That was THEN

“Binge-watching.”  It’s just one of what seems to be an endless number of things that are “trending” right now!  My wife and I have sort of been caught up in this phenomenon.  We will find a show that has like nine seasons and sit and watch episode after episode.  

One program that I personally was captivated by in recent months was a documentary series about the 1960s.  This was the era that I grew up in so I was naturally drawn to watching this series.  And yes, having grown up in the 60s you can probably guess my approximate age and YES we did have television back then!

This particular documentary was narrated by a famous movie personality and featured many interviews from politicians, musicians, reporters and writers of that era.  As you might imagine the series covered major events from the space race to the Beatles.  The country was preoccupied then by the Vietnam War and Civil Rights Protests.  Also the Sixties were stained by  the assassinations of US President John F Kennedy and Martin Luther King.  Perhaps no one really knows how close we came to a nuclear war during The Cuban Missile Crisis. But that decade finally ended on a good note when the first man is landed on the moon with bragging rights going to the American space program!

Being a musician I was most fascinated by the coverage of how music in the 60s evolved and in many ways help shape the trends, style and technology of music for future generations.  Sometimes I really miss listening to those old “45s” on my record player!

OK.  So before I go completely nostalgic on you, let me get to some point here!  As I “binge-watched” those 10 episodes of this documentary I was reminded of a few things.  First, when we’re honest with ourselves, we must admit that who we are now was greatly influenced by the culture we grew up in.  I spent those childhood years on a farm in VERY rural southern Ohio.  I have to say I am one of the lucky people who had parents of Godly character who instilled in me the value of Godly living, church and work ethic.  This brings me to a second point.  I strongly believe who we are today has its roots in the influence of the PEOPLE who were in our lives when we were younger.  As I said, I was blessed to be in Christian home where there was not a lot of money but plenty of love.  I realize that not everyone has had a happy childhood.  In fact, in my line of work (ministry) I have known plenty of folks who have shared their stories with me about how they were deprived of proper parenting and subsequent moral compass when they were growing up.  Some were abused-verbally, physically or even  sexually.  But many have overcome the emotional scars of the past.  It is true that life has dealt the unfair hand to many people.  Life just isn’t fair.  That was then.  This is now.  But for millions life still is not fair.

Looking back over my life so far I can see how blessed I’ve been.  That’s not to say that life has been easy.  When someone asks me how I’m doing I am prone to quip “if I get any closer to easy street, I’ll have to change my zip code!”  But that’s not really true!  My life has had its share of pain, grief and difficulty.  And some of it was due to my own stupidity because of choices I made.  Isn’t that true of all of us?  But we cannot, should not and better not live IN THE PAST!  Some of us would not want to anyway!  That was then,  This is now.  And we are still busy writing the story-the legacy- of our life.  For this guy, what has made all the difference is a relationship with God in Jesus Christ and an effort to live a life that reflects that faith.  Like Noah of old, I have “found Grace in the eyes of the Lord!”  Is it an easy life?  Well, no.  Sometimes it’s VERY hard to stay calm and just trust the Lord!  Jesus never, ever told us that living as a Christian would be easy.  But He promised us that it would BE WORTH IT!  And friend, for me that’s the truth-you better believe it!  And someday, when by God’s infinite Grace I make it all the way to the land of Promise, I can stand with my Mom and Dad and countless other Christ followers who are already there and say “this is now” because there will really be no need to say “that was then!”

Until next time,

The Methmusician

AMEN

One of the most used words in the English language is the word "amen."  The word is not just indigenous to church language.  It's used in all types of contexts.  But consider the religious context of "amen."  The word is directly related--in fact, almost identical--to the Hebrew word for "believe" (aman), or "faithful."    In our time is has come to mean "believe" or "faithful."  So with regard to our relationship to God "amen" is the Christian's affirmation of absolute faith and confidence in God.  When one believes God, that person indicates his faith by an "amen." 
When God makes a promise, the believer's response is "amen"--"so it will be!" In the New Testament, it is sometimes  translated "verily" or "truly." When we pray according to His Word and His will, we know God will answer, so we close with an "amen," For many years in my denomination (United Methodist) we even sang our amen at the end of practically every hymn we sung!  
In the book of Revelation Jesus himself is called the AMEN ("These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God"  Revelation 3:15).  
AMEN is the strongest affirmation of a believer's life in Christ.  
So it is profoundly meaningful that the entire Bible closes with an "amen." "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen" (Revelation 22:21), assuring everyone who reads these words that the whole Book is absolutely true and trustworthy. And to that I say - Amen!

The Methmusician

KIDS

I love kids.  My wife and I have FIVE children!  When we were married almost 40 years ago now (yes I have basically raised her) we never, ever sat down one day and said to each "Hey here's a great idea!  Let's have five kids!"  No it it did not happen that way.  But I have to say that we have never regretted having that many children.  One time when we were living in deep south Georgia (I'm from Ohio so I had to learn how to talk all over again at that time) a school teacher, knowing we had five children asked me "Are you Mormon?"  Apparently Mormons have large families.  "No," I said, "We're passionate Methodists!"
Oh yeah it was tough often times financially because you really don't make much money as a minister, not honestly anyway.  But one of the great benefits of having multiple children is that now we have 7 terrific grandchildren!  It is a good kind of mayhem at my house at Christmas time!
Most of the time it is pretty entertaining to hear what children have to say.  My wife works in early childhood development and she is surrounded by all kinds of kiddie weirdness.  As a result she is very creative and crafty.  One of our grandchildren is always interested in doing "arts and craps," as she is yet to be able to say the word "crafts" just yet.  And one of my granddaughter's whose father asked her "What does "N-A-P" spell" said without hesitation "NETFLIX!  Let's watch a movie!" 
The church I work for does a "Chapel time" with our preschoolers on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  It's just a short time of singing and Bible object lesson.  The other day our children's pastor was leading the object lesson time and was talking about the parable that Jesus told about the wise man and foolish man.  Remember that one?  When she was talking about the foolish man building his house on the beachfront on nothing but sand one of the 3-year olds from the back of the room yelled out "Are you kidding me?"  He of course is a future architect. 
Point is kids are great.  They don't deserve to be abused or neglected.  They deserve a fair chance at being a kid while they're young.  And yet our world is full of people who DO abuse children-even their own children.  It must break the heart of God when He looks over the earth and sees how we have mistreated one of our greatest resources-our children.  And, excuse me for saying this, but I think there must surely be a special place in hell for people who abuse or neglect kids. 
I am one of the very fortunate.  I was raised in a God-fearing, loving Christian home where I had a chance to be a kid; to go wade in the creek, to play basketball in the mud, to be taught respect and work ethic; to be naive and make mistakes and to go to church as a family every Sunday morning.  My wife and I have tried very hard to raise our children in that same type of atmosphere.  I think, with God's help, we have managed to do that. 
So if you're reading this I hope you will give God thanks right now  for the kids in your life.  Take care of them.  Love them. Provide for them. Forgive them.  Cherish them.  Because before too long they will be adults with kids of their own.  I hope you'll join me in a prayer that we can make a difference in the lives of kids by our love and example!

The Methmusician

Love them While We Can

Love them While We Can

Nobody ever wants to get that call.  But I got that call back in February from my sister.  Our mother had been rushed to the hospital with chest pains.  Before I could even get the prayer request out on our church e-mail prayer list, my sister had called me back with the terrible news.  Mom did not make it.  An apparent heart attack had claimed her life.
Truth be told there are very few of us who have not been crushed by the news of the loss of a loved one.  It is so very difficult.  I had lost my Dad back in 1986 at the age of 58 years.  The following year my youngest brother, Randy was killed in a car wreck.  And then just a few years ago my other brother Jeff died at the age of 42.  Very sobering indeed.
But Mom was 82.  She loved Jesus with all her heart and had lived a wonderful life.  Then about five years ago she was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's disease.  About a year ago my sister and I had made the painful decision to place Mom in a nursing home with a memory unit.  We thought she was doing quite well.  If you don't know, Alzheimer's is a hellish condition.  Mom knew us when we saw her.  But her short term memory was completely gone.  She could tell you stuff that happened on our Ohio farm 30 or 40 years ago but may not know where she was, what day of the week it was or even what season of the year it was!  But the disease had taken a terrible toll on her general health including her personal hygiene.
So in some ways her going to Heaven was a blessing for her.  No more suffering.  No more forgetting.  Only joy.  I have to say that I will be eternally grateful to Mom (and my Dad) for being great examples of Christian parents while I was growing up.  I have often said that if I was half the parent that my Mom and Dad were then I would be a successful parent!  I really do miss them.
If you have your parents, be thankful!  "For time just seems to hurry by and the days turn into years.  And the moments that we have will disappear so love them while we can."
The Methmusician

The Breaking Heart of God

Sometimes very early in the morning I will wake up and not be able to go back to sleep. When that happens I like to go get my I Pod and sit in my favorite chair and tune in to a Christian radio station that plays a variety of "contemporary" Christian songs.
This morning I heard this worship leader talking about how God ordained the church but then He had to choose broken, imperfect people to do the work of ministry. As it turns out, I have been giving this a whole lot of thought in recent days. I could not help but think about Jesus when he stood on a hill overlooking Jerusalem and wept for the people there because of their rejection of Him and their adherence to the law.
At times in her faith journey the church is much like those stubborn people in Jerusalem in Jesus' day. It is so easy to put our focus on things which are NOT eternal but temporal. The church at times will accidentally think it is doing God's will when it actually doing it's own will in God's name. What's the difference? RESULTS!
Now as a spiritual leader in the church I am still one who stands in the need of God's Grace and love and forgiveness. And I'm not at all comfortable with comparing my leadership abilities with those of Jesus but I believe Jesus has put His heart in me. And because of this I believe I can empathize with Jesus when it comes to the struggles of God's people to do the right thing. In recent months the church where I serve has come to the realization that we need to do something rather drastic to reverse the decline in our membership and attendance. We have made very difficult decisions with regard to worship and tried new things. Very recently we have made yet another radical decision with regard to worship, an unpopular one in the minds of a few. And I see this congregation that I have grown to love very much go through the laboring pains of change-and my heart breaks. My heart breaks because I see the passion that people have in terms of their perception of worship. Most of that passion I believe is genuine and good but some of it is very, very negative. My heart breaks because, in some of the conversations I am having with folks I sense the fear of change. Change is not a bad word!
But here's the thing: If the church is of God, and I believe that it is, and if the "gates of hell" shall not prevail against it why should we (i.e. the church) fear change at all? And if we think for one minute that the church will fail without us I believe we are gravely mistaken! If the church chooses not to fulfill its mission then God will raise up somebody else to do it! For centuries principalities and powers have tried to discredit and destroy the church and guess what-we're STILL HERE! And on the flip side of the negativity that often occurs in a local church with regard to change, particularly in worship, let me say that the very fact that we RECOGNIZE a need for change is a good thing! We might be in trouble if we were lukewarm and didn't even know it!
So we have a choice to make, church. We can choose to get angry over change and become disgruntled, discontented and pick up our spiritual toys and go play somewhere else. OR we can accept change and celebrate the great possibilities that God will provide through it and support it with our prayers, presence, gifts, service and witness. What's it gonna be?


The Methmusician

toughness

I was very fortunate growing up on the farm in Southern Ohio. I was the oldest of four children (consequently when I got to high school I tried to get away with the most stuff!), and my mom and dad were both God-fearing, discipline-minded parents who not only taught me right from wrong but also led by example when it came to Christian witness.
My dad never really preached at me much. He never quoted scripture to me or lectured me about morality. In fact both my parents had very high expectations of us kids to live moral lives. And we did - not because our parents told us we might catch some disease if we did not live morally, but because it is the right thing to do. I'm not saying I was perfect. I have not always been a saint! But I am saying that I learned morality and ethics from parents who practiced both. And just for the record, my mom ALWAYS preached to me and CONTINUES to do so at age 81!
Probably as a result of such good influence I always believed that my parents were pretty tough people. Both of them grew up in the country, on farms and with very large families. My dad NEVER took a proper vacation. You NEVER found us jaunting off to Disney World. The only time I got to go to King's Island (an amusement park in Ohio) was with a school or church group.
But my mom and dad worked really hard to make sure we had everything we needed.
And as I said earlier, I thought they both would be around at least for 80-90 years. So when my dad passed away in 1986 I was devastated. He was only 58 years old. I was not prepared to give him up so early in my life. And my mom certainly was not prepared to be a widow at such a young age. But God in God's wisdom took my dad home to be with Him whether we were prepared or not. And really, let's face it who is ever REALLY prepared for death?
So we learned to face life without daddy. Mom sold the farm and moved into Cincinnati and has lived by herself up until about 4 years ago. Then about a year after my dad died, my youngest
brother was killed in a car accident. Again, we were not prepared for this tragedy that rocked our family. Then about a decade later we lost my other brother. He was only 41. I will not go into detail here about all that surrounded his death except to say that he had an addiction.
Life just isn't fair at times.
Then about four or five years ago my sister and I learned that our mom had early on-set Alzheimer's disease. My sister bravely took on the responsibility of caring for our mother and did so gallantly for the past 4+ years. But recently we had to move mom into a long-term care facility because the disease she is plagued with has affected not only her immediate short term memory but her ability to take care of herself. This was one of the toughest decisions that we have ever had to make. And I must admit that I have been mad at God ever since we learned of mom's disease. But the process of getting her into a facility was so incredibly filled with "God moments" that we believe that we have done the right thing. In fact the day she moved she told my sister and I not to worry because she felt "right at home." She actually has a sister who was already a resident of this facility. We have seen God's hand in this very tough decision.
Now I share this intimate story for a couple of reasons. First, for any of you who have loved ones with this hellish disease know that you are not alone. And by the way there are support groups available to help you!
And secondly, don't feel like you're a bad kid by helping your loved one get the care and treatment they need! There are just some things that we cannot do at home that these medical professionals CAN do in a controlled, caring environment. And by the way it does not hurt to shop around a little for the right facility for your loved one. There are many very fine facilities out there but there are some that are not 5-star and tend to give the rest a bad name.
And finally, say some prayers. Pray for your loved one but also pray for your immediate family members (if any) and pray for those people who work in these facilities. It takes a very special kind of heart to accompany your body to work in these places. We are blessed because we have seen the love of Christ in the folks we met in the facility where our mother has now come to call home. Above all, seek the will and purpose of God in any tough family decision. You will find that God is always with you!
The Methmusician

what if we miss it?

Recently a close friend of mine told me about a local church here in our community that actually turned away a young man because he was wearing piercings. That same congregation turned away a young woman who wanted to participate in a relatives funeral because she was wearing slacks.
A few years ago I was traveling with a semi-professional Gospel quartet and at one our "gigs" all the members of the group (there were about 8 of us) were asked to remove ALL of our jewelry, including our wedding rings before we could sing. Another time we had a couple of "suits" come to one of our rehearsals to make sure our HAIR wasn't too long. As it turned out me and the bass player had to get a haircut before we could sing in this church.
I really wonder sometimes if people in the church completely forget why we're here. I would be really shocked when, we "we all get to heaven" the Lord looks at you and me and says "sorry you cannot enter Heaven cause you're hair's too long," or "you are not properly dressed." It would be a shame if we Christians lived our entire life being so Heavenly minded that we're no earthly good! What a waste for us and for the Kingdom really if we should come to the end of our life here on earth and suddenly realize that it doesn't really matter that not everybody worships or serves God JUST LIKE ME! Let me tell you what really matters. What really matters now and in the end is our relationship to GOD. I don't really believe that God will meet us in Glory and be concerned about our body piercings or our clothes. What he is going to be concerned about is whether or not we have asked Him to forgive us of our sins. Our relationship with Jesus is what matters!
Mike Warnke tells a story about a church that builds a wonderful new Sanctuary to accommodate their growth. They hire an artist to come in paint murals of key Biblical stories all around the church (which was apparently built in the round). But in the scene depicting the Creation he has Adam with a belly button. And so arose this great theological debate in this church as to whether or not Adam did actually have a belly button. One group said that he did because he was the prototype of all men. Another group said no he did not because he had no earthly mother, therefore no umbilical cord therefore no belly button. Warnke makes a good point when he says "meanwhile people who live within walking distance of that church are dying and going to hell - not because they don't know about belly buttons, but because they don't see the children of the Most high God acting like it!
So please,Christian, for the sake of the Call, let's make sure we keep the main thing the main thing! Let us not get ourselves so wrapped up in legalism that we forget about Grace!

Until Next Time,
The Methmusiciain