07/02/21 MY TESTIMONY #2: “Amazing Grace” Verse 6 (I think) — “When we’ve been there ten thousand years, Bright shining as the sun, We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise, Than when we first began.”

That week, on Sunday through Thursday nights, as I lay awake, trying desperately NOT to fall asleep, the words of that verse haunted me. I was precocious in math at an early age. Back then our average lifetime was said to be 70-72 years. I figured that 10,000 divided by 70 was about 140. So 10,000 years is about 140 lifetimes, an unimaginably long time to me! The lyrics said to me that after I died I would be spending an EXTREMELY LONG time SOMEWHERE. Plus, even if I didn’t like it, I was NOT done—I could NOT leave; I had NOT used up ANY of the days of my “sentence.” And I knew the Bible said there were only two possibilities: I would either be in HEAVEN, an indescribably wonderful place, or HELL, an indescribably awful place.

I was frantic to find out if there was some way I could be sure I would spend those years in HEAVEN. I figured that my many SINS were what would be keeping me out of heaven and imprisoned in hell. In my youthful immaturity I determined to eliminate ALL sins from my life! STAY TUNED…

06/28/21 MY TESTIMONY #1: The CHILDREN’S BEDTIME PRAYER — “Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take. Amen.”

Years ago in a seminary theology class I was required to come up with a few of my own “catechisms.” The prayer above came to mind. Every time I think of it I’m reminded of a special fall week way back when I was eight and a half years old.

My parents were charter members of a church mission plant; my mother was the church secretary. I guess I had literally been at church “every time the doors were open” (and often when they were not) since nine months before I was born. I had won nearly every prize in sight for perfect Sunday School attendance, Bible verse memorization and so on. But one Sunday, after an otherwise perfectly normal Sunday morning worship service, I felt absolutely terrified. Suddenly it occurred to me that all those memory verses applied to me. And all those “impressive” achievements would not deliver me one inch or one second out of hell.

For the next four nights I tried my very best not to go to sleep. As the little prayer said, I knew exactly where the Lord would take my soul if I died before I awakened. STAY TUNED…

06/25/21 CHILDREN’S BLESSING — “God is great; God is good. And we thank Him for our food. By His hands we all are fed. Give us, Lord, our daily bread. Amen.”

Years ago our pastor came to dinner at our home. One of our elementary-aged sons had just been baptized. I asked him to say the blessing before we ate. I was surprised when he prayed the familiar children’s blessing above. At the time I was even a little embarrassed—I had thought he was a little more mature than that.

Fast forward a few years. In a seminary theology class I was required to come up with a few of my own “catechisms.” I immediately thought of that blessing. Each of its segments has abundant support in God’s Word:

Psalm 70:4 (ESV) May all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you! May those who love your salvation say evermore, “God is great!”

Psalm 119:68 (ESV) You are good and do good; teach me your statutes.

Psalm 81:10 (ESV) I am the LORD your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.

Luke 11:3 (ESV) Give us each day our daily bread… (also Matthew 6:11)

PRAISE THE LORD for this familiar blessing, so simple young children can recite and understand it!

06/21/21 FAMINE OF HEARING GOD’S WORD — In Amos 8:11-12 (CSB) the prophet says “Look, the days are coming— this is the declaration of the Lord God— when I will send a famine through the land: not a famine of bread or a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. 12 People will stagger from sea to sea and roam from north to east seeking the word of the Lord, but they will not find it.”

Tune in to the daily news on your favorite TV channel, Facebook account, or whatever. OR randomly choose a religious broadcast on a religious network. Odds are you will hear a bunch of nonsense that absolutely contradicts everything the Bible says about that subject. There is definitely a “famine… of hearing the words of the Lord” in our culture right now. But are people still desperately “seeking the word of the Lord” I WISH they were, but I’m NOT so sure!