What Christmas Means To Me

Like any other holiday, the Christmas season means different things to different people.

For most of my life, I didn’t pay much attention to this simple observation. There was a time when Americans enjoyed the season without picking on each other. We put up Christmas trees, sent greeting cards, took the kids to see Santa Claus, and listened to Christmas music of all kinds. Christians and non-Christians alike joined in the festivities. We all put up with each other. Then something happened.

The anti-Christian crowd didn’t want us to call it “Christmas” anymore. Pressure was brought to bear on sales clerks to say “Happy Holidays” rather than “Merry Christmas.” Religious displays on public property were outlawed. School programs were emptied of any references to Christmas.

A couple of weeks ago, when the annual dispute over Christmas erupted once more in the public media, I gave it a second thought. It wasn’t the story about the atheist proclamation in the Washington State House that pushed me over the edge. It was the latest survey from the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

The survey found that most Christians in America no longer believe Christ is the only way to God. The figures released by the Pew Forum indicate that 75% of “mainline Protestants” and 85% of “non-Hispanic white Catholics” believe salvation can be found elsewhere. Even 34% of “white evangelicals” chose at least one non-Christian religion that could bring peace with God. What do these figures mean?

There are two possibilities. Either Christians do not understand the Christmas story, or they have rejected it as true history. Did Mary receive a message from the angel Gabriel about the birth of Jesus? Did the angel say that her child would be supernaturally conceived and called the Son of God? Did the angels sing to shepherds on the night Jesus was born? Did they call him “Christ, the Lord?” These are words of deity.

The Christmas story tells us that God became a man. He became a man so that he could open a way to God through his flesh, a way that we could not create for ourselves. That’s why the angel said to the shepherds, “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.” Jesus is not simply one of many ways to God. He is THE way to God. To say otherwise is to either misunderstand or disbelieve the story.

I think professing Christians have rolled over and played dead on this one. In the interest of “tolerance,” many have surrendered the “birth of Christ” meaning of Christmas. They don’t need to do that. In fact, they shouldn’t do that. Toleration has nothing to do with giving up your beliefs. It has to do with accepting those who see things differently.

So I accept other meanings of the Christmas season. Just don’t ask me to give up the meaning that matters most to me.

Don't Take Anything for Granted

Yesterday morning, while enjoying the early morning sunshine from my patio, I heard the tack-tack-tack of a power nailer across the way. New homes are going up, I thought, and a roofer is already hard at work. Tack-tack-tack. He was moving fast. Suddenly, there was a scream. The nailing stopped.

I imagined what must have happened. The roofer put a tack through his foot, or maybe his hand. I did my morning exercises, and kept listening. No more sounds. No emergency vehicle. No cars or trucks driving out of the area. Maybe my assumption was wrong. Perhaps there was another explanation for what I heard.

Imagination drives assumptions. On the basis of available evidence, we fill in the blanks with our imagination, and voila! We have an explanation. Or do we? All of us make assumptions. As a Pastor, I made plenty of them. It was embarrassing. Scientists make assumptions, especially in regard to origins. This week, politicians are telling us that 700 billion dollars will “rescue” America’s economy. Now, there’s an assumption if I ever heard one. If I learned anything in 40 years of ministry, it is Don’t Take Anything for Granted.

That’s the motivation behind a trip we are taking tomorrow. Loreen and I are flying from Tucson to Los Angeles, renting a car, and driving to Seal Beach, California. At nine o’clock on Saturday morning, I will join a group of ordained ministers to examine a candidate for ministry as an Army Chaplain.

I have met the candidate. He is an officer in the Army Reserve. I read his pre-exam application. I liked his answers. But that isn’t enough. Our imagination can create assumptions. So, we are going to sit together and have free-ranging discussions about his call to ministry. We will ask questions about his beliefs. We want to be sure. None of us should take anything for granted.

We expect the candidate to do well in this examination. If there were any doubt about that, I wouldn’t invest the time and money to make this trip. But that’s an assumption. Our task is to reduce the number of assumptions on which we depend before approving people for ministry.

On Monday morning, I expect to be on my patio again. I look forward to soaking up the rays of the morning sun. That’s an assumption. It’s based on sound evidence, but I am governed by a higher rule. Don’t Take Anything for Granted.

Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. (James 4:13-16)

A Full Summer, Nearly Gone

The calendar in my computer announces that today is August 15. For us, a summer of travel is nearly over. It hardly seems possible. The older I get, the faster time flies.

Two months have passed since I last wrote about our travels. We have visited pastors and their wives from Texas to South Carolina and Maryland to Iowa. Somewhere in the middle, we attended the conference of Grace Brethren churches in Florida. It proved to be another great opportunity to meet with pastors and their wives.

We also had the privilege of helping to qualify two men for ministry as Army Chaplains. In cooperation with John Schumacher, Chaplain Endorsing Agent for the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches, I gathered a group of pastors to serve as an examining committee. The first candidate was John Jacobsen, recommended to us by the Grace Brethren Church in Beaver City, Nebraska. The second candidate was Peter Stone, recommended to us by the Fountain of Life Bible Church in Johnson City, Tennessee. Both men did extremely well in their examinations, and we expect them to do very well in their ministry to soldiers.

Of course, our time in Pennsylvania was the most enjoyable of all. Our children and grandchildren are in Lancaster County, and we carved out lots of time for them. We also visited with friends who were our companions in ministry at Grace Church in Lititz. Pastor Scott Distler invited me to preach one Sunday, and that is always a privilege. However, I can honestly say that I am glad not to be preaching two sermons on Sunday morning anymore.

Today is our last day in Iowa. We have an appointment with Gary and Jean Austin in Cedar Rapids this noon. Gary has been challenged with cancer the last couple of years, so your prayer for them would be greatly appreciated. Sometime this afternoon, we will hook up our fifth wheel RV and drive through Waterloo. We want to see friends while driving through, but we expect to drive to the edge of Iowa this evening. We’ll sleep along the way, and find ourselves well into South Dakota by tomorrow night.

Thank you for thinking of us, and praying for our safety in travel. The Lord has been gracious, and he leads the way. We are hoping to see some beautiful scenery in Wyoming before turning south through Utah. By the end of August, we should be in Arizona.

A full summer, nearly gone.

A Special Story

One day this week, I watched a television program which insisted that evolution is a scientific fact and Christians who object to the idea are ignorant bigots. The narrator of the program announced that, among all the animals on the planet, “Human beings are nothing special.” Hmmmm.

I had an experience this week which convinced me human beings are not only special, but also the angels of God are watching over us with special care. Here is my story.

Two weeks ago, my wife and I left Tucson, Arizona for travel among the pastors and churches of the Grace Brethren Fellowship. We drove for two days across New Mexico and Texas, a very hot trip indeed. We visited the Grace Brethren Church in Longview, Texas on June 1st and did our best to encourage the leaders there. We were able to spend time with John Mayes and Vernon and Glyn Harris, two retired pastors and pastor’s wife.

Our next stop was Atlanta, Georgia, where we enjoyed fellowship with Jim and Wanda Laird and Bill and Betty Byers. We heard exciting stories of what the Lord may have in store for them and the church. After watching the children gather for their Vacation Bible School, we drove a few miles north to an RV park for the night. Our goal was to drive to Aiken, South Carolina the next day.

Bright and early on Thursday morning, we got the rig ready and entered the truck. I turned the key. Nothing happened. I called Good Sam emergency road service. To make a long story short, the truck was picked up and transported to a Ford garage in Cartersville, Georgia. The next day, the garage called to say that two new batteries were installed, but they found another problem. The trailer brake control was totally dead. We had to wait until Monday before they could do any more for us.

We were devastated. Not only was a big bill on the way, but also our plan to visit pastors and pastors’ wives was in jeopardy. I began wondering how we could arrive in Pennsylvania by Father’s Day to attend the wedding of our son. It took an entire weekend of prayer and thinking before I understood how special we are.

We could have been stranded along a remote section of Georgia highway. Instead, our trailer sat in a beautiful park beside Alatoona Lake. Loreen’s sister Elva and her husband Jack live in Cartersville. They picked us up and drove us around. The brake controller could have failed while driving down a long hill, or in traffic through Atlanta. Instead, it failed while the truck sat still, unable to move. Imagine that.

We lost five days. We could have lost our lives. The Lord had a better plan. He stranded us in a beautiful park within a few miles of Elva and Jack. A new part from Detroit could have taken two days. Instead, a part was found, delivered, and installed within five hours. We got acquainted with the owner of the Ford dealership and spoke with him about the Lord. Imagine that.

Luck, you say? Hmmmm.

We are on our way again. We stopped through Aiken yesterday, had lunch with Steve and Pat Taylor, and continued driving north. Tonight, we are parked just inside Virginia. Losing five days means that our plan to visit pastors and churches on our way north is seriously altered. However, I am confident that the angels of God are watching over me.

That’s special.

Coming Your Way

In 2002, my wife and I announced that two years hence we would retire from our roles as Pastor and Pastor’s Wife at Grace Church in Lititz, Pennsylvania.

As you might imagine, all of us – including the hundreds who attended our church – were in great confusion as we considered what God may have in store for us. After all, we had served the Lititz congregation more than 30 years. Loreen and I spent lots of time before the Throne of Grace asking God to lead us into a future unknown.

Part of the answer was already in our hearts. I had long dreamed of writing books and articles that would be helpful to ordinary followers of Jesus – the same kind of people I had been feeding and leading for years. However, I also knew that Loreen and I were well suited for a ministry of encouragement to pastors and their wives. We gave ourselves to the Lord for that purpose.

In 2004, we emptied our savings account and bought an RV rig consisting of a truck and fifth wheel trailer. Every summer, we travel through the country visiting pastors and their wives. We especially focus on small places, going out of our way to find people who may feel out of touch or forgotten. We have visited churches and their pastors in Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.

This is our fourth summer to travel in this manner. We expect to leave Saddlebrooke, Arizona the last week of May and not return until the first week of September. Our plan is to travel through Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama before turning north along the Great Smoky Mountains. We must arrive in Pennsylvania by Father’s Day because our son is to be married that day.

I usually send e-mail messages ahead wherever we go. If you should find a message in your box entitled “coming your way,” you will know what it means. If your schedule allows, we may have an opportunity for fellowship. Loreen and I enjoy taking pastors and their wives out for lunch or dinner. If it’s a weekend, I may even visit your worship service and hear you preach. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

Diesel fuel is rather expensive these days. If we have any prayer request beyond safety on the road, it would be for God to furnish the money we need to buy fuel. Of course, we expect him to supply our needs since he is the one who pressed us into service. However, we invite you to be our partners in ministry. Please pray for us. Thank you!

To See Or Not To See

Shakespeare said it another way, of course. Hamlet, Act 3, scene 1: “To be or not to be, that is the question.” These are probably the best-known lines in English literature. I read something in the newspaper this week that made me think of phrasing them differently. Victor Stenger was coming to town.

You may not have heard of Victor, but lots of people have. He is the author of the 2007 New York Times bestselling book, “God: The Failed Hypothesis - How Science Shows that God Does Not Exist.” Hmmmm. I wondered how a very bright, intelligent person could fail to see what others see. After all, Dr. Stenger is an emeritus professor of physics at the University of Hawaii. Of course, he is also an adjunct professor of philosophy at the University of Colorado. Maybe that explains it.

Dinesh D’Souza has reminded us that “Science is based on an assumption that is, at root, faith-based and theological. That is the assumption that the universe is rational and follows laws that are discoverable through human reason.” Christians were the first to envision the universe in this way. They discovered that the laws which govern the universe seem to be written in the language of mathematics – something one physicist called “a kind of miracle.” Who made these laws?

The newspaper reported that the Southern Arizona Community of the Center for Inquiry was the sponsor of Victor Stenger’s free lecture. Its stated aim is “defending reason, science, freedom of inquiry and alternative ethical values in all areas of human endeavor.” Aha! The last phrase gave it all away. Now I understand why a very bright, intelligent person wants to establish the non-existence of God. All sorts of “alternative ethical values” become available when God is out of the picture.

I remember a conversation I had with a young man some forty years ago. He was a professed agnostic who wanted to be an atheist. When I asked him why he wanted to be an atheist, he responded, “Because if there is a God, then I will have to answer to Him.” Now, there is an honest answer. You see, the same God who made physical laws to govern the universe also made moral laws to govern our relationship with Him. Those laws are written on our hearts.

Hamlet’s soliloquy which begins with “To be or not to be” is filled with fears of the hereafter. He recognizes that “conscience does make cowards of us all.” I have a suggestion to make. Atheists are like little boys whistling in the dark. They are trying to keep up their courage. We need to tell them that light is available.

To see or not to see, that is the question.