Wednesday, December 1, 2010

A Grandfather !


A week ago tonight (Thanksgiving Eve) my wife and I received some of the best news parents can ever get. Our oldest daughter and her husband are going to have a baby in 2011. Can't believe it, but I'm a grandfather and my wife is a grandmother. I know the baby isn't even born yet, but if you believe as I do that life begins at conception, then the baby in my daughter's womb is alive. That's amazing to think about.

And that's exactly what the psalmist David wrote all those thousands of years ago,"For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother's womb." Inside my daughter--right now--my grandchild is being woven together by Almighty God (my daughter told me yesterday that at this stage in development the baby is the size of a green olive). David continues in verses 14-15, "I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth."

Now I know it happens thousands, even maybe millions, of times everyday but I've got to tell you this is different. This is special. I've been remembering back to the middle and late 80s when our two daughters were born and when the feelings of inadequacy and pride all at the same time welled up inside of me. I know I walked out of the hospital both times with my chest protruding just a little. But what am I going to feel like when my grandchild is born? I don't think inadequacy will be in the mix. That's for the new Dad and Mom. Happiness and sheer delight, I think, will rule the day as I thank my God for His provision and His goodness and grace in their lives.

The very next verse in Psalm 139 says, "Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Your book were all written. The days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them" (v. 16). Since last Wednesday evening I've been thinking, "Should I by him a Christmas present? Will she like to play the mandolin (she will if I have anything to say about it :). Will he be a Minnesota Twins fan? Will she like to go fishing with me? What nickname will fit him to a t? At what age will she bend the knee to God and receive Christ as Lord and Savior?

I have a picture hanging in my study of my daughter at the start of her wedding ceremony just before I gave her away to her husband. That day two years ago I was overwhelmed with thoughts concerning how it felt just like yesterday that she was cradled in my arms, even though twenty-three years had seemed to have gone by in a flash.

And what am I thinking today? Today I'm thinking, "My baby is going to have a baby?!!!"





Sunday, November 21, 2010

Christmas Season Songs

Last Saturday evening I had the opportunity to spend two hours watching one of my "musical hero's" sing and play his greatest hits. I've been listening to Gordon Lightfoot for forty years. Over seventy years old now, his voice a slight bit slurred and also raspy from cigarettes (he admitted during the concert), he still put on an amazing show.

His was the first and only concert I remember attending where the sound was near perfect. We could hear every word, every instrument, and every key change. Sitting there I wondered how many times he's sang some of his hits in a concert setting and as we listened to The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald it seemed like Lightfoot had the three-thousand of us in the palm of his hand. Nobody moved. We were focused on him and his band on the stage.

But as I thought about it on the drive home, I thought how sad it was that the concert was mostly Godless. Yes, he asks the question in the Edmund Fitzgerald song, "Does anyone know where the love of God goes when the waves turn the minutes to hours," and it's a good question and is mainly, I think, what the biblical Book of Job is about. But if I remember correctly none of the other songs contained references to God.

And then I remembered something I thought about during last years Christmas Season while I was listening to Frank Sinatra sing a Christmas Carol. What came to mind last year was how empty the Christmas Carols sounded from Frank, Dean, and Bing, James Taylor, or George Strait. The same songs sung by Fernando Ortega, Michael W. Smith, Stephen Curtis Chapman, Chris Tomlin, and Casting Crowns sound different somehow and I think I know why. It's because of the joy of the Lord in those artist's lives. It's the reality of Christ in that individual's life.

Joy is one of the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22). Part of Psalm 16:11 says, "In Your [God's] presence is fullness of joy." Let Psalm 33:1-3 sink deeply into you being, "Sing for joy in the LORD , O you righteous ones; praise is becoming to the upright. Give thanks to the LORD with the lyre; sing praises to Him with a harp of ten strings. Sing to Him a new song; play skillfully with a shout of joy."

I believe that joy in the Lord is the difference. And when Christian artists sing Christmas Carols the reality of Christ, and the inward joy of knowing they are His, comes through in their voices.

You know what, I love and listen to all sorts of different music including all of the singers I've mentioned including Gordon Lightfoot. But this Christmas Season I'm going to purpose to sing and play all of the well-known Christmas songs with the joy of the Lord bubbling over in my life because I'm one of His. I'm going to listen to Christian radio and cd's hearing the joy of the Lord coming through loud and clear.

You too?

Dan

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Election 2010

It's Election Day 2010 and for someone who watches the news everyday I have to say that I'm glad the political television ads will be missing from my favorite programs starting tomorrow. But I also thought about the 2012 election. It will probably start in earnest tomorrow. Hooray, right? Not! If you're like me I'm tired of the negativity and the backbiting and the partisanship? I'm thinking that if there is a truly honest politician out there (Democrat, Republican, Tea Party, whatever...) we should elect him president in 2012. I wonder if there is one???

If you have never watched the 1939 Jimmy Stewart classic Mr. Smith Goes to Washington it's way worth your time. Stewart plays a kind of a hick from Illinois who is chosen to fill a vacated Senate Seat who is supposed to tow the party line. But after he rubs his party's leadership the wrong way and won't go along with their underhanded dealings they try to paint him as dishonest and a troublemaker. I think it's ironic that after 70 years we see the same sort of things still going on in political circles today in 2010. (By the way Stewart's character wins in the end).

In stark contrast to the climate we see in our 2010 culture (especially in political circles) the Bible holds up integrity and honesty as virtues we are to go after, acquire, and then model for others as believers in Christ. After all, that's how our Lord lived. He's the benchmark.

Psalm 15 speaks eloquently to this subject. David wrote,"O LORD, who may abide in Your tent? Who may dwell on Your holy hill? He who walks with integrity, and works righteousness, and speaks truth in his heart. He does not slander with his tongue, nor does evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend; in whose eyes a reprobate is despised, but who honors those who fear the LORD; he swears to his own hurt and does not change; he does not put out his money at interest, nor does he take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things will never be shaken."

Oh that we'd have leaders like that in our country. We need some more Mr. Smiths in Washington. We need more Mrs. Smiths there as well. We need more people like Zacharias and Elizabeth the parents of John the Baptizer. They are described in Luke 1:6 as, "Both righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord."

So let's see who wins today, Zacharias and Elizabeth type politicians or those who are negative, backbiting and partisan. You decide.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

A Daunting Task

I live in Montana surrounded by the Rocky Mountains. It's beautiful here. I grew up thirty miles from here and remember our Sunday afternoon drives as a family up in the mountains. Many, many times we'd take a picnic meal with us on Sunday afternoons and head to wherever the road would take us in that old '58 Dodge stationwagon.

I vividly remember one Sunday afternoon hiking around the foothills north of Helena and I remember looking up at the hill we had stopped by. Should I climb it? Could I climb it? I did, but I can still remember how climbing it made my young body feel. It was tough. I thought I was in pretty good shape physically as a young teen, but climbing that "mountain" wore me out. It turned out to be a daunting task.

Over the years I've wanted to start a hobby, a diet, a project of some kind and the prospect of doing whatever it was, was a little daunting as well. Some things (maybe a lot of things) in life are like that. They seem too overwhelming to even start.

Last Sunday morning I started to preach through Paul's Letter to the Romans. Let me tell you the prospect of teaching what theologians and biblical academics call "The Greatest Letter Ever Written" is a daunting task as well. As preparation I listened to John Piper's introductory message when he started to preach through Paul's letter to the Christians in Rome and he said the same thing I've felt for some years. He said the possibility of preaching through Romans felt like looking at a great mountain preparing to climb it.

I've wanted to preach through Romans for sometime now, and I'd come to the mountain called Romans and looked up, but I never could get started. It was too intimidating. If I'm honest it was too frightening. How could I preach and teach the flock that God has entrusted me with here in Boulder, Montana what Martin Luther called, "the chief part of the New Testament?"

But last Sunday the time was right in God's sovereignty and grace to start climbing Romans. And I will need a special measure of His grace to finish that magnificent letter. Starting it was amazing. I felt like there was material in the introduction that God could even use to grow me and others spiritually. I can't wait to see what God has in store for us as we drink from the depths of the New Testament in order for God to teach us and remind us and help us apply timeless truths from His word.