"THEY ALWAYS TEAR DOWN THE GOOD STUFF"

Monday, May 19, 2014

In the movie, "Inventing The Abbotts" there is a reference to an old barn being torn down.

Joaquin Phoenix said, "They always tear down the good stuff."

They do. They always tear down the good stuff.

When I was a kid every Saturday afternoon found us down town people watching.

I loved that old town.

They tore it down.

At my last congregation we had a beautiful baptistery, communion table, with a preacher's stand up in the pulpit area that matched it and a beautiful wooden cross that also matched.

They tore down the baptistery, took out the communion table and speaker's stand and hid the cross.

So many things are being torn down.

On a regular basis as I move around from place to place  I find myself saying, "I can't believe they tore that down!"

Today's theme seems to be: "Change Is Good."

Many times it is. But not always!

NOT ALWAYS!

I'm old and well used. But I'm not ready to be cast aside or torn down yet.

Old barns, church buildings, towns----everything old and well worn needs to be given careful consideration before it is torn down.

Many times change is good. But not always!

WE MAKE THE ROAD BY WALKING

Saturday, May 10, 2014

WE MAKE THE ROAD BY WALKING
A Year-Long Quest for Spiritual Formation,
Reorientation, and Activation
By Brian D. McLaren

OVERVIEW: From critically acclaimed author Brian McLaren comes a brilliant retelling of the biblical story and a thrilling reintroduction to Christian faith. This book puts tools in the readers hands to create a life altering learning community in any home, restaurant, or welcoming space. The fifty-two (plus a few) weekly readings can be read a loud in 10-12 minutes. They offer a simple curriculum of insightful reflections and transformative practices which will guide an individual or group of friends through a year of rich study and growth. (From the back of the book.)

AUTHOR: Brian D. McLaren is an author, a speaker, an activist, and a public theologian. After teaching college English, Brian was a church planter and pastor in the Baltimore-Washington, D.C. area for over twenty years. He is a popular conference speaker and a frequent guest lecturer for denominational and ecumenical leadership gatherings in the United States and internationally, and is theologian-in-residence at Life in the Trinity Ministry.

MY REVIEW: I received this book from Hachette Book Group in exchange for a fair and honest review. And that's what this is. It's fair and it's honest and it's hard for me to write. It's hard because I like Brian McLaren and I don't like to disagree with him―but I do! Brian is a brilliant author, speaker and theologian. But I just honestly do not agree with some of his theology and philosophy. So there is great parts of this book that I don't like because I simply do not agree with what he is saying. Therefore, I can't recommend it.

The idea for the book is excellent and it is laid out in a beautiful way―a year long quest. Brian is an excellent writer. Much of what he writes is like reading poetry. Poetry that is interesting and fun to read. The problem with me is, I just don't agree with some of his conclusions and what they encourage. So my recommendation for my conservative friends is―don't waste your money on this book, you won't like it. But if I have any liberal friends that are reading this blog, I have to say―you will love this book. If fact, you may think it is the best book you have read in a long time and that it was written just for you.

(I received this book from Hachette Book Group exchange for a fair and honest review.)

RIDING "SHOT GUN" WITH A BOOTLEGGER

We would head South out of town toward the Red River and cross over into Texas. Once inside Texas we drove straight to the Liquor store. Loaded up two or three cases of whiskey and headed back across the Red River into Oklahoma.

My sister-in-law's father was a bootlegger. Once he got home with the liquor he would take the bottles out of the case and distribute them in hiding places around the house until a buyer came by to pick up a pint or two.

I liked Henry. I liked him a lot. He was a quiet man with an easy going disposition. He took me on his liquor buying trips to have somebody to talk to and maybe I made him less of a suspect to the Highway Patrol sitting on the side of the rode just inside the border looking for bootleggers.

I lived with my brother and his family when I was young. My sister-in-law and her father were close so I spent a lot of time at Henry's. I watched men and women, usually men coming in and out. The police watched this also but he paid them off so they never bothered him. One day I was at his house when the police came unannounced. They walked around in the house for a few minutes, raised the table cloth up from the kitchen table, looked under it, put it down and said, "there's nothing here" and left.

Henry had once worked full-time at Fort Sill, a nearby army base. I don't know what kind of work he did but he had lost some of the fingers on one of his hands. All the time I knew him he made his living from bootlegging and playing Moon. Almost every day he could be found in the back of a pool hall playing Moon. He was very good at it and always had a roll of money.

One of the high lights of my youth was a trip I made with Henry, his girl friend, my brother, his wife and their young daughter. We all piled into Henry's Ford and drove from Oklahoma to California and back. It was a great trip for a young boy who had never been anyplace outside of Oklahoma except to the liquor store in Texas and that was just fifty miles away.

Even as a young boy I never thought liquor was a good thing. I didn't drink it then---or ever. I didn't think it was a good thing to break the law and I knew that bootlegging was against the law. And I didn't think I was breaking the law by being friends with somebody who did. Henry was such a nice man that he didn't seem like a criminal to me. I was glad when the law changed and Henry got on the right side of it. He eventually opened his own liquor store.

I never did learn to like the idea of people drinking whiskey. Because so many times they end up getting drunk. And that's bad.

Henry's gone now. The house where he lived and bootlegged from is gone. My brother and Henry's daughter are gone too. I have a lot of memories from those Oklahoma days so many years ago.
For two years while a student at Abilene Christian College in Abilene, Texas I crossed over the Red River back into Oklahoma to preach for a little country church. I drove over the same road that Henry and I had traveled together several years before.

Monday, May 05, 2014

SOUL KEEPING

SOUL KEEPING
Caring for The Most Important
Part of You
By John Ortberg

OVERVIEW: Bestselling author John Ortberg presents a spiritually satisfying classic that will help you rediscover your soul―the most important connection to God there is―and find your way out of the spiritual shallow-lands to true divine depth. With characteristic insight and an accessible story-filled approach, Ortberg brings practicality and relevance to one of Christianity's most mysterious and neglected topics. (From the back of the book.)

AUTHOR: John Ortberg is Senior Pastor at Menlo Park Presbyterian Church in Menlo Park, California. He is the bestselling author of Who Is This Man?; It All Goes Back in the Box; The Life You've Always Wanted; and If You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get Out of the Boat.

MY REVIEW: John Ortberg is one of my favorite writers. He knows and writes about the needs of people. In this book he addresses anxiety, depression, fear, loneliness. Many times, not always, these are symptoms of a soul that has lost touch with its source of life. Ortberg points out that like a flower snipped from the vine, the soul that is not turned toward God can only wither away.

This is a book about the most overlooked, underrated, and least-understood part of your being. "The health of your soul isn't just a matter of saved or unsaved. It's the hinge on which the rest of your life hangs."This is an important book! Ortberg points out that we've neglected the eternal part of ourselves, focusing instead on the temporal concerns of the world―and not without consequence.

I love the way he uses stories to make a point and illustrate the truth. The three sections of this book are: What The Soul Is, What The Soul Needs and The Soul Restored.

A favorite part of this book for me, is his many references to, stories about and quotes from Dallas Willard. If you are an admirer of Dallas Willard, as I am, you will appreciate this part of the book also.

(I received this book from Thomas Nelson Publishers in exchange for a fair and honest review.)

ADIOS TO THE CALIFORNIA COAST

Saturday, April 26, 2014

The tape is almost worn out. But I still pop it in occasionally and listen to the whining voice of Linda Ronstadt belting out "...on the California coast" from her hit song, Adios.

I once loved living in California. In 1957 I left Abilene Christian and headed west. I ended up at the end of the Santa Fe Trail in El Monte, California. I absolutely loved it there. I had never seen a freeway before but I loved driving into Los Angeles to attend Pepperdine University and to Pasadena to attend Fuller Seminary. Hollywood, Disneyland, the Dodgers and Angels, football games at the coliseum, the beach---ah yes, the beach, and the list goes on and on. I loved Southern California.

My first time to drive up the California coast was in 1958 when Charlotte and I went to beautiful Carmel by the sea on our honeymoon. And then on to San Francisco, the city by the bay. San Francisco was different then. It was beautiful, quiet, sophisticated and it was an easy place to leave your heart.

In 1970 we felt a "call" to move up north to Stockton in the San Joaquin Valley. We stayed for twenty years. Good years. Now that we lived so close to San Francisco we would drive occasionally to the city we loved. But things had changed over the years. In 1967 the Haight-Ashbury district of the city experienced its famed Summer of Love. What went on there that summer was felt in various ways around the world. Times were changing!

Ok, California has always been just a little crazy, always on the cutting edge, always liberal. As far back as I can remember, there have been reports that earthquakes were going to tear it loose from the rest of the country and toss it into the ocean. Is that what I am ready to do? No! Absolutely not!
There is much to love and appreciate about California---and I do. However, there is so much that is bad, bad, bad! So bad that I don't even want to bother you with stating it all. If you don't already know about it, you wouldn't believe it if I told you.

My heart in San Francisco, Stockton, the San Joaquin Valley, Los Angeles, the San Gabriel Valley?
NO! Not now. However, if God wanted me there I could live there and be happy. I grew up loving Oklahoma and would have been happy living there all my life. When I graduated from Abilene Christian I was ready to go anywhere God wanted me to go. I have always felt that I could live anyplace and be happy. I used to sing: "I'll go where you want me to go Dear Lord, over mountain or plane or sea, I'll say what you want me to say Dear Lord, I'll be what you want me to be." I've tried. I'll keep on trying.

I'm grateful for the years spent in beautiful California. God opened up His heart and poured out great blessings on that part of our great country. I only wish that young people growing up there could still experience the good that I did back so many years ago. But most of that is gone forever. It's sad to bid it ADIOS!!