! We pick up speed and hit ruts washed out by summer’s heavy rains.

Pa steadies the steering wheel as red dust billows behind us. He keeps to the middle of the scraped road. He mows down small weeds that have grown up between tire track paths.

Pa let’s us roll pretty fast, but he’s in control and doesn’t want to hit a ditch, especially on the right side of the drive. That’s where gully-washers have chiseled out deep holes that hold water for a long time after rains go away.

We fly on Henry Ford wings as dust boils behind us and we zoom into Pa’s front yard.

Ma, a tall, lean worrier, stands near the driveway, as we whip near her and make a circle around a huge oak tree.

We roll to a stop, and Ma hollers to us, “Coming in on a wing and a prayer! Coming in on a wing and a prayer!”

Pa smiles. And I smile, too.

Laying Burdens at His Feet in Rocky Mount

2011-10-01T20:01:00.000-07:00

This photo shows a street in Rocky Mount, Virginia.

By Steve Crain

On a recent rainy Thursday around 6:00 p.m., I arrived at The Comfort Inn in Rocky Mount, Virginia.

“One night,” I said to the clerk, as she checked for my reservation. “What do you have for Friday night, if I need to stay over?”

“I have a few smoking rooms,” she said.

Nearby Ferrum College was hosting a “parents weekend,” so motel rooms were scarce.

“I’ll wait and see,” I said, hoping I could okay colors needing my approval within a 10-hour stint on Friday at Ronile, a Rocky Mount yarn-dyeing plant. A few years ago, Ronile owners bought Gulistan, the Aberdeen, N.C., carpet-manufacturing company I work for.

I took my bags from the charcoal-colored Dodge Dakota truck rented in Southern Pines, where my wife, Carol, and I live, and limped to the room. My surgeon said that on a scale of one to 10 – 10 being bad – my left hip was a nine. I faced replacement surgery in a few days and felt like the guy who quipped, “If I’d known I was going to live this long, I’d have taken better care of myself.”

I had my right hip replaced in 2002 and also have lower back problems. “Lord,” I thought, “am I going to be able to ‘get around’ in old age? Will I deal with daily pain?”

A pastor once told me, “People talk about the ‘Golden Years,’ but there’s a lot of brass in those years.”

I called Carol. Despite hardships she’s experienced in life, she is amazingly positive and helps me steer away from melancholy tendencies. Carol gave encouragement and said, “We have to trust the Lord.”

I went to the motel vending machine for M&M’s. I figured I should have lost 50 pounds before my hip operation, but surgery was a few days away and a few more M&M’s probably wouldn’t matter. A thin young fellow standing nearby bought a Mountain Dew and said, “I need a few vending machines to make some money. I stayed one place where drinks were $1.50.”

“It’s tough,” I said, wondering why he wanted what appeared to be a safety pin stuck through his left eyebrow.

Back in the room, I found a Republican presidential-candidates TV debate. Nine politicians were answering questions. Some gave President Obama “down the road” for what they called “socialist tendencies,” and some lashed out at each other: Romney and Perry squared off; Michele Bachmann attacked Perry; Herman Cain sounded sensible; Ron Paul seemed to want the U.S. to mind its own business.

Political stuff began whirling in my head, and rain was still falling outside. I tried to lay my burdens at the Lord’s feet. I’ve voiced that prayer many times. I guess I’m like the fellow who was walking and carrying a heavy sack on his back. A man driving a horse and wagon overtook him and asked, “Want a ride?”

“Sure,” the man said. He settled on the wagon seat beside the driver but kept his sack on his shoulders.

After a mile or so, the driver said to the man, “Why don’t you put that sack on the floor of the wagon?”

The burdened man said, “You were good enough to give me a ride. I can’t expect you to carry my baggage, too.”

I guess the Lord wonders about us that same way. We say we want him as Savior, but can’t seem to let him carry our burdens.

On Friday morning, the rain was still falling, though not as much as during the previous day. I started thinking, again, about things beyond my control but began counting some blessings, too.

After breakfast in the motel lobby, I checked out at 7:30 a.m. and headed to see colored yarns at Ronile. Driving through gray mist, I thought about the Lord’s goodness and about how worrying couldn’t add a single hair to my head. I wondered why I seemed so much like Peter. He saw the Lord walking on water and approaching him and the other disciples as they maneuvered a boat on a troubled Sea of Galilee. Peter wanted to walk to Jesus, so he asked, and Jesus said it’d be okay. Peter got out of the boat and began walking, but he looked around and set his eyes on the waves more than on Jesus. He started to sink; Jesus had to take Peter’s hand and save him.

“Why am I like that?” I asked the Lord. Why do I seem to be anchored in the Faith and then start worrying about circumstances and situations? Why do I take my eyes off you and look at the waves?”

“It’s human nature,” the Lord seemed to say to my heart. “It’s human nature.”

The Walking Lady and Her Brother: a NAMI story

2011-09-17T07:28:00.000-07:00

By Steve Crain

Emelia Yurkus, a tall, thin woman who often walked the streets of Greenville, S.C., died recently.

Here is Emelia’s obituary, published in “The Greenville News,” August 6, 2011:

“Emelia Yurkus, 81, died August 4, 2011. Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., to the late Anthony Yurkus and Emelia Rasiluite Yurkus, she was a 50-year resident of Greenville. Emelia was known as ‘the walking lady of Augusta Road’ and was an independent person of great discipline and good manners in spite of the constraints of her schizophrenia.

“Emelia was predeceased by her brother and lifelong caregiver, Charles Younkers. She is survived by a nephew, John Wittenstrom, and a niece, Jeanne Cifaldi. The family thanks the many anonymous citizens of Greenville who supported and cared for Emelia during her long walks and thanks her late-life caregiving team: Beth Zweigoron, Hilda Jernigan, Connie Evans and Ann Campbell.

“A gathering of remembrance will be held at the Cremation Society of South Carolina on Monday, August 8 at 3:00 p.m. Memorials may be left to NAMI [National Alliance on Mental Illness] Greenville.”

When Bigelow-Sanford, a carpet manufacturer, moved its headquarters from New York City to Greenville, S.C., in the early 1970s, Emelia’s brother, Charlie Younkers, who worked as a designer with Bigelow, had to learn to drive. He, Emelia and their mother – Charlie and Emelia’s married sister, now evidently deceased, was not mentioned in Emilia’s obituary – had depended on buses or the New York City subway. He bought an old, silver-colored Mercedes-Benz, put a Saint Christopher medal on its dashboard – Charlie was Catholic – and headed south with his mother and Emelia.

In 1974, I hired on as a Bigelow designer and worked with Charlie. We were two of Bigelow’s nine designers. He, old enough to be my father, sat in front of my 5-ft. wide by almost 4-ft. tall drawing board. Lean and tall with a bit of a hook to his nose, he resembled his sister, Emelia. He often ate cabbage soup and onion sandwiches., and with a Brooklyn accent talked about “boids” (birds) he saw flying when he took lunchtime walks.

Charlie said he finished eighth grade in public school.

“The only book I ever read all the way through was ‘A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,’” said Charlie, who grew up in Brooklyn.

After his formal schooling, Charlie began working at the Bigelow design studio as a helper to some of the many designers hired to draw patterns for area rugs and broadloom carpets. He mixed tempera paints, using powdered pigments and “gum Arabic,” often wielding a mortar and a pestle. “A mortar and pestle is a tool used to crush, grind, and mix solid substances (trituration). The pestle is a heavy bat-shaped object, the end of which is used for crushing and grinding. The mortar is a bowl, typically made of hard wood, ceramic or stone. The substance to be ground is placed in the mortar and ground, crushed or mixed with the pestle” (from Wikipedia).

Designers used Charlie’s mixed paints to paint designs on “check paper.” A typical paper was pre-printed with small checks (often one-eighth inch or a tenth-inch in size). After a designer freehand-drew a sketch (some sketches were as large as three feet by four-plus feet) in charcoal and then secondarily in pastel chalks, he transferred that design to check paper. Some designs involved 28 colors (each color representing a colored yarn that would be used in a rug). Colors were mixed and matched by designers or assistants-to-designers such as Charlie. Designers used brushes to apply a paint color to each check, individually.

Charlie said his boss, a few years after he began work at Bigelow, let him try his hand at drawing. He was a good artist and could paint beautiful floral patterns.

He told me, “Don’t get stuck behind a drawing board. If you’re good, you’ll stay there.”

He said his bosses one day looked over his shoulder at a 3-ft. by 3-ft. nature-inspired abstract design he’d worked on for quite a while. They gave advice on things to change in his design.

“I sat there a week, staring out the window,” Charlie said, chuckling. “Then I turned that design upside down on my board. They came back and looked at it and liked it.”

He sometimes told me, “Don’t hurry. They’ll just give you another one (a design).”

Charlie’s last name, Younkers, was different from his parents because of a mix-up at Ellis Island when his parents emigrated from Lithuania, he said.

“My mother said her name was ‘Yurkus,’ and they wrote down “Younkers,’” Charlie said. Perhaps his parents and his sister later changed their names back to Yurkus and Charlie didn’t. I don’t know.

I once visited Charlie’s apartment in Lewis Village, located adjacent to Greenville’s Lewis Plaza Shopping Center on Augusta Road. I met Charlie’s thin, white-haired mother and Emelia, who didn’t acknowledge my visit. Neither Charlie nor Emelia ever married.

Months later, I saw Emelia sitting on a stool in an ice-cream shop. I entered that shop and said rather loudly, “Emelia.” She turned her head toward me and quickly jerked it back to its former position. She ignored me, and I said nothing else.

“I think something happened to her in a theater when she was a young woman,” Charlie later told me. “All she wants to do is walk and eat candy. She asked me for money for some, yesterday.”

I later attended the funeral for Charlie and Emelia’s mother, which was conducted at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Greenville. I sometimes saw Emelia walking along Greenville’s Hwy. 291 Bypass and saw her traveling streets located far from her and Charlie’s Augusta Road apartment. She became a public figure of sorts and earned her title: “The Walking Lady of Augusta Road.”

Charlie retired from Bigelow, and then my family and I moved from Greenville to North Carolina in 1988. Charlie and I exchanged Christmas cards until he returned no messages and I figured he had died. Time’s passage has not dimmed my recollection of Charlie, his mother and his sister. In my mind, I can still see Charlie sitting at his drawing board on the third floor of the now-closed studio once located at the former Bigelow headquarters in Greenville, S.C., and I can still see Emelia, walking, walking, walking.

September 11 Observed

2011-09-10T09:01:00.000-07:00

By Steve Crain

Do you recall where you were on Sept. 11, 2001, when you heard about a major assault on American targets?

“The Sept. 11 attacks (called Sept.11, Sept. 11th or 9/11) were a series of four coordinated suicide attacks against targets in New York and Washington, D.C. on September 11, 2001,” according to Wikipedia.org. “On that morning, 19 terrorists from the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda hijacked four passenger jets. The hijackers intentionally crashed two planes into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center (WTC) in New York City; both towers collapsed within two hours. Hijackers crashed a third plane into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. When passengers attempted to take control of the fourth plane, United Airlines Flight 93, it crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, preventing it from reaching its intended target in Washington, D.C. Nearly 3,000 died in the attacks.”

When I heard of the World Trace Center attack, I was in the Gulistan Carpet dye lab located in Wagram, N.C. The lab manager’s wife called, and he found pictures on the Internet. I stood beside him and watched video coverage of smoke billowing from the WTC North Tower.

“At 8:46 a.m., five hijackers crashed American Airlines Flight 11 into the World Trade Center’s North Tower 1 WTC),” records Wikipedia, “and at 9:03 a.m., another five hijackers crashed United Airlines Flight 175 into the South Tower (2 WTC). Five hijackers flew American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon at 9:37 a.m. A fourth flight, under the control of four hijackers, crashed United Airlines Flight 93 near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, at 10:03 a.m., after the passengers fought the hijackers. Flight 93’s ultimate destination is believed to have been either the Capitol or the White House.”

I recall thinking on Sept. 11, 2001, “How could this happen in America?” I guess I imagined our country was bulletproof.

After the 9/11 attacks, we learned more about Islam, the religion that allegedly motivated the hijackers who brought down the Twin Towers.

“Islam” (Arabic origin) literally means “submission (to a supposed god known as ‘Allah’).” A follower of Islam is called a “Muslim,” meaning (from Arabic) “one who surrenders.” Islam is monotheistic (meaning “belief in one god”), and Islamic beliefs are basically found in the Qur’an (meaning “a book” or “reading”). The Qur’an was dictated by Muhammed (around 570-632 A.D.), who was illiterate; he claimed he received messages from the angel Gabriel. Muhammed is considered by Muslims to be the last prophet sent from God. The following information is found at Wikipedia.org: Muslims believe Islam is the complete version of a “primordial” (existing from the very beginning) faith that was revealed at many times and places before, including through Abraham, Moses and Jesus, whom Muslims consider prophets. Muslims claim previous messages and revelations have been corrupted over time. They consider the Qur’an to be both the unaltered and the final revelation of God.

From Christiancourier.com: “The Bible is found to be without error. … But the Koran, despite its claims, lacks the marks of divine revelation. Its sub-standard treatment of women is no secret… The book contains numerous historical inaccuracies and anachronisms, i.e., the chronological misplacement of persons, events, etc.”

I spent 11 days in Egypt in 2004, working on a carpet-manufacturing project for Gulistan Carpet. An American who worked for the Egyptian company hosting us introduced me to a young Egyptian Muslim, whom I’ll call Amon. Amon spoke English and led our project. One day at lunch, I mentioned my faith in Christ.

“I’ve been to Christian weddings,” said Amon, a husband and a father.

After more discussion, I said, “We believe in one God, but we believe in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit: three revelations of our God.”

“Oh, God has no father; God has no son,” Amon said.

I didn’t want to get into an argument in Egypt. I prayed silently that Amon would someday know the truth of these words: “Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’” (John 14:6 NIV).

Remember 9/11 and pray for those who would wage “holy war.” They need Jesus, the Prince of Peace.

Earthquake - Where's God?

2011-08-27T10:25:00.000-07:00

By Steve Crain

“The most powerful earthquake to strike the East Coast in 67 years shook buildings and rattled nerves from South Carolina to Maine on Tuesday [August 23, 2011],” wrote Bob Lewis of the Associated Press. “Frightened office workers spilled into the streets in New York, and parts of the White House, Capitol and Pentagon were evacuated.”

A few injuries were reported but no deaths.

“A 5.8-magnitude quake releases as much energy as almost eight tons of TNT, about half the power of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan,” Lewis said about the recent quake.

What does God have to do with earthquakes?

The Rev. Charles Wesley reacted to the Lisbon, Portugal earthquake of 1755 with a sermon called “The Cause and Cure of Earthquakes.” Wesley indicated God uses quakes as warnings.

Wikipedia offers this information: “The 1755 Lisbon earthquake, also known as the ‘Great Lisbon Earthquake,’ was a mega-thrust earthquake that took place on Saturday 1 November 1755, at around 9:40 in the morning. The earthquake was followed by fires and a tsunami, which caused near-total destruction of Lisbon in the Kingdom of Portugal and adjoining areas.”

Seismologists estimate the Lisbon quake had a magnitude in the range of 8.5 to 9.0 on the “moment magnitude scale” and a death toll between 10,000 and 100,000 people.

Wesley said in his sermon about earthquakes, “Of all the judgments which the righteous God inflicts on sinners here in this world – the most dreadful and destructive is an earthquake. This He has lately brought on our part of the earth, and thereby alarmed our fears, and bid us to ‘prepare to meet our God!’ Earthquakes are the works of the Lord, and He alone brings this destruction upon the earth. That God is Himself the Author of earthquakes, and sin the moral cause of earthquakes (whatever the natural cause may be), cannot be denied by any who believe the Scriptures. [...] ‘He moves mountains without their knowing it and overturns them in His anger. He shakes the earth from its place and makes its pillars tremble!’ (Job 9:5-6).”

Stephen Rankin, chaplain at Southern Methodist University, says “‘The Cause and Cure of Earthquakes,’ reminds me again of how societies’ assumptions can change. The title alone strikes today’s reader as quaint, to say the least. […] Wesley’s sermon clearly indicates that God directly causes the earthquakes for the sake of judgment: a holy God uses natural disasters to judge and awaken wayward peoples. […] As I read, I was struck by how people today (in America) would likely respond. They probably would be quite offended with Wesley’s tone and claims. How could a loving God do such a thing? So, we face two conflicting worldviews. Wesley’s view, shared by many of his day, was of a holy, just, God who is Governor and Judge of the world. God has every right to use all means available to bring about God’s holy purposes. ‘Our lives are in God’s hands,’ and God can do as he sees fit. By contrast, listening to folks today, even ‘conservative evangelical’ Christians, God sounds more like an Attentive Helper, waiting to do our bidding.”

Rankin says that reading a sermon such as Wesley’s provokes questions.

“Virtually all Christians would agree that God can do things like cause earthquakes, but we likely would conclude that God does not directly cause them,” Rankin notes.

Perhaps many believe God’s loving nature does not will such evil on people. Many think God uses other, more gentle means and that natural disasters like earthquakes are an inevitable part of the kind of world God created, but not directly relatable to human sin nor to God’s direct action, Rankin says.

Rankin says, “The harshness of Wesley’s view may trouble us, but so should the God-as-Attentive-Helper view.”

Speaker Lehman Strauss says, “Look at Amos 3:6, where the prophet asked, ‘Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it?’ The word evil here does not refer to moral evil, but rather a calamity. Through the prophet Isaiah, God said, ‘I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I, the Lord, do all these things’ (45:7). Again the word evil denotes any kind of a natural disaster such as a plague, drought, flood, or earthquake. Both Amos and Isaiah are telling us that nothing happens by accident. […] The supreme rulership of God is based upon the perfections of His divine being.”

There are many things we don’t understand, but God asks us to trust him. God is good and in control of all things.

Separating Paul and Barnabas

2011-08-21T16:08:00.000-07:00

By Steve Crain

While working in 1972 as art director at the former Logos International, a Christian book publishing company then located in Plainfield, N.J., I met the late Arthur Katz, a “Messianic Jewish evangelist.”

Katz had been an atheistic high school teacher before converting to Christ. Logos Int. printed “Ben Israel,” a story he wrote about his conversion. I heard Katz deliver a powerful sermon at a N.J. Full Gospel Businessmen’s meeting.

Katz came one day through the Logos office with a fellow preacher. Katz said he and that friend, also a Jewish evangelist, had formed a joint ministry. I recall wondering, “Will two strong-minded evangelists – especially Messianic Jewish evangelists – get along well, together?”

Soon, that joint venture dissolved. They probably agreed on their beliefs about Christ but decided to walk their walks and talk their talks, separately. As far as I know, they never called each other “hypocrite” or accused each other of being “of the devil.”

Church disagreements are often not about doctrine. Differences are sometimes about culture, personalities, leadership, vision and use of funds. Paul and Barnabas, Early Church leaders, experienced a disagreement – not about the Lord or Christian doctrines, but about a person: John Mark.

Author Wayne Jackson, writing for ChristianCourier.com, says Paul had been such a persecutor of Christians that after his conversion, Christians still feared him. When Paul returned to Jerusalem, Barnabas had to persuade the disciples to let him fellowship with them (Acts 9:26). Paul and Barnabas became great friends, but they later had a “falling out.”

Jackson says John Mark, a cousin of Barnabas, went with Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey. We aren’t sure why, but Mark left the men and returned to his Jerusalem home before the journey ended. When the men planned a second journey, Barnabas wanted to take Mark as a helper. Paul opposed that, and a “sharp contention” developed between Paul and Barnabas.

“Some time later Paul said to Barnabas, ‘Let us go back and visit the believers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing.’ Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with them, but Paul did not think it wise to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work. They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus, but Paul chose Silas and left, commended by the believers to the grace of the Lord. He went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches” (Acts 15:36-41, NIV).

Jackson writes, “As far as the sacred record indicates, these two remarkable men [Paul and Barnabas] never saw one another, again.”

BibleGateway.com offers this insight under “Acts 15 – Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary on the Bible”: “Here we have private quarrel between two ministers, no less than Paul and Barnabas, yet made to end well. Barnabas wished his nephew John Mark to go with them. We should suspect ourselves of being partial, and guard against this in putting our [family] relations forward. Paul did not think him worthy of the honour, nor fit for the service …

“Neither would yield, therefore there was no remedy but they must part. We see that the best of men are but men, subject to like passions as we are. Perhaps there were faults on both sides, as usual in such contentions. Christ's example, alone, is a copy without a blot. Yet we are not to think it strange, if there are differences among wise and good men. It will be so while we are in this imperfect state; we shall never be all of one mind till we come to heaven. But what mischief the remainders of pride and passion, which are found even in good men, do in the world, and do in the church! Many who dwelt at Antioch, who had heard but little of the devotedness and piety of Paul and Barnabas, heard of their dispute and separation; and thus it will be with ourselves, if we give way to contention. Believers must be constant in prayer, that they may never be led by the allowance of unholy tempers, to hurt the cause they really desire to serve. Paul speaks with esteem and affection both of Barnabas and Mark, in his epistles, written after this event. May all who profess thy name, O loving Saviour, be thoroughly reconciled by that love derived from thee which is not easily provoked … .”

An author who calls himself simply “Coastal Pastor” – he is pastor of the Portstewart Baptist Church on the north coast of Ireland – writes, “Paul’s eye was on the success of the mission; Barnabas had an eye for the recovery of wounded soldiers (perhaps there was an added dimension in this case as Mark was a relative). It seems to me that the church needs both kinds of people … But the story of Paul and Barnabas shows that it is not easy. They were unable to stay together at this stage. Because these two kinds of leaders are so different, conflict is more or less inevitable. And were it not for the grace of God, conflict would be hopeless.”

The Lord's Name on a Street Sign?

2011-07-30T06:27:00.000-07:00

By Steve Crain

“Should the Lord’s name be used on a street sign?” I wondered, after I saw a newspaper article about a strip of road in Fayetteville, N.C., that was recently named “Jesus Christ Way.”

“Drive down Dudley Road, deep into rural Cumberland County, and there it is: a brand new, bright green street sign proclaiming a short stretch of sandy road as Jesus Christ Way,” wrote Chick Jacobs of The Fayetteville Observer newspaper (July 22, 2011).

Jacobs said that Jesus Christ Way is simply a sparse, sandy strip running from the pavement of Dudley Road to Bethel Elelohe Israel Missionary Baptist Church, a small, brown wooden structure. Warnette Patterson pastors the church, and her husband Samuel is co-pastor.

“When I was ordained, the Lord gave me a vision,” Warnette Patterson, 67, said. “He told me to put his name before men.”

Jacobs wrote, “Of the 8,000-plus named streets in Cumberland County – and of the hundreds of thousands across North Carolina – none were named for Jesus Christ.”

Warnette Patterson said she called the Cumberland County Courthouse. The name wasn’t used on a street in N.C., so Jesus Christ Way was approved, Jacobs wrote.

Warnette said she wants to make Jesus’ name known, because of what he did for her.

“I’m not proud of my earlier life,” she said. “I did a lot of things. The Sunday I was saved, I was out drinking the Friday before.”

Jacobs wrote, “Her husband was serving in the military and stationed in Korea. Patterson says she was living on Fort Bragg, hiding from bill collectors and creditors.”

“They couldn’t get to me there,” Warnette said. “But the Holy Spirit could. I began feeling worse and worse, like I was going to die right then. I had to get to a church. Any church. I didn’t think I’d last long enough to get off base, so I ended up at the chapel on Smoke Bomb Hill and fell down and started praying.”

Warnette came forward a few weeks later at Mount Olive Missionary Baptist Church on Raeford Road in Fayetteville. She became the first woman pastor ordained by that church. She organized a church called Bethel Elelohe Israel. The name means “the house of the Lord of Israel.”

I’m glad Warnette promotes Jesus, but I wonder about putting his name on a street sign. Folk from other religions may want their leaders’ names on street signs, too. What about religious names on street signs paid for by the government?

We often think of “taking the Lord’s name in vain” as hearing someone curse and use God’s name. Using Jesus’ name in a funny or offhand way might also be “taking the Lord’s name in vain.” If a person does something “in vain,” that means it “amounts to nothing.” Is having Jesus’ name on a street sign an example of “taking the Lord’s name in vain”?

The third Commandment states, “Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain” (Exodus 20:7 KJV).

The New English Bible translates that: “You shall not make wrong use of the name of the LORD your God; the LORD will not leave unpunished the man who misuses his name.”

Doug Knigthon, a retired military chaplain, says misusing the Lord’s name has more to do with how we live than what we say. In comparing “taking the Lord’s name in vain” with marriage, he says, “If you take the name of God, at a ceremony, and tell the world that you are now part of the ‘bride of Christ’ as the church is called, yet you do not live like a ‘bride of Christ,’ you have taken His name in vain, and you will not be considered guiltless.”

Beth Scotch, a kindergarten teacher, shared with me a story that goes like this: Beth’s daughter was in elementary school and got into trouble. Her teacher wrote the daughter’s name on the board. Beth’s husband Dave learned about his daughter’s misbehavior. He asked his daughter, “Did you get my name put on the board?”

“No,” the daughter said, “I got my name put on the board.”

“But your last name is the same as my last name,” her father said. “When you get your name put on the board, you get my name put on the board.”

Perhaps having a Fayetteville street named “Jesus Christ Way” is not a problem. Maybe I should stop worrying about that street sign and spend more time thinking about how to avoid taking the Lord’s name in vain by the way I live. I don’t want my name and His Name “put on the board.”

'Over Home,' 'Over There'

2011-07-16T18:17:00.000-07:00

Rex Parker (pictured) of the Sandy Flat Community of Greenville, S.C.

By Steve Crain

In June 2011, I talked with my Uncle Fred E. Crain, 86, of Greer, S.C., about the Parkers who once lived on Keller Road in the Sandy Flat Community of Greenville, S.C.

Fred’s maternal grandparents, Jesse and Hattie Parker were members of Enoree Baptist Church. They had five children: John, Lillian, Hovey, Lucille and Rex. John died around age 18 in the 1917 flu epidemic. Fred’s mother, Lillian, married Carl Crain and had two sons: Fred and my father, J. B. Crain.

Here is the story of Rex in Fred’s words:

Rex died around age 21. He worked somewhere, maybe at Southern Worsted Mill. He played the guitar and sang. Then, people sang songs like “Let Me Call You ‘Sweetheart,’” “John Henry,” “Nellie Blythe,” “Down in the Valley,” “It’s Lamp-Lighting Time in the Valley” and “Red River Valley.”

Rex went with Hovey and Genelia and their baby Marian to make music. They were coming home, going south on Locust Hill Road (Hwy. 290) around 11 p.m. on a Saturday. They came around “Dead Man’s Curve”; it’s been rerouted since then. Rex was driving. The left front tire blew. I understand they went off the road to the left. It was a convertible, a 2-seated touring car, around a 1930 model. This was Hovey’s car, black with a canvas top. Genelia was in back. The car rolled and threw Genelia out over a gully onto a bank of a field. She held Marian in her arms, didn’t turn her loose. Marian didn’t get a scratch. Genelia wasn’t injured. Hove neither. The car flipped to the left onto its side, and the running board on the left came full across Rex’s chest and stomach area.

Grandpa Jesse couldn’t sleep that night; He got up and walked out in their yard. He saw the car’s headlights light up the night sky as the car flipped. He was far enough away – a mile or more – not to hear the sound, but he saw lights shine in the sky. He wondered what it was. In a while, someone came and told him. Somebody carried Rex to the Greenville Hospital. He didn’t gain consciousness.

I remember Daddy and Mama, me and J.B. going over to the hospital early on Sunday. We eat dinner before we went. They wouldn’t let me and J.B. in. I was five; J.B. was eight. We stayed around the car on the street. About 4:30 (p.m.), Mama came out with Daddy and said, “He’s gone.”

Grandma cried, couldn’t sleep, walked the floor. They had a time with her. Rex was her baby. I don’t think she ever got over it. Grandpa just clammed up. He couldn’t talk about it. He’d walk around like he was studying about something. He’d tell about them lights in the sky, though.

Mama was very sad. She’d want to go to see Grandma very often. She called it “going home.” She’d say to Daddy, “Carl, let’s go over home.”

After hearing Fred’s story about Rex, I wondered how many families past and present have experienced the heartache of losing a young loved one, taken “in the prime of life.”

The family circle will sooner or later be broken here on earth. Time will see to that. We may enjoy moments, perhaps during a family reunion or at a church fellowship gathering, when we feel “this is perfect; I wish we could always feel the togetherness we feel right now.” But life goes on, and if our hearts are in tune with God, we will sense the truth of these words found in an old gospel song: “This world is not my home. I’m just a-passing through.”

The writer of Hebrews tells us, “For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.”

Paul wrote to Christians in Corinth, “For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling….”

After her brother’s death, my grandmother often wanted to “go over home,” but “home” for the Parker family of the early 1930s had changed.

D.W.C. Huntington wrote about a “home” for those who accept Christ. He penned these words to the old hymn “O Think of the Home Over There”:

“O think of a home over there / By the side of the river of light / Where the saints all immortal and fair / Are washed in their garments of white / Over there, over there / O think of the home over there / Over there, over there / I think of a home over there.

“My Savior is now over there / There my kindred and friends are at rest / Then away from my sorrow and care / Let me fly to the land of the blest / Over there, over there / My Savior is now over there….”

Perhaps you can no longer “go over home” and visit loved ones who have departed, but you can trust Christ and “think of a home over there.”

'With Meaning, Many Things Are Bearable'

2011-07-09T08:14:00.000-07:00

By Steve Crain

Have you ever felt as if you wanted to give up because life’s pressures piled up? “With meaning, many things are bearable,” someone said.

Perhaps you’ve heard this old expression: “That’s the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

Some people shorten that saying to “That’s the last straw.” An expression such as that is called an “idiom.” According to Wikipedia, an idiom is an expression, word or phrase whose sense means something different from what the words literally imply. There are an estimated 25,000 idioms in the English language.

Wikipedia states that the idiom “the straw that broke the camel’s back” comes from an Arabic proverb about how a camel…is loaded beyond its capacity to move. “This is a reference to any process by which cataclysmic failure (a broken back) is achieved by a seemingly inconsequential addition (a single straw).”

As a child, I heard that expression and visualized a camel standing while someone placed one last straw on a heavy load of straw already on his back. In my mind, he suddenly went down, uttering an anguished bellow as he “bit the dust.” That last straw broke his back, finished him, did him in, caused him to kick the bucket, buy the farm, give up the ghost or whatever other idiom could be used to describe the camel’s demise.

There are many irritations in life. Irritations are like flies buzzing around an old horse standing under a tree. Mr. Horse tries to rest, but flies continue harassing, as he flicks his tail to keep them away. He sometimes raises a rear hoof and hits the ground with it to ward off flies.

There are also “vicissitudes of life” which are defined as “difficulties or hardships attendant on a way of life, a career, or a course of action and usually beyond one’s control.” Vicissitudes include pain, sickness, flat tires, problems with relatives, money problems and even death. Vicissitudes concern life in general.

The statement “With meaning, many things are bearable“ rings true. If a person believes there is meaning to life beyond present circumstances, that person can “take the heat” and “weather” difficult times or suffering much better than the person who believes life is mere “existence” and “then you die.”

Some people seem to have little patience to deal with the irritations and vicissitudes of life. A few years ago, a young lady interviewed at Gulistan Carpet, the carpet manufacturing company where I work. The lady had a 2-year degree in something from a college near our mill. Our customer service department hired her, but she was assigned to work in product development, where I work, until the next customer service training cycle began – a matter of a few days. Our office manager gave the young lady a job of stuffing envelopes with letters going to our sales force.

Near lunchtime on the lady’s first day on the job, our office manager looked for that lady who had been inserting letters into envelopes. She was missing, so our office manager called the personnel department. The personnel manager said the young lady came by his office and said, “I didn’t go to school to stuff envelopes.” She left in a huff. If she had waited a few days, she would have begun training for what I consider a pretty good job. She seemed to have little patience for a “better tomorrow.” She appeared to have minimal tolerance for delayed gratification.

Many people can’t take much frustration, because they don’t believe there is a God, a Jesus or a heavenly reward. They don’t believe God is in control. There are times when we should make changes, but sometimes we give up too quickly. Comedian Bob Hope said, “Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go.”

Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery. He was falsely accused by his owner’s wife and went to prison. He trusted God through it all and was, in time, chosen to be second-in-command in Egypt. I believe that if he had died in prison with no justice or recognition given to him, Joseph would still have trusted God. He had “meaning” in his life, and he could bear many things.

The writer of Hebrews tells us we should keep our eyes fastened on Jesus, “the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2 KJV).

Jesus believed in his reward, “the joy (the prize) that was set before him,” and he endured the cross. “With meaning, many things are bearable.”

True Freedom

2011-07-02T12:42:00.000-07:00

By Steve Crain, from a message by Pastor Greg Davenport

“Where is our freedom taking us?” asked the Rev. Greg Davenport in a sermon he preached a few years ago at Vineyard Assembly in Tramway, N.C. He still serves as pastor of that church.

He quoted Harry Conn, who said, “Freedom without restraint leads to license, and license leads to bondage; bondage then evaporates freedom.”

Davenport read Galatians 5:1, 13-25: “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery…You, my brothers, were called to be free, but do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature. Rather serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: love your neighbor as yourself.”

“One freedom is ‘being free from the control of self,’” Davenport said. “Christ set us free to stay free. Your passions and desires led you around by the nose…Being able to do what I want to do is bondage—not freedom. Too many times we find freedom and then go back to things we used to do and be. We’ve been set free to live a new life, but we go back, instead of moving ahead into the unknown of God’s glory—sometimes that (God’s path) is what scares us.”

Believers are also free from “the law,” he said.

Romans 7:5-6 indicates God’s commandments (“the law”) reveal our sinfulness and show us we need Christ as Savior. Accepting Christ frees us from “the law.”

“We’re free from having to keep a set of laws like they did in the Old Testament,” Davenport said. “There’s a new way to serve God - with the ways of God engraved on our hearts” (2 Corinthians 3:2-3).

Davenport said real freedom means loving and forgiving others.

“Ted Whaley says our culture has become more self-centered over the past 30 years,” Davenport said. “Starting with baby boomers, the myth that you can do your own thing as long as you don’t hurt anyone has been widely accepted. Paul makes it clear: though we are individuals, we are parts of one body. Real freedom means ‘I’m free to love you’—not ‘I’m free to shun you.’ Real freedom means I’m free to embrace, not free to kick you when you’re down. We take our freedom to the point that we feel free to do things against the nature of God. Unforgiveness is an epidemic in the church today. Somehow, if someone has done something against me, I feel I have the right to hold it against him. You can do that, but you won’t be free. Forgiving somebody doesn’t equate to telling them it’s okay that they did it (a wrong thing). But it does release us from the bondage of sin—which unforgiveness is—and brings us to live life unfettered.”

When Tammy Faye Messner appeared on Larry King Live, King asked about her relationships with those who wronged her during the PTL ordeal. She said she moved beyond those horrific days by forgiving people.

“Forgiveness is the best gift you can give yourself,” Messner said.

She described an ancient practice of chaining a murderer to his victim and forcing that murderer to carry the victim on his back. As the victim’s body decomposed, the victim caused the murderer’s death through transmitted disease.

Messner said, “Maybe you’re carrying somebody on your back. If so, put them down.”

Davenport said, “Free yourself by forgiving others. We can’t advance the gospel of Jesus Christ, if we’re holding unforgiveness toward each other.”

Davenport said real freedom means denying your flesh—denying what your flesh wants.

“A world maxed out on materialism is like the two lost children in the fairy tale of Hansel and Gretel,” Davenport said. “We happily make our way to the gingerbread house of materialism, only to find a prison inside. Going after fleshly desires may feel good, but in the end, it steals the very freedom you thought it would bring.”

Davenport said real freedom means identifying with Christ. He said J. Walter Cross told of flying a kite with his son in Florida. The harder the wind blew, the higher the kite rose—until suddenly the string snapped. The kite was free but no longer soared higher and higher. It began tumbling to the ground.

“We are not free until we are restrained by something that pulls us higher and higher,” Davenport said. “The restraint in our lives causes us to be able to soar. Without it, we fall. It’s not the absence of restraints that makes us free—it is the restraints that make us free. I have been bought with a price. Only in being identified with Christ do we find freedom.”

Fruitful - Are You?

2011-06-25T07:03:00.000-07:00

By Steve Crain

Christine Parsons, a lady in our Grace Writers Group at Grace Church in Southern Pines, N.C., recently brought a basketful of fresh Sentry peaches to share among seven other folk attending our Wednesday night writers gathering.

Christine, in her early forties, works with her husband on their fulltime farm in Candor, N.C. They have two sons (one is in college) and a daughter, Katie, 16, who is also in our writing group. Their youngest child, Jacob, 13, operates a tractor and does lots of plowing, I hear.

At home, I tasted the juicy Sentry peaches. Those peach slices were music to my taste buds. A Sentry peach is a nice-size, firm, semi-freestone variety and one of the earlier maturing peaches; it has a red-orange skin. The Parsons family has other peach varieties that will mature later.

Summertime is a busy season for Christine. Her family has a produce stand, and she’s missed some writers group meetings, because crops are “coming in.” I’m sure her family spends lots of time caring for and pruning trees in order to see a good harvest.

Jesus talked about fruit. He said, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful” (John 15:1-2 NIV).

Jesus also said, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit – fruit that will last…” (John 15:16).

One of Christianity’s core beliefs is that we were made to serve God by serving others, someone said. That means we are to care for those in our local churches and also to “bear fruit” by “giving ourselves away” in our communities and the world.

Jesus said, “This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” (John 15:8).

James said, “But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness” (James 3:17-18).

One writer says about fruit-bearing: “In John 15:5,8,16, Jesus says that a disciple must bear fruit, but he does not say what this means. From other passages, we learn that bearing fruit includes all a Christian does to the glory of God. In John 4:36 we read: ‘And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.’ Gathering fruit refers to bringing people to Christ. Notice the difference between bearing fruit and gathering fruit. All disciples are to bear fruit (do good works to the glory of God) but not all disciples gather fruit because ‘One sows and another reaps’ (John 4:37), but all rejoice together.”

Paul, writing to the Galatians, says about fruit, “So, I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit…The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like…But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law” (Galatians 5:16-23).

Joseph of Old Testament fame irritated his brothers by telling them of a dream he experienced. That dream indicated his brothers would bow before him. They sold him into slavery, and he was imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit. He continued to trust God and was made second-in-command over Egypt.

When Joseph’s sons were born, he acknowledged God in their names. He called his firstborn “Manasseh,” saying, “It is because God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father's household.” “Manasseh” is an Ancient Hebrew male name, meaning “causing to forget.” He named his second son “Ephraim,” saying, “It is because God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering” (Genesis 41:51-52). “Ephraim” means “double fruitfulness.”

Later, Joseph’s brothers, looking for food during a famine, visited Egypt and bowed down to Joseph. Joseph forgave them for their sin against him.

Jacob, nearing the end of his life, said of his son Joseph, “Joseph is a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine near a spring, whose branches climb over a wall” (Genesis 49:22).

Today, be fruitful in the “land of your suffering,” and you may soon see your branches climb over walls that surround you.

While Dad Was Dying

2011-06-18T06:42:00.000-07:00

Steve Crain, age 64 in 2011, says, “Tony Hemphill and Tony’s little sister and parents lived across the street from my family when I was a teenager in Greer, S.C. Tony and I are graduates of Greer High School. Tony, now 54 (in 2011) and a minister living in Cleveland, S.C., shares the following story":

While Dad Was Dying...by the Rev. Tony Hemphill, May 2011

My father was diagnosed with throat cancer in September 1997. He was single, again, and since my only sibling lives out of state, the primary responsibility of caring for Dad fell to me.

I took him to 72 radiation treatments and five rounds of chemo. Dad and I had been close all my life. He was truly my best friend, so there was nothing that needed to be said that had been “smoldering” for any length of time. When something needed to be discussed, we hashed it out. Dad did pretty well during these treatments, and, much to the chagrin of some of his friends who had predicted a bald head, he didn’t lose a single one of his beautiful gray hairs.

All the radiation burned up his larynx. In June 1998, Dad was admitted to Allen Bennett Hospital in Greer to have it removed. While there, Dad began to become confused, not knowing where he was or the day of the week. Blood tests showed an extremely elevated calcium level which had to be coming from bone being “dissolved.” It was determined that the cancer had metastisized and was in his spine. He was transferred to Greenville Memorial, basically to be made as comfortable as possible until his inevitable death. Doctors couldn’t say whether it would be days or weeks, but they were clear that Dad was terminal. Dad’s living will included the provision that no “heroic” procedures should be used to prolong his life.

Within a couple of weeks his condition deteriorated significantly. He was rarely lucid. A feeding tube was inserted; I couldn’t let him starve or thirst to death. On July 4, I brought a large American flag and hung it on the wall opposite his bed. Later in the day, I saw his eyes open and a slight smile as he saw the flag.

It had been several days since dad had opened his eyes or made any effort to communicate. I stayed by his bed from early in the morning until midnight or so. I was trying to sell my home, wrap up my job and finish preparations to move to Wake Forest to attend seminary. One afternoon, I was standing by his bed. I had laid my Bible on his stomach and read some Scripture passages that he appreciated. Two of his friends and I were singing a hymn as we surrounded his bed.

When we finished singing, I turned around to see a young “Candy Striper” standing in the room, not so close to the bed as to be intrusive in such a private, poignant moment family moment. I had not heard her enter the room, and she was crying. I asked her if she were OK. She replied, “I’ve never seen so much love in one of these rooms. You don’t know how bad I needed to see this.” I told her that since my dad knew Jesus as his Savior, he was going home. As much as we would miss him, unless God chose to perform a miracle, he was going to die, but his death was just a home-going.

Later that afternoon, as I walked past the nurses’ station, a grizzled, veteran of a nurse asked me, “What happened in your father’s room today?” I wasn’t sure what she meant. So she explained, “That young volunteer who came into his room earlier is new on this wing where terminal patients are cared for. She has been having a rough time coping with everything she has been seeing. She came from a terrible home life that included neglect and abuse. Today is the first day we have ever seen her happy.”

I went back into Dad’s room and told him, “evidently, God still has stuff for you to do. I’ve been praying for God to end your suffering and take you quickly and peacefully. Dad, I’m going to change the way I pray. I want His will to be done in your life. The Lord’s not going to bring you home until He is finished with you.”

I have no idea whether or not Dad heard me. But, two days later, my best friend from Savannah drove up to see him. I had told Pat that Dad wouldn’t recognize him and probably would not even be aware of his presence. Dad and Pat had also been very close. Because Pat and I had been friends for twenty-plus years, Dad thought of him as his second son. Pat went to his bedside, took my father’s hand and said, “Let’s go fishing.” To my amazement, Dad opened his eyes and he mouthed the word, “Low Country." That was my dad’s nickname for Pat.

Dad died on July 8, 1998. I gave his eulogy and preached a brief gospel message. After the service, Pat (who was a non-practicing Catholic) said he’d never been to such a funeral where the Bible was preached. He also said, “I’ve got a lot to think about.”

Fast-forward ten years. Pat stood for me as my best man when I married my childhood sweetheart and love of my life. I had always meant to talk with Pat about his relationship with the Lord. I was hoping my example would suffice until I built up my nerve to actually confront him. I waited too late. A year after my wedding, almost to the day, Pat died of a massive coronary in his home while getting ready for work. He would have been 51 years old a couple of months later. We had made plans to get together in Savannah to celebrate.

The Lord continued to work His will through my dad, even with Dad on his deathbed. I pray that the young “Candy Striper” saw a family that showed the love of Christ. I pray a seed was planted that someone else watered later. I never saw her again after that day, but I think of her often and hope she is coping well. I also pray that my best man, Pat, who had “a lot to think about,” found a relationship with Jesus before his death. It’s a rare day that I don’t think about him and feel so guilty for not following up with the work the Lord began while my dad was dying.

Dr. James H. Thompson - 'The Young Pastor'

2011-06-05T17:24:00.000-07:00

Pictured at my five- or six-year-old birthday lunch (after Sunday morning church service) are (from left) my Uncle Fred Crain, my Grandmother Lillian Crain, Pastor Jimmy Thompson, me (as a boy), Shirley (my young sister), Eva Crain (my mother), my Grandfather Carl Crain and Jesse B. Crain (my father). Place: our home on Groce Meadow Road in Taylors, S.C.

I wrote in 1998 the following poem for Dr. James H. "Jimmy" Thompson, former pastor of Faith Temple Church in Taylors, S.C., and founder of WGGS-TV16 in Greenville, S.C. Pastor Jimmy was my pastor during my childhood and teen years. I worked part-time for seven years (during my school and college years) for him at Faith Printing Company, which he also founded. I read this poem in June 1998 at the Faith Temple service honoring Pastor Thompson’s 50 years of ministry. I read it, again, at his funeral on June 2, 2011. He was 82 years old when he passed on.

The Young Pastor

I remember you,
Double Springs Community boy,
Son of a dairy farm man with big hands,
Son of a gentle, loving mother –
In Christ, a son of God.

Diligence, steadfastness, kind compassion –
Those are the traits that come to my mind
As I remember you,
The young pastor who stood before me when I was a boy.

You had a heart for the hurting,
A passion for the printed Word,
A simple eloquence in the spoken Word.
You were a scholar, but fellowshipped easily
with those less-learned.

My heart was touched by your preaching;
You made Bible stories live.
And with a catch in your voice,
You often read a favorite poem that contained these lines:
“…I complained I had no shoes,
until I met a man who had no feet….”
How often those words have come to my mind
When I have felt self-pity…
And those words are always spoken
from the echoing halls of my memory
by your voice.

There are images in my mind of you, the young pastor,
Bringing people to church in your car,
Taking time for the poor and aged…
Taking us boys, sons of mill workers,
to a camp where, usually, only rich people go.

In my mind there is an image
Of you, the young pastor, with your lovely bride,
Moving on through life…
Steady…faithful…someone to believe in…
Bringing Christ to Christianity.

You’ve reached many goals and played many parts
Since those days when you were a young man.

Double Springs Community boy,
Son of a dairy farm man with big hands,
Son of a gentle, loving mother –
In Christ, a son of God,
I will always remember you as the good and faithful servant
Who stood before me as my pastor
When I was a boy.

###

Rev. James H. Thompson’s wife of 56 years, Joanne U. Thompson, passed away on March 3, 2011. They worked together in ministry throughout their life together. Survivors include three sons and their wives, one grandson and his wife, two granddaughters and one great-granddaughter.

After expressing my sympathies to Pastor Jimmy Thompson’s family at his funeral service, I was honored to deliver a condensed version of the following tribute to Pastor Jimmy during his funeral, held at Faith Temple Church, Taylors, S.C., at 3:00 p.m. on Thursday, June 2, 2011. I spoke briefly before the Rev. Coy Barker and the Rev. Raymond D. Burrows spoke.

By Steve Crain: A Tribute to Pastor "Jimmy"

Dr. James H. “Jimmy” Thompson has gone to be with the Lord. He was my childhood pastor. He left a Christ-mark on my life.

My wife Carol and I have lived in Southern Pines, N.C., since 1989. Our daughters, Janelle and Suzanne, are now grown. I, a Christian layman, still work in a carpet-making mill, and I still often think about things I learned from Pastor Jimmy.

Jimmy grew up on his father’s dairy farm, across from Double Springs Baptist Church. His father Lawrence and mother Esther Rosella Wood Thompson raised five children (listed in birth order): Jimmy, Nell, Betty, Tommy and Judy.

Ms. Nell was my beloved first-grade teacher. She says about Jimmy, “One of my earliest memories was sitting with him at Double Springs Church. I think we were five or six years old. He went up to put his birthday offering in, and I went with him. It was not my birthday, but wherever he went, I thought I was supposed to go, too.

She says, “We used to pick cotton and sing ‘Jesus Saves.’ Neither Jimmy nor I were blessed with a talent to sing; we just made a joyful sound, and it echoed in the valley.”

Jimmy once said he was 15 and sitting at his family’s Sunday-after-church, mid-day meal, that he was “called to be a preacher.” After that meal, he and his father sat on their front porch; his father told Jimmy, “I had rather you be a preacher of the Gospel than be president of the United States.”

Ms. Nell and Jimmy rode together when both were day students at Furman University.

“Before he married Joanne, I used to go with him through the countryside to pick up children for Sunday school when he pastored Gum Springs,” Nell says. “We filled his car full of children (no seatbelts then). This was Jimmy’s little bus.”

My Uncle Fred Crain, 85, attended Mountain View School with Jimmy.

“He was in the eighth grade; I was in the eleventh,” Fred says. “He was nice, clean-cut, polite, every hair in place. He was smart and studied. He later drove the Double Springs school bus part of the time and, I believe, managed the candy store at school.”

Fred says that, as far as he knows, Jimmy was one of the few Mountain View students who went on to college in the 1930s and ’40s.

“About the only place they could go was to Holmes Bible College,” Fred says. “They could go there ‘on faith’ (paying whatever they could).”

My parents, sister and many of our extended family attended Gum Springs Pentecostal Holiness Church in the Blue Ridge area of Greenville, S.C., when Pastor Jimmy, a Holmes Bible College and Furman University graduate, accepted the pastorate of that church in the mid-1950s.

Jimmy became a pilot. I recall working outside at the church with my Grandfather Carl and some men, when Pastor Jimmy flew low over the building. The story goes that after he began dating Joanne Upton, Jimmy flew over her mother’s house (where Joanne was living) and yelled down to Joanne, who was watching, “I’ll see you tonight at 7:00!” They married on April 22, 1955.

Jimmy envisioned the Full-Gospel message reaching beyond denominational lines. He left the Gum Springs church, and on Sunday, December 16, 1956, he preached to over 200 people gathered in an old building on the Ben Paris farm in the Blue Ridge area. I was there. That day, the group donated $7,000 in gifts and pledges to create an interdenominational church, which became Faith Temple Church of Taylors. Mary Beardon donated land, and Pastor Jimmy and his leaders broke ground on Sunday, December 30, 1956.

During Faith Temple’s early days, Jimmy often took the church’s young people to a park in Greer to play softball, and he organized yearly 2-day trips to Camp Arrowhead (for boys) near Tuxedo, N.C. Most of us who attended that camp were mill-worker’s kids who’d never seen a real camp. Jimmy played ball and swam and ate with us.

My old friend, Dr. Jerry R. Robertson, now living in Myrtle Beach, is a Southern Baptist minister and also worked as a college administrator. He recently retired from college duties and fills pulpits as an interim pastor.

As a teenager, Jerry held weekly summer afternoon meetings at his Grandmother Pauline’s house near Mountain View. I sometimes lead the singing at those meetings. The audience was usually made up of Jerry’s grandma, my grandma and maybe Mrs. Rob Butler. Pastor Jimmy often took time from his busy schedule to attend those meetings. He also gave Jerry opportunities to preach at Faith Temple.

After learning of Jimmy’s death, Jerry e-mailed me this message:

“Jimmy was my mentor in ministry. I have always been indebted to him for his love and support as I began preaching at 16 years old. I remember the days at Faith Temple with great love and appreciation for how those experiences molded my life. He will be missed but not absence from my memory.

I learned much from Pastor Jimmy’s preaching and from how he interacted with people.
Some folk I knew years ago may have thought Jimmy was too nice to people, that he too often gave folk the “benefit of the doubt,” that if he made a mistake in dealing with people, he tended to err on the “kindness side.” I liked that trait in him.

My late mother, commenting on some squabbling going on behind the scenes at Faith Temple during the 1960s, said at that time, “Jimmy is so good, he doesn’t believe people can be mean.”

Years ago, I thought of Pastor Jimmy when I found this poem written by an unknown author: “I have wept in the night / For the shortness of sight / That to somebody’s need / Made me blind; / But I never have yet / Felt a tinge of regret / For being a little too kind.”

A while back, I quoted that poem to Pastor Jimmy and told him it made me think of him. He said, “I’d like to have a copy of that.”

I worked part-time at Faith Printing Company, during my high school and college years. While working at Faith Printing, I never saw Pastor Jimmy lose his composure. I consider him one of the most consistent and disciplined men I’ve known. He influenced (and employed at times) many salt-of-the-earth folk, but he moved easily among people of various backgrounds and abilities.

Pastor Jimmy was “there” to offer a prayer and an embrace when I said “so long” to my wife and boarded a plane for one year of U.S. Army service in Vietnam.

One night, years later, when I was a patient at the Greenville hospital, all visitors had departed. At 9:30 p.m. I heard footsteps approaching my bed. Pastor Jimmy was making his rounds.

I feel that most people would collapsed under the heavy slate of endeavors and duties Pastor Jimmy shouldered. He always seemed to exude a kind of quiet patience that, to me, evidenced deep faith.

Jimmy’s brother Tommy recently wrote to me, saying about Jimmy, “He is the greatest brother.”

Ms. Nell’s and Ms. Judy’s tears evidence their love for their brother who has gone to be with Jesus.

My Uncle Fred Crain stayed close to Jimmy over the years. They often dined together before Jimmy’s health declined. Fred says Jimmy, in recent times, told him, “Fred, you’re my best friend.” Jimmy sometimes asked Fred, “You’re still my buddy, aren’t you?"One night, after a meal together, they were riding, and Fred, who plays several stringed instruments, was playing a CD he’d made in his garage room. As Jimmy listened, he said to Fred, “If I could play like that, I’d shout all the way home.”

I believe Pastor Jimmy is home, now, and I imagine he is doing some shouting.

A Mother's Smile

2011-05-07T04:36:00.000-07:00

Photograph: My mother, Eva, and I wade in a creek on my paternal grandparents' farm.

By Steve Crain

Mother’s Day is not a pleasant occasion for everyone, but it’s a good day for me; my late mother, Eva, gave me a hefty dose of love.

Though I’ve never been incarcerated, I often think about an old song called “The Sweetest Gift, a Mother’s Smile.” Here are the words to that song:

“One day a mother came to a prison / To see an erring but precious son / She told the warden how much she loved him / It did not matter what he had done.

“(Chorus) She did not bring a parole or pardon / She brought no silver no pomp or style / It was a halo sent down from heaven / The sweetest gift, a mother’s smile.

“Her boy had wandered far from the fireside / Though she had pleaded with him each night / But not a word did she ever utter / Her heart was flowing, her smile was bright.

“She left a smile you can remember / She’s gone to heaven from heartache’s grief / Those walls around you will never change you / You were her baby and e’er will be.

“(Chorus) She did not bring a parole or pardon / She brought no silver no pomp or style / It was a halo sent down from heaven / The sweetest gift, a mother’s smile.”

Most mothers I know of love their children and empathize with them as they experience successes and failures. T. DeWitt Talmage said, “Mother – that was the bank where we deposited all our hurts and worries.”

Abraham Lincoln said, “I remember my mother’s prayers, and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life.”

My mother, Eva, brought me into the world over three years ahead of my sister, Shirley. My first memories are of living with Mom and Dad in a white-shingled frame house on Groce Meadow Road in rural Greenville County, S.C.

Mom encouraged me but said she didn’t want to make me into “a mama’s boy,” so maybe she wasn’t quite as huggy as some mothers. Perhaps that’s why I tended to squirm and resist my Great Aunt Lucy’s wet kisses and enveloping embraces.

Mother read books from “The Sugar Creek Gang” Christian-themed, mystery series to my sister and me. She also showed me how to draw. My first drawing lesson I remember happened this way: I was probably four or five years old and sitting on a hard church pew during a Sunday night service at Gum Springs Pentecostal Holiness Church. I grew restless, and Mother took a small notepad and a pencil from her pocketbook.

“I’ll show you how to draw a mule,” she whispered, as the preacher expounded.

She drew a capital M for ears. She then drew a capital U, connecting the top-left side of the U to the bottom-left side of the M. The U became the mule’s muzzle. She added an eye, a mouth and a nostril to complete a side view of a mule. To the right side of the mule’s head, she drew a neck and a close-cropped mane on that neck.

She handed me the pad, and I began with an M and a U. Soon, I had a mule. I think I even added a body to my mule. She couldn’t have chosen a better animal to inspire me. My paternal grandfather had two mules, and I sometimes sat on Pete’s back; he was the gentler and older of the two critters.

I drew lots of mules in the days that followed. Vacation Bible School arrived that year, and, on one night, each person in my class received a large piece of paper and was asked to draw a picture. I drew a mule, a big one that filled my paper. They said they were going to show our pictures on commencement night. I knew I’d be proud.

On the following Sunday evening, our Bible School commencement night, my mother, who was a helper in my class, was asked to show the drawings we had done as part of my group’s presentation to the church’s small congregation.

The time in the service came for our drawings to be shown. Mom began holding up pictures, one-by-one, and telling the name of each artist: Steve Babb, Don Hill, Linda…Boyce…and so on.

“Mine must be at the bottom,” I thought.

Finally, Mom lifted up the last drawing. My large mule was easy to see from almost anywhere in the sanctuary. I waited for Mom to call my name, but she just smiled a big smile and held up my work. Most people in our church knew who drew that mule. A lot of them laughed and clapped. I wondered if Mom didn’t call my name because she was trying to teach me not to get too proud or if she was thinking about not wanting me to be a mama’s boy. She didn’t have to call out my name, though. Her facial expression communicated her love for me. Perhaps there are few gifts sweeter than a mother’s smile.

David Wilkerson Dies

2011-04-30T06:36:00.000-07:00

By Steve Crain

“David Wilkerson, who pastored the 5,000-strong Times Square Church in one of New York City’s seedier red light districts, and who founded the highly successful faith-based Teen Challenge drug treatment and Christian mentoring program, has died at the age of 79,” wrote Dave Bohon in an article posted at “thenewamerican.com” on April 29, 2011.

The Associated Press reported Wilkerson was killed April 27, 2011, in a car accident in East Texas, Texas. His car smashed head-on into a tractor-trailer rig after veering into oncoming traffic on U.S. 175 west of Cuney, about 95 miles southeast of Dallas, sources say. He was reportedly not wearing a seatbelt and was pronounced dead on the scene. His wife, Gwen, was wearing a seatbelt. She is said to be in fair condition and expected to recover, CBN News reports.

“Thank you for all your prayers and the outpouring of love you have shown for the Wilkerson family,” Times Square Church Senior Pastor Carter Conlon said in a statement, Thursday, April 28, on the church website. “We are comforted by knowing that Pastor David has been enjoying the full presence of the Lord for more than a day now.”

In 1958, Wilkerson was pastor of a small Assemblies of God church in Pennsylvania when he read a “Life” magazine article about some teen-aged gang members in Brooklyn who were on trial for the murder of a disabled young man. Wilkerson traveled to New York to reach out to them. The judge at the murder trial threw the minister out of the courtroom, but Wilkerson stayed on and reached out to the drug addicts, pimps, prostitutes and gang members whom he met on the streets of the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, Bohon said.

In 1963, Wilkerson and John and Elizabeth Sherrill wrote “The Cross and the Switchblade,” a book telling about Wilkerson’s first five years in New York City, where he ministered to disillusioned youth involved in drugs and gang violence. In 1970, a film adaptation of that book was released. It starred Pat Boon as Wilkerson and Erik Estrada as Nicky Cruz, the teen gang member whose life was transformed by Wilkerson’s ministry, according to Wikipedia. That film was translated into over 30 languages and has been viewed by an estimated 50 million people in 150 countries, reports World Film Crusade.

“Christianity Today” magazine ranked “The Cross and the Switchblade” as number 32 on its list of the “Top 50 Books That Have Shaped Evangelicals.”

In 1968, Cruz and author Jamie Buckingham wrote “Run, Baby, Run.” In that book, Cruz approached “The Cross and the Switchblade” story from his viewpoint, telling of his coming to New York, being in a gang, meeting with Wilkerson and becoming a Christian. Cruz, who has been involved in fulltime ministry for over 50 years, recalled the impact Wilkerson had on his life. Growing up in a rough New York City neighborhood in the 1950s, Cruz said he “lacked the influence and guidance of a father in my life. David stepped in and took on the role of not only my spiritual father, but also that of an earthly father. I loved him.”

Wilkerson’s early ministry on the streets of Brooklyn birthed an international outreach called Teen Challenge, which today includes hundreds of centers around the world that use biblical principles to help people of all ages with substance addictions and other life issues, sources say. In 1987, after nearly 30 years of ministry on the streets of New York, Wilkerson founded the non-denominational Times Square Church “in an area of Manhattan then riddled with X-rated movie houses, strip clubs, prostitution, and drugs,” reported the Associated Press.

Wilkerson’s son, Gary Wilkerson (one of four children of David and Gwen Wilkerson) followed his father into fulltime ministry. After his father’s death, Gary said, “I don’t think my father would have retired well. I don’t think he was one to sit in a rocking chair and reminisce about times past. I believe that Jesus, knowing this, graciously called him home.”

On the final day of his life, David Wilkerson, who e-mailed a daily devotional to subscribers, wrote, “To those going through the valley and shadow of death, hear this word: Weeping will last through some dark, awful nights, and in that darkness you will soon hear the Father whisper, ‘I am with you. I cannot tell you why, right now, but one day it will all make sense. You will see it was part of my plan. It was no accident.’”

Debby and Sal DiBianca lead the Sandhills Teen Challenge program in Carthage, North Carolina. Debby wrote on the “Sandhills TC” Facebook site, “We are so sad to hear of the passing of Teen Challenge's founder, David Wilkerson…His legacy will live on for eternity! Sal and I and countless others would not be alive today if it wasn't for David Wilkerson’s passion for drug addicts to find freedom in Christ.”

The following comments were among many posted below an April 27, 2011, “Christianity Today” Internet news article about Wilkerson’s death:

“Dwight” wrote (April 27, 2011), “I am drug free today and have a life because of David Wilkerson. I graduated Teen Challenge and went on to graduate the Teen Challenge Ministry Institute in Los Angeles. I know that all praise belongs to Jesus but I appreciate David’s faith and commitment to people like me. God Bless you David & I am so happy you are at peace and with God. God Bless David Wilkerson, he was a game changer & a hero!”

“Vijayan” wrote (April 28, 2011), “Pastor David, you were like a tender, loving father to each one of us at Times Square Church. I am happy that you are with Lord Jesus now. I miss you and love you. Thank you because I felt and knew that you truly ‘loved’ us....”

“Ruth Blum” wrote (April 29, 2011), “I cried when I read about David’s death. I know that he would desire us now to remember him by seeking God more, reading His Word more, witnessing to others more, praying more, obeying more, walking in and being filled with the Spirit more. Thank you God for giving us a man who helped us know Your heart by unashamedly proclaiming Your glorious and life changing Word.”

Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross

2011-04-21T19:02:00.000-07:00

By Steve Crain

Jesus’ cross has been for over 1800 years the best-known symbol of Christianity, and we should ask the Lord to keep us, in the words of Fanny Crosby, “near the cross.”

“As an instrument of death, the cross was detested by the Jews, so it became a stumbling block for them when considering Jesus. How could the Messiah be executed on a cross? After all, the Greek and Roman Empire executed thousands of criminals and captives in just this manner (Alexander the Great executed two thousand Tyrian captives in this way, after the fall of the city)” (“PleaseConvinceMe.com”).

Crucifixion was usually reserved for people convicted of treason, desertion, robbery, murder and such crimes. The Romans used it until Constantine’s rule, when it was abolished as an insult to Christianity, sources say.

“During the first two centuries of Christianity, the cross may have been rare in Christian iconography (symbolic representation), as it depicts a purposely painful and gruesome method of public execution. The Ichthys, or fish symbol, was used by early Christians” (“Wikipedia”).

Many people wear small religious-jewelry crosses, but if they want a “modern translation” of the cross, they might wear a tiny model of an electric chair. Electrocution was used first in 1890 to replace hanging. Between August 1890 and March 2010, a total of 4,442 people suffered death by electrocution in the U.S. “The chair” is being replaced by lethal injection.

Can you picture Jesus shackled and walking between two guards on his way to an electric chair? Can you imagine him lying on a prison bed, ready to take a lethal injection? If the Romans had been more “modern,” Jesus might have been executed in one of those ways. But he was dispatched on a cross, the Romans’ first-century way of dealing with the worst criminals.

Perhaps “the empty tomb” is a more pleasant symbol of Christianity, but the cross became the symbol the world connects with the Church. The cross reminds Christians of God’s act of love exhibited in Jesus Christ’s sacrifice at Calvary.

“And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he (Jesus) made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross” (Colossians 2:15).

The Bible informs us that man’s sin must be paid for.

“[In fact] under the Law almost everything is purified by means of blood, and without the shedding of blood there is neither release from sin and its guilt nor the remission of the due and merited punishment for sins” (Hebrews 9:22, Amplified Bible).

Old Testament sacrifices “covered” sins but did not eradicate them, as I understand. Animal sacrifice pointed to the Lamb prepared before the foundation of our world.

John the Baptist, seeing Jesus coming to be baptized, said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).

Jesus predicted his own death.

He said, “And I, if and when I am lifted up from the earth [on the cross], will draw and attract all men [Gentiles as well as Jews] to Myself” (John 12:32, Amplified Bible).

Let us not forget the cross of Christ. The Apostle Paul said, “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14, NIV).

Fanny Crosby (1820-1915), a blind-from-birth hymn-writer, wrote “Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross.” That song reminds us of the importance of Jesus’ cross. Here are the lyrics to that beloved song:

“Jesus, keep me near the cross / There a precious fountain / Free to all, a healing stream / Flows from Calvary’s mountain.

“(The Refrain) In the cross, in the cross / Be my glory ever / Till my raptured soul shall find / Rest beyond the river.

“Near the cross, a trembling soul / Love and mercy found me / There the bright and morning star / Sheds its beams around me.

“Near the cross! O Lamb of God / Bring its scenes before me / Help me walk from day to day / With its shadows o’er me.

“Near the cross I’ll watch and wait / Hoping, trusting ever / Till I reach the golden strand / Just beyond the river.

“(The Refrain) In the cross, in the cross / Be my glory ever / Till my raptured soul shall find / Rest beyond the river.”

Ram in a Bush

2011-04-16T06:49:00.000-07:00

By Steve Crain

I‘ve always enjoyed hearing the story about Abraham and Isaac and a ram caught in a bush. That story, found in Genesis 22:1-18 (condensed from the NIV), goes like this:

God decided to test Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!”

“Here I am,” Abraham replied.

God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love – Isaac – and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”

(Abraham had an older son conceived by his wife’s handmaid, Hagar, but Isaac, born of Abraham’s wife, Sarah, was the “promised son.”)

The next morning, Abraham loaded his donkey and took with him two servants and Isaac. He cut wood for the burnt offering and set out. On the third day Abraham saw the place in the distance. He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”

Abraham placed the wood for the burnt offering on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them walked, Isaac said to his father Abraham, “Father?”

“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.

“The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”

Abraham said, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.”

They reached the place God had told him about, and Abraham built an altar and arranged the wood on it. He bound Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then he took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he replied.

“Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”

Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide.

Abraham thought Isaac would provide grandchildren for him – God told Abraham that he would become the “father of many nations” – but Isaac had no wife or children at that time. (Isaac was perhaps 25 years old when this story unfolded, according to ancient historian Josephus.) Did Abraham think he could kill Isaac and God would raise him “from the dead”?

God did not endorse human sacrifice, but he had set up a system of animal sacrifices to provide atonement for the sins of Old Testament believers. “Atonement” involves “satisfaction or reparation for a wrong or injury.”

“For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life” (Leviticus 17:11).

That principle is stated also in the New Testament: “…The law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Hebrews 9:22).

Adam Clarke in “The Holy Bible with A Commentary” says, “Abraham spoke prophetically, and referred to that Lamb of God which He (God) had provided for Himself, Who in the fullness of time would take away the sin of the world, and of Whom Isaac was a most expressive type.”

Jesus said Abraham hoped for “My day (Jesus’ incarnation); and he did see it and was delighted” (John 8:56).

Isaac also shared Abraham’s confidence in God’s provision, some say. “Was not his (Isaac’s) very existence the result of God keeping His word?” (a note from “The Amplified Bible”).

The Apostle Paul wrote to the Galatians: “Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: ‘All nations will be blessed through you’” (Galatians 3:8).

The story of Abraham, Isaac and a ram caught in a bush foreshadows Calvary, where the Lord Himself provided His Own Lamb…just as Abraham said He would.

Peter wrote, “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake” (1 Peter 1:18-20).

Ashes and Resurrection

2011-04-02T10:00:00.000-07:00

By Steve Crain

Resurrection Sunday is only a few weeks away. Are we are thinking much about it?

I work for a carpet manufacturing company in Aberdeen, N.C., and a few weeks ago, around noon, was headed across the company parking lot when I saw a Hispanic employee park her car and walk toward our company’s main building. I was 15 feet behind her, and when she turned and smiled before she entered the mill, I saw a charcoal-colored mark on her forehead. Someone had dipped a finger into ashes and drawn a small cross about an inch above the lady’s eyes.

“She’s been to an Ash Wednesday service,” I thought, assuming she had taken a morning off from work to attend church and celebrate the beginning of “Lent.”

Many Christians practiced Lent – the word “Lent” comes from an early English word for “spring” – prior to the reformation that made Martin Luther famous almost 500 years ago. Many Protestants abandoned the formal practice of Lent at that time. It is still largely celebrated among Catholics, Episcopalians, Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians and Anglicans.

The Lenten Season began this year on Wednesday, March 9, and ends on Saturday, April 23, the day before Resurrection Sunday, or Easter Sunday. The six Sundays among the 46 days of Lent are not counted; each Sunday represents a “mini-Easter,” celebrating Jesus’ victory over sin and death. In Western Christianity’s calendar, Lent and Easter are movable; Ash Wednesday can occur as early as February 4 or as late as March 10.

According to Matthew, Mark and Luke, Jesus spent 40 days fasting and being tempted before he began his public ministry. Ash Wednesday marks the start of a 40-day period of prayer and fasting. It gets name from the practice of placing ashes on foreheads as a sign of mourning and repentance. This practice also signifies humans are “fallen” and will always deal with sin while living in mortal bodies.

Old Testament believers associated ashes with repentance. The prophet Daniel said, “And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes” (Daniel 9:3).

Ashes utilized on Ash Wednesday are often made from palms used during the previous year’s Palm Sunday. Palms are burned and the ashes mixed with olive oil.

After the lady with ashes on her forehead turned and smiled at me, I thought, “Hum-m-m, Easter will soon be here. I haven’t thought a lot about it this year.” I wondered if I had become too preoccupied with worrying about how the world seems to be, as the old folks used to say, “going to hell in a handbasket” and worrying about wars and rumors of wars and about President Obama and Libya and about gas and food prices and about earthquakes and tidal waves and politicians and about how I should have saved more money before I got old and about blah, blah, blah, blah, blah….

The Hispanic lady and her smile put me “under conviction.” I hadn’t lately thought about Christ as much as I had about “Christianity” and its place in the world. I’d recently grown lax about praying and reading the Bible and had read much about “defending the Faith” against false religions and about how to debate people who try to tear down the Bible. Years ago, I was a young high school art teacher sitting at a faculty lunch table when an older teacher, a Christian, said, “I feel I know enough about my faith to debate anybody.” I then felt “turned off” by his words and thought, “That’s a bit arrogant.” Had I become like that man?

The lady with ashes on her forehead caused me to feel I’d recently missed something. I recalled these words written to the pastor and church in Ephesus: “These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands: ‘I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil…and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary. Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love” (Revelation 2:1-4 New KJV).

Father, as Resurrection Sunday approaches, help us repent and turn our faces toward Jesus. Help us truly “know Him and the power of His resurrection” (Philippians 3:10).

A Late-in-Life Conversion

2011-03-26T08:21:00.000-07:00

By Steve Crain

When “Sam” found out a few months ago that he had throat cancer, he called for “the preacher” and accepted Christ; his body was “laid to rest” last Tuesday; he was 59.

I often worked during recent years with “Sam,” which is not his real name, at a carpet dye house and sometimes sensed his struggle with “eternal matters.”

As far as I know, he grew up attending a Baptist church in central North Carolina and never accepted the Lord until he, so to speak, “stared Death in the face.”

He’d sometimes attend the church he grew up in and leave if he “got convicted too bad,” someone said. Sam had one daughter by his first marriage, and he once indicated to me that if he “got right,” he was confused about what to do about a woman – let’s call her “Sandy” – he’d been living with for a long time. He wondered if he “made things right with the Lord,” if he’d be expected to go back to his first wife.

I forget if his first wife was re-married or not, but I told him that someone said, “You can’t unscramble an egg.” I advised him to go from where he was in life and respond to Christ.

Sam put off deciding.

Somewhere along the way, Sandy “got saved,” and, as one person put it, told Sam they’d have to get married or quit living together.

They married.

Sam and Sandy come from the Lumbee Tribe. The Lumbees have existed in and around Robeson County, N.C., since the early part of the eighteenth century. In 1885, the State of North Carolina recognized the tribe as “Indian,” but the U.S. government has yet to grant full federal recognition. Some Lumbees attended “Indian schools” until desegregation began in the South. Many Lumbees grew up on small farms that raised tobacco. Some folk who “worked in ’baccer” learned to use it. Sam was one of those people. Perhaps no one can prove Sam’s tobacco chewing caused his throat cancer, but lots of his friends figure it did.

After his talk with “the preacher,” Sam told a friend that he felt he’d wasted a lot of time during his life by not serving Christ. Word got around about Sam accepting Jesus. He gave out a good “witness” as his life came to a close. Sam suffered, underwent chemotherapy and died last Saturday.

I drove 30 miles last Monday night to a “funeral home” in Red Springs, N.C. I entered the crowded building, saw many of Sam’s former co-workers, shook some hands and walked to the casket.

Sam appeared to be resting, taking a nap. “He looks the same,” I thought. “It’s almost as if he could open his eyes and speak.” But Sam was gone, and only his body remained. The “life of the flesh is in the blood,” according to the Bible, and Sam’s blood had stopped flowing. His “flesh” had ceased living, but I believed his spirit had not.

I met Sam’s wife, expressed sympathy and told her of hearing about Sam’s salvation. We'll see him, again,” I said. She seemed appreciative of my words.

After talking with some co-workers, I left Red Springs and drove the long, flat road toward home, thinking about Sam’s late-in-life conversion.

It’s eternally dangerous to wait until “midnight” to “get right.” I recall hearing ministers mention this verse: “And the LORD said, ‘My spirit shall not always strive with man…’” (Genesis 6:3). Those preachers indicated a person could wait until he has no sense of God “drawing” him to accept Christ.

A friend told me about a man who repeatedly resisted the Gospel message. That man grew old and had a heart attack. A preacher visited the hospitalized man and pressed him about accepting Christ. The man said, “Why, if I was to get saved now, people would think I was just getting scared.” The man died a few years later, and my friend doesn’t know if that man ever accepted Jesus Christ or not.

I’m glad Sam wasn’t too proud to finally accept God’s gift of salvation. Sam came to the Lord late in life, but he came.

We have no promise of tomorrow. Come to Jesus while the voice of the Lord still speaks to your heart, while you still hear God calling you.

“…Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2).

The Japanese People Need Our Prayers

2011-03-19T05:34:00.000-07:00

By Steve Crain

Japan was hit on March 11, 2011, by one of the largest earthquakes on record. A magnitude-9.0 quake caused a tsunami that slammed Japan’s east coast and left thousands dead.

Japan’s population in March 2009 was 127,076,183, making it the tenth most populated country. The Rev. Ron Hutchcraft, in a “Mission Network News” article, said Christians should pray for Japanese Christians. Less than one percent of Japan’s population identifies as “evangelical Christian,” and 70 percent reportedly claim no religion.

“They (Christians) are a remnant in that country,” Hutchcraft says. “(With) the millions of gods of Shintoism – the feeling that Christianity is a western religion – all these things have created great barriers, and my prayer now is for the people of God in Japan, that this could be their moment that they could (share their faith) because of their hope.”

The following information comes from Japan-guide.com, Wikipedia and “the Christian Post”:

Shinto and Buddhism are Japan’s two major religions. Religion does not play a big role in the everyday lives of most Japanese. The average person typically follows religious rituals at ceremonies like birth, weddings and funerals. They may visit a shrine or temple and participate in local festivals (“matsuri”), most of which have religious origins.

Shinto has no founder or sacred scriptures. It is deeply rooted in the Japanese people and traditions. “Shinto gods” are called “kami.” They are thought to be sacred spirits that take the form of things and concepts such as wind, rain, mountains, trees, rivers and fertility. Humans are thought to become kami after they die and are revered by their families as ancestral kami. The kami of extraordinary people are enshrined at some shrines. Some prominent rocks are worshiped as kami.

There are no absolutes in Shinto – no absolute right and wrong, and nobody is perfect. Shinto is an optimistic faith; humans are thought to be fundamentally good; evil spirits cause evil, many believe. The purpose of most Shinto rituals is to keep away evil spirits.

Buddhism began in India in the sixth century BC and consists of the teachings of the Buddha, Gautama Siddhartha. The Mahayana or “Greater Vehicle” Buddhism found its way to Japan. About 90 million Japanese have Buddhists roots. Many households keep a small altar in order to pay respect to their ancestors. Figures that state 84 to 96 percent of Japanese adhere to Shinto and Buddhism are not based on self-identification but come primarily from birth records, following an old practice of officially associating a family line with a local Buddhist temple or Shinto shrine.

Many Japanese Christians live in Western Japan, where Jesuit missionaries were active in the sixteenth century. In 1542, the first Europeans from Portugal landed on Kyushu in Western Japan. Kyushu’s barons welcomed foreign trade that brought new weapons and gunpowder. The main reason for the extinction of Christianity in Japan by 1638 was the government’s move to exert absolute control. This was thought impossible with the interference of an “aggressive and intolerant foreign religion” like Christianity. In 1873, after the “Meiji restoration,” freedom of religion was encouraged. Since World War II, the number of Japanese Christians has slowly increased.

Michelle A. Vu, a “Christian Post Reporter,” notes that one mission leader says the problem of evangelizing Japanese is the Japanese mentality itself.

Japanese people value human relationships more than truth and principle, says Dr. Minoru Okuyama, director of the Missionary Training Center in Japan, during his presentation at the Tokyo 2010 Global Missions Consultations.

“…They are afraid of disturbing human relationships of their families or neighborhood, even though they know that Christianity is the best,” said Okuyama, who previously was Buddhist and a Shintoist. “Thus, Japanese make much of human relationships more than the truth…For Japanese, one of the most important things is harmony; in Japanese ‘Wa’…Those who harm the harmony are bad, whether they are right or not has been beside the question.”

Okuyama noted that Christianity is thriving in neighboring China and Korea because the mentality of the people is to “make more of truth or principle than human relationships.”

Pray for the Japanese people.

Joanne Thompson Tribute

2011-03-12T07:19:00.001-08:00

Joanne and Pastor Jimmy Thompson (photo probably from the late 1950s)

“We’re here to celebrate a life that was well lived,” said Dr. Coy Barker, as he “preached the funeral” of Joanne Thompson on Sunday, March 6, 2011, at Faith Temple Church in Taylors, S.C.

Peggy Joanne Thompson (Nov. 19, 1933 – March 3, 2011) of Taylors was a wife, a mother and vice-president and co-founder of Dove Broadcasting, WGGS-TV 16, headquartered in Greenville, S.C.

Barker, founder of Metro World Outreach Center in Stone Mountain, Ga., and longtime friend of Dove Broadcasting, called Joanne “a woman of God.”

Greenvilleonline.com published this statement: “Joanne and her husband, Dr. James H. Thompson, are considered visionaries and pioneers in Christian broadcasting. Since October 1972, Joanne and Jimmy have been devoted to producing high quality, family-oriented Christian programming. Together they have made outstanding contributions to not only South Carolina but to the nation and the world.

“Joanne touched the lives of thousands of people in Appalachia, Romania and Moldova. She also had an ongoing prison ministry and assistance to families in need. She lived her life in service to children and families who were hurting and had no hope. She received many Angel Awards for excellence in media for documentaries featuring her mission outreach projects.”

Joanne is survived by her husband, their three sons (Dante, Duane and Gene Thompson), three grandchildren and a great-granddaughter.

My Uncle Fred Crain, 85, is a charter member of Faith Temple, which was founded in the mid-1950s and first led by Dr. James Thompson. Fred remembers when “Jimmy” pastored Gum Springs P.H. Church and met Joanne Upton who then lived in Greer, S.C., and had a brother, Fred Upton. Their father had alcohol problems, and their lives had not been easy, my uncle says.

“Doyle Zachery was preaching a tent revival and Joanne got saved there,” my Uncle Fred says. “Betty Atkins was playing the organ at that meeting.”

Betty may have invited Joanne to hear Jimmy preach.

“Joanne came up to Gum Springs one night,” Fred says. “Jimmy preached, and he told me he made sure he got to the church door after the service to meet Joanne.”

After Joanne and Jimmy dated a while, Jimmy mentioned marriage.

“They rode to Hendersonville, and he talked serious to her about marriage,” Fred says, “but she said she didn’t think she wanted to marry a preacher. Jimmy told her, ‘So, you’re asking me to choose between you and God?’ Joanne said that really ‘struck’ her.”

Joanne worked at that time at an insurance company and wanted to study nursing. She broke up with Jimmy, but 11 months later, he invited her to go with him “to hear a preacher.” She went, and they resumed dating.

Fred and his wife, Frances, met Joanne when Jimmy brought her to their home, located then in the Mountain View community near Taylors.

“Jimmy brought her to our house,” Fred says. “They were courting, and he wanted me to show her a few things about the guitar. She was a singer and had been wanting to learn to play the guitar. After a few minutes, Joanne said the strings hurt her fingers. She seemed like a real nice, intelligent young lady who was wanting to do something for the Lord.”

Jimmy and Joanne married on April 22, 1955, and helped found Faith Temple Church in 1956-57.

My sister, Shirley Crain Thompson (no relation to Jimmy and Joanne) of Stone Mountain, Ga., says she fondly remembers Joanne as her Sunday school teacher during her childhood and teen years.

“She was always amusing and told us truths I frequently recalled all my life. We would have slumber parties on Friday nights with the girls in my Sunday school class, and Joanne would take her time to attend those functions with us. We considered her our friend as well as our teacher…I knew she would accomplish great things – and she did. I was just fortunate to have her placed in my path by God.”

At Joanne’s funeral, LaVerne Tripp commented on her determination, calling her “a bulldog for people who were hurt.”

Dr. Jerry Goff talked about “Jimmy’s wisdom and Joanne’s zeal.” He said about Joanne, “There was no problem she would not attack…She was on a mission every day…searching for a new way to serve Christ.”

Baby Dedications

2011-02-12T08:09:00.000-08:00

By Steve Crain

Police arrested a 24-year-old woman from South Carolina on Tuesday, February 8, 2011, and charged her in connection with the discovery of her newborn son in the toilet of the BI-LO Center in Greenville, S.C., according to news sources.

The woman, who already has a 4-year-old child, told police she couldn’t recall what happened after she went into the arena bathroom when she attended a circus on Friday, Feb. 4.

A custodian discovered the infant around 11:30 p.m. The child was only a few hours old; he was suffering from hypothermia and weighed around six pounds. He was rushed to the hospital and was listed in critical condition on Tuesday, Feb. 8. The mother could face 30 years in prison if convicted on one count of felony child abuse and one count of unlawful neglect toward a child.

I heard the news about that baby only days after witnessing a Sunday morning “baby dedication service” at the church my wife and I attend in Southern Pines, N.C. I thought about the contrast in images: 10 held-and-cuddled children standing on a church stage on a Sunday morning versus one newborn shivering while lying in water held by a receptacle manufactured for the disposal of human waste.

Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1776 in the United States Declaration of Independence, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal….” Though we all may be in theory “created equal,” some people don’t seem to be born that way.

I remember moving years ago with my wife and our first daughter, a toddler at that time. A man, who appeared to be 20 years older than I and a bit nervous or hyperactive, knocked on the door of our newly purchased home.

“Hello, I’m your neighbor from up the street,” the man said. He told me his name and, after a few more words, said, “I was left in a basket on the doorstep of the Salvation Army when I was a baby.”

I thought it odd that he so quickly offered that information to a stranger. He concluded his welcome by saying, “This is a good neighborhood – don’t nobody bother nobody.”

I wondered how knowing he was left as an infant at the Salvation Army affected the man who stood on our doorstep. Did he spill out the circumstances of his beginnings to defuse any rejection he potentially might feel if his new neighbors heard about his start in life? Did he fear being a “bother” to anyone?

The Prophet Jeremiah said, “The word of the Lord came to me, saying, ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations’” (Jeremiah 1:5 NIV).

You may have heard that verse used to comfort people feeling insecure about their self-worth. Have you wondered if “that word” was for Jeremiah but not for you? There seem to be many babies born “without a chance in the world.”

And yet, Jesus said, “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows” (Matthew 10:29 NIV).

When parents brought youngsters to Jesus so he could “place his hands on them,” his disciples rebuked the parents. “But Jesus called the children to him and said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these’” (Luke 18:15-16 NIV).

You don’t have to be “a Jeremiah” to be important to the Heavenly Father.

At the baby dedication service I mentioned, my wife and I saw our pastor pray for 10 children. An array of young parents stood side-by-side across our church platform. The way those parents held their children and the fact they brought them to be dedicated to the Lord seemed to indicate the value they placed on their little ones.

Every child is important to God, whether that child is red or yellow or black or white, whether he was born in a castle or a shack – or whether he was birthed and left lying in a toilet bowl.

Can Baby Boomers Grow Old with Dignity?

2011-02-05T05:35:00.000-08:00

By Steve Crain

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are more than 77 million baby boomers in the U.S. By 2030, this group (born between 1946 and 1964) will represent an estimated 20 percent of the U.S. population.

This means more than 10,000 baby boomers will turn 65 every day for the next 19 years, writes Emily Driscoll, reporting for Fox Business News.

What caused the U.S. baby boom folk refer to? American soldiers returned from World War II in 1945 started having kids in 1946.

In a recent “World Magazine” article, D.C. Innes writes, “It’s 2011. Three score and five years ago, our mothers brought forth a new generation, a big generation, a baby boom that has now started entering retirement.”

Innes says about boomers: “Many of them, whether through exercise or Botox, have no intention of ceding to others what they consider rightfully theirs: youth. The baby boomers have been the center of everyone’s attention since they were born, beginning with the publication of Dr. Spock’s Baby and Child Care in 1946.”

A Pew Research study tells us that “the typical Boomer feels nine years younger than his or her chronological age” and thinks old age begins at 72.

“They’ve made it our standard practice to speak of the aged as being so many ‘years young,’” Innes writes.

One reader commenting on D.C. Innes’ article about aging baby boomers writes, “Whaddya mean old age doesn’t start at 72? My father retired at age 62. He started to receive AARP stuff and went nuts. He always told the toll collector ‘Here you go, son,’ but when the guy responded with ‘Thanks, Pop,” he stopped. It was an adjustment. In his 70s, while waiting for my mother to get ready for church, he put his leg up on a kitchen chair (something we were not allowed to do), so I teased him. His comeback? ‘I’m old, I can do what I want.’ Every generation, every person, gets hit in the face with the fact that they are now “Der Alte,’ – ‘the old one.’ I do think it will be difficult for those who are not grounded in faith. They will have to come to terms with a lot of ‘stuff.’It will be my turn this year as one of those 10,000. It is sobering to realize how short it has been and how little there may be left. But I can with only increasing honesty and sincerity say that the confident trust I have in God makes the past, present and future a life of wondrous hope. I would live blindly in foolish cynicism were it not for the realized grace of The Timely God Who daily assures me ‘I Am with you.’ To believe otherwise is to fall prey to the desperate lie of our hopeless enemy.”

Another reader of Innes’ article about aging says, “I learned a long time ago I am nothing, formed from nothing, and yet He who is everything for some reason (love) cares about me, you, all of us nothings on the surface of a dust particle in space. Any worth that my life has is from Him, not from me, you, or this material universe.”

Romans 5:12 reminds us of this fact: “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.”

The Psalmist wrote, “Teach us to number our days, that we may apply (get) a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12).

I was born in 1947, at the front end of the baby boom generation. I half-joked recently with a friend that I, being a boomer, thought the Lord would return before I became old. Growing up, especially during the 1960s, many of us boomers thought the world revolved around us, so when I learned about the Lord’s promised return, I thought my generation would be “it,” the “chosen ones” who would see Christ’s second coming. (Hey, I still might see it during my lifetime!). I light-heartedly told my friend that I hadn’t saved enough funds for retirement nor taken good care of myself because I’d assumed the Lord was going to return and rescue me from any old-age hardships. My friend laughed. He realized I was commenting on boomers’ tendencies toward self-centeredness.

A prayer for us Baby Boomers: Heavenly Father, deliver us Boomers from ourselves. Help us grow old with humility and dignity. Continue to teach us how to number our days and share your Gospel. Help us abandon the search for the Fountain of Youth and learn to trust You, the “Fount of every blessing.” In Jesus’ name, amen.

Sanctity of Life

2011-01-19T17:39:00.000-08:00

By Steve Crain

“When I was in Teen Challenge, as a student, I dealt with my drug abuse and my addiction to alcohol, but God showed me one day that he wanted to deal with a part of my life I was so afraid to turn over to him,” said Debby DiBianca, as she spoke about three abortions she experienced.

DiBianca gave this “testimony” to an audience at Sandhills Presbyterian Church (PCA), Southern Pines, N.C., on Jan. 24, 2004. Her husband Sal DiBianca serves as director of Sandhills Teen Challenge (TC), a Carthage, N.C., drug and alcohol rehabilitation center that is part of Teen Challenge, a ministry founded by the Rev. David Wilkerson, whose work with N.Y City gang members is reported in the book “The Cross and the Switchblade.” The DiBiancas graduated from TC and became leaders in that organization.

“This isn’t easy for me to share,” DiBianca said. “I want everyone just to think I’m the great mom that Jamie and Brandon need.” (Sal and Debby’s children, Jamie and Brandon, were teenagers at the time she gave this testimony.)

DiBianca said God wanted her to forgive herself for three abortions she experienced, but she kept pushing the problem aside.

“I gave my virginity to Sal when I was 15 years old,” said DiBianca, who became pregnant and underwent an abortion in California, where she grew up. “I found myself, again, at the age of 16, in the same line at Planned Parenthood, getting my second abortion…When I was a senior in high school, I was in the same line, signing for them to rip out my third baby.”

DiBianca, who said her operations cause ongoing physical problems and pain, became a Christian.

“From the day I accepted Christ, until our wedding day, Sal and I were abstinent,” DiBianca said.

After graduating from Teen Challenge and serving as TC leaders, the DiBiancas moved to Moore County, N.C., to work with Sandhills Teen Challenge in the late 1980s. They received invitations to speak on moral issues in public high schools. When a friend asked Debbie to speak about her abortion experiences, she hesitated but decided to overcome her anxiety and guilt.

“I walked out (on the stage) at Pinecrest High School in 1989 on a Friday in January and told 1350 kids about the damage these abortions did,” she said. “Six girls cancelled their abortions that were scheduled for the next day in Fayetteville (N.C.).”

DiBianca said her faith in Christ helped her handle life’s pressures, but that some days weren’t easy.

“I wanted to kill myself, sometimes,” she said. “Not just because of the three aborted babies, but because of the damage those abortions did. Sal and I have eight babies in heaven. I’ve lost five babies because they got attached to the unhealthy part of my uterus.”

DiBianca expressed happiness about being the mother of her daughter Jamie and her son Brandon.

“I’m an over-protective mom,” she said. “I’m afraid the enemy is going to come and snatch them, again. So, I still have these issues in my life. But I’m so glad I let Jesus come into that part of my life and deal with it. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that he has forgiven me. And, yet, I had to forgive myself…I turned my life over to Christ, 100 percent…He’s so faithful.”

DiBianca concluded and the Rev. Steve Hill, then serving as the assistant pastor at Sandhills PCA, spoke to the audience.

“I don’t want anybody leaving this place feeling condemned,” Hill said. “In Matthew 11:28, Jesus says, ‘Come to me.’ If you’re carrying that guilt, if you’re carrying that shame, like Debby was, Jesus says, ‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened.’”

Hill said Satan continues accusing and condemning in order to keep a person from being able to “go ahead” with a future.

“Jesus will let you rest,” Hill said. “He’s not mad at you. Debby’s identity is not ‘murderer’ but ‘blood-washed, forgiven, child of God.’ Whether you’re a Christian or not, you’re made in the image of the God of the universe.” He read from Genesis 9 and said God will demand an accounting for murder. “When you destroy the image of God, you’re going to have to deal with him. Death dishonors the image of God.”

Hill read Jeremiah 1:5. In that verse, Jeremiah said God spoke to him, saying, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.”

“Children,” Hill said to younger audience members, “your parents loved you the minute they set eyes on you…but God loved you before that, before you had a name, before you had a thought.”

Spiritual ???

2011-01-09T09:30:00.000-08:00

By Steve Crain

“I don’t go to church, but I am spiritual,” a voice transmitted through my car radio said, as I recently listened to a live talk show.

That sentence caught my attention.

“Americans are more interested in ‘faith’ and ‘spirituality’ than in Christianity,” pollster George Barna says.

Here are two Internet definitions for “spiritual”:

“Spiritual”: “Concern for that which is unseen and intangible, as opposed to physical or mundane; Appreciation for religious values.”

“Spiritual”: “Having to do with deep, often religious, feelings and beliefs, including a person’s sense of peace, purpose, connection to others and beliefs about the meaning of life.”

“Spirituality’ is traditionally associated with religion, deities, the supernatural, and an afterlife," Wikipedia notes.

But tradition no longer prevails, according to some folk.

“Many still equate spirituality with religion, but declining membership of organized religions and the growth of secularism in the western world has given rise to a broader view of spirituality, “ a Wikipedia writer says. “Secular spirituality as a cultural phenomenon refers to the adherence to a spiritual ideology without...a (traditional) religious framework. Secular spirituality in principle might embrace many of the same types of practices as religious spirituality, but the motivation is different...the emphasis is likely to be on practice rather than belief and on the inner peace of the individual rather than on a relationship with the divine.”

Some “secular spiritual” people may want to simply live happy lives, help others and develop qualities that religious people often develop, but they probably don’t want a traditional religion.

Some atheists define “spiritual” as “nurturing thoughts, emotions, words and actions that are in harmony with a belief that the entire universe is, in some way, connected; even if only by the mysterious flow of cause and effect,” Wikipedia notes, adding, “In contrast, those of a more 'New-Age' disposition see spirituality as the active connection to some force-power-energy-spirit, facilitating a sense of a deep self."

Some see spirituality and religion as separate. William Irwin Thompson, a cultural historian and yogi, said, “Religion is not identical with spirituality; rather religion is the form spirituality takes in civilization.”

Those who speak of spirituality outside of religion often define themselves as “spiritual but not religious” and generally believe in the existence of many different “spiritual paths” – emphasizing the importance of finding one’s own individual path to spirituality. According to one poll, some 24 percent of the United States population identifies itself as spiritual but not religious. “One might say then, that a key difference is that religion is a type of formal external search, while spirituality is defined as a search within oneself,” a Wikipedia writer says.

When I was a boy in the South, being spiritual seemed to mean having one’s mind on Jesus and God – the God of the Bible. I think that for Christians, being “spiritual” still means having a one-on-one relationship with God, because Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, came, lived, died and was raised from the dead.

This is the way GotQuestions.org answers the question “What is Christian spirituality?”:

Answer: When we are born again, we receive the Holy Spirit who seals us for the day of redemption (Ephesians 1:13; 4:30). Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would lead us “into all truth” (John 16:13). Part of that truth is taking the things of God and applying them to our lives. When that application is made, the believer then makes a choice to allow the Holy Spirit to control him/her. True Christian spirituality is based upon the extent to which a born-again believer allows the Holy Spirit to lead and control his or her life…To put it briefly, religion is a set of beliefs and rituals that claim to get a person in a right relationship with God, and spirituality is a focus on spiritual things and the spiritual world instead of physical/earthly things…The most common misconception about spirituality is that there are many forms of spirituality, and all are equally valid.”

Many people seem to be talking now about “being spiritual,” but real Christians know the true spiritual path to God is found in what Jesus said about himself: “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6).

Danger in the Manger

2010-12-26T11:49:00.000-08:00

By Steve Crain

The “sweet little Jesus Boy” who lay wrapped in swaddling clothes in a manger was no milk-toast crybaby.

Sure, Jesus Christ probably wailed when he was delivered. He no doubt fretted, wanting to be fed. He must have craved his mother’s soothing touch. Leaving a womb can be a shock to anyone. But Jesus was no harmless bambino. He was a “dangerous baby.” “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8).

St. Paul says about Christ: “In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.”

The Bible records, “Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name ‘Emmanuel,’ which being interpreted is, ‘God with us’” (Matthew 1:23). “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).

Pastor Charles Swindoll notes, “Joseph cleaned up from the birth and put that little tiny life into a rough feeding trough. Mary looked down and saw God by her side.”

Swindoll adds, “While Rome was busy making history, God arrived. He pitched His fleshly tent in silence on straw – in a stable – under a star. The world didn’t even notice.”

But Baby Jesus had arrived as God’s most dangerous threat to the Devil and his devices.

As I began writing this article, I tried to think of a creative title and decided to call this column “Danger in the Manger.” But when I checked that phrase on the Internet, I found someone had already used it. A rock band had created a crazy song and made a video depicting the manger scene using cartoon-type figures. Toward the end of that video, machinegun fire erupted across the nativity scene. The rockers called that song and video “Danger in the Manger.”

I then decided to use the title “Manger Danger.” I surfed the Internet. One entry listed this title for an article: “Manger Danger: Let’s keep Uncle Sam out of church affairs.” Another site let me know that “manger danger” is a term listed in the Urban Dictionary, which defines slang and “street talk.” That posting informed that “manger danger” refers to “a nativity set in which several heroic action figures, such as GI Joe or Transformers, have been arranged and posed in humorous ways among the traditional Christian figures – usually perpetrated by a mischievous child on Christmas morning, after having opened his presents, to ‘try out his new toys.’”

Disappointed that “the world” had confiscated two good titles, I decided to call this article "Danger in the Manger," anyway.

King Herod sensed some of the danger a certain Jewish baby might bring to his world. In Matthew 2, we read about wise men from the East who searched for a newborn “king of the Jews.” They trekked to Bethlehem and consulted with Herod, who asked them to let him know when they found the new “king.” Herod said he wanted to worship the potential king, but the Bible lets us know Herod was evil.

The paranoid Herod spoken of in Matthew 2 was, according to Wikipedia, an “Idumean” (or Edomite, a descendent of Esau) whom the Romans established as the king of Idumea, Judea, Samaria and Galilee. He didn’t want to lose his kingdom and was reportedly ruthless and brutal.

The Bible tells us the wise men found the Christ child: “…They saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense and myrrh. And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way. And…the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, ‘Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him’” (Matthew 2:9-13).

Herod sent soldiers to kill babies (children under two years of age at that time) in the Bethlehem area. I doubt that Herod had much of an idea as to how dangerous Jesus really was. The Bethlehem Baby who eluded Herod came to pay the penalty for our sins, transform lives and “take out” Satan, the Prince of Darkness. Jesus came as a “dangerous baby,” a dangerous baby, indeed!

Bethlehem: 'House of Bread'

2010-12-18T08:20:00.000-08:00

By Steve Crain

“Sleigh bells ring! Are you listening? In the lane, snow is glistening…”

Those lyrics greeted me as I entered the Subway sandwich shop in Aberdeen, N.C., around 5:20 p.m. on a recent Wednesday in December.

Music continued over the Subway sound system: “A beautiful sight, we’re happy tonight, walking in a winter wonderland.”

I thought about a prediction of “ice by tomorrow morning” for the N.C. Sandhills. Our sandy soil grows tall pines, but ice and pines don’t mix well. Ice can lay limbs across power lines.

The song went on, “In the meadow, we can build a snowman….”

I don’t want to build a snowman, I thought. I need to be able to drive to work, tomorrow.

Waiting to order a “foot-long tuna with Monterey Cheddar bread” to share at home with Carol, I watched a young Subway employee put a tray of doughy loaves into a tall “oven” featuring a see-through front. She closed the oven door and set a timer.

When ice or snow is predicted, many folk run to grocery stores for milk and bread. Whatever the weather, bread can usually satisfy human hunger.

“Bread is a staple food prepared by cooking a dough of flour and water and frequently additional ingredients,” according to Wikipedia. “Doughs are usually baked…It may be leavened or unleavened…Bread is one of the oldest prepared foods…and is referred to colloquially as the ‘Staff of Life.’”

Writer Don Mears says, “Whether made from wheat, rye, barley, millet, rice or even potato flour, it (bread) has been the basic diet of common people. Bread has been synonymous with food for ordinary working people of many cultures. As the common food of the average Israelite, it featured frequently in the spiritual consciousness and the ceremonial and sacrificial worship of ancient Israel.”

Jesus was born in Bethlehem, a small town in Israel. Years before Jesus’ birth, Micah said prophetically, “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times” (Micah 5:2 NIV).

In the Hebrew language, “Bethlehem” means “house of bread.”

God caused Joseph and Mary to journey to Bethlehem; Jesus was born there and fulfilled Micah’s prophecy.

We read in Luke 2:1-7: “In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to their own town to register.

“So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.”

The “Bread of Life” was born in a stable in a small town whose name means “house of bread.”

Jesus later fed a large crowd with five loaves and two fish. Many from that group found him the next day, and he told them, “You are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill” (John 6:26).

They said, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat’” (John 6:30, 31).

"Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world…This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever'" (John 6:32, 33, 58).

During this Christmas season, let’s remember these words from the old hymn "Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah”: “Bread of Heaven, Bread of Heaven, feed me till I want no more; feed me till I want no more.”

Christmas at Denny's

2010-12-11T09:42:00.000-08:00

By Steve Crain

I took a day off from work on Friday, Dec. 10, 2010, and Carol and I left our home in Southern Pines, N.C., to drive to Raleigh. Suzanne, 32, the younger of our two daughters, was scheduled for surgery around midday.

We motored 75 miles up Hwy 1, turned left on Wake Forest Road and took a quick right into Duke Raleigh Hospital. I dropped off Carol at the Surgery/Registration door and left our Buick in a cold 3-story parking garage.

I joined Suzanne, Chad and Carol, sitting in an expansive lobby, which was not crowded. A large, beautiful Christmas tree decorated with oversized ornaments sat 30 feet from us. Suzanne held a “beeper” – the kind some restaurants use to let you know when a table is available.

One night, over a year ago, a pipe in Suzanne’s public school third-grade classroom leaked water onto her tiled floor. The next morning, she slipped on the wet floor and injured her left hip.

One doctor thought her pain came from a strain in her back and recommended exercises that aggravated her injury. After struggles with Workman’s Comp (workers compensation), Suzanne won approval to undergo an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scan, described as “the best way to see the inside the human body without cutting it open.” That procedure revealed she had a torn labrum in her hip. The labrum, as I understand, is a fibrous cartilage around the edge of a bone inside a joint. Dr. David Jones said he thought he could repair Suzanne’s damaged cartilage. He persuaded Workman’s Comp that she needed an operation.

We waited a long time in the hospital lobby. After a while, I put my hand on Suzanne’s shoulder and prayed for her. Her beeper soon vibrated and lit up. Time to go.

She walked alone to a “prep room,” a cubicle with a plastic curtain. We soon joined her – three loved ones huddled around a young lady lying on a hospital bed. A nurse anesthetist told us about the general anesthesia Suzanne would receive. Each of us gave Suzanne a kiss and returned to the lobby. (Later, after her operation, Suzanne emailed this message to Carol: “I thought of the song “I Will Rest in you” that you wrote, Mom, as I fell asleep for surgery. It was comforting.”)

Chad and I brought lunches from the hospital cafeteria to share with Carol in the waiting area. Afterward, a tall, thin, lonely-looking man we’d seen earlier walked past us. Carol asked him, “Do have a family member having surgery here?”

“My girlfriend is here to get an operation to tighten a muscle in her eye,” he said.

The 34-year-old man hailed from Fayetteville, N.C., and had close-cropped black hair. He seated himself to Carol’s left – two empty seats stood between him and her; I sat to Carol’s right. The man said he nearly lost his foot in an accident and “got on drugs” from taking medication for pain. He said he was 14 when his father returned home and surprised a robber. The intruder killed the father with the father’s “own gun.” The man said he got a girl pregnant when he was 15. Though her parents wanted her to abort the child, the girl birthed her baby.

“She’s 17 now,” he said of his daughter. “I see her.” He said he wanted to do right by that daughter and by another 6-year-old daughter he fathered.

“That’s good you want to stay in their lives,” Carol said. “I was 19 when I arranged to meet my father for the first time.”

Carol brought Christ into the conversation.

“I know what you’re talking about,” the man said. “I was saved when I was younger.”

“God wants your faith to be real in your life, now,” Carol told him. He gave her his name and address; she plans to send him an “envelope hug.”

Dr. Jones walked to the lobby and said he felt Suzanne’s surgery went well. Chad spent time with her in the recovery room, and she came to the lobby around 4:30 p.m., as I retrieved our car. Chad and a pale and weakened Suzanne headed to their Raleigh home.

Carol and I drove to a nearby Denny’s before beginning our trek to Southern Pines. The restaurant was tastefully decorated with red ribbons and greenery. Someone had wrapped its many framed pictures to appear as gifts. We heard Christmas music playing over a sound system. Carol ordered a breakfast meal. I got a turkey club sandwich. I used my cell phone to text-message these words to Suzanne: “I’m thanking God for your successful surgery.”

Sitting at a table in Denny’s, I felt the Spirit of Christmas.

A Table and a Thankful Heart

2010-11-27T07:45:00.000-08:00

By Steve Crain

The day before Thanksgiving, my wife, Carol, spent time at the Harris-Teeter grocery store in Aberdeen, N.C., and The Fresh Market in nearby Pinehurst.

She purchased three pies: pecan, pumpkin and apple. She also bought four 29-oz. cans of Margaret Holmes-brand “Greer Peaches, Southern Freestone” (distributed by McCall Farms, Effingham, S.C.) and some flour.

My late mother showed Carol how to make an easy peach cobbler. Our younger daughter, Suzanne – she and her husband, Chad, teach in elementary schools – always liked that dessert and asked Carol to bring one to their home in Raleigh, N.C., for Thanksgiving. This year, our older daughter, Janelle, observed Thanksgiving at home in Taylors, S.C., with her husband, Terry.

Carol rose early on our recent overcast Thanksgiving Thursday, poured four cans of peaches and other ingredients into a large flat pan and cooked cobbler. By 10:00, I’d loaded pies, cobbler and Daisy, our 8-year-old beagle into our Buick. In the car, I prayed for protection and a good day before Carol drove us away from Southern Pines. Just enough mist was falling to need windshield wipers, and at the first stop sign, I hopped out and took a few pine needles from under one blade. We motored 75 miles to the Chad and Suzanne's rental house in downtown Raleigh, a city with a 2010-estimated population of over 394,000.

Chad’s grandparents, Don and Lois, flew on Wednesday from Chandler, Arizona, where they retired 10 years ago. Chad met them at the Raleigh airport and had them in his home by 1:00 a.m., Thursday morning. Don, 83, and Lois, 80 slept on a “blow-up bed” near Chad’s dining room table.

As a teenager, Chad and his younger brother, Jared, lived with their mother, Barbara, who now lives in Wichita, Kansas. They often visited their father, Rod, and his wife, Kathleen, in Kansas City, Mo., and spent many summers with Don and Lois in Herington, Kansas (population 2,563 in 2000). His grandfather owned an appliance business and he let Chad work for him.

Carol and I arrived before noon, and Daisy greeted her old friend Lucy, Chad and Suzanne’s long-legged Plott Hound. Suzanne had bought our meal from Whole Foods, a “natural and organic” store. We saw turkey, dressing and gravy, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, macaroni, rolls and cranberry sauce. We added our pies and cobbler.

Don and I sat in the living room and talked before eating. Don said he was a good high school shop student, learned about electricity and worked at an appliance store that sold Maytag washing machines before he served with the U.S. Army in Korea. There, he helped service motors and helped make roads during the conflict that began in 1950 after North Korea invaded South Korea and brought on a “police action” against the aggressors.

Paul, a Christian probably in his late forties, arrived to eat. He worked at a factory in California until it closed. He lost a home and moved to N.C. when a friend offered to help him find work. He ended up in a Wilmington, N.C., homeless shelter. Somewhere along the way he had a heart attack and has applied to receive “disability.” He helps with a Raleigh house for homeless men.

We gathered around a large wooden table, and Chad prayed. After our feast, Suzanne asked that each person give thanks for something. Chad began, mentioning his grandparents and his father, who made it through brain surgery last year. Don said he was thankful for his wife, Lois, who sat across from him. She said she was glad they were able to take care of each other during their retirement.

Paul’s turn came, and he said, “Well, I’m glad to be here.” Most of us smiled, realizing his heart attack could have taken him “out of here.” He then mentioned other things he was thankful for. Sitting beside Paul, I was next in line. I thought about recent times I’d whined to God about aches, pains, difficulties and situations. Carol and I had arrived at our daughter’s house in a car – not on a motor scooter such as Paul uses to get around. I’m older than Paul and have had no heart attack or lost my job. We haven’t lost our home. Humbled by Paul’s presence and thankfulness, I, with a new sense of gratefulness, voiced my thanks to God for Jesus and my wife and family.

“I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart…” (Psalm 111:1).

The Persecuted Church Needs Our Prayers

2010-11-12T19:11:00.000-08:00

By Steve Crain

Christians around the world will remember their brothers and sisters in Christ who suffer for their faith this Sunday, November 14, as part of a global day set aside to pray for their fellow believers, according to the Christian Broadcast Network (CBN).

“Christian pastors are often imprisoned in countries hostile to the faith,” CBN states. “This affects not only the church congregations, but also the families of these leaders.”

The global prayer day movement began in 1996 though efforts of the World Evangelical Fellowship with the help of various denominations and faith-based groups. Today, the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church (IDOP) mobilizes churches on behalf of millions of persecuted Christians worldwide.

With a core of 7,000 participating churches, the IDOP has grown to become the largest prayer day event of its kind in the world. This year, churches will pray and also discuss ways to help suffering Christians.

“Why should you pray this Sunday, or perhaps daily for persecuted Christians?” asks Gary Lane, CBN News Senior International Reporter. “Why not? They need and covet your prayers. Think about it. Here are just a few of the Christian persecution headlines CBN News brought you in just the past three weeks”:

--A Pakistani Christian is sentenced to death for telling Muslim co-workers that Jesus died for their sins…

--58 Christians are killed in Iraq as Islamic militants attack their church…Less than two weeks later, grieving Christians are killed by bomb attacks targeting their Baghdad homes…

--Eight months after his release from a North Korean prison, American missionary Robert Park – for the first time – speaks about the suffering and torture he endured at the hands of his captors…

--The People's Republic of China prohibits 200 house church leaders from attending the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelism in Cape Town South Africa. Conference organizers fear computer hackers from the PRC were responsible for shutting down their website for the first five days of the gathering….

“If anyone tells you that militant Muslims and communists are becoming more tolerant of Christians, don't believe them,” Lane says. “As I travel the world to meet with suffering believers and listen to their testimonies, I can tell you persecution is not lessening, it's intensifying. Why? I don’t know for sure. Perhaps it’s because Christians are doing a better job of sharing the gospel these days. Maybe it’s because television and the Internet are helping to bring Jesus to many societies previously closed to other beliefs and faiths.”

Lane says Christians around the world – perhaps 200 million or more – will pray for their persecuted brothers and sisters this Sunday.

“Believers in America and most Western countries know very little of the fires of persecution,” says Katherine Britton, News and Culture Editor of Crosswalk.com. “But our lack of experience doesn't have to be a lack of empathy. In Galatians 6:2, Paul tells the church to “carry each other’s burdens” to keep each other from stumbling…I think those of us who don’t endure life-threatening persecution can still partner with the persecuted church in this way. If we pray for believers we’ve never met…chances are we'll never know the impact those prayers have. And yet we can enter into their suffering in a small way when we pray for them.”

James tells us “the prayers of a righteous man are powerful and effective,” indicating that God uses prayers offered through Christ in ways we can’t imagine, Britton says. “And when we don’t know how to pray for other believers? God takes care of that hesitation as well in Romans 8:26: ‘…The Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.’”

Saint Paul asked for prayer so that “utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak,” Ephesians 6:18-20).

Pray often for the many Christians who are being persecuted.

Grace Writers

2010-11-06T17:45:00.000-07:00

By Steve Crain

After David Pratt, the “small groups pastor” at our church, encouraged me – and my wife, Carol, and our daughter, Suzanne, prodded me – I decided to start a church “writers group.”

I majored in art education and minored in English in college but didn’t write much until I was 50 years old and began submitting articles and letters to the editor of our local newspaper, “The Pilot” of Southern Pines, N.C. I next worked for almost four years, in the early 2000s, as a part-time religion reporter for “The Pilot.“

A few years ago, I attended a writers’ workshop led by Marlene Bagnull, a Christian author. She used this verse as a theme: “And the Lord said to me, ‘Write my answer on a billboard, large and clear, so that anyone can read it at a glance and rush to tell the others’” (Habakkuk 2:2).

In her book, “Write His Answer,” Bagnull says, “I believe God is calling us to write his answer. It’s time to boldly step out in faith and to write the words that need to be written – powerful words, winsome words, anointed words that will come only by allowing him to speak to our own hearts.”

Bagnull says she once gave the Lord excuses as to why she might not succeed in writing to honor him. She says she felt God answered her with these words: “Write out of your life experiences. Make yourself transparent and vulnerable so others can see what I have done, and am doing, in your life.” She adds, “I began to write about my life as a wife and mother…I sensed the most difficult things for me to share could be the very words someone else needed to read.”

I recently helped launch Grace Writers Group for our church, Grace Church in Southern Pines, N.C. The church holds two Sunday morning services and often sees over 1200 people attend those combined services. On two Sundays, Pastor Pratt let me host a recruiting table that stood alongside nearly 60 other small-group tables. About 11 people signed up for our group.

Six people gathered for our first meeting on September 15, 2010. (We meet on Wednesdays from 7:00-8:30 p.m.) Linda Martin, a lady in her fifties, wrote about our first class, saying, “I started the class on writing last night (Wednesday). Who would have thought I would be in a writing class – me, the person who’s been told many times to ‘write my story’ over the years and who has resisted each time…I have a hunch Steve’s gotten into more than he’s bargained for.”

I was not sure what I had “bargained for,” but I have been blessed by powerful writings produced by group members.

George Hunt, 77, is an Air Force veteran and a member of our group. He worked 30 years for Hughes Aircraft and now serves as the director of the Moore County (N.C.) Veterans Office. He touched hearts when he read to our group a writing called “A Day I Won’t Forget.” Here is his story, which is appropriate for Veterans Day (November 11):

“It was a hot July morning in 1944, and my father was in the Army somewhere in France. I was ten years old. My two younger brothers and I had decided to go swimming with our cousins in the creek near our Grandpa’s. We were having a great time splashing and playing in the water.

“Around noontime, I heard a car coming down the dirt road from the direction of Pinehurst, N.C. It was very unusual, with gas rationing, to see a car that far out in the country. Then I saw the TAXI sign on the side of the car, and my heart dropped, for a TAXI meant a death notice from the government, and there were only two houses on our road.

“I called the others and ran for home, hoping and praying that it wasn’t for our house. But when I got home, the driver had already delivered the telegram, which turned out to be about my father. All it said was he had been seriously wounded in France. That was all we knew for several months. No one knew if he was alive or dead. My mother went to the Red Cross to try and get some word, and they were unable to find out anything for us. Finally, a letter came from my father from a hospital in England. He was on his way home. What a great day that was. After months of no news, Dad was coming home.”

You will find more Grace Writers Group stories at www.gracewritersgroup.blogspot.com.

The Reformation and Grace

2010-10-30T06:44:00.000-07:00

By Steve Crain

A young Roman Catholic priest named Martin Luther posted 95 “theses,” or statements, on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, on October 31, 1517.

Pastor Dave Tietz of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Taylor, Texas, says, “At the time, Martin Luther had no idea what drastic changes this simple act would bring upon the church, but posting those 95 Theses began a chain reaction that resulted in the events we know today as the Protestant Reformation.”

Tietz says the Arts and Entertainment Network’s choices for the most influential people of the past millennium includes these men: Guttenberg, for his invention of the movable-type printing press that made books readily available and affordable for the first time; Isaac Newton for his work in science, physics, and astronomy; and Martin Luther, who brought religion and education to the common people and is credited for laying the foundation of democracy.

Luther’s posting of the 95 Theses was the culmination of a long, personal struggle that fermented in Luther's soul and spirit for several years, Tietz says, adding, “Martin Luther grew up in a day and age when the church pictured God as an angry, vindictive God, a God of wrath and punishment who watched over us, anxiously waiting for us to make a mistake so that God could then punish us with eternal suffering in hell. The church taught people to fear God in the worst sense of the word. And the church used that fear to control the people, to get them to submit to church and obey all the teachings and rules of the church. And the church used that fear to amass tremendous wealth and power for the Pope in Rome and for the Roman Catholic Church, which was the only church in Europe at the time.” (Tietz says the Catholic Church of Luther's day, and the Catholic Church today are very different. “When I talk about the Church of Luther's day, I am in no way comparing it to the Roman Catholic Church of today,” he says.)

Tietz relates, “As a young man, Luther decided early on that he did not want to spend all of eternity in hell and suffering, so he set out to make himself right and pleasing before God. He left a promising future in law school, took on the disciplines of becoming an Augustinian monk, continued his schooling and was ordained as a priest in the Church.”

Luther earned a Ph.D. in Bible and Theology and became a professor at the University of Wittenberg in Germany, one of the then-new and upcoming schools of the Church.

“But through all of this, Luther did not find what he wanted the most...peace with God and a sense of assurance and rest for his troubled spirit,” Tietz says. “No matter how hard he strived to do everything that a Christian was supposed to do, he realized he was still a sinner. And since God punishes sinners, he was taught, he could only see himself as condemned before God…I suppose Luther was simply more honest with himself than most of us are today. We tend to belittle and minimize our sins, as if they make no difference to God…Luther saw his sin for what it really was – that which separated him from God.”

One day, as Luther prepared lectures on Paul’s letter to the Romans, he read Romans 3, a passage he had surely read many times.

“But this time as he read it, his eyes were opened, the light came on!” Tietz says. “As Luther describes it, ‘It was as though the gates of heaven were opened to me!’”

Here are excerpts from Romans 3:19-28: “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight…(But repentant and believing sinners are) justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus...Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.”

“Can it be any clearer that that?” Tietz asks. “And yet today there are many, many Christians in Lutheran Churches and in all kinds of other churches who believe Jesus is the Son of God and that God raised him from death...but still continue to doubt, to wonder if they really are saved, who think that their salvation still depends on how good they are and how closely they obey the law and live by all the rules…God desires very deeply that we stay close to God and live lives of honesty, integrity, and obedience to God’s will. But how we live doesn’t save us. Jesus Christ saves us! That’s the Gospel…We are saved by the grace of God through faith and trust in Jesus Christ.”

Should a Christian Vote?

2010-10-16T08:53:00.000-07:00

by Steve Crain

If Jesus walked the earth in bodily form, today, and was a U.S. citizen, would he vote in the upcoming elections?

I believe he would.

I heard recently that an estimated 65 million adult Evangelicals live in the U.S., but only 35 million of them are registered to vote. And of those Evangelicals who are registered, only half will likely turn out to vote in the November elections.

Jesus’ “real kingdom” is “not of this world,” but those who believe in him ought to help improve America by voting and participating in a government that’s still, as far as I know, “of the people, by the people and for the people.”

Jesus preached that “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people,” and he promoted (and still promotes) good stewardship, which means taking care of talents, wealth and privileges we possess. Participating in government by voting is a privilege Jesus never got to enjoy during the time between his birth in Bethlehem and his crucifixion at Calvary.

Jesus spoke powerfully about a person’s relationship to government when critics asked him about paying taxes to Rome.

“Tell us, is it right to pay taxes to the Roman government or not?” some disciples of the Pharisees asked Jesus (pardon my paraphrasing).

“You hypocrites!” Jesus said. He asked them to show him some money.

“Whose image and signature is on this coin?” Jesus asked.

“Caesar’s,” they replied.

“Then pay Caesar what is Caesar’s, and give God what belongs to God,” Jesus said (Matthew 22:21).

Some pastors say that direct-from-Jesus command indicates people desiring to follow God should also attempt to be good citizens by participating in the privileges and obligations of government. Could we be shirking part of our God-endorsed duties by staying away from voting booths?

Asked about the ethics of voting, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee said, “Part of being a citizen in a society like ours, where we have the privilege of voting, is the responsibility to exercise that privilege. To not do so is to sort of forego that part of what it means to be in a free society, and I think it would be unfortunate.”
Some religious folk may believe voting in an election is a “worldly” activity. An old gospel song contains these words: “This world is not my home; I’m just a-passing through….”

We’re all “just passing through,” but we shouldn’t neglect our temporal tasks and duties, while we pray, “Our Father, who art in heaven…Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.”

Remember the Good Samaritan? Jesus told this story: Robbers beat a traveler, stripped him and left him for dead. A priest saw the injured man but passed by on the other side of the road. Then a Levite passed by on the other side. Levites were reportedly dedicated to God. Maybe the Levite in this story had religious things to do and could spare no time to help a bloody mess-of-a-man lying on the side of a road.

“But a certain traveling Samaritan came upon the wounded man,” Jesus said, “and when he saw him, he felt compassion.”

(Samaritans were mostly despised and considered “low class” by priests and Levites.)

The Samaritan bandaged the man’s wounds, “put him on his own beast,” carried him to an inn, took care of him and left money with the innkeeper for the man’s further care.

Our American culture is being beaten and bloodied by secular humanism, atheism, socialism and “do your own thing”-ism. Proponents of such philosophies ignore God’s Word as they march toward destruction. Some say God is already judging America.

Let’s not long for the sweet-by-and-by and refuse to deal with, as someone called it, “the nasty now and now.” Let’s feel compassion for our country and help bind up its wounds.

I believe Jesus would vote in our elections if he walked among us, today, in his earthly body, and was a U.S. citizen. I believe he would vote for candidates who support Christian values. I believe we should, too.

Affair-Proof Your Marrriage

2010-09-25T08:38:00.000-07:00

By Steve Crain

Pastor Randy Thornton, 52, spoke recently on “How to Affair-Proof Your Marriage: First Loves Need Second Chances” at Grace Church in Southern Pines, N.C.

“We have a lot of people in different stages (of life), and we want to address staying morally pure,” said Thornton, Grace’s senior pastor.

He married Sarah in 1980 and took her to see some places where avalanches had occurred in Colorado, his home state. He noticed his wife, from the Sandhills of N.C., shied away from some of his beloved high-altitude scenery. He asked what was wrong. Sarah said, “Randy, there are no guard rails. We could die!”

“People in marriage are being taken down by avalanches, because there are no guardrails,” Thornton said. “They find themselves in wrong relationships – either emotionally or physically.”

He said trouble brews and deception reigns when one steps out from under the “umbrella of authority” and that rebellion is “as the sin of witchcraft” (1 Samuel 15:23 NIV: “For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry…).

“There are people in this room who are close to the guardrails, maybe even close to going over,” he said. “It’s best to be under authority where God can bless.”

He warned of “the sins of the fathers,” saying, “What a parent does in moderation, a child will do in excess.” He said it’s better to stick with a difficult marriage and work at it, so the children have a chance at success in life. “Who suffers in an adulterous affair? It’s the children. Marriage is crumbling, and it’s what holds this society together.”

“Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral” (Hebrews 13:4 NIV).

“I could tell, as a pastor, hundreds of stories of betrayal,” he said. “If emotional needs are met outside of marriage, physical needs are not far behind. There are no reasons anyone should have an affair, but some people do.”

He gave 15 ways to affair-proof your marriage:

1. Make your relationship with God your top priority in life.

2. Make your relationship with your spouse your top priority outside of your relationship with God.

3. Nurture the emotional intimacy in your marriage.

4. Show appreciation on a regular basis.

5. Spend time together doing fun things and just “hanging out.”

6. Keep your intimate sexual life passionate and active.

7. Discuss and resolve issues as they come up. “…In your anger do not sin: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold” (Ephesians 4:25-27).

8. Share your goals for the present and the future; support each other’s goals.

9. Talk about the problem of infidelity and know that it can strike any marriage.

10. Make wise decisions about contacts with the opposite sex at work and other settings, including church. Reportedly, 18-year-old men think of sex every 32 seconds. “If men are subject to sexual desires, let me challenge ladies to not come to church in sexual array,” Thornton said. “Dress in a way that ‘puts on the Lord Jesus Christ.’” Be careful with workplace relationships and avoid casual hugs and kisses. He warned of inappropriate Internet relationships, which begin with emotional attachments for “cyber-space soul mates.” He said, “They are becoming an increasing problem. Infidelity does not always include sex. Don’t play with fire. Don’t get close to the
guardrails. Who’s going to pay the price? The children and the children’s children.”

11. Evaluate your vulnerabilities.

12. Watch for three danger signals that you’ve crossed the line: emotional intimacy, sexual tension and secrecy.

13. Establish boundaries.

14. Have a sense of honor and duty.

15. WWJD? – What Would Jesus Do? Jesus said, “Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41).

“Witnessing to your high school girl friend is no good,” Thornton said. “Have your wife witness to her, or call a pastor in her city. What would Jesus do? He’d pray and ask God to give him strength!”

Shoplifting at Walmart

2010-09-18T09:15:00.000-07:00

by Steve Crain

Magalene works at the carpet manufacturing company where I work. She says her daughter, 24, is employed at Walmart and sees people try to shoplift. Magalene’s story about wickedness at Walmart goes like this:

“My daughter was checking receipts as people went out the door,” Magalene says, “and a girl she knew came up with a computer in a buggy. My daughter asked for her receipt, and the girl said the clerk didn’t give her one. My daughter said, ‘I have to see a receipt.’ Come to find out, the girl was trying to steal that computer.”

Magalene says she warned her daughter about a family who once attended the church Magalene attends, saying, “If you see any of them in your store, you watch ’em, ’cause they steal.”

Magalene says Walmart has surveillance cameras inside and outside.

“A man and a little boy came into the store and went separate ways,” she says. “The boy got liquid dishwashing detergent and began sloshing it down an aisle. The man came and slid down on that detergent. He was lying there saying he was going to sue the store. They found out on the video that him and that boy came in together.”

She says one Walmart cashier pushed a buggy holding a flat-screen TV through an employee entrance at the rear of the store. Somebody was waiting outside to run with that TV. Weeks later, Magalene’s daughter saw that cashier leave the store in police handcuffs.

“One woman faked an asthma attack, so another woman could try to get out the door with some goods,” Magalene says. “And my daughter says people try to bring things back to the store for refunds, and some of that stuff looks like it is 15 years old, and some of it didn’t even come from Walmart. One woman said she was going to sue the store if they didn’t take back the things she brought in.”

Professional shoplifters and Walmart’s own employees reportedly inflict the greatest shoplifting damage to Walmart.

We may become incensed that sticky-fingered folk ignore the commandment “Thou shalt not steal.” Their crimes are evident, but could some of us, at times, be thieves of a different sort?

“For most of us, the idea of one man stealing from another man is offensive to the point of being repulsive,” says writer Paul Meacham, Jr. “But, to steal from God, how could anyone do such a thing? Yet, that is exactly the charge God leveled against Israel through the prophet Malachi.”

“Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me” (Malachi 3:8).

“They had robbed God by not bringing the offerings and sacrifices He required,” Meacham says. “Can a man steal from God today? Certainly. When one withholds from God what is rightfully His, he is guilty of robbing God.”

Meacham says a man “robs God” when he doesn’t give God some of his income and also robs God when he gives God his sorrow but not his service. God requires more of us than just to trust Him in times of sorrow, Meacham says, adding, “Everyone can honor God with faithful, respectful service. Such is required by God and is a sign of our freedom from sin.”

Jesus said, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me” (Luke 9:23).

A person robs God when he gives God his fear but not his faithfulness, Meacham says. “If we turn to God to help us overcome our fear and fail to serve Him faithfully, we are robbing God of that which is rightfully His,” he notes.

If I try to shoplift at Walmart, I may get caught and taken away in handcuffs. If I attempt to get a “five-finger discount” on merchandise at Wally-World, my arrest may become public knowledge. Robbing God of money and of my service and faithfulness may not result in immediate consequences. He usually doesn’t set off an alarm or dispatch law enforcement officers to throw me to the ground and cuff me. No, God gives me freedom to choose blessing or cursing.

“Ye are cursed with a curse; for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it” (Malachi 3:9-10).

Judgment at New River

2010-09-05T16:27:00.000-07:00

by Steve Crain

Summers ago when my daughters and I rafted on the New River near Beckley, West Virginia, I mentally criticized one of our guides for something he said. Days later, I realized we were sort of “in the same boat.”

My wife isn’t an outdoor person, so when our two daughters took breaks from college and high school one summer, I arranged for three-fourths of our family to try white-water rafting in West Virginia.

The three of us drove to a Beckley motel, rose early the next day and rode a bus from a ticket-buying station to the river. We donned life vests and helmets and met two other adventurers (a young man and his wife) who manned the center of our inflatable craft. Two young male guides rode the raft’s rear, and I sat behind my daughters, who planted themselves in the raft’s bow.

We paddled peacefully after entering that old and deep river at a still-water section. I admired mountain scenery and noticed railroad tracks laid along steep banks.

Numerous folksingers have crooned “I’m riding that New River train.” Those words come from “New River Train,” a song that originated, I understand, in The New River Gorge region, which produced lots of coal through the early 1900s.

Before encountering rocky, white water rapids, we enjoyed tranquil passage and listened to our main guide, a dark-haired West Virginia native, recite river facts.
During a silence, I observed a Whitetail doe pause perhaps a hundred yards ahead and to our right, enter the river and begin swimming across.

“How beautiful,” I thought. Words from one of my favorite worship choruses came to mind: “As the deer panteth for the water, so my soul longeth after Thee…” (Psalm 42:1).

I felt the doe’s entry into our idyllic scene provided icing on the cake for our near-Garden of Eden experience. Her timely appearance added flourish to an already-special display of God’s panorama. I felt thankful to be with my daughters and awed by the river and mountains.

“Look at the deer,” someone said.

From the back of the raft, our main guide, speaking in his best macho-drawl, said, “That’d sure look good in my freezer.”

“Crude!” I thought, wondering how anyone could see a lovely doe swimming a picturesque river framed by take-your-breath-away mountains and think only of appetite. How could he view such a creature and think first of his belly? His bull-in-a-China shop, caveman commentary offended me. I said nothing but judged him to be a man who mostly lived life on a physical level.

For days after our excursion, I thought about our guide’s distasteful reaction. Then, as I reveled in self-righteousness, this thought—like a heaven-born bubble ascending from the murky bottom of a deep subconscious river—floated to the surface of my mind: “How many times have you looked at person of the opposite sex and had less than spiritual thoughts?”

My puffed-up, highly inflated raft of self-righteousness struck upon the rock of that question and—swoosh!—lost all air.

This analogy hit me: a deer crosses a river, and a hunter says, “That’d look good in my freezer”; a graceful lady crosses a street, and some man muses….”

I’d fallen into the trap of thinking myself more spiritual than our deer-hunting guide, when I hadn’t shared his temptation. I hadn’t looked at that deer as dinner. I wasn’t a hunter. However, I have faced various temptations involving anger, strife, intemperance, lust and idolatry, and my initial responses to thoughts concerning “works of the flesh” haven’t always been good.

Someone said, “Temptation, unlike opportunity, doesn’t knock - it tries to kick the door in.”

No one has to search long in the trash heap of his own fallen nature to find something that puts him on a level playing field with the rest of mankind.

I believe God constantly attempts to show each of us our personal, burdensome sins - not to condemn us, but to show us we need to confess our sins and find relief by accepting his offer of forgiveness through Christ.

I believe there’s hope for the crudest of sinners. And for would-be super-sojourners, who try to think mystical thoughts while navigating life’s deep rivers, who desire to hold high “the light” and help other travelers, there is also hope - because God can even forgive self-righteousness that tends, at times, to rise in religious hearts.

The Perils of 'Wannabe Cool' Christianity

2010-09-03T04:04:00.001-07:00

by Steve Crain

Writer Brett McCracken says many pastors and leaders are concerned about young people leaving American churches, never to return.

On August 13, 2010, a McCracken article about “wannabe cool Christianity” was published in the “Opinion Journal” of “The Wall Street Journal.” His book “Hipster Christianity: Where Church and Cool Collide” was published in August 2010.

McCracken writes, “As a 27-year-old evangelical myself, I understand the concern. My peers, many of whom grew up in the church, are losing interest in the Christian establishment.”

He says statistics show an exodus of young people from churches, especially after they leave home and live on their own. In a 2007 study, Lifeway Research determined that 70 percent of young Protestant adults between 18-22 stop attending church regularly.

McCracken says the plan to keep youth in church “has taken the form of a total image overhaul, where efforts are made to rebrand Christianity as hip, countercultural, relevant.”

“As a result, in the early 2000s, we got something called ‘the emerging church’ – a sort of postmodern stab at an evangelical reform movement,” he says. “Perhaps because it was too ‘let's rethink everything’ radical, it fizzled quickly. But the impulse behind it – to rehabilitate Christianity’s image and make it ‘cool’ – remains.”

McCracken says “Wannabe cool” Christianity can manifest itself as an obsession with being on the technological cutting edge. Churches like Central Christian in Las Vegas and Liquid Church in New Brunswick, N.J., have online church services where people can have a worship experience at an “iCampus.” Other churches encourage texting, Twitter and iPhone interaction with the pastor during services. But one of the most popular methods of making Christianity hip is to make it shocking, McCracken says.

Dan Burrell of Lake Lure, N.C., writes about “cool churches” on his danburrell.com blog: “Having just moved, I am looking for a new church…Sadly, I ended up in such a church today. I knew I was in trouble when the opening song was – I kid you not – ‘Sweet Home Alabama.’ I almost left…this type of church has become exactly what they claim to hate in the church of their ‘fathers.’ It is extremely cliché, focused on a single generation, lost in a world of their own creation and mistakenly thinking that they are somehow relevant…The last church I attended…had a wonderful grasp on multi-cultural and multi-generational ministry with blended worship, a wide range of dress styles…creative outreaches, etc....but the ONE THING on which there was zero compromise was the clear, expositional preaching of the Scripture…Sadly, churches such as that are difficult to find and often drowned out by those on the far fight and far left who keep telling us that the other is out of touch or simply wrong.”

In the book, “The Courage to Be Protestant,” David Wells writes, “The born-again, marketing church has calculated that unless it makes deep, serious cultural adaptations, it will go out of business, especially with the younger generations. What it has not considered carefully enough is that it may well be putting itself out of business with God. And the further irony is that the younger generations who are less impressed by whiz-bang technology, who often see through what is slick and glitzy, and who have been on the receiving end of enough marketing to nauseate them, are as likely to walk away from these oh-so-relevant churches as to walk into them.”

If evangelical Christian leadership thinks that “cool Christianity” is a sustainable path forward, they are severely mistaken, McCracken says, adding, “As a twenty-something, I can say with confidence that when it comes to church, we don't want cool as much as we want real. If we are interested in Christianity in any sort of serious way, it is not because it’s easy or trendy or popular. It’s because Jesus himself is appealing, and what he says rings true. It’s because the world we inhabit is utterly phony, ephemeral, narcissistic, image-obsessed and sex-drenched – and we want an alternative. It’s not because we want more of the same.”

Little Stuffed Bear

2010-08-07T07:05:00.000-07:00

It’s a Saturday morning here in Southern Pines, N.C., and I’m typing this article while sitting in my workroom.

At the table in our nearby kitchen sit three ladies: my wife, Carol; Barbra Eschmann; and Linda Martin. Barb and Linda go to Grace Church in Southern Pines, the church Carol and I attend. Carol and Barb are retired, and Linda works part-time as a secretary at our church.

Carol is conducting an “envelope hugs” workshop, giving the ladies ideas about reaching out with the love of Christ to people through writing letters and cards. Carol calls the things she sends through the U.S. Mail “Envelope Hugs.”

Carol is sharing quotes and giving Barb and Linda some samples from her stash of stationery. She’s encouraging the ladies to write to friends and to strangers they may meet, hear about or read about. She’s telling them about people she’s written to and recounting stories about folk who responded to her outreach. She’s letting them know everyone won’t respond, and that they should not let that discourage them. The idea is to reach out, to sort of “Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it (it will return) after many days” (Ecclesiastes 11:1). “The Message Bible” interprets that verse as “Be generous: Invest in acts of charity. Charity yields high returns.”

A few minutes ago, I walked to the kitchen, poured some diet lemonade and snatched a cookie from those Carol bought for the ladies. I saw Barb holding my “teddy bear.” Carol had shown it to the ladies and told them about its background. The little “play purty,” as my Grandmother Lillian (“Ma Crain”) called such things, isn’t really a teddy bear. He’s only five inches tall, including his ears, and he’s flat, with just enough stuffing to make him three-dimensional. He’s made of teal-colored cloth, and stitchery indicates his eyes, nose and mouth. He’s stained and soiled, but he’s still smiling.

I often rode as a child with my paternal grandparents on their Saturday “milk and butter” delivery route into Greenville, S.C. Pa, who worked as a carpenter, and Ma, who never worked at a “public job,” owned one cow at a time and sold fresh milk and butter to about five or six customers in the “big city.” Two elderly sisters on our route lived together in a small white house. They gave me the little stuffed bear when I was around five years old. He somehow survived 58 years, and Carol keeps him sitting in a tiny rocking chair in our kitchen. I can still “see” the two elderly ladies who gave me that bear.

Barb asked to borrow my bear so she could make a pattern. She said she wants to cut, sew and stuff some bears to send through the mail. She said he’s flat enough to send in an envelope. Carol and Linda thought that was a great idea.

Strange, I thought, how two gray-haired ladies who usually wore their hair in buns and were often attired in simple print dresses could reach down through the years with a little act of kindness. Perhaps the story may be told this way: Two elderly ladies give a small stuffed bear to a boy who visits them with his grandparents. The boy plays with the bear and often, throughout his lifetime, remembers the ladies and their smiles. During the boy’s autumn years, a white-haired lady visits his home to hear his wife talk about sending letters of encouragement. The visiting lady sees the little bear and decides to make a pattern of him, so she can send bears to brighten lives.

Strange, how kindness has a way of multiplying. Strange, that concept of “casting your bread upon the waters.”

One of my favorite Bible verses is “He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions” (Psalm 107:20). I think of that verse when I see letters Carol sends. She often lays her letters and cards in a blue chair in our living room, and I take them to our mailbox before I leave for work. God sent Jesus, the Word made flesh, to heal us from the penalty of sin, and as we use our words to present Jesus’ words, we become agents of healing, too. We become, in the words of an old song, “His hands extended.”

It’s Saturday morning, and Carol, Barbra and Linda are having a great time talking about ways to reach out to people through “envelope hugs.” They seem ready to “cast their bread upon the waters” – and Barb may even cast a few stuffed bears upon those “waters.”

Owing and Not Knowing

2010-07-24T08:19:00.000-07:00

After dining recently at the Southern Thymes Café in downtown Greer, S.C., I did a bad thing, and Uncle Fred had to “make things right.”

My wife, Carol, did not travel with me, so I drove alone from our home in Southern Pines, N.C., on Saturday, July 17, 2010, and stayed in Greer at the home of my Aunt Frances and Uncle Fred Crain. I spoke the next day at Faith Temple Church of Taylors, S.C. The church’s pastor, the Rev. Raymond D. Burrows, said to me, “Take your liberty,” as he introduced me as a guest speaker. I grew up attending Faith Temple. Aunt Frances and Uncle Fred are charter members there.

Carol and I have two children, Janelle and Suzanne. Janelle, our older daughter, and her husband live in Taylors. She attended the Sunday service with us and prepared to travel with me to N.C. on Monday for a visit. I needed to return to work at Gulistan Carpet on Tuesday.

On Monday, Aunt, Uncle, Janelle and I enjoyed lunch at the Southern Thymes Café. I ordered country-fried steak, “tater salad,” turnip greens and peach cobbler. Good eatin’. Our waitress placed two “guest tickets” on our table. I grabbed them and argued with Uncle Fred.

“Give me them,” he said.

“No, I’m paying,” I said. “You paid Saturday.”

I stuck the tickets in my shirt pocket, laid down a $6.00 tip, finished eating and snapped some photos. On the way out, I saw friends and talked for a few minutes. Standing on the sidewalk in front of the café, I made more pictures.

Janelle and I stopped at a convenience store in McAdenville, N.C., near Charlotte. I entered the store and noticed something in my shirt pocket. I pulled out two “guest tickets.”

“Oh, no!” I thought. I showed Janelle the tickets and asked, “Would you mind paying these?”

She looked at the tickets, and her mouth dropped open.
“Woo-eee!” she said.

I called Uncle Fred. He said he had noticed our waitress standing at the cash register as we left the café, but he thought I had paid. He went the next day and paid the nearly $24.00 owed. He apologized to the waitress who served us. She told him, “At least there are some honest people.”

I had driven from Greer to McAdenville and was unaware of my guilt that whole time.

Perhaps you are a person who is unaware of an unpaid bill you owe. That bill is the “sin debt.” Perhaps you go day to day, thinking you are okay, believing your good deeds outweigh bad deeds you have done. Maybe you compare yourself to others, and, in your estimation, come out “looking pretty good.” That kind of thinking is based on the idea that people get to heaven because of “good deeds.” That kind of thinking is wrong, according to the Bible. There is a debt you owe, a debt you cannot pay.

The Bible lays out the story of man’s predicament. Because of “original sin,” no one can enter heaven. “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). “Sin” is defined as “missing the mark.” What mark? God’s “mark,” or target, is complete holiness. He is holy, and nothing unholy can find a home in heaven. We humans have missed God’s target or “mark” – and we were born unaware of that fact. We were born with “original sin.” Original Sin is the genetic defect we all inherited from Adam and Eve. Through this defect, we inherited death – both physical and spiritual – and were separated from God. Through Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection (he paid our sin-debt), we have the avenue by which to conquer the genetic “sin and death” defect and be reconnected eternally to God.

“For the wages (the payoff) of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life…He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:16-18).

If you have not trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, you are walking around with a “sin-debt ticket in your pocket.” Perhaps you were unaware you owed such an incredible debt. Today, ask Jesus take care of it for you. He will.

Hilda the Encourager

2010-07-16T04:29:00.000-07:00

Hilda Gerald, who died in Pinehurst, N.C., at age 94 in 1990, had a reputation – one that is now carved in stone.

Some of Hilda’s friends and family felt she had not been given a proper headstone when she passed on, so ten years after her death, they purchased one, had it installed and gathered at her gravesite in West End, N.C., to honor her.

Carved on her tombstone are these words: “Hilda S. Gerald, Encourager of Missionaries.” Along with the names of Hilda and her late husband, Jack Gerald, a horse trainer who died in 1976, the stone features a special design on its right side – six cascading mailing envelopes.

“Hilda came to our church, Sandhills Assembly (in Southern Pines, N.C.) about 1978 when she was 82,” says Miriam Jones of Pinehurst (Miriam was born in 1914.) “Hilda began a ministry of encouraging our missionaries all over the world.”

Jones says Hilda, who was born in Sweden in 1896, asked her daughter, Inge Marra of Brooklyn, N.Y., to design a special birthday card – one Hilda could send to each member of Assembly of God missionary families.

Kay Beard, former secretary at Sandhills Assembly, estimates that white-haired Hilda sent 200 cards each month.

“She was quaint and had such joy,” Beard says. “Many missionaries communicated their sadness at her passing.”

“The stamps for these cards and letters were too much for her budget,” Jones says, “so she sold her crafts and advertised her need wherever appropriate. She always wanted beautiful stamps.”

Jones says a young man who moved away from the Sandhills once returned to visit Hilda and introduced her to a fellow traveling with him.

“As usual, Hilda mentioned her ministry of writing to missionaries,” Jones says. “She told them her next purchase of stamps would cost $24.25. As the men left, they each gave her $10. Hilda received the gifts with thanks and held out her hand, saying with her Swedish accent, ‘And four dollars and 25 cents, please.’”

Jones laughs, adding, “She got it!”

Jones says when Hilda “fasted,” she did not stop eating because of a heart condition, but she would “fast” her knitting, crocheting and craft-making – activities she automatically busied herself with when there was a quiet moment.

Hilda’s father was a Swede who married an Englishwoman.

“He was a ‘tailor to gentlemen,’” says Jones, recalling Hilda’s stories about her younger years. “Hilda said she wanted a doll when she was about four years old. She made one, and when her father saw it, he told her mother, ‘That one will get along all right. No need to worry about her.’”

Jones recalls Hilda, who worked many yeas as a chef, saying she became a Christian at a Salvation Army meeting before she married “Dave” and came to America at age 17.

Hilda and her sister, Vera Jacobson, who predeceased Hilda, would walk two miles to Garner’s Lake to swim, says Evelyn Garrison of Pinehurst.

“They must have been in their eighties,” Garrison says. “Hilda kept trim and had an appealing glow. She renewed her license at 85 and drove her old blue Malibu.”

Garrison says Hilda used crayons and watercolors to decorate the cards she sent to missionaries, and when she lacked money for stamps, she’d say, “Oh, they’ll come. I’ll get it. God will provide.”

“She was not one who cared for material things,” Garrison says. “She often quoted Jeremiah 33:3: ‘Call unto me, and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.’

“We who knew her saw her simple lifestyle and saw the abundant life that came from her faith in God. She was a fountain of inspiration for all of us.”

Now “Hilda Gerald, Encourager of Missionaries” is engraved on her tombstone, and on the right side of that stone are six carved images of envelopes, designed so they overlap each other and cascade downward, as if falling from a mailbag.

“No matter what circumstances life may present, we all have unique experiences, abilities, and God-given talents,” says writer Steve Brunkhorst. “We can discover ways to reach others who desperately need messages of encouragement and strength.”

America and God - Gloom or 'Not to Worry'?

2010-07-09T09:25:00.000-07:00

By Steve Crain

Before and during recent July 4 Independence Day celebrations, I heard many people express concerns about what lies ahead for America.

Elaine Huttenstine of Greer, S.C., wrote the following prayer and e-mailed it to me on July 2, 2010:

“Dear Heavenly Father, We come to You in the precious name of Jesus, thanking You and praising You for America and all the blessings You have poured out on us as a nation. We thank You for our forefathers who looked to You for guidance; who established this nation on principles found in Your Holy Word. Forgive us for straying so far away from You. We have become prideful, acting as if we have made this country great. We have forgotten that we are nothing without You. We deserve punishment, but we beg for Your mercy. Please hear our prayer, forgive our sins, and heal our land. In the name of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.”

Tempe Brown, a Christian speaker-writer who lives in Greenville, S.C., recently posted this message on “Facebook”:

“Even though many in our nation have turned their backs on God, this nation is still under His grace. We have been Jesus to the world. We have fed the hungry; we’ve drilled wells for clean water, sent doctors to heal the sick, sent the gospel around the world and shed our blood so that others can be free. We’ve loved our enemies and have tried to bring peace wherever we’ve gone. I’m weary of hearing that this nation is doomed. We have sown enough blood, gospel and God’s love to reap a harvest greater than that! I’m proud to be an American and pray that those in office will not bring her down.”

Dr. Charles Stanley of “in Touch Ministries” says the U.S. now provides 85 percent of the financial support for Christian missionary work done throughout the world. Yet, we sense a “slip-sliding away” going on in U.S. culture, and we pray for Christian revival.

Dr. Stanley posted this article titled “A Nation Gone Astray – Isaiah 59” on July 5, 2010:

“The principle of sowing and reaping applies not only to individuals but also to nations. A country that ignores or rejects God and His Word will suffer the consequences…Though Israel had once honored the Lord, it went astray during the days of the prophet Isaiah and suffered the dire results….

“When a nation begins ignoring biblical commands and principles, truth becomes relative as false philosophies and “liberated thinking” take root. Leaders tend to consider themselves advanced and intellectual, but in reality, if they are separated from God, their thinking is foolish and their understanding darkened (Eph. 4:17-18).

“A society always behaves according to its belief system, so the inevitable result of skewed thinking is sin. Once sin becomes acceptable in the eyes of the people, sensuality and self-gratification dominate as restraint is lifted. The baser nature of man emerges in the form of immorality, greed, and violence. Injustice reaches its peak when laws permit the killing of the most helpless and innocent of all its citizens – unborn children. Even if the majority of citizens disapprove of the injustice and immorality, unless they act, that nation will continue its downward spiral into depravity.

“Our ultimate hope, of course, is in our coming King who will reign on earth with righteousness and justice. But the church must still awaken to its responsibility to be salt and light in a depraved world. Each generation is called to be alert and active during its appointed time on this earth.”

The Rev. Randy Thornton recently provided these age-group statistics for Bible-believers in the U.S.: Of “Builders” (people born between 1927 and 1945), 65 percent identify as Bible-believing Christians. Of “Boomers” (born 1946-1964), 35 percent identify as believers. Of “Busters” (born 1965-1983), 16 percent identify. Of “Bridgers” (born 1984-present), only four percent identify as Bible-believing Christians.

“If current trends hold true, only four percent of the millennial generation will be evangelical,” Thornton said. “Eighty-five percent of people who come to Christ make that decision before the age of 20...I believe there is something going to happen that will open the door of the Gospel in an unprecedented way…God has called us to our cities and our communities.”

“Then said I unto them, ‘Ye see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lieth waste, and the gates thereof are burned with fire: come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach’” (Nehemiah 2:17).

The Best Thing You Can Do for America

2010-07-03T09:16:00.000-07:00

By Steve Crain

Immediately after taking the oath of office to become President of the United States, John F. Kennedy said in his inaugural speech on January 20, 1961:

“The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe – the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God….

“Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty….

“And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.”

He ended his speech with these words: “Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you. With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God’s work must truly be our own.”

President Kennedy’s famous line, “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country,” has been repeated often.

So, what is the best thing an American Christian can do for America?

I believe that living for Christ, spreading the Gospel (by words and deeds) and praying for individuals, our country and the world is the best thing a U.S. citizen can do for his country.

Writer Robin Calamaio says there is one God who is “the same yesterday, today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).

“The Bible does not have an Old Testament God…and a New Testament God,” she says, noting that the Bible has plenty of information about God’s dealing with nations. “He speaks of their formation, life-span – and demise. But God, in a present grace and power, still addresses the nations – granting promises…and issuing warnings. As believers, we know that disaster is waiting at the end of unheeded warnings.”

“The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God” (Psalm 9:17).

Calamaio writes, “Nations that reject the dominion of the living Creator will be aborted by Him. The God of the Old Testament is alive and well. He always has been.”

She says “power positions” belong mostly to non-Christians, but even if believers filled those positions, leaders can only control a small part of human activity. Attempting to morally contain people is like trying to herd cats, she notes.

While “our citizenship (“conversation” is the word used by the KJV in Philippians 3:20) is in heaven,” our lives in our current society are very real, she says. “Family is real – and so are our friends, co-workers and fellow countrymen.”

Though many Christians believe the “end times” are near or already here, we must not give up and wait for the rapture of the Church and neglect filling our Christian roles in society.

Calamaio writes, “When the Israelites were exiled to Babylon, God told them to ‘seek the welfare (peace) of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on his behalf; for in its welfare you will have welfare’” (Jeremiah 29:7). There are two directives here. First, benefit that society by doing positive things. Second, pray for that society. Could it be that God directs us in the same vein toward our native country?”

St. Paul tells us, “I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior; who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:1-4).

What can we do to best help our country?

I believe the greatest contribution we can make to help our nation is this: Live for Jesus Christ, spread the Gospel, pray for individuals, pray for leaders, and pray for our country and the world.

Are All Things Working Together for Good?

2010-06-26T11:14:00.000-07:00

By Steve Crain

I listened to my car radio on a recent morning and heard a transmitted voice say words like these:

“‘All things work together for good to them who love God....’ Does this promise include tragedy and disasters? It’s easy to see God’s hand when blessings are flowing. It’s tougher when all we sense is bad news.”

The voice was that of Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer, author of over 30 books, including “Hitler’s Cross” and “Oprah, Miracles, and the New Earth.” Born in Canada in 1941, Lutzer serves as senior pastor of Moody Church in Chicago, Illinois. I often hear most of his 15-minute “Running to Win” broadcast while driving to work in Aberdeen, N.C.

Lutzer said two men in his church engaged in extramarital affairs but now want to renew relationships with their wives. He asked his radio audience if “all things were working together for good” for those men. He heard those men cry out to God at a prayer meeting after they proved unfaithful to their wedding vows, he noted, adding that God didn’t cause the men to sin but would use their sins to shape their repentant hearts.

Lutzer also said God allows people to get cancer. I thought about the verse he quoted: “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28, KJV).

The Amplified Bible renders that verse this way: “We are assured and know that (God being a partner in their labor) all things work together and are (fitting into a plan) for good to and for those who love God and are called according to (His) design and purpose.”

I’ve heard people say, “All things work together for good,” and leave off the rest of that verse. All things do not work together for good for folk who fail to get under the “umbrella of God’s grace.” If someone dies before placing faith in Christ, his future will be horrible, according to the Bible.

“The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 13:41-42).

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:16-17).

Those who have not accepted Christ stand “condemned already”! “The Message Bible” offers this explanation of John 3:16-17: “This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person’s failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.”

No, all things do not work together for good for everyone. St. Paul wrote, however, that God uses things that happen in the lives of those who love him to somehow work out for overall good in the end.

What does “to them that love God” mean? Nigel Turner says that in Jesus’ teaching “loving God” implies “being unconditionally available.”

What does “to them who are the called according to his purpose” mean? “Church” in the New Testament is translated from the Greek word “ekklesia” which comes from two words: “ek” meaning “out” and “kaleo” meaning to “call.” Christians are called “to be in the world but not of the world.”

Believers sometimes suffer. Wil Pounds says, “Suffering is not always a punishment for sin. Suffering should not produce a spirit of rebellion, but a stronger faith in God. God limits Satan (Job 1:11-12), and he cannot defeat the person who trusts in God.”

During times of prosperity, persecution or pain, each Christian faces this question: Do I believe God is good, that his Word is true and that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are "the called according to his purpose"?

Honoring Fathers

2010-06-18T17:38:00.000-07:00

By Steve Crain

The first reported “Father’s Day” in the U.S. was observed on June 13, 1910, according to Wikipedia, which offers the following information:

Sonora Smart Dodd of Spokane, Washington, heard in 1909 a sermon about the newly recognized Mother’s Day while she sat in Spokane’s Central Methodist Episcopal Church. She felt fatherhood needed recognition, too, and wanted to honor fathers like her father, William Smart, a Civil War veteran who raised his family alone on a rural farm in the state of Washington after his wife died giving birth to their sixth child.

Dodd enlisted Spokane Ministerial Association help in 1909 and arranged for the celebration of fatherhood in that city. On June 19, 1910, young members of the YMCA went to church wearing roses – a red rose to honor a living father and a white rose to honor a deceased father. Dodd traveled through the city in a horse-drawn carriage, carrying gifts to shut-in fathers.

In spite of support from the YWCA and churches, Father’s Day ran the risk of disappearing from the calendar. Mother’s Day was met with enthusiasm, but Father’s Day was often met with laughter. The holiday slowly gathered attention – but for the wrong reasons. It was the target of much satire, parody and derision, including jokes from the local Spokesman-Review newspaper. Many people saw it as the first step in filling the calendar with mindless promotions.

A bill to give national recognition to the holiday was introduced in Congress in 1913. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson traveled to Spokane to speak in a Father’s Day celebration and wanted to make it official, but Congress resisted, fearing it would become commercialized. President Calvin Coolidge recommended in 1924 that the U.S. observe the day but stopped short of issuing a national proclamation. Two earlier attempts to formally recognize the holiday had been defeated by Congress. In 1957, Maine’s Senator Margaret Chase Smith wrote a proposal accusing Congress of ignoring fathers for 40 years while honoring mothers. In 1966, President Lyndon Johnson issued the first presidential proclamation honoring fathers by designating the third Sunday in June as Father’s Day. In 1972, President Richard Nixon made the day a permanent, legal and official national holiday.

Here are some quotes about fathers:

“A father is a fellow who has replaced the currency in his wallet with the snapshots of his kids,” someone said.

“My father was often angry when I was most like him,” said playwright Lillian Hellman.

American professional baseball player Harmon Killebrew said, “My father used to play with my brother and me in the yard. Mother would come out and say, “You’re tearing up the grass.” Dad would reply, “We’re not raising grass. We’re raising boys.”

“The Christian father is really an instrument in God's hand,” someone said.

“No father is perfect, except “our Father who art in heaven,” a writer noted.

While his children were still young, Robert E. Lee, a West Point graduate who later led the Confederate Army during the U.S. Civil War, reportedly went walking one morning. Snow had fallen the night before. As Lee walked, he heard faint, small footsteps behind him. Looking back, he found Custis, his little boy, walking in the tracks Lee made in the snow. The boy struggled to put his feet in the exact footprints left by his father.

“When I saw this,” Lee told a friend, “I said to myself, ‘It behooves me to walk very straight when this fellow is already following in my tracks.’”

Someone said a “Father’s Orders” are given in Deuteronomy 6:4-9: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.”

Nothing Between

2010-06-12T06:58:00.000-07:00

By Steve Crain

We sometimes let something or someone get between Christ and us, but we should let nothing come between “our souls and our Savior.”

Years ago, I met a lady in her thirties – let’s call her “Jan” – who said she had a Christian upbringing and had gone to some good meetings. She told about a special evening. Our conversation went like this:

“I was slain in the Spirit at a church one night,” Jan said.

“I’ve never had that happen to me,” I said. "What was it like?”

“A young evangelist put his hands on my head and prayed for me,” she said. “I went down on the floor. It was wonderful.”

“That must have been encouraging,” I said. “How are you doing with the Lord, now?”

“Well, I’m not where I should be,” Jan said.

“What happened?” I asked.

She paused and said, “Well, I’m in a relationship.”

She said no more about her “relationship.” I sensed she probably lived with a man who was unwilling to commit to marriage. She had let someone come between her soul and her Savior.

I wondered if Jan was “saved” but living in a “back-slidden condition.” I also wondered if she had ever really been saved. Many of us grow up knowing how to talk the talk about church and Christianity. Some of us, moved by true Holy Spirit conviction, go to altars, shed tears and make commitments, but various things happen to the seed that was sown (Mark 4:1-20).

For the converted, life is not easy. “We tend to live ‘in’ and ‘out’ of the Word,” a friend told me. Fellowship with Christ can wax and wane (strengthen and weaken). One day we we’re “walkin’ on water,” and the next day, we’re hollering, “Jesus, take the wheel!” The writer of Hebrews tells us to “lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1).

A song called “Nothing Here to Hinder Me” contains these lyrics: “Many times, I’m tossed about / Many times, I do without / Many times, my heart is burdened down with care / But I know, if I’ll stand true / That some day He’ll see me through / If I won’t let nothing here hinder me.” The chorus contains these words: “I don’t want nothing here to hinder me / For someday his blessed face I long to see / It makes no difference what the cost / Or how heavy my cross / I don’t want nothing here to hinder me.”

Daniel “purposed in his heart” that he would not “spoil’ himself by eating “the king’s meat” in Babylon. Through the Holy Spirit’s power, we can purpose to let nothing hinder our relationships with Christ.

I love the hymn “Nothing Between” by C.A. Tindley. Here are its words:

“Nothing between my soul and the Savior / Naught of this world's delusive dream / I have renounced all sinful pleasure / Jesus is mine! There’s nothing between.

“Nothing between my soul and the Savior / So that His blessed face may be seen / Nothing preventing the least of His favor / Keep the way clear! There’s nothing between.

“Nothing between, like worldly pleasure / Habits of life, though harmless they seem / Must not my heart from Him ever sever / He is my all! There’s nothing between.

“Nothing between, like pride or station / Self or friends shall not intervene / Though it may cost me much tribulation / I am resolved! There’s nothing between.

“Nothing between, e’en many hard trials / Though the whole world against me convene / Watching with prayer and much self-denial / Triumph at last, with nothing between.”

Two Soldiers, 'Taps' and a National Moment of Remembrance

2010-05-28T17:03:00.000-07:00

By Steve Crain

Almost all states celebrate Memorial Day on the last Monday in May as a remembrance for those who gave their lives in our nation’s service.

To remind Americans of Memorial Day’s meaning, the “National Moment of Remembrance” resolution was passed in December 2000. The resolution asks that at 3 p.m. on Memorial Day, Americans voluntarily pause to observe a moment of silence or listen to “Taps.”

I wrote about the National Moment of Remembrance last year and sent my missive to a few friends. One of them, Elaine Huttenstine of Greer, S.C. — we both attended Greer High School but have not seen each other since — e-mailed the following reply:

“Shortly after lunch on Memorial Day, 2004, I read in Dear Abby about the 3 p.m. moment of remembrance,” Elaine wrote. “I suggested to Russ (her husband) that I thought it would be nice if he stood on our front porch and played ‘Taps’ on his trumpet at 3 p.m. His response was that the neighbors would think he was CRAZY!!

“After thinking about it, though, he decided he wanted to do it. I called my cousin Fred, who lives less than a quarter mile from our house – our house is on a hill and so is Fred’s. I told Fred what Russ was going to do and that I thought if he and his wife Kate stood on their porch they would probably be able to hear the trumpet because the wind was blowing in their direction.

“Now you need to know some background on this.

“Fred was 86 years old at that time (he is now 91 and still going strong). Fred was a fighter pilot in WWII, shot down behind enemy lines, captured and put in a German prison camp. I’ve forgotten how long he was in prison, but I remember that Allied forces freed them just shortly before he was scheduled for execution.

“Russ served in Vietnam. He was stationed in Korea and did periodic temporary duty in Vietnam as a sniper. He and some friends formed a band and entertained the troops in areas where it was too dangerous for the USO to go.

“On that Memorial Day, just before 3 p.m., Fred and Kate drove up in our yard (this was too important to him to just stand on his porch and hope to hear the trumpet). He was wearing his cap with his military insignias on it. Fred, Kate and I stood at attention in the yard facing the porch where Russ stood and played ‘Taps.’ It was a special moment – the patriotism and the emotion were indescribable. When Russ finished, we ALL had tears in our eyes, there were no words – no one could speak. Fred shook Russ’ hand, and the look between them was something only two soldiers could share. I’m in tears now just thinking about it.”

Elaine agreed to let me use her Memorial Day memory in a column. I asked how her husband was doing. She wrote that Russ died in 2005, five days before their 30th wedding anniversary.

Let’s not forget to pause at 3 p.m. on Memorial Day for a National Moment of Remembrance.

A Mother's Love

2010-05-07T18:04:00.000-07:00

By Steve Crain

My wife, Carol, and I waited recently to hear news of a special baby’s arrival.

We watched Travis Fleming grow up. He’s the second son of Charles and Sandra Fleming of Greenville, S.C. Charles is one of my 15 first cousins on my mama’s side. He and Sandra have three sons and one daughter.

Travis – some call him Dr. Travis Fleming since he earned a PhD at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS) in Kentucky – met Jenna Rivera, a SBTS graduate who grew up in Florida, and they married. Travis, 35, serves as senior pastor of Union Avenue Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee.

Last Christmas in Greenville, Carol and I saw Travis and Jenna, who were expecting their first child.

During her pregnancy, Jenna posted on her Internet “Facebook” site an ultrasound photo showing her baby – they decided to name her “Kara” – resting inside her womb. One picture showed the baby yawning or burping. The photos were a bit cloudy, but I saw the baby’s features.

On Thursday before Mother’s Day 2010, I logged onto Travis’ Facebook site and found this message he posted around 3:00 p.m. (Central Time in Memphis): “In the birthing room with Jenna; our little Kara is coming a little early. But, all is well so far...just a few more hours and we will see her little face! God has created all things in Christ for His glory!”

Travis posted this message at about 6:00 p.m. (CT): “Hello world; little Kara weighed in at 7 lbs 2 ounces...she is doing well, and Jenna was a pro! Thank you to everyone for your prayers and thoughts....”

Jenna had Travis post this on her Facebook site: “Little Kara is here…all is well. 7 lbs and 2 ounces...Praise the Lord for a healthy, beautiful baby girl...pictures forthcoming!”

On Friday, I found a photo on Jenna’s site. That picture showed a grinning Travis standing beside a smiling Jenna who lay in a hospital bed and hugged a bundled Kara.

I looked for a poem about young parents and their baby and found this one by Barbara Burrow:

“These Are the Years”

“These are the years, the gentle years / the soft and sentimental years / when wee little fingers / reach and touch / and little eyes gaze / with wonder and trust / when you love so tenderly / and so so much / these are the gentle years.

“These are the years, the rainbow years / the quiet, walk-on-tiptoe years / the years of laughter / and smiles and sighs / when both of you watch / with misty eyes / the tiny bed / where a cherub lies / these are the rainbow years.

“These are the years, the tender years / the blissful, sweet-surrender years / when your little treasure / from above / is the soul and purpose / and center of / your plans and dreams / and dearest love / these are the tender years.”

Eric Fromm said, “The mother-child relationship is paradoxical…It requires the most intense love on the mother’s side, yet this very love must help the child grow away from the mother, and to become fully independent.”

Carol gave birth in 1973 to Janelle, our first of two daughters (Suzanne is our second). As Janelle grew, Carol wrote this song for her:

“Baby Child”

“My baby child / As you place your hand in mine / How glad I am / That I’ve put my hand in the Lord’s / For I know I can’t lead you down / All life’s many roads / And so I’ve put my / Hand in the Lord’s.

“As you get older / And you take your hand from mine / Thank God, I know / You won’t walk by yourself / As you reach out to Jesus / He’ll be reaching back to you / And you can walk hand in hand / With the Lord.

“He’ll never lead you astray / Or take you the wrong way / You’ll be safe, holding the hand / Of the Lord.”

A mother’s role is not easy, but I believe God blesses mothers who point their children to Jesus.

“Who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies…in her tongue is the law of kindness…Her children arise up, and call her blessed…” (from Proverbs 31).

Mary Lathbury and Chautaugua

2010-04-24T10:51:00.000-07:00

By Steve Crain

Mary Artemesia Lathbury used her gifts of writing and art for the Lord. She was known as the “poet laureate of Chautauqua.”

Lathbury was born in 1841 in Manchester, New York and died in East Orange, New Jersey, in 1913. A Methodist minister’s daughter, she studied art in Worcester, Massachusetts, and taught art and French at the Newbury Academy, Vermont, and in N.Y. She co-authored “Woman and Temperance; or, the Work and Workers of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union” in 1883, and contributed articles to magazines. She was associated with the Chautauqua Movement near Chautauqua, N.Y.

The word “chautauqua” is Iroquois and means “two moccasins tied together” or “jumping fish.” The word described a lake in western New York which was known by 1860 as Chautauqua Lake.

The first Chautauqua group, the New York Chautauqua Assembly, was organized in 1874 by Methodist minister John Heyl Vincent and Lewis Miller, a businessman. It met at a campsite on the shores of Chautauqua Lake. Vincent, editor of the Sunday School Journal, had begun to train Sunday school teachers in an outdoor summer school format. The gatherings grew popular. The organization later became know as the Chautauqua Institution. Vincent invited young people for study, bonfires, good meals and lodging. Christian instruction, preaching and worship were a strong part of the Chautauqua experience.

Mary Lathbury, known for her gifts for art and verse, noted that one day she heard a voice she believed was God, saying, “Remember, my child, that you have a gift of weaving fancies into verse and a gift with the pencil (art) of producing visions that come to your heart; consecrate these to Me as thoroughly as you do your inmost spirit.”

Lathbury was asked to write a song for guests to sing before each morning Bible study at the original Chautauqua Lake meeting place. She responded by writing two verses for her hymn “Break Thou the Bread of Life.” Here are her lyrics for those verses:

“Break Thou the bread of life / dear Lord, to me / As Thou didst break the loaves beside the sea / Beyond the sacred page, I seek Thee, Lord / My spirit pants for Thee, O Living Word.

“Bless Thou the truth, dear Lord, to me, to me / As Thou didst bless the bread by Galilee / Then shall all bondage cease, all fetters fall / And I shall find my peace, my all in all.”

Lathbury wrote other hymns, including “Day is Dying in the West,” a hymn often sung at the end of day at the Chautauqua, N.Y. campsite.

The Chautauqua Movement was a huge success and expanded to include not only religious and Biblical study but a range of literacy, historical, sociological, and scientific subjects. The “teachers” included personalities of the late 1800s such as Booker T. Washington and Carrie Nation. The movement brought entertainment and culture for the whole community, with speakers, teachers, musicians, entertainers, preachers and specialists of the day.

The Movement became an adult education endeavor in the U.S. and was popular in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Chautauqua assemblies spread throughout rural America until the mid-1920s. The movement’s popularity is attributed in part to the social and geographic isolation of American farming and ranching communities. People in such areas were hungry for education, culture and entertainment.

One author wrote, “The sort of mild Protestantism that has informed much of American culture was an underpinning of the Chautauqua Movement. The movement pretty much died out by the mid-1930s. Most historians cite the rise of the car culture, radio and movies as the causes. There were several other important, yet subtle, reasons for the decline. One was the sharp increase in (Christian) fundamentalism and evangelical Christianity in the 1920s; the bland non-denominationalism exhibited at most Chautauquas couldn’t accommodate these impulses. Many small independent Chautauquas became essentially camp meetings or church camps.”

America has changed much since 1874, when the first Chautauqua group began, but Mary Lathbury’s hymn “Break Thou the Bread of Life” still rings true. The Bread of Life is the spiritual food we need.

“And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst” (John 6:35).

The Fullness of Time

2010-04-09T19:46:00.000-07:00

By Steve Crain

“Spring has sprung,” as someone said, and there seems to be no holding back trees, vines, bushes and flowers as they surge with life during these early days of April 2010.

Not long ago, dogwoods, pines and sweet gums that grow in our yard in Southern Pines, N.C., stood tall and dark as powdery snow rested on their cold, gray limbs. At that time, those trees appeared deaf to any awakening call from nature. But deep inside those sedated powerful pines and hardwoods lay the potential I now see bursting forth.

As I recently drove home from work, I noticed pale-purple Wisteria blooms hanging from pines and thought of my late parents. They years ago planted a Wisteria vine at the edge of their yard in Greer, S.C. Wisteria climbs and entwines and spreads almost like kudzu, I think, and my folk’s Wisteria was hard to control. My father kept the vine from finding a tree to twine around, but that stubborn plant tried to branch out horizontally. Dad had to prune his Wisteria pretty often. I read that the world’s largest known Wisteria vine is located in Sierra Madre, California, and measures more than one acre in size and weighs 250 tons.

Wisteria is largely native to the eastern U.S. and to China, Korea and Japan. I think Wisteria appears “oriental” in the way it droops from trees, and I also associate it with old Southern plantations and white-haired, elderly, lilacs-and-lace kinds of ladies wearing dresses made of fabric dyed to match the color of Wisteria blooms.

I opened our front door the other morning at 6:30 a.m. and heard what sounded like hundreds of birds chirping and chattering. I envisioned them as feathered singers warming up for a concert that would begin at sunrise. Life seemed to pulsate from the woods surrounding our home.

I recently walked to our mailbox and saw that Carol or I had unknowingly squashed an 8-inch corn snake with one of our cars’ tires as Mr. Snake tried crossing our driveway. “Corn snakes” are non-venomous, have maize-like patterns on their bellies and are often found in cornfields.

I hope to soon see a whitetail doe with a spotted fawn grazing in our yard. I often see deer out back of our home. Whitetails tend to breed in the fall when fewer hours of daylight cause hormonal changes responsible for their breeding behavior. Therefore, the majority of fawns are born in the spring “when weather and vegetative conditions are most favorable for their survival,” according to “Whitetail Institute.”

A friend told me that if all people were taken from the world, in 50 years you wouldn’t know man had been on earth. He said nature would reclaim all land cultivated and altered by men. I don’t know about that, but nature is a powerful force, and no one can hold it back. Springtime reminds us of that.

God created the earth’s seasons:

“And God said, ‘Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years’” (Genesis 1:14).

“While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease” (Genesis 8:22).

The Apostle Paul said we sense God through his handiwork. Paul wrote, “For since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse” (Romans 1:20, NIV).

Observing the arrival of spring this year, I feel overwhelmed by God’s creation. How pitiful I would appear, if I commanded a huge oak to cease growing. I can’t hold back its leaves or the sap rising within it. If man can’t hold back the plant and animal life that bursts forth in springtime, neither will man hold back God’s plan as it unfolds in “due season” and in “the fullness of time.”

God created times and seasons, and he understands “the fullness of time.”

“But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons” (Galatians 4:4-5).

“Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: That in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him” (Ephesians 1:9-10).

The Meaning of 'Easter'

2010-04-01T17:28:00.000-07:00

By Steve Crain

The meaning of Easter is Jesus Christ’s victory over death, according to the Bible. The Internet site “allaboutJesusChrist.org” offers the following information about the word “Easter”:

The term “Easter” did not always symbolize Christ’s resurrection. The feast day of Easter was once a pagan celebration of renewal and rebirth. Held in early spring, it honored pagan Saxon goddess Eastre. When Christian missionaries converted the Saxons, the holiday, which fell around the same time as the memorial of Christ’s resurrection, was merged with the pagan celebration and became known as Easter.

I don’t how much of the following is reliable, but here is more Internet-available legendary detail about “Easter”:

Not long after the global flood (Genesis 6-9), Nimrod, a grandson of Noah, turned from following God and became a tyrannical ruler. According to the Bible, Nimrod created Babel, Nineveh, Asshur, Calla and other cities known for lifestyles promoting evil. Nimrod died, and his wife, Queen Semiramis, deified him as the Sun-god, or Life Giver. He became known as Baal, and those who followed the religion which Semiramis created in his name were called Baal worshippers. They were associated with idolatry, demon worship, human sacrifice and such.

The origin of “Easter” involves the birth of Semiramis’ illegitimate son, Tammuz. Semiramis convinced people that Tammuz was Nimrod reborn. People had looked for the promised savior (Genesis 3:15) and were persuaded by Semiramis to believe Tammuz was that savior, even that he had been supernaturally conceived. Before long, in addition to worshipping Tammuz (or Nimrod reborn), the people also worshipped Semiramis herself as the goddess of fertility. In other cultures, she has been called Ishtar, Ashtur and, yes, Easter.

The origin of Easter goes back to the springtime ritual instituted by Semiramis following the death of Tammuz, who, according to tradition, was killed by a wild boar. Legend has it that through the power of his mother’s tears, Tammuz was “resurrected” in the form of new vegetation that appeared on the earth.

In the city of Babel, people created a tower to defy God. Until that time, people on earth spoke one language. God confused their language (Genesis 11:7) to keep them from further unifying in false beliefs. As people moved to other lands, many took pagan practices with them.

The Easter Bunny and Easter eggs can be traced to practices established by Semiramis. Rabbits are prolific and have long been associated with fertility and its goddess, Ishtar. Many ancient Babylonians believed a fable about an egg that fell from heaven into the Euphrates River. Queen Astarte (another name for Ishtar or Semiramis) was “hatched” from that egg, according to fable.

For Christians, the origin of Easter is simply the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. According to Gospel accounts, Jesus Christ, the true Messiah promised in the Old Testament, was crucified and resurrected at the time of the Jewish Passover. Since that event took place, those who believe Christ is their Messiah have honored that day and often celebrated it with the traditional Passover.

As Christianity spread throughout non-Jewish nations, where Passover had not been celebrated, pagan rites of Easter (“rites of spring” traditions) assimilated into what the Christian church called “Resurrection Day.”

Easter was generally dismissed as a pagan holiday by America’s founding Puritans and was not widely observed in the U.S. until just after the Civil War.

My mother bought small dye packets and dumped their contents into coffee cups in the 1950s. My younger sister and I stained some hardboiled eggs. I held each egg in a little looped wire device and dipped each into a cup of yellow, red, blue or green colored water. The longer I held an egg underneath tinted liquid, the more pastel-colored its shell became.

I doubt that dyeing eggs and eating chocolate Easter bunnies and yellow “sugar chickens” damaged my faith in Jesus Christ. In Sunday school in the 1950s, I learned I needed Jesus as my Savior and learned to worship him and not to worship Baal, Ishtar or seasons the Lord created. At home and in church, I learned the real meaning of Easter and learned to love Jesus’ words found in Revelation 1:18: “I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.”

Palm Sunday and a Cross

2010-03-28T07:31:00.000-07:00

By Steve Crain

Palm Sunday begins Passion Week, which includes The Last Supper, Jesus’ Garden of Gethsemane experience, his crucifixion and his victory on Resurrection Sunday, or Easter.

Sources say Passion Week is so important that three of the gospel writers – Matthew, Mark and Luke – devote a full third of their contents to reporting this week, and the fourth gospel writer, John, dedicates the entire last half of his book to “the week.”

Jerusalem reportedly claimed a population of about 50,000 at the time of Jesus triumphal entry, but many had come to celebrate the Jewish Passover, and Jerusalem bulged with perhaps 150,000 people on Palm Sunday.

Here’s the paraphrased Palm Sunday story (Matthew 21:1-11, 14-17):

As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, tell him that the Lord needs them, and he will send them
right away.”

This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet: “Say to the Daughter of Zion, ‘See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey’” (Zechariah 9:9).

The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought the donkey and the colt, placed their cloaks on them, and Jesus sat on them. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees (John 12:13 tells us they “Took branches of palm trees”) and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Hosanna in the highest!”

When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?”

The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”

The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple area, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were indignant.

“Do you hear what these children are saying?” they asked him.

“Yes,” replied Jesus. “Have you never read, 'From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise’?” And he left them and went out of the city to Bethany, where he spent the night.

Jesus had true followers, but the general crowd turned on him when influenced by leaders fearful of losing Rome’s favor. Johnny Cash sang “Jesus was a Carpenter,” which contains these words: “It was on a storming Sunday when he (Jesus) rode to old Jerusalem / And the palms they cast before him / Were the crimes they laid against him.”

Writer Bill Petro says the throngs threw down garments on the pathway to cushion Jesus’ ride – an Oriental custom still observed on occasions – as well as palm fronds, the symbol of triumph and the national emblem of an independent Palestine. Jewish religious officials feared Jesus would cause the Romans to destroy the Temple and their nation. Petro says there had been a dozen uprisings in Palestine in the 100 years previous to Palm Sunday. Most of those revolts were subdued by Roman force.

John 1:11 records, “He (Jesus) came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.” The same crowds that were crying out “Hosanna” were crying out “crucify Him” five days later (Matthew 27:22-23).

I don’t want to be just a “Palm Sunday believer” – a person who’s happy to follow Jesus during good times but ready to disown the Lord when his popularity seems to fade and there are crosses to bear.

Ernest W. Blandly wrote the lyrics to “Where He Leads Me.” That old hymn contains these words: “I’ll go with Him through the waters…I’ll go with Him through the garden… I’ll go with Him to dark Calv’ry…(Refrain): Where He leads me I will follow / Where He leads me I will follow / Where He leads me I will follow / I’ll go with Him, with Him all the way.”

Beggar Images Seen through Glass

2010-03-12T18:00:00.000-08:00

By Steve Crain

No one looking for a handout seemed to stand nearby as my wife and I viewed many of Rembrandt’s etchings of beggars.

Some time ago, Carol and I inspected some of the Dutch artist’s etchings at the N.C. Museum of Art in Raleigh. An etching is produced this way: a drawing is engraved on a metal plate; ink is applied to the plate: paper is pressed against the inked plate to produce an image on the paper.

Standing alongside a few Saturday afternoon museumgoers who appeared well fed, well-cared-for and even well-to-do, I scanned small images that were framed and under glass. They were drawn by Rembrandt between 1629 and 1654 and had become part of a modern-day traveling show called “Rembrandt Van Rijn: Sordid and Sacred, The Beggars in Rembrandt’s Etchings.”

The exhibit featured 35 small prints – one was only slightly larger than two inches by two inches – from the John Villarino Collection.

I doubt that many real beggars – maybe none – saw the traveling art show. Probably no one we would classify as a beggar visited the exhibition and laid weary eyes on Rembrandt’s images of alms seekers.

I doubt that anyone working at a rescue mission or social services office said to fellow workers, “The museum is showing artwork that features beggars. Maybe we ought to take some of our clients to see that show.”

No, I don’t think anyone thought about bussing beggars to review Rembrandt’s renderings.

Dutch society of Rembrandt’s day esteemed work, thrift and self-restraint and looked down on beggars. Artist Hieronymus Bosch, a Rembrandt predecessor and fellow Dutchman, painted beggars as almost indistinguishable from his depicted demons, says writer Gary Schwartz.

Rembrandt often drew and painted pictures of poor people. Critics say he usually portrayed beggars with “sanctity and individuality.” He often used images of beggars to portray Bible characters.

Dr. John I. Durham, in his book “The Biblical Rembrandt,” presents Rembrandt’s intrigue with Christian faith.

“His first artworks were on Biblical themes, as was his last painting,” Durham says. Of Rembrandt’s known work (285-290 paintings, 300 etchings and 1380 drawings), 40 percent involve Biblical themes.

Rembrandt made many depictions of the “return” scene from Jesus’ parable about a lost, or prodigal, son who asked for his inheritance, spent it foolishly and returned to his father’s embrace (Luke, 15).

Perhaps Rembrandt saw himself as a spiritual beggar drawn to the “there but for the grace of God go I” images of street people.

Schwartz suggests that Rembrandt’s humane image of the poor and disabled may have “contributed at some time or other in the course of history to the kinder treatment of real beggars.”

As a child, I heard the thirteenth century nursery rhyme “Hark, hark, the dogs do bark; the beggars are coming to town….” I listened to Bible stories about poor people and knew funds-challenged residents who lived in my rural South Carolina community.

The first street beggar I remember seeing was an African-American man who sat on a sidewalk and leaned against a building fronting the main street in the City of Greenville, S.C. That man wore black leather “holders” to cover what was left of legs amputated close to his bulky torso. I never heard him speak when someone dropped coins into a cigar box sitting in front of his stumps.

My grandparents sold “real cow’s milk and butter” to a few Greenville city folk on Saturday mornings, and I, as a child, often accompanied them. We would make our rounds to customers and then shop at Woolworth’s and other stores. I could hardly pass that main street beggar man without thinking of this line from a poem my childhood pastor, the Rev. James H. Thompson, often quoted: “I complained I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no feet.”

As I stood in an art museum and viewed Rembrandt’s centuries-old images of beggars, I wondered how many of us prefer to see poverty artistically interpreted and viewed through glass – the glass of television screens.

I suppose art still helps us deal with life.

New Body and New Teeth

2010-02-20T09:05:00.000-08:00

By Steve Crain

Michael, probably in his forties, sat recently in the break room of the Gulistan Carpet dye house in Wagram, N.C. As I walked by, he opened his mouth and revealed a set of dentures.

“See; I got my new teeth,” he said.

A schoolteacher taught me this rhyme about teeth: “Thirty-two white horses upon a red hill, prancing and dancing, and now they stand still.”

Michael’s 32 horses escaped from his red hills (his gums), and 32 polished artificial ponies replaced them. He had the last of his teeth extracted at Sexton Dental Clinic in Florence, S.C. That 24,000 square foot clinic boasts that patients “come from all over the world and from all walks of life.”

“I had 15 teeth pulled,” Michael said. “I went out of there with nothing but gauze in my mouth. I ate a lot of soup. My mama said she was about 24 when she lost her teeth.”

Months after his teeth-yanking session, Michael drove to Florence to get his dentures.

Ever see someone inspect a horse’s teeth to determine the animal’s worth by roughly figuring its age? According to Wikipedia, a horse's incisors, premolars, and molars, once fully developed, continue to erupt as the grinding surface wears down. A young adult horse has teeth that are 4.5-5 inches long, but the major parts of the crowns remain below the gum-line. The rest of each tooth slowly emerges from the jaw, erupting about 1/8 inch each year. Upon reaching old age, a horse’s crowns are very short, and the teeth are often lost altogether. When a horse is old, he is said to be “getting a little long in the tooth.”

My mother, Eva, often joined her two sisters, Louise and Edna, in visiting their mother’s house. Our first-born, Janelle, was a pre-schooler when she accompanied Mother on one of those visits. Carol and I laughed when Janelle returned and announced, “Aunt Louise has fox teeth!” We figured the ladies had discussed false teeth.

Unlike other parts of our bodies, teeth won’t heal themselves. Baby teeth “come in,” and then we lose them, and permanent teeth (they often aren’t very permanent) appear. As we age, our teeth need fillings and crowns. Like Michael, some of us might leave this world without any natural teeth.

Christians have hope beyond teeth problems, hope beyond old age and hope beyond the grave. Our hope is in Jesus Christ who promises that believers will receive glorified bodies. I think we also will receive glorified teeth. God can construct or reconstruct body parts that might be missing.

Kenneth B Visscher says, “Take great care of your physical body you live in and cherish it, for it is that very same body which the Lord is coming to glorify. This is the same body that is destined for the appearing of Christ when He comes again and fashions your body like unto His body, which was raised from the dead. Right now, your body is corruptible, mortal, but your very body MUST put on incorruption, this mortality MUST put on immortality. It is the body you were born and live in now which will change. Every portion of your cellular structure and every part of your physical makeup will be brought into a holy image of Jesus.”

Our present bodies are “corruptible,” which means they will decay. “Incorruptible” means “not subject to corruption or decay.”

We read in I Corinthians 15:50-57:

“Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

“Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

“For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

“O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Christians have the promise of receiving glorified bodies. This promise should comfort us all, especially those who are “getting a little long in the tooth.”

Flashlight Batteries and Oil for Lamps

2010-02-01T16:53:00.000-08:00

By Steve Crain

News that snow and ice would visit us last weekend caught me with one of our lamps not “trimmed and burning,” so I drove to Wal-Mart after work on Friday.

My wife, Carol, and I have my late parents’ oil lamp and one big flashlight, but someone gave us a large flashlight equipped with a small radio. I wanted batteries for that light-with-radio device.

In the year 2000, 17 inches of snow left us with no electricity for five days at our home in Southern Pines, N.C. Our electric “heat pump” was down, and we had no gas logs or kerosene heater (and we still don’t have those alternative ways to heat our home). We had enough charcoal to warm soup each noonday for five days. I looked like a hobo, Carol said, when I wore my overcoat and toboggan hat and hovered over a grill located out back of our house. Once in a while, I slogged to the driveway, cranked one of our cars and listened to some news.

Last Friday, I needed “C” batteries for the light-with-radio device. Many checkout aisles in Wal-Mart feature batteries, and not one of those displays had any C- or D-size batteries.

“I should have known not to wait till the last minute,” I told myself. “People have hoarded batteries, and now I won’t have any.”

I hurried to the Harris-Teeter grocery store. What a crowd! Looked like feeding time at a shark tank! I found a few C batteries and thanked the Lord.

I pushed my cart to find charcoal and lighter fluid. “Might have to grill out, again,” I thought.

Lo and behold! Hoarders had emptied a whole shelf of the cheap charcoal. I saw a few bags of a more-expensive brand and bought one, along with a small can of lighter fluid.

When I woke on Saturday morning, snow and sleet covered the ground, and sleet was still falling – but our electricity was still on. Possibly because of a bit of wind that came with the storm, ice had not accumulated on power lines or tree limbs.

Trying to buy flashlight batteries reminded me of the parable Jesus told about the wise and the foolish virgins. Here is that story:

“Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, who took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.

“And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.

“While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made, ‘Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.’

“Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said unto the wise, ‘Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out.’ But the wise answered, saying, ‘Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.’

“And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut. Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us.’ But he answered and said, ‘Verily I say unto you, I know you not.’

“Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh” (Matthew 25:13).

The wise virgins carried extra oil in separate containers. The foolish virgins took no extra oil.

Jack Crabtree of The McKenzie Study Center offers these thoughts:

“The oil that the foolish virgins found depleted…is analogous to our desire for, belief in, and commitment to the eternal Life which God has promised. Many people will desire it; many will believe God's promise; many will commit themselves to wait for its realization. But only a few will find their desire, their belief, and their commitment in ample supply.

“For those of us who are foolish – in whom the desire does not run deep, the belief is not profound, and the commitment is only superficial and very fragile – our supply will soon run out. When the bridegroom comes, no longer do we really believe, no longer do we really want his Kingdom; long before, we had shifted our commitment to something else this world had to offer. But for those of us who are wise, our desire runs deep, our belief is profound and unshakable, and our commitment is more than superficial.

“Jesus said once, ‘Many are called, but few are chosen.’ He is saying something very similar to that in this parable: ‘Many are invited and will join in wait for the bridegroom, but few will actually remain to follow him to the feast when he comes.’”

A prayer: Lord, give us oil – and extra oil – for our lamps. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Wheat and Tares

2010-01-29T17:23:00.000-08:00

By Steve Crain

“There are 200 million church members in America,” said Dr. Bailey Smith, speaking at Beulah Hill Baptist Church in West End, N.C., in 2003. “If they were all saved, this nation would be in better shape; there are always tares among the wheat.”

Smith of Atlanta served as president of the Southern Baptist Convention in 1981-82. He grew up as a Baptist pastor’s son in Dallas, Texas and “walked an aisle” to receive Christ at age 5 because his “grandfather wanted him to.” He said his conversion really took place at age 10 when he prayed with his father. As a high school senior, he felt called to preach and pastored a church at age 19. He graduated from Quachita Baptist University in Arkansas and Southwestern Baptist Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.

Smith indicated that many churchgoers think they are “saved” but are not. He asked the Rev. Billy Graham why Graham often hinted that church members might need to accept Jesus as Savior.

Graham replied, “I myself was an unsaved church member.”

Preaching from Jesus’ wheat-and-tares parable (Matthew 13:24-30), Smith said that Jesus compared “the kingdom of heaven” to a wheat field. Jesus said an enemy sowed tares (weeds that appear as wheat) in the field, and workers wanted to pull up those tares. The field owner, fearing some wheat might get uprooted if hired hands tried to eliminate tares, told workers to wait until harvest time. At that time, tares would be gathered and burned and wheat brought into his barn.

“Farmers used to show me wheat and tares,” said Smith, who once lived in Oklahoma. “I couldn’t tell the difference, but if you open up the head and there are kernels of wheat, it’s wheat.”

Smith said some people believe they are Christians because they had “experiences,” were baptized when their friends were baptized, or because their parents keep telling them, “You accepted Christ when you were young.”

“What somebody told you that you did won’t save you,” Smith said. Paraphrasing 2 Corinthians 13:5, he added, “Examine yourself to see if you ever got it (salvation) or not. A lot of you have been inoculated from going to heaven – it’s called ‘walking a church aisle as a kid.’ There’s a lot of difference between a good man and a saved man; the difference is eternity. You can go down a dry sinner (in water baptism) and come up a wet one.”

Smith said that wheat and tares look alike.

“Only God knows the difference,” Smith said. “Can a weed grow? An unsaved person doesn’t grow in Christ but appears to. He can be a busy church member on his way to hell. Wheat and tares are planted together, progress together and are harvested together. Those who are deceived don’t know they’re deceived. The Devil doesn’t want you to doubt your salvation. He wants you to believe you’re saved. The Devil knows you are good, and he is smart. He’d just as soon you go to hell from a church pew as from a bar stool.”

These are Jesus’ words recorded in Matthew 7:22-23 (New KJV): “Many will say to me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’”

Smith said a person might think he’s all right with God because he performs good works, attends a good church and hears good preaching. He told about a 19-year-old woman who confessed that her daddy had prematurely prayed the sinner’s prayer for her when she was young.

“You can believe in soap and die dirty,” he said. “To be 99 percent saved is to be 100 percent lost. The wheat is placed in the father’s house; the tare is bound and burned. We’ve had about 90 pastors get saved, and some music directors. I was a tare; Billy Graham was a tare. I believe all across this building we have tares among us.”

Smith quoted Romans 10:13, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

As musicians played “Just as I Am,” Smith asked those needing to accept Christ to raise their hands. He led those who responded in repeating a sinner’s prayer.

“Some of you pray that prayer every time because you haven’t prayed it once,” Smith said.

Smith’s sermon challenges us to make sure we have repented of our sins and are trusting Jesus Christ to save us from eternal separation from God.

“But as many as received Him (Jesus), to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name…” (John 1:12, New KJV).

Pro-Life Roadside Display

2010-01-24T13:36:00.001-08:00

Each year, Calvary Christian School, located at 400 S. Bennett St. in Southern Pines, N.C. erects flags for about a month on its roadside
property to represent babies killed by abortion. Here are pictures of the tiny flags flying on Sunday, Jan. 23, 2010. Another sign, not pictured,
informs that 4,000 babies are killed by abortion each day in the U.S. (I suppose that's the average death rate since the infant holocaust
began in America.)

Haiti Needs Help and Prayer

2010-01-15T19:28:00.000-08:00

By Steve Crain, January 15, 2010

The earthquake that hit Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Tuesday, January 12, 2010, caused me to think of Jesus’ words recorded in Matthew 24:3-7:

“And as he (Jesus) sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, ‘Tell us…what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?’ And Jesus…said unto them, ‘…nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers (various) places.’”

“The New York Times” printed this about the recent Haiti earthquake: “Survivors strained desperately on Wednesday against the chunks of concrete that buried this city along with thousands of its residents, rich and poor…And the poor who define this nation squatted in the streets, some hurt and bloody, many more without food and water, close to piles of covered corpses and rubble.”

Was the earthquake – Haiti’s worst in more than 200 years – one of those Jesus predicted, or was it a direct judgment on Haiti?

According to “Wikipedia,” Roman Catholicism is the official religion of Haiti, but voodoo may be considered the country's national religion. Most voodooists believe that their religion can coexist with Catholicism…The belief system of voodoo revolves around family spirits (often called “loua” or “mistè”) which are believed to be inherited through maternal and paternal lines.

Russell Goldman, reporting for ABC News, wrote, “Some 80 percent of Haitians are practicing Roman Catholics. But despite their Christian faith, half the country’s population practices voodoo, an Afro-Caribbean faith in which practitioners cast spells, conduct sacrifices, worship spirits and believe in zombies, according to statistics compiled by the CIA World Factbook. Increasingly, evangelical Protestant faiths, like Pentecostalism, which stress a locally popular belief in an ‘unseen spirit world,’ have taken hold.”

Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, writes in his January 14 blog: “Haiti is well known for its history of religious syncretism – mixing elements of various faiths, including occult practices…Haiti's history is a catalog of political disasters…In one account of the nation's fight for independence from the French in the late 18th century, representatives of the nation are said to have made a pact with the Devil to throw off the French (in 1791). According to this account, the Haitians considered the French as Catholics and wanted to side with whomever would oppose the French. Thus, some would use that tradition to explain all that has marked the tragedy of Haitian history – including now the earthquake of January 12, 2010.”

Mohler says many point to the Haiti earthquake as a sign of God's direct judgment.

“God does judge the nations – all of them – and God will judge the nations,” Mohler says. “He rules over all the nations and his sovereign will is demonstrated in the rising and falling of nations and empires and peoples…

“God's rule over creation involves both direct and indirect acts, but his rule is constant. The universe, even after the consequences of the Fall, still demonstrates the character of God in all its dimensions, objects, and occurrences. And yet, we have no right to claim that we know why a disaster like the earthquake in Haiti happened at just that place and at just that moment.

“The arrogance of human presumption is a real and present danger. We can trace the effects of a drunk driver to a car accident, but we cannot trace the effects of voodoo to an earthquake – at least not so directly. Will God judge Haiti for its spiritual darkness? Of course. Is the judgment of God something we can claim to understand in this sense – in the present? No, we are not given that knowledge. Jesus himself warned his disciples against this kind of presumption.

“The earthquake in Haiti, like every other earthly disaster, reminds us that creation groans under the weight of sin and the judgment of God…The cross of Christ declares that Jesus loves Haiti…Christ would have us rush to aid the suffering people of Haiti, and rush to tell the Haitian people of his love, his cross, and salvation in his name alone.”

A Prayer: Father, many Haitians are “dirt poor.” The recent earthquake added misery to their lives. Help us respond to the Haitian people in the manner of prayerful Good Samaritans. Help us avoid judging them in their time of need. In Jesus’ name, amen.

When Hard Times Come

2010-01-09T07:27:00.000-08:00

By Steve Crain

When things don’t go well for me, I sometimes recall words from “Hard Times Come Again No More.”

Stephen C. Foster wrote that folksong in 1854, and it was popular in its day in the U.S. and Europe.

Here is that song’s first verse:

“Let us pause in life’s pleasures and count its many tears / While we all sup sorrow with the poor / There’s a song that will linger forever in our ears / Oh, Hard Times, come again no more.”

Chorus: “Tis the song, the sigh of the weary / Hard Times, Hard Times, come again no more / Many days you have lingered around my cabin door / Oh, Hard Times, come again no more.”

The “Collins English Dictionary” defines “hardship” as “conditions of life difficult to endure” and as “something that causes suffering or privation.” “Privation” is defined as “lack of basic necessities or comforts of life.”

Foster’s song and the definition of “hardship” seem to mainly describe physical or circumstantial difficulties, but spiritual, mental and emotional hardships are also hard to endure and are not easily separated from circumstances and physical trials.

Someone said, “Your body and soul live so close together that they catch each other’s diseases.”

I have heard people talk about feeling so down-and-out that they “had to reach up to touch bottom.” One person described a season of depression when he “felt lower than a snake’s belly.” “Hard times” come to us in various forms, and they come to us all. Someone said, “Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.”

Hardships are part of life.

“There is no success without hardship,” Sophocles said.

Frank A. Clark said, “If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere.”

“Adversity reminds men of religion,” Livy noted.

Evangelist Charles Spurgeon said, “Stars may be seen from the bottom of a deep well, when they cannot be discerned from the top of a mountain. So are many things learned in adversity which the prosperous man dreams not of.”

“It is not until we have passed through the furnace that we are made to know how much dross is in our composition,” said Colton.

What about this verse? “And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction…” (Isaiah 30: 20-21).

Does God “give” adversity?

Sir Francis Bacon commented on his perception of God’s way of dealing with people during Old Testament and New Testament times. Bacon said, “Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament; adversity of the New, which carrieth the greater benediction and the clearer revelation of God’s favor. Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; adversity not without many comforts and hopes.”

Writer Jeanne Guyon said, “Adversity and affliction are not easy for anyone of us; nevertheless, the good thing is that the Lord is with us and directing us not to get anxious, but get effective…If we faint in adversity, our strength will be small. We must abandon every voice in order to listen to His Word...To penetrate deeper in the experience of Jesus Christ, it is required that you begin to abandon your whole existence, giving it up to God.”

The Apostle Paul said, “We glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh (produces) patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope” (Romans 5:3-4).

Joyce Meyer said, “No one enjoys going through difficult times, but when we’re in the middle of a crisis, it’s comforting to encounter someone who has had a similar experience and has survived…Even if no good comes from our crisis other than our ability to help others, we still might one day say going through it was worth it all.”

Here are the words to “Lord, When I Hurt Inside,” a song by my wife, Carol Crain:

“Lord, when I hurt inside, I often question why all this pain had to be part of my days.

“Then you take me by the hand and help me understand, because you love me, and I can trust your higher ways.

“Though I may never know the reasons or the whys, to You, Lord, I can go; on You I can rely.

“My memories You will heal. You have and always will give me strength, peace and joy and victory.”

Trust God during good times; trust God during hard times.

Collards, Black-Eyed Peas and a New Goal

2010-01-01T12:45:00.000-08:00

By Steve Crain

A man I know said he was going to dine on collard greens and black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day 2010.

My wife Carol talked recently with a lady whose husband told her to cook collards and black-eyed peas to take on their beach vacation. He planned to microwave those foods and eat them on January 1.

Especially in the Southern U.S., folk often dine on collard greens, black-eyed peas and a smoked pork product of some kind on New Year’s Day. Some people place dimes under their plates during that meal.

Sarah Fay Campbell, writing in “The Times-Herald,” says, “Tradition states that if you want to have money (or luck) in the new year, you must eat the peas and greens on New Year's Day. In the most common version, the collards represent paper money, and the peas represent coins. Some add sweet potatoes to represent gold.”

Campbell says The Babylonian Talmud, a collection of Jewish law and tradition compiled around the year 500, instructs Hebrews to include several foods on their tables in the New Year, for good luck. Those foods include gourds, black-eyed peas, leeks, dates, and either beets or spinach. Southern Jews may have played a part in developing the tradition in the U.S.

Another legend dates back to the Civil War, Campbell notes. “When Union troops were scouring the countryside for food…they didn't bother with the ‘cow peas,’ which they considered food for livestock, not for people. (Sherman's troops destroyed or stole other crops, thus giving the humble, but nourishing, black-eyed pea an important role as a major food source for surviving Southerners.)

“The black-eyed pea is native to Africa and came to America by way of the west Indies…Collard greens are vegetables and members of the cabbage family…Although they are available year-round they are at their best from January through April.”

I like some traditions, though I don’t believe in “luck” or superstitions. I was tempted to “go with the flow” when I saw, during the last few days of 2009, a special exhibit of several rows of canned collards at the grocery store where we shop.

As I write this column on New Year’s Day, I don’t have plans to eat peas and greens at lunchtime, but I have hopes for the year 2010. Some people make New Year’s resolutions. I want to set a few new goals for the coming year. For example, I want to improve my relationship with God and my relationships with my wife, children, relatives and friends. I want to read all of the books of the Bible during the next 12 months and pray more. I want to complain and bellyache less and get my mind off myself and on the Lord. And, like many people, I want I want to lose weight, (I set that goal almost every year and haven’t done well, so far, but I have hope!)

C.S. Lewis said, “You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.”

When I read Lewis’ statement, I thought, “That sounds fine, but what if a person has prayed for something, and he believes his prayers have not been answered? What about painful relationships that have not been mended, though fervent prayers ‘went up’? What if someone has prayed to be delivered from sickness and still suffers? What if one is old and weak and aches and pains seem to dominate his life? What if a person is in a hospital and has only a few days to live? Lord, wouldn’t a person whose life is nearly over be too old to set another goal or dream a new dream?”

After my mind ran through reasons that a person could be too broken or sick to set a new goal or dream a new dream, this thought came to me: “You can always set a goal to ‘suffer better.’”

“Suffer better?” I mused. That sounded foreign to some teaching I have heard about rebuking sickness and Satan. I believe in “divine healing” and miracles, but I also believe I can live obediently and victoriously after I pray and “my miracle” doesn’t materialize.

St. Paul spoke of “a thorn in the flesh” that the Lord did not remove from him, though he prayed for relief. That “thorn” caused Paul to depend on God, who said to Paul, “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

As a new year begins and some people eat black-eyed peas and collard greens for good luck, I am vowing to trust God during good times and bad. I am not too old to dream a new dream or to set a new goal – even if that goal is, by God’s grace, to “suffer better.”

What Christmas Is

2009-12-24T08:16:00.001-08:00

By Carol Crain

Christmas is not
A downhill sleigh ride.
For many,
It’s an uphill climb.

Christmas is not a
A sparkling fire in the fireplace.
For many,
It’s a cold, chilling time.

Christmas is not
A gathering of family and friends.
For many, it’s lonely days
That seem without end.

Christmas is not idyllic scenes
In a picture book.
For many, it’s memories
That cause a painful, inward look.

But we must remember all Christmas is…
Not dwell upon what it is not.
It’s a celebration of Jesus’ birth –
God’s gift to all that cannot be bought.

###

The Wise Men Worshipped Jesus

2009-12-22T16:42:00.000-08:00

by Steve Crain

I’ve always been enchanted with the mysterious “wise men” who journeyed to see Jesus after he was born.

Many of us have probably sung that Christmas carol “We Three Kings.” John H. Hopkins, Jr. reportedly penned its words and melody in 1857. The verses of that song (but not the chorus) are in a minor key and sound “Jewish” or oriental.

That carol’s six-eight timing sort of plods along. When I hear its slow, rhythmic 1-2-3, 1-2-3 beat, I picture turban-wearing men wrapped in robes and sitting astride tired camels making slow progress across a sea of sand at nighttime. (I guess we assume the wise men traveled a lot at night, because Christmas card illustrations usually picture those fellows camel-jockeying under night skies.)

In 2004, the N.C. carpet manufacturing company I work for sent me to a carpet printing plant in Egypt. During my 11-day stay, our small group took a day off and visited pyramids near Cairo. Nearby vendors offered camel rides. My friends rode, but I’m a big guy, and when I saw the poor old beast picked to carry me, I declined. He was resting and chewing some green forage when his owner made him rise. As he got up, he stretched his bony and, what appeared to be, arthritic legs and let out a groan-bray that sounded like an agonizing cry for mercy. I didn’t have the heart to get on his humpback. (I didn’t want to be the big old “straw that broke the camel’s back.”) Getting up close to that camel made me sympathize with the wise men who followed the “star of wonder, star of night, star with royal beauty bright.”

We read about those wise men in Matthew 2:1-2:

“Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, ‘Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.’

“When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born.”

“Christiananswers.net” provides the following information:

The term “wise men” is translated from the Latin word “magus” and the Greek word “magoi.” “Magi” is the plural of “magus.” The only mention of magi in the New Testament is in the story of Jesus Christ’s young life. The magi who searched for Jesus were a priestly caste of scholars. The only known Magian priests east of Palestine (at the time of Christ’s birth), were in ancient Media, Persia, Assyria, and Babylonia. There is no proof of what country these men came from.

The word “magic” is derived from the same root as “magi,” and magi are generally associated with occult studies. These magi seem different. There is no indication that they practiced sorcery or claimed magical powers. Their recorded conduct is sincere and worshipful. They appear to have researched the Old Testament and believed its prophecies about the Messiah. They apparently gained nothing material from their long journey.

The record does not say there were three wise men or that they were kings (and there’s no mention of camels, either); some assume they were three kings because of the number and types of gifts – gold, frankincense and myrrh – brought to Jesus. The gifts reflected aspects of Christ's nature: gold to a king; myrrh to one who will die; and incense, as homage to God.

Some scholars say the magi found Jesus just after his birth or within 40 days of it. Others say the wise men found Jesus two or three years after his birth. Experts say Jesus was living in a house in Bethlehem, as a young child, when the magi brought gifts to him. (By the way, many believe Jesus was born in the autumn, during the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles.)

Though we may not know all we would like to know about the wise men, the Bible clearly records this fact: they found Jesus.

King Herod sent the magi to Bethlehem, and “When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was.

“When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.

“And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him…” (Matthew 2:7-11).

A Christmas Letter to Martha Stewart

2009-11-28T08:05:00.000-08:00

By Steve Crain (written in 2002)

Dear Martha Stewart:

My wife recently received the December 2002 issue of your magazine, "Martha Stewart Living," and after leafing through its 324 pages of ads, cookie recipes and pictures of how-our-house-could-never-look, I want to express my concern.

The other day, my wife received a letter from a lady who wrote, "I am contemplating how to get through the Christmas holidays without a migraine like I had last year. I think I’ll have a personal Christmas early and pretend it’s not Christmas when it really comes."

Perhaps, Martha, in your well-meaning way, you are contributing to the kind of stress that lady feels. Most folk have enough to do during the Christmas season without wanting to be reminded that they could be busy making soap, creating pomegranate punch or stenciling holly leaf images on linen.

By the way, my wife has too many doodads sitting around already, and with my taste for minimalism, we have a recipe for domestic in-tranquility. (Here’s the recipe: Keep adding doodads to a small living room until someone is stirred to the boiling point.)

The singer Madonna has been labeled "the material girl," but I’m afraid, dear Martha, that she can’t hold a candle—and that would be a handmade candle, of course—to you, when it comes to materialism. And that’s not a good thing.

In your magazine, you included an article entitled "A Letter from Martha."

"Well," I thought, "maybe the handmaiden of handicrafts has written a little story, telling of some happy childhood Christmas experience."

But no.

You wrote: "This year we are launching our beloved, gigantic collection of holiday decorations from Martha Stewart Everyday…Now everyone can have ‘vintage’ ornaments, unusual tree lights, color-coordinated trees, fantastic wreaths and candles, and much more. I urge you to take a peek."

Sorry, Martha, I won’t be peeking. We have plenty of "vintage" Christmas stuff cluttering our closets already.

I suggest that you throw a bit of Thoreau in amongst whatever, besides cookbooks, that you read. Henry David Thoreau once said, "A man is rich in proportion to the things he can do without."

Think on that, Martha, while you are basting a turkey, rooting around for rutabagas or creating collectibles.

Actually, I believe that you have many fine qualities, but you remind me of another Martha.

It seems that Jesus – the one this Christmas holiday honors – was acquainted with two sisters named Mary and Martha.

Martha invited Jesus and his disciples to dinner at her and her sister’s home, and when the men arrived, Martha rushed into action in the kitchen, preparing and serving. But when she noticed that her sister Mary was sitting and listening to Jesus, she said, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her to help me."

No doubt Martha was the worrying type. Perhaps she was the older sister and wanted to whip up a Martha Stewart-type dinner with everything just perfect for the Lord. If they had been blessed with TV back in those days, perhaps Sister Martha would have been glued to the Martha Stewart "From the Kitchen" program every time it aired. Maybe Martha had often told Mary, "Busy hands are happy hands." Perhaps Martha equated busyness with godliness.

Anyway, when she confronted Jesus with Mary’s seeming negligence of duty, Martha may have thought Jesus would put a guilt trip on Mary and get her moving.

But Jesus said, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things…Mary has chosen the good portion, which shall not be taken away from her."

So, dear Martha Stewart, though you are creative and industrious, lay aside your spatula and mixing bowl for a little quiet time before you get all whipped into a frenzy during this wondrous time of year.

Remembering Thanksgiving Time

2009-11-21T08:24:00.000-08:00

By Steve Crain

“I was just a little fellow,” my Uncle Fred said, as he recently described Thanksgivings he experienced at the home of his paternal grandparents, Ben and Lola Dill Crain.

Fred E. Crain, who lives in Greer, S.C., and was born in 1925, recalled his father and mother, Carl and Lillian, driving their car a short distance to Grandpa Ben’s white frame house on Thanksgiving Days. Fred and his older brother, Jesse Benjamin (J.B.), sat in the backseat. Ben Crain’s 52-acre farm in Greenville County, S.C., lay between Hwy. 253 and Groce Meadow Road, a few acres south of where those roads converge and the late Ralph Fowler’s store once stood.

“Grandma had cooked pies and stacked them on top of one another,” Fred said.

Ben and Lola had these children (listed in birth order and with spouses): Carl (Lillian Parker), Claude (Gertie Paige), Jay (Nell Willis), Jim (Gertrude Pearson), Theron (Veltra Hightower) and Hazel (Ernest Ramey).

Carl usually took his two beagles to the get-togethers. On Thanksgiving Day around 9:00 a.m. in those days, Ben and his five sons took shotguns and traipsed from the barn, which stood near the house and on the northern end of Ben’s property, across gray fields to hunt rabbits. Fred, J.B. and their cousins played and occasionally heard beagles barking and the sound of a shotgun, as the men crossed fields and walked the woods at the far end of Ben’s farm. The ladies prepared food while the men fellowshipped. The children played under pecan and cottonwood trees or near the barn and pasture or on the porch-with-banisters that wrapped around a large portion of two sides of Grandpa Ben’s house.

“There was a bunch of us boys and girls,” Fred said. “There was no electricity in our area at that time. I was about eight or ten when electricity came to our house.”

Fred’s grandmother prepared food ahead of time, but on Thanksgiving Day, she cooked a chicken pie to go with green beans, mashed potatoes, dressing, bread…cake, and pumpkin and potato pies.

“She’d make a big chicken pie laid out in a dishpan,” Fred said. He explained chicken dumplings and chicken pie: “To make dumplings, you roll up little balls of dough and drop them in boiling water with the chicken. For chicken pie, you roll flat pieces of dough and lay that across the chicken. There’d be some dumplings in the chicken pie, but there’s not as much chicken in dumplings as in chicken pie.”

Around noon, the men returned from hunting (Grandpa Ben often returned earlier, Fred said), and they’d usually have some rabbits, which they saved for later meals.
For the Thanksgiving dinner, the men gathered around a large table. Ben and Lola were Christians and members of Double Springs Baptist. (Ben’s daddy, John, had been a Baptist preacher.) Ben or one of the sons asked a blessing. The men and perhaps a few ladies ate first, but most of the women and children waited for “second shift.”

“Us kids would look through the dining room window,” Fred said. “It seemed like it took them a long time to eat. Children had to wait, back then. You might not get as much chicken pie as you wanted.”

Fred said about his early perception of Thanksgiving: “I knew it was a day of family getting together for a big dinner, a time of giving thanks to the Lord for all he’d done for you and for all the bounty.”

The first American Thanksgiving was celebrated in 1621, to honor the harvest reaped by the Plymouth Colony after a harsh winter, sources say. Governor William Bradford proclaimed a day of thanksgiving, and colonists invited local Wampanoag Indians. All 13 colonies didn’t observe Thanksgiving at the same time until October 1777. President George Washington declared the holiday in 1789. By the mid–1800s, many states observed a Thanksgiving holiday. The poet and editor Sarah J. Hale lobbied for a national Thanksgiving holiday and discussed the subject with President Abraham Lincoln. In 1863, in his Thanksgiving Proclamation, Lincoln declared the last Thursday in November a day of thanksgiving. In 1939, 1940, and 1941, Franklin D. Roosevelt, wanting a longer Christmas shopping season, set Thanksgiving as the third Thursday in November. Controversy followed, and Congress passed a resolution in 1941, decreeing that
Thanksgiving fall on the fourth Thursday of November.

I thank God for America’s Thanksgiving Day holiday. May we all remember Psalm 136:1: “O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.”

When the 'Good' Are Not Godly

2009-11-07T06:00:00.000-08:00

by Steve Crain

“‘Good’ people can often be ungodly,” a radio preacher said recently over the airwaves as I prepared to head to work.

I thought about those words as I drove to the carpet manufacturing mill where I earn a living. Psalm 1 describes godly and ungodly people:

“Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

“But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

"And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

“The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.

“Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

“For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.”

Some of us may think ungodly folk are only those people who exhibit evident sinful lifestyles. There are, however, plenty of “good” ungodly people. They don’t beat wives, “run around on” husbands, abuse children, steal, lie and curse. Some “good” ungodly people may hold to higher personal standards than many Christians maintain. But “good” people are ungodly if they have not accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior. Christ makes a person righteous (the righteous have “right standing” with God) when that person believes in Christ as Savior, repents for his sins and commits to follow Christ. One cannot earn his way to heaven by being “good”; therefore, a “good” person is ungodly if he places his faith in his personal goodness rather than in the grace of Christ. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).

“Some people are better by nature than others are by grace,” someone said. A person born with a gentle nature might appear to be a Christian but may not have given his life to Christ. Perhaps such a person learned to “go along to get along.” Maybe he quietly participates in the predominant ethic of the culture he lives in so he can more easily live his own “self life.”

I feel sad to hear someone say about a family, “Well, they’re not Christians, but they are good people.” The person commenting may mean this: “Good people don’t bother anybody. We need to visit jails to convert bad people and go to the streets to find drug addicts. Those people need to be saved. They hurt our society. They break into our houses and steal jewelry, gun collections and TV sets! Good people don’t bother me.” The statement “They’re not Christians, but they are good people” hints that the one making that declaration may be buying into the lie that doing good deeds will earn someone a place in heaven. Christ died for the down-and-out and the up-out-out. We all need a Savior. Who is “good,” anyway? Jesus said, “None is good, save one, that is, God” (Luke 18:19).

I am glad that Christians visit jails and help drug addicts, but good people who don’t know Christ are just as lost as murderers, addicts, pimps, prostitutes and drug dealers who don’t know Christ. Good people who accept Christ may not have to deal with breaking the same kinds of habits that bad people do when they convert, but non-Christian “good” people are often in bondage to self-reliance, self-indulgence and unbelief in the same ways “bad” people are.

Remember the story Jesus told about a rich man? That wealthy man boasted, “And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:19-21).

In Jesus’ story, the rich man was probably a “good” but ungodly person. Though he “succeeded” in this world, he neglected to prepare for eternity.

“For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:17-18).
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2009 11 07: a response to the above article by Father Tom Parsons, an Anglican priest in North Carolina:

The trick here is to define "good." Remember, Jesus told the man, who called Jesus good, that only God the Father is good. The Bible, in most cases, is speaking of righteousness when the word "good" is used. Righteousness, according to St. Paul, is an imputed quality based upon faith. "Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness." Faith and righteousness are connected for Christians. "Good" is a worldly concept which should be recognized but not confused with "righteousness" before God. A person may be "good" and his goodness be of value to society and still not be righteous before God. As in most cases, faith is the key.
--Fr. Tom

Celebrating Church Homecomings

2009-10-31T08:11:00.000-07:00

By Steve Crain

Though October is “Apple Month,” “National Popcorn Poppin’ Month,” “Positive Attitude Month” and “Squirrel Awareness Month,” it is also “Pastor Appreciation Month” and the time that many churches celebrate “homecoming.”

A church homecoming service may honor founders, charter members and those who contributed to the church’s wellbeing. Such a service can help draw a body of believers closer to God and one another.

Writing about church homecomings, the Rev. Steve Watters posted the following on his blog. (A “blog” is a contraction of the term “weblog,” which is a “log” on the “web.” Some refer to the Internet as “the web.”)

“Homecoming Sunday? It’s something of an odd concept within our contemporary culture,” Watters wrote. “I've never entirely understood the term, even though I attended quite a few growing up in Eastern North Carolina. They were usually in the fall and featured ‘dinner on the grounds’ and special music, but I was never sure what they meant by the name. A co-worker who moved from Alabama said the term implied welcoming back both those who have moved away as well as those the church ran off.”

Watters wrote about his plans to speak at a homecoming service held at the church he attended during his youth: “It’s still unusual for me to head home these days. Dad has died, and our old home has been sold…Just this year, I passed the mark of living away from home longer than I lived in my hometown. A lot happens in that time and it gets harder for me to know what to expect when I return. At a minimum, I know that I was blessed with a Godly heritage rooted in deep soil – and that gives me much to celebrate in my homecoming.”

Watters asked his blog readers, “What does the idea of homecoming mean to you?”

Here are some of their replies:

One man wrote, “Maybe it is a North Carolina thing... I don’t remember hearing of them (church homecomings) anywhere else I lived as a child, and not where I live now, either.”

Another man wrote, “It’s definitely a Southern ‘Bible belt’ sort of thing…Homecoming is basically when people who moved away to another area come back to their old church for a reunion celebration once a year…Where I live, homecoming is an extremely commonplace occurrence, and in many churches, if you don’t make the effort to at least RSVP for your old church’s homecoming celebration, you'll have a lot of elderly church ladies calling you to make sure you’re still alive.”

A lady wrote, “I think it's good to connect with old friends/places again. Reminds me of the journey God has brought me on so far in my life and the things he has used to shape me. A couple of years ago, I moved back to my hometown…I don't attend my church from childhood (it was very strict and I don't really want to raise my kids in that environment), but I enjoy going to weddings or baby showers there. While there is sometimes pain associated with the legalism that I encountered there, it is good to see old friends, Sunday school teachers, etc., realizing they are part of my journey, too.”

I recently told my wife that I would be happy to return for a homecoming service held at any of the churches I’ve been part of over the years. Some of those churches have experienced difficulties and splits, but I fondly recall the good times I enjoyed and wonderful friends I knew in those fellowships. I believe we are blessed when we choose to “remember the best, and forgive the rest.” St. Paul said, “Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace…” (Romans 14:19).

Church homecomings seem symbolic of the final homecoming planned for Christians. Dr. John Fawcett, who pastored a small church at Wainsgate, England, in the 1770s, wrote the hymn “Blest Be the Tie.” Here is the first verse of that song: “Blest be the tie that binds / Our hearts in Christian love / The fellowship of kindred minds / Is like to that above.” Fawcett ended that song with this verse: “From sorrow, toil and pain / And sin, we shall be free / And perfect love and friendship reign / Through all eternity.”

Christians aren’t home, yet, but earthly homecoming services can serve to draw us closer to God and to one another as we journey toward our heavenly destination.

Remembering a Dear Teacher

2009-10-10T07:28:00.000-07:00

by Steve Crain

My first-grade teacher introduced me to reading, writing and arithmetic and impressed me with her Christian character.

We stayed in contact after she labored to illumine my then-young mind. Her daughters, Hope Barbare and Charlotte McClimon (their father and Ms. Nell’s husband was the late Richard Adams), recently asked me to write a “Happy Eightieth Birthday” note to their mother. Here is a copy of that letter:

Congratulations, Ms. Nell Thompson Adams, on your eightieth birthday (2009)!

I first remember you as Miss Nell Thompson, my first-grade teacher at Mountain View Elementary School in upper Greenville County, S.C.

I was six years old when I entered your classroom for my first public school experience in 1953. You must have been then 24 years old. You attended the church my family attended, Gum Springs Pentecostal Holiness Church. Pastor James H. Thompson, your older brother, ministered there, and I had seen you and some of your family at church meetings. You appeared to me to be a quiet, gentle, smiling, holy lady.

You introduced me to “education” and taught me to read. You taught us the English alphabet and the sounds of syllables. “See Jane run” and “See Spot go” were some of the words we read in first grade. When we finished our first paperback reading books, you gave them to us to take home, and when our bus let me off at home, I raced to my mother who was hanging up laundry in our backyard. I read the whole book to her as she stood at the clothesline. She said, “That’s good.”

You were a very young, pretty teacher and controlled our class with dignity. Most of us were respectful in those days, as I remember. The noise level would rise at times, and you would tell us, “I’m going to have to get firm.” We shaped up when we saw the serious look on your face and heard that line, “I’m going to have to get firm.”

Our classroom was located on the first floor in the center of the schoolhouse, which accommodated 12 grades. Our room stood next to a giant coal bin, which provided fuel for the school heating system (radiator heat). To reach the boys’ restroom, we walked past the coal bin on a sidewalk.

You were patient and wise. We lined up each day at our classroom door to have a blessing before we went to lunch. I recall that a girl one day said, “____ (So-and-So) didn’t have her eyes closed during the prayer.” I thought some kind of judgment – perhaps a paddling – ought to land on the girl who dared open her eyes during our blessing! But you, in your wisdom, said to the tattler, “How did you know?”

Whoa! I saw the light! I felt as if there was probably more to life than I understood. I had condemned a girl and had not seen the guilt of the informer. You demonstrated the “wisdom of Solomon” on that day. I’ve thought many times of that incident.

Steve Babb and I got into a first-grade fight (it started because we were “playing wrestling”) on the school playground. Someone went to get you, and you made us sit in the classroom. I thought you were going to paddle us, but you didn’t.

You have “kept up” with me over the years and have been for me a constant encouragement. Thank you for your Christian life and for every remembrance I have of your influence. You are a rare and precious lady, and I thank God for you and your family.

Happy birthday, Ms. Nell!

With love,

From Steve

I often think about the various public school teachers who instructed me. They usually communicated more than simple subject matter, as students often “picked up on” what those teachers believed about life. I recall one high school history teacher who was tall, thin, dark-haired and fair-skinned. Her husband served as a pastor, but this lady (let’s call her Mrs. “Stern”) appeared to be heavy on law and light on grace. She seemed to tolerate no monkey business. I sat in her classroom one day when a girl asked, “Mrs. Stern, why are you so mean? Isn’t your husband a preacher?” A hush fell over the class, and a serious-faced Mrs. Stern answered, “God called him to preach – not me!”

An unknown author said, “A good teacher is like a candle – it consumes itself to light the way for others.” I believe Mrs. Nell Thompson Adams actually did “preach,” in her own way, as she taught my first-grade class.

“I have taught thee in the way of wisdom; I have led thee in right paths” (Proverbs 4:11).

Grandma's House

2009-09-12T10:41:00.000-07:00

Pictured is Grandma Fowler's house, which has been demolished.

By Steve Crain

It didn’t seem right when they tore down my late Grandma Fowler’s house.

Her one-story, white-shingled, “three small bedrooms and one bath” home stood since the early 1950s until 2009 on a corner lot at 2543 Locust Hill Road (Hwy. 290) and McElhaney Road in Taylors, S.C.

My Fowler grandparents had nine children, and I am one of 16 first cousins on “that side.” I loved family gatherings at Grandma’s. Surrounded by a Christmas crowd, Uncle Wyatt would sit in Grandma’s living room and talk politics. Uncle Jim and Uncle Ray often responded in loud voices. The house would be filled with laughter and “good to see you” conversations. The roar would cease while someone asked a blessing on the food, and then the noise would resume.

Grandma was a gentle lady who suffered with rheumatoid arthritis and rarely left her house. She limped and wore a built-up shoe for, as I remember, her right foot. When possible, her three daughters – Louise, Eva (my mother) and Edna – gathered at Grandma’s on Tuesdays. As Grandma grew older and heavier, the three daughters helped her shower during Tuesday visits. I recall seeing Grandma sitting and combing her freshly-washed, long gray-white hair after one of those baths.

My parents both worked during part of my growing up years, and my sister, Shirley, and I spent many summertime hours at Grandma’s “humble abode.” Her home was literally and soulfully a sort of halfway place between Sandy Flat (where I spent childhood years) and Greer (where my family lived while I was a teenager).

The summer after my seventh-grade year, the year I first “took band” at Davenport Junior High, I practiced playing my old trumpet at Grandma’s. She had no air conditioner, so windows were open. Inez Brookshire heard me playing one morning as she worked in her yard across the road. She phoned and asked Grandma if I would play “Amazing Grace” and a couple of other hymns. I was glad to oblige.

The Rev. Ronnie Fleming, a first cousin of mine, and some investors bought Grandma Lilly Nix Fowler’s place after her last surviving child, James A. Fowler, died at age 82 in December 2006. Uncle Jim was the seventh of the nine children born to Lillie and James August “Aug” Fowler. Jim never married, always lived “at home” with his parents and worked in textiles until he retired from Lyman Printing and Finishing mill. After Grandpa died in 1956, Jim looked after Grandma until she died at age 86 in 1978. During his last best years, Jim often parked a used car or two in his front yard and tried to make a sale. If you ever drove by Grandma’s house while he sat on the front porch and watched cars zoom by, you might have seen Jim taking a snooze – head tilted back, mouth open.

Jim stayed at that house until my cousins Raymond and Redmond Fowler (twins) helped him move to an assisted living center about a year before he passed on. He died in his sleep while living at Woodruff Manor.

The investors sold Grandma’s property, and I heard that a dentist office might be built on that site. Earlier this year, I learned from my Uncle Fred Crain that Grandma’s house was no longer “there.”

“Did they move it?” I asked, hoping that it had been located to another property and would serve as a home for someone.

A few of my cousins thought it might have been moved, but my Aunt Frances Crain attended a high school reunion and talked with Palmer Steadman who still lives next door to the property Grandma once owned. Palmer said someone brought a wrecking ball, and Grandma’s house went down. Workers hauled away the rubble.

I visited Greer in July and drove past Grandma’s old property. It had been excavated and prepared for some kind of building. As I moved past the corner lot that once hosted the house where I experienced love and laughter, I thought of the words of Hebrews 13:14: “For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.”

Earthly evidences of precious memories may fade or be destroyed, but I thank God for the lasting love of family and friends and for the special eternal love he has expressed to us in Jesus Christ who said, “In my Father's house are many mansions…I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (John 14:2-3).

Flying with an Agnostic

2009-08-15T09:53:00.000-07:00

by Steve Crain

On a recent flight from the West Coast to Raleigh, N.C., I sat beside a man who claimed to be an Agnostic.

The term “agnostic” means “no knowledge.” An Agnostic claims to be undecided about God’s existence.

My traveling acquaintance was a slightly built man who wore blue jeans, a casual shirt and a baseball cap. He – let’s call him “Sam” – hailed from a western state and was fair-skinned but weathered and sported an auburn-colored mustache that curled up on its ends. Probably in his late forties, Sam served as a “county agent” involved with soil, livestock and the environment. He was on vacation and headed to West Virginia to make music with old friends. His encased banjo lay in the plane’s overhead luggage rack.

“I like old-time music,” he said.

Though schooled to become a high school agriculture teacher, Sam elected to take a job leading to his county agent status. He said sagebrush is vital to the West but is threatened by junipers and aggressive grasses. He talked about wild horse herds, slight rainfall, sheep, cattle, bald eagles and man’s need to work with his environment. He compared eastern and western states.

“You talk about cows per acre; we talk about acres per cow,” Sam said.

He told of raising two sons by himself and of a “care for the land” work program he started for young adults who were previously going nowhere in life.

“Are you a religious person?” I asked.

Sam said he’s sensitive to many beliefs and sort of likes Buddhism, because that religion mostly concerns itself with man’s relationship to man without reference to a god. “I’m an Agnostic,” he said.

“The Apostle Paul said the creation shows the evidence of God,” I said, referring to Romans 1:20 and appealing to Sam’s love of nature.

He expressed admiration for the earth’s natural beauty but said nature can be cruel, too. He said all cultures give explanations as to how the world began and tell stories about good and evil.

“Someone noted that if you don’t believe the Bible, just look at the history of the Jewish nation,” I told him. “The Jews survived much persecution.”

Sam said he thinks Christians view themselves as “on top,” looking down on those who don’t believe the Christian view.

I said Christians shouldn’t think they’re better than others but should serve as Christ served. I noted that Christianity’s central belief is that God became man in the person of Jesus Christ who died and was resurrected to save us from our sins – and from ourselves.

Sam said Christians don’t care much about the environment and nature, because they think they are going to escape this world.

“Some of us have escapist attitudes because we believe Christ will return and revamp the world,” I said, “but some Christians are environmentally sensitive.”

“Look at the two biggest religions, Christianity and the Muslim religion,” Sam said. “They’ve caused wars and lots of trouble in the world.”

“Much of that goes back to Abraham,” I said. “What I understand is that, according to the Bible, Abraham didn’t wait for the son God promised to him, so he had a boy, Ishmael, by his wife’s handmaid. Isaac was born later to Sarah, Abraham’s wife. God said about Ishmael and Isaac, ‘I will make him (Ishmael) a great nation, but my covenant will I establish with Isaac’ (Genesis 17:20-21). Some Christians say the rivalry spawned between those sons may be setting the stage for the Second Coming of Christ.”

Sam turned our talk back to environmental concerns, and we soon said goodbye as our flight ended. I envisioned Sam and his friends strumming and singing about rivers, prairies, wild horses, heroes and lost loves. I pictured God listening in and longing to be acknowledged by Sam who seems to hold in high regard the water, earth and sky that I believe God made.

Is America a Christian Nation?

2009-06-27T08:49:00.000-07:00

by Steve Crain

Is America a Christian nation?

All but two of the first 108 universities founded in America were Christian. Of those schools, Harvard was founded first and listed this as Rule Number One in its student handbook: “Let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well, the main end of his life and studies is to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life, John 17:3; and therefore to lay Jesus Christ as the only foundation for our children to follow the moral principles of the Ten Commandments."

U.S. President Harry Truman wrote to Pope Pius XII in 1947, saying, “This is a Christian nation.”

“He certainly did not mean that the United States has an official or legally-preferred religion or church,” said Carl Pearlston, writing in 2001. Pearlston, an attorney, a former professor of Constitutional Law and a Jewish conservative, says Truman didn’t mean to slight adherents of non-Christian religions, “But he certainly did mean to recognize that this nation, its institutions and laws, was founded on Biblical principles basic to Christianity and to Judaism from which it flowed.”

Truman also said, “The fundamental basis of this nation's laws was given to Moses on the Mount. The fundamental basis of our Bill of Rights comes from the teachings we get from Exodus and Saint Matthew, from Isaiah and Saint Paul…If we don’t have a proper fundamental moral background, we will finally end up with a totalitarian government which does not believe in rights for anybody except the State.”

Pearlston offers these quotations:

Woodrow Wilson said, “A nation which does not remember what it was yesterday, does not know what it is today, nor what it is trying to do. We are trying to do a futile thing if we do not know where we came from or what we have been about.... America was born a Christian nation. America was born to exemplify that devotion to the tenets of righteousness which are derived from the revelations of Holy Scripture.”

In 1811, New York Chief Justice James Kent said: “...whatever strikes at the root of Christianity tends manifestly to the dissolution of civil government...We are a Christian people, and the morality of the country is deeply engrafted upon Christianity...Christianity in its enlarged sense, as a religion revealed and taught in the Bible, is part and parcel of the law of the land....”

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story said in 1829, “There never has been a period of history, in which the Common Law did not recognize Christianity as lying at its foundation.”

Pearlston asked in 2001, “Can America still be called a Christian nation?” He replied, “It is certainly a more religiously pluralistic and diverse society than it was during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries. There are increasing numbers of non-Christians immigrating to this country….We live, not under a Christian government, but in a nation where all are free to practice their particular religion, in accommodation with other religions, and in accordance with the basic principles of the nation, which are Christian in origin. It is in that sense that America may properly be referred to as a Christian nation.”

A recent study found a decline in the percentage of Christians in the U.S. Fifteen percent of respondents said they had no religion, an increase from 8.2 percent in 1990, according to the American Religious Identification Survey. In 2008, “Christians” reportedly comprised 76 percent of U.S. adults, compared to about 77 percent in 2001 and about 86 percent in 1990.

President Barack Obama stated during an April 2009 press conference in Turkey, “One of the great strengths of the United States is – although, as I mentioned, we have a very large Christian population – we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation, or a Jewish Nation or a Muslim nation. We consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values.”

President Obama was right, in the sense that, as Pearlston states, America has no “official or legally-preferred religion or church.” But, 76 percent of Americans still identify with “Christian culture,” and America was founded on Christian principles. I believe our Founding Fathers envisioned a government that would promote and encourage Christianity. True Christians know that sin and the worship of false gods will destroy a nation, but “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord” (Psalm 33:12).

Father's Day - Not Easy for Everyone

2009-06-24T17:20:00.000-07:00

By Steve Crain

Father’s Day is not an easy occasion for everyone, but it’s an important day – a time to honor living fathers and fathers who have passed on.

My wife, Carol, who was born in Oakland, California, remembers seeing her father only twice. Carol’s mother left her marriage and took Carol, who was then one and one-half years old, to her Pennsylvania homeland. Carol was seven or eight and staying one night at her maternal grandparents’ house when a man knocked on their door.

Carol, sitting at a kitchen table when her grandmother opened that door, saw the man in the darkness but didn’t recognize him. Her grandmother stepped outside to talk. When she reentered, she told Carol, “That was your father.”

Carol didn’t see him again until she was a college student in Greenville, S.C. After graduating from high school, she asked her mother to locate her father. Carol mailed one of her graduation pictures to him (he lived in New Jersey), and they arranged to meet in Greenville in the fall. He arrived with his second wife, their five children and a German Shepherd dog. Carol had mixed feelings about their meeting and never communicated again with her father. She keeps a small, framed picture of him sitting on the mantel in our home. The photo – taken before he and Carol’s mother separated – shows her father in his army uniform.

Though our children (two adult daughters) treat me royally on Father’s Day, and Carol enjoys seeing me in good relationship with our offspring, I am aware on each Father’s Day that Carol knows what it’s like “to grow up without a father in the home.”

The Psalmist comforts “the Carols of this world” and all of us with these words: “Sing unto God, sing praises to his name: extol him that rides upon the heavens by his name JAH (the LORD), and rejoice before him. A father of the fatherless, and a judge (a defender) of the widows, is God in his holy habitation. God sets the solitary in families: he brings out those which are bound with chains: but the rebellious dwell in a dry land” (Psalm 68:4-6).

Psalm 27:10 offers these words: “When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up.”

The writer of Hebrews 13:5 tells us that God has promised, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (KJV). A modern version translates that verse this way: “I will not give you up or desert you.”

No matter how well or how poorly our parents fill or filled their roles, we should honor (respect) our parents because God asks us to do so. Respecting parents is tied closely with respecting God and people placed in authority over us.

Augustine asked, “If anyone fails to honor his parents, is there anyone he will spare?”

The fifth of God’s Ten Commandments contains a promise along with its directive: “Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee” (Exodus 20:12).

I talked years ago with a teenager whom I’ll call “Dan.” Dan’s parents left him with his maternal grandmother when he was a baby, and she, with small income, was raising him. Dan harbored mixed feelings toward his father, whom he infrequently saw. I pointed out that his father “brought him into the world” and though he might not be a good father, the man Dan knew as his father “was” his father. Dan was an excellent athlete, and I mentioned that he probably inherited his physical coordination from his dad, who participated in sports as a young man. I wanted Dan to find some way – even a small way – to respect his father and avoid self-destructive tendencies spawned from father-child conflict.

Doug, who worked as a personnel director, once told me that his father served as a pastor. One of Doug’s childhood jobs was to polish his dad’s shoes each Saturday night and get them ready for Sunday morning. One week, his dad punished Doug for something Doug had no part in. His dad later realized he’d wrongfully punished Doug, but he said nothing. Saturday night came, and as Doug picked up one of his dad’s shoes, he found an apology note from his dad placed inside that shoe. Doug smiled as he told me that story. I’m sure he would have preferred to hear words from his father’s lips, but the note in the shoe was his father’s “way.”

Father’s Day is not an easy occasion for everyone, but it is an important day.