The $23 Miracle

Raising seven children in the 1960’s I’m sure was no easy task.  My parents were hard workers and wonderful providers.  Not only did they both work full-time jobs, after they got home they either worked in the garden or dad took on outside carpentry jobs. 

Dad planted unusually large gardens, and in September mom canned vegetables in our large kitchen.  Their labors provided us with vegetables during cold weather and course helped reduce groceries bills. 

On many occasions mom canned well into the early morning hours.  I remember drifting off to sleep listening to the sounds of lids popping!  My siblings and I would later line our basement shelves with green beans, corn, tomatoes, okra, beets, potatoes, and other yummy winter delights. 

In late summer dad would load his pick-up truck with garden produce and head for the Farmer’s Market in Youngstown.  Proceeds from these trips went toward buying school clothes and supplies.  Dad also raised a hog or two or a cow to slaughter in the fall.  By the end of October we were ready for winter in the “snow belt.”  I realize I sound like Laura Ingalls Wilder’s 21^st century counterpart, but it’s true!     

You can imagine that money was tight in our home, and I tried not to place additional financial burdens on my parents, except for one day in July 1970.  My pastor’s wife had approached me with the idea of going to youth camp in Big Prairie, Ohio.  She sensed that God was working in my heart and encouraged me to do everything I could to attend. 

Because I had no way of earning money, this meant asking my dad for the necessary registration and camp fee.  Timidity almost overwhelmed me, but something (Someone!) strongly stirred me to approach dad for the money.  It’s not that I was afraid of him, but I knew that money for “extras” was in short supply.  Besides, I had to consider my brothers and sisters.  Understand, $23.00 represented quite a sacrifice in a family of nine. 

In retrospect, I realize the Holy Spirit honored my hungry, searching heart and gave me the fortitude to ask my dad for the necessary amount.  Mom and dad were sitting at the kitchen table, relaxing after a hard day’s work.  I approached them with my voice quivering and said, “Dad, I’d love to go to camp in a few weeks. Could I have $23.00?”  I believe the Holy Spirit touched his heart at that precise moment and without hesitation dad said, “Yeah, I don’t see why not.”  Subsequently, he placed his hand on my head as if to say, “It’s alright!”  That quick touch said, “We love you.”  Mom immediately wrote the check.

Since that day I have referred to this incident as my “Twenty-three dollar miracle.”  First, I knew my parents sacrificed greatly to send me to camp.  Second, on August 4, 1970 I responded to an invitation to accept Jesus Christ as my personal Savior and simultaneously was called to preach!  Dad’s $23.00 investment yielded a minister of the Gospel!

To this day, as finances allow, I love helping young people go to camp.  I wish to payback what God so miraculously made possible in my life. 

God's Wonderful Track Record

I admit it.  I tend to worry, especially when it comes to money, and more specifically, retirement.  The other day I heard something about Social Security that further threatened my peace.  I heard a colleague say, “There will be no Social Security left when we need it” (Not sure where she got her facts).  Immediately, fear grabbed my heart, as I allowed the enemy to weave his lies into the fabric of my future.  Then something wonderful and supernatural happened.  I heard the Lord say, “I’ve been faithful to you over the years and I will continue to be faithful.  Trust Me!” Peace from above calmed my heart. 

My mind raced back to my senior year at Jefferson Area High School.  Graduation was coming and I had no idea how I was going to finance my college education.  By faith I applied to attend Evangel University in Springfield, Missouri and was accepted.

In April 1974, I learned that a foundation in Conneaut, Ohio was offering scholarships to qualified applicants.  Upon inquiry I discovered that I met the necessary preliminary requirements, so I applied to the George J. Record School Foundation for assistance.  And guess what?  Their mission statement lined up with my need!

It said, “In accordance with its mission, the foundation makes grants to very good students from Ashtabula County, Ohio, attending private, non-state supported, accredited colleges or universities affiliated with a religion of a Protestant denomination.  Grants are confined to residents of Ashtabula County, Ohio.”

God matched my need to their requirements!  Four years later I graduated from EU with only a $3,000 student loan balance!  God proved Himself faithful.

Over the years God has continued to prove Himself faithful in our finances.  We raised four children and when I look back I ask myself, “How did we do it?”  The answer:  God’s continued faithfulness.  I can recount story after story when the Lord helped us with financial issues.  I remember what the late radio evangelist C.M. Ward said about God’s faithfulness: “God will always meet our needs, but sometimes He’ll scare us!”  Been there, experienced that!

Now at 62, I find that television and radio advertisements about retirement income tend to place fearful thoughts in the minds of baby boomers.  I refuse to allow Wall Street, my 401k or the Social Security Administration to dictate my faith.  I choose to put my faith in Jehovah-Jireh, the Lord Who provides.  If these advertisements are correct, most Americans do not have enough money for their retirement years.  And if we choose to dwell on current savings ratios, we end up fearing the future. 

Yes, save your money.  Yes, do what you can in your youth and wage earning years to prepare for your financial future.  But when it comes down to it, life is uncertain and unpredictable.  We need the Lord to be our financial advisor!  He is our Provider. 

God used the George J. Record Foundation in my youth to unexpectedly meet my need for college tuition.  And this same God of my upcoming retirement years will continue to meet my needs “according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19).  He has a wonderful track record.  His faithfulness is unsurpassed!

Who's Right?

We in church circles have probably heard the following story and self-righteously snickered:  “A man went to heaven and Saint Peter was giving him the initial tour.  ‘Over there we have the Baptists and there the Methodists.  Across the way we have the Lutherans.  But now you must be quiet because coming up on the right are the ______ (you may fill in the blank) because they think they’re the only ones here!’”

This joke is both funny and sad because there are people in various Christian circles who really believe they’re the only ones going to heaven.  Perhaps you know some!

Let me ask you something.  Can you believe something that’s not entirely accurate and still go to heaven?  As a young Christ follower I would have said, “Absolutely not!”  Now, after following Jesus for almost 50 years, I realize that I have spent those years exchanging perceived truth for God’s truth.  I have in fact embraced partial truth for God’s truth.  And that’s what we call “growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.” 

As a hospice chaplain I meet all kinds of people and I encounter all kinds of belief systems.  Some of what I hear greatly repels me and I adamantly try to line up perceived truth to God’s Word.  If the two conflict, I throw the falsehood away!  However, I’ve come to understand that none of us have all the answers and we all “see through a glass darkly” (1 Corinthians 13:12).

Therefore, many (including me) will one day go to heaven perhaps believing some things that aren’t completely true or that do not entirely line up with God’s Word.  For example, many will go to heaven with a statue of Mary in their front yard.  Some will go to heaven with cigarette breath.  Some will go to heaven believing they had to speak in tongues to get there.  Others will arrive having exchanged Trinity teaching for “Oneness Theology.”  Still, others believe you have to be baptized in water to make heaven your eventual home. There remains no shortage of aberrant teaching and/or wrong thinking.

HOWEVER, no one will get there without Jesus Christ!  This understanding is non-negotiable.  I talk with many wonderful people who believe doctrines I disdain, but who underneath it all have fallen in love with Jesus, recognized Him to be the only begotten Son of God, who have placed their faith and trust in Him for the forgiveness of their sin and who trust Him for their salvation.

I know that many will disagree, but I think we all agree that Jesus is God’s spotless Lamb, whose shed blood enables us to experience personal salvation. According to Ephesians 1:7 we have “forgiveness through the blood.”  All of us, I suppose, believe things that probably aren’t “God’s truth,” but if we leave earth with Christ in our heart and His love in our soul, we will make heaven our home.

As a minister of the gospel, I have to leave the “non-essential stuff” up to the Lord.  Dogmatic and harsh approaches toward people who don’t believe like we do only tend to drive wedges and spawn judgmental attitudes. 

So, who’s right?  This remains a loaded question.  But let me tell you one thing:  Christ followers who lack wisdom, who glory in making their position known at the expense of church division and who exhibit little or no love – only mean-spirited approaches – and who become self-righteous in their approach to others ONLY HINDER THE FURTHERANCE OF THE GOSPEL.  Always be part of the solution, and let God handle the many idiosyncrasies we discover in day to day living.

Regrets

Before his death in 1985, famed actor Yul Brynner made a video, which aired posthumously.  In this 30-second appeal, Brynner urged smokers to quit.  At one point in his life Brynner smoked five packs of cigarettes a day.  The star, especially known for his stellar performances in the “King and I” and the “Ten Commandments,” expressed deep regret over his life-long habit.

“Good Morning America” first aired the video wherein the 65-year-old actor claimed that cigarette smoking was the culprit that prematurely stole his life.  Lung cancer had worked its deadly toll.  The tone of the video was that of deep regret.

Regret.  It’s not my favorite word.  It ranks up there with the word, “If.”  Both inspire a sense of deep sadness.  Both speak of what might have been.

We all have regrets – things we wish we could change if we had it to do over.  Things we would not say or do.  But the fact of the matter is we can’t undo anything!  And this is where Satan does some of his most damaging work.  He loves to use past regrets and mistakes against us.

He downloads our past, clouds our present realities, and wants us to continue defining our future by our past.  It’s brutal! 

I have good news!   We do not have to be prisoners of our past.  Our past sins, mistakes, failures, and poor choices no longer have to be a ball and chain about our feet.  John Wesley included these words in his beloved hymn, “O, For a Thousand Tongues:”  “He breaks the power of cancelled sin, He sets the prisoner free; His blood can make the foulest clean, His blood availed for me.”

The blood of Jesus cancels the hold of our sin – past, present and future.  We have been forgiven because of His perfect and shed blood.  One of my all-time favorite verses is 2 Corinthians 5:21.  Paul writes, “For he made Him who knew no sin to be sin, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

This verse challenges our propensity to allow past regrets and failures to haunt our “todays and tomorrows!”  Not only have we been forgiven, we now have become righteousness.  We are no longer defined or shackled by our regrets, but we ARE righteousness.  He is Christ in us, the hope of glory!  We no longer see ourselves through the lens of our past, but WHO He is in us!

We have been forgiven!  God casts our sins into His Sea of Forgetfulness (Micah 7:19), and remembers them NO MORE.  God through Christ declares us to be righteousness.  Our past sins, regrets and failures can no longer be held against us.  Our Great Advocate, Jesus Christ, declares us “NOT GUILTY” at His bar of justice.  Our past, when placed under the blood, can no longer indict us today.

How about you?  How many times have you allowed the enemy to bring up past regrets and use them against you?  I have and often!  But when I remind God of my sins, He says to me, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”  For you see, He now looks at us through the blood of Jesus and declares that we are righteousness.  We are not what we used to be.  We are who He declares us to be – righteousness.  God literally has amnesia when it comes to our sins!

We are no longer held captive by our past sins and regrets, but are new creations in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:17).  Regrets be gone!  We are now righteousness and a new day has dawned, one that is not driven by regret, but rather free from sin’s stronghold.  Do not allow past regrets to imprison you.  You are free in Jesus’ Name!