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Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his faithful servants. Psalm 116:15 (NIV)
[To my readers: On February 11, 2012 my father suffered a stroke which weakened him physically and took away his speech. The search for a cause of that stroke revealed stage four cancer in his body. For the next several weeks my father battled the cancer as well as the effects of the stroke. On March 22, 2012, just 11 days after his 85th birthday, Dad won his battle with cancer and was ushered into the presence of his Lord Jesus to join those who have gone before us.
The words that follow are my tribute to my Father. A tribute I was honored to share with those of us who gathered together to celebrate his life. May you be challenged and blessed by these words.
Since that time, I’ve taken time away from my writing to regroup, deal with some personal issues, and rest. It’s time to re-enter the world to share what God has laid on my heart. I pray he will give me the strength to balance life and writing so that you will be blessed by the words I am given. May the God of Heaven richly bless you. Amen.]
How do you sum up 57 years of memories in a three to five minute speech? The easy answer to that of course is…you can’t! It’s been so encouraging to hear your stories of how Dad influenced your lives; to hear how many of you will spend eternity with Jesus because of the ministry Dad had to you. There aren’t too many 84 year old men who can relate to someone who is 14 one minute and a 70 year old the next.
Dad, Pastor Max, Grandpa Max, was more than a father to me, especially in these later years. He was a mentor, a friend and one of my main cheerleaders whether I entered the pulpit or faced some new challenge in life.
Over the last eight years I had the honor of having breakfast with Dad nearly every Wednesday, in our usual booth at ‘Our Place Café’. You know you are a regular when you show up at a restaurant and your coffee is hot and poured, your eggs are done just the way you like them and the servers greet you by name. Wednesday mornings will never be the same.
One of the memories I have growing up was the role of music in our family. We were by no means the Von Trapp Family but mom worked hard to get five rambunctious pastors kids all singing on the right page…usually. We learned to sing on our 90 mile trips over the river and through the woods to grandma’s house. Mom taught us to sing in harmony.. Dad taught us the importance of living in harmony. Together they taught us the vital importance of a relationship with Jesus Christ.
While Mom had an ear for music, Dad had a love for music. They are not the same. On one occasion I remember Dad being asked, not so graciously, to refrain from singing with us since we were practicing for Sunday night church and he was throwing us off key.
Dad had a song in his heart even though it didn’t always come through his lips as well as it left his head. Nothing could quench the song in my Dad’s heart. Anyone visiting his Face Book page knew his love for music, and especially the old hymns. I helped him publish his last hymn. Even though he couldn’t talk and was weakened from the stroke, he knew exactly which hymn to put on his page.
Wonderful, Wonderful Jesus
There is never a day so dreary, there is never a night so long, but the soul that is trusting Jesus will somewhere find a song. Wonderful, wonderful Jesus, In the heart he implanteth a song, A song of deliverance, of courage, of strength, in the heart he implanteth a song.
I share that story because the chorus we just finished singing [Heaven is a wonderful place, filled with glory and grace. I’m going to see my Saviors face; Heaven is a Glorious, Heaven is a Marvelous, Heaven is a Wonderful place.] was the last song my Dad sang this side of heaven. That was the same day that he called us four sons together to tell us that his time would be short and how much he’d enjoy our company for the remainder of his stay here on earth.
57 years of memories. 57 years of lessons Dad taught me. Some I’m still working on. Others I’ve forgotten, but some of the biggest lessons still ring true in my heart.
Lesson One: You can always come home. I think each of sons and at least one grandson took Dad literally on that by moving our families into his house. Looking back I don’t think Dad was inviting us to move our families into his house. He was teaching us though that no matter how many mistakes you’ve made and how much you struggle with life, Jesus always welcomes you home with open arms.
Lesson Two: Jesus forgives ALL sin. Too often we like to categorize sin by saying “Your sin is worse than mine’ or this sin isn’t as big as that sin. Dad showed me, especially in these last years that forgiveness was for ALL sin, ALL the time.
Lesson Three: Listen to the Spirit and follow his lead. Dad often told me the story of a time when he was prompted by the Spirit to make an unexpected stop at a friend’s house. A stop he didn’t want to take but a stop that resulted in several major events. People found Jesus. People were sent into ministry. Broken families were healed. All because of that one time when Dad chose to listen to the Spirit.
4. Lesson Four: God has forgiven you. Have you forgiven others? Have you forgiven God? It’s so easy to get angry when we are mistreated. It’s so easy to hold a grudge, refuse to forgive and promise retaliation. Those things only keep us imprisoned. Dad inspired us all to love and live freely.
There were many other lessons of course. Too many to mention. But perhaps the biggest lesson I learned from my Dad was never verbalized by him. In fact, if he were here today he’d probably not agree with me. You see, my Father was, to me, an example of my Heavenly Father. Don’t get me wrong. Dad wasn’t perfect. He ate too much ice cream and took too few walks. He confided in me some of the struggles in his own spiritual life. But he gave me a clear picture of my Heavenly Father because of his unconditional love for me.
In church circles we talk about a God who is our Heavenly Father. A Father that loves us regardless of what we do or say or think. While that is true, it’s sometimes hard to find a good example of that in our world. When we are young and afraid we look to our Daddies for support. As we grow older and struggle with life and things don’t work out the way we planned those closest to us may fail to support us because we don’t meet their expectations. No so my Dad.
My Dad walked me through some of the darkest, loneliest days of my entire life. He showed me love, forgiveness and acceptance when my choices disappointed him. Sometimes those choices were unintentional, sometimes they were the result of my own bull-headed Scandinavian heritage. Regardless of the choices I made, I learned that my dad loved me. I’m proud of my Dad and I know he was proud of me.
I had supper with my dad shortly after he entered Parmly Life Points Care Center. It was a Saturday evening and I was preaching the next morning. I was talking with him about my sermon and from time to time he’d try to interject some scripture I should use.
The gentleman across the table asked me, “Is your dad a pastor too?”
I smiled, “Yep, he’s been a pastor for…over 60 years.”
Dad corrected me very clearly, “67 years” He said slowly, “But God shut me up!”
I remember putting my hand on his shoulder and saying, No Dad, God hasn’t shut you up.
And so, I close with a request. Please help keep Dad’s message alive. His voice is now directed towards praising the Savior in heaven. But while his voice may be silenced here on earth, please keep his message, the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; the message of grace, alive by showing others the patience, care, understanding and love that he showed so many of us.
Don’t shut up the message of Pastor Max.
But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. Isaiah 53:5 NIV
We live in a world that idolizes heroes and rightfully so. A Good Samaritan stops to pull an injured person from a burning car and then, the mayhem that follows, disappears when emergency crews arrive.
A fireman or by-stander races into a burning home to rescue a person inside, only to die in the attempt.
A mother dies saving the lives of her children as a tornado pours debris down on her. The children survive because of the body shield she made.
A child calls 9-1-1 and as a result a loved one is taken to the hospital just in time, a life is saved.
We love hearing these stories. Stories of people in the right place at the right time, performing a feat of bravery and ignoring the risk to their own lives. They make us smile. They give us hope. They become a bright light in the darkness.
But what would we think if every time someone tried to save another person that person climbed right back into the danger? The wounded person drags himself across the pavement to climb back into the burning fire; the rescued person dashes back into the burning house; the injured loved one refuses treatment once the ambulance arrives and dies on the floor.
Preposterous you may say and you’d be right. But such is the story of Jesus Christ. He went to the cross knowing that the very people he died for would continue to sin. He went to the cross realizing that for many, his death would be in vain, not because their sin was too great, but because of their refusal to seek his forgiveness.
Jesus is the ultimate hero. The heroes we read about in the newspapers save people from physical harm and death, Jesus saves us from the hidden wounds of the heart and gives us eternal life. The wounds on our bodies can heal with time, but only Jesus can heal the eternal wounds of the heart. He is our ultimate hero and he did it knowing we’d rush right back in and need to be rescued again.
As one writer said, “It wasn’t the nails that held Jesus to the cross. It was your sin.”
PRAYER: Lord Jesus I thank you for rescuing me. There is no reason I deserve your kindness. There is no reason you should have endured the pain of the cross on my behalf. But I thank you for your mercy, grace and forgiveness. Amen.
But the wicked are filled with terror, because God is with those who do what is right. Psalm 14:5 (NCV)
The reality of God’s existence is a refuge for some and a source of fear for others.
To those who believe in the God of the universe, the God of Jacob and Genesis, the God who sent Jesus Christ to earth to be the savior of all mankind, he is the foundation of our faith.
For those who believe in other gods, Jehovah God brings fear, frustration and anger. Albert Barnes writes in ‘Barnes notes on the Bible’, “People cannot, by an effort of will, get rid of the evidence that there is a God. In the face of all their attempts to convince themselves of this, the demonstration of his existence will press upon them, and will often fill their minds with terror.”
Jesus himself warns us that we would be hated by the world because the world hates him, and if the world hates Jesus it hates the Father God of the universe. What was the first emotion felt by Adam and Eve after they sinned? When God came looking for them to take his normal evening walk in the garden with his friends they were hiding. Why? “We hid because we were naked and afraid.”
Unhealthy fear of God is expressed in many ways. Some go to any effort at all to disprove his existence.
Others show fear though anger at God. He didn’t do what I wanted. He didn’t meet my wants. Therefore he must not exist and if he does exist, he isn’t interested in me or is angry with me.
Still others become frustrated in their walk with God. They live the way they want. They follow their own passions, their own desires and when the natural consequences of their decisions produce the expected outcome they are shocked. Where is God now? They ask. If he loves me why does this happen?
Referring back to the earlier quote from Barnes’ may help us to understand a little bit more about our enemy. Our ultimate enemy of course is Satan, but he works in the minds of his children (those who refuse to believe) to instill fear in a variety of ways in order to pull them farther from the God who desperately wants a love relationship with them.
What does this mean to us as Christ followers? Perhaps it is easier for us to realize that those attacks on us that seem to put us on the defensive are really the attacks of people who feel trapped. Cornered by the sub-conscious realization that God does exist, they have two options. Fight or give in.
Our responsibility as children of God isn’t to fight back, but to love and accept them into the kingdom. Show them the forgiveness available through grace. Realize their attacks are really an indication of the realization that we are right about our belief in a sovereign God and a gracious redeemer.
PRAYER: Father, I confess to you that I get angry when I see people around me mocking your name and living in ways that don’t please you. I get judgmental and critical of their ways. Help me to see what you see, a bunch of scared people seeking relief from their fears in the wrong way. Help me show them that you are the solution to the fear and frustration in their lives, not the cause of it. In the name of Jesus, my Lord I pray, Amen.
The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good. Psalm 14:1 (NIV)
“Do you believe in God?”
The answer to this question seems to have changed over the years. Used to be that everyone believed in God, or if they didn’t, they would never admit it. It was just too un-popular of a philosophy to think of a world without God. Reality is though, the question isn’t really “Do you believe in God”, rather it would be better phrased which God do you believe in. Those that say there is no God have really set themselves as the supreme deity and their personal view on life as being their ‘theology’.
Others believe in a Supreme Being of some sort. They look around and realize all this must have come from somewhere. Even the most primitive tribes have stories of the origin of man and the universe and all include in that story some great power that gave us all this. Ironically, only our ‘sophisticated society’ has come up with an explanation for origins that doesn’t include some supreme being. But simply believing in some super-power isn’t enough. These people may believe in some supreme being but they deny that this being has any influence in this world. He, or it is a king without a kingdom so to speak.
Perhaps the most dangerous and most numerous people are the many who profess to believe in God on the outside but not in their hearts. They may go to church and have all the religious jargon down. They may not go to church but still believe in God, but stay away because of all the ‘politics’. Their religious philosophy goes something like this, “I believe in God, but I can worship him wherever and however I want. I don’t need to go to church to worship God. Besides, none of us really know what God is like.” They don’t believe in a personal God who rewards or punishes.
The Psalmist has a word for those in the above mentioned three categories. It’s the word fool. He lumps them all together in one need little package. They are all fools. They are all people who don’t know, or refuse to acknowledge the existence of a personal God.
Belief in God begins in the heart. Outward activities offer no proof of inner commitment to him. The fool may say in his heart that God doesn’t exist and show the world otherwise, but a heart that is truly committed to God will show the character of God in thought word and deed.
What God do you believe in? It will show in your actions towards those who mistreat you and who differ from you. The God of the universe, the creator and sustainer of all we see is a personal, graceful and merciful God who earnestly desires a personal, passionate relationship with you through his son, Jesus Christ.
PRAYER: Father God, I thank you today that you do exist. I pray that you would change my heart to be in tune with you so that others will see you are real because of me. In the name of Jesus Christ my Lord I pray, Amen.
Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous, it does not brag, and it is not proud. 1 Corinthians 13:4 (NCV)
I like the way the KJV words this verse, “Charity [love] suffereth long”.
We don’t like to think of love and suffering in the same sentence. We’re taught when we are young that love is signified by a smile and a hug; a kind soft voice; warm chocolate cookies and milk.
Reality can set in far too early about love though. More and more of our children learn that love can end and sometimes, harshly. Mommy and Daddy used to say “I love you all the time…before the divorce.”
“My mommy says she loves me but she is never there when I call her and her boyfriend hits me all the time.”
“Friday he said he loved me, but it’s Monday and he says he doesn’t want me around anymore.”
Reality is, from a human perspective anyway, love isn’t the warm, fuzzy, eternally blissful thing we always dream of. Fairy tales end at the gates of Disney World and real live sets in harshly and quickly.
Too often we confuse love with passion rather than suffering; with comfort rather than conflict; with happiness rather than hardship. But love doesn’t have to be that way. True love, Godly love isn’t measured by fireworks and party hats.
Godly love determines, before you leave the house that the guy that cuts you off on the interstate isn’t invading your spot, you were saving it for him. Godly loves means that before you lash out at your child for forgetting an assignment AGAIN, you listen to their own pain and help them learn to make good choices. Godly love means that when the food comes to your table cold and late you notice the red eyes of the server and ask how her day is going.
Godly love isn’t easy love. Godly love gets taken advantage of; is unappreciated; suffers…long. Godly love endures constant disappointment, patiently works through rebellion and always puts the needs of the other person before your own.
People have had enough of the love the world offers. That person in the pew behind you at church, you know the one who never keeps her kids quiet, just may be at the end of her rope and needs understanding rather than judgment. That teenager with long hair and scruffy clothes may be making a statement that says ‘All I really want is to be noticed.’
How can you show Godly love today? Who will irritate you for the umpteenth time that may just need a smile rather than a rebuke? Before you act, measure your love for others according to God’s love for you. His love for you ‘suffers long’ and he asks the same from you.
PRAYER: Lord, thank you for the way you love me. Thank you for the patience you’ve shown when I rebel, struggle or get impatient. Empower me with your Spirit to show others the great love you have shown me. In the loving name of Jesus I pray, Amen.
Mike Fisk & Built with Grace 