Jeff Conaway

It was just a couple weeks ago that actor Jeff Conaway died.  He was an actor whose main claim to fame was playing John Travolta’s sidekick, Kenickie in Grease and Bobby Wheeler in the TV sitcom Taxi.  After that he had a number of appearances over the years in minor TV series, movies and on stage.

What I didn’t know until I read his obituary was that Conaway spent a good portion of his life battling an addiction to drugs.  It seems that he started doing drugs way back in the ‘60's when he was a part of a rock and roll band.  To his credit, he realized that if he stayed in the music industry that he’d be dead in a year.  So he left music and turned to acting.  Unfortunately, somewhere along the line he developed back problems and the constant pain he experienced really worked against his efforts to be free of drugs.

The part that really caught my eye, hence the reason for this post, was something that he said in a 2011 LA Times interview this past January that resulted from his appearance on Celebrity Rehab.  “I got a lot of love from people, and when people stop me on the street and say, ‘Man, your story touched me so much’, it makes all this pain worthwhile, you know?  I don’t know where actors go after they die, but I know people who help other people have a nice place to go.  And I would like to go there if I can.”  Man, something about these words just touched my heart.  They brought tears to my eyes.

I guess it’s because in these comments I see a lost and lonely person, someone who’s struggling, searching and hoping.  Hoping he can go someplace ‘nice’.  Hoping that he can be free of addiction and pain.  Hoping that his life counted for something. 

I hope that someone told Jeff about Jesus.  I hope that someone told him about John 3:16 and the great love for him that sent Jesus to the cross.  I hope that he responded in repentance and faith.  I hope that he is in that ‘nice place’, Heaven, in the presence of God.  Only time will tell if he is. 

Lord, direct me to people in my life who are lonely, struggling, confused, hurting.  Help me to point them to Jesus and the cross, to the greatest display of love that the world has ever witnessed.  Help them to understand the opportunity that they have to be free - free from sin, guilt, addictions, and their past.  Help them to run into Your waiting arms of love.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Peter & James

In my reading through the New Testament I came to Acts 12.  In the beginning of the chapter it tells how King Herod had the apostle James arrested and killed.  Seeing how much this pleased the Jewish leaders, he also had Peter arrested with the intention of killing him as well.  The night before Peter was supposed to be brought to trial he was rescued by an angel who freed him from prison.  It ended up that Herod died shortly after while Peter lived another 20 years.

As I finished my reading there are two questions that I have about Acts 12.  First, why did God allow James to be killed first, of all the Apostles?  Now it’s not that the other apostles weren’t important but James was one of the ‘Big Three’, the inner circle of Jesus that included his brother John and Peter.  It would seem to me that James, with all of his intimate knowledge of Jesus (at the transfiguration, seeing Jairus’ daughter raised to life, being the closest to Him in the Garden of Gethsemane, etc.) would have been one of the last of the disciples to die.  (Interestingly his brother John was the last one to die, somewhere about 100 AD, or about 55 years after James died.)

The second question I have is why God allowed James to be killed by Herod but not Peter?  The difference between James and Peter is evident to anyone who reads Acts 12.  Both apostles were arrested by Herod - James is killed while Peter is miraculously rescued.  Why?  Did God love Peter more or James less?  No.  The answer lies in the sovereignty of God.  God’s will for the Big Three was different for each of them.  James was killed by the sword rather early (45 AD), Peter was crucified later in Rome (64 AD) and John, the only disciple who didn’t meet a violent end, died in Ephesus (100 AD).  Three different deaths in three different cities in three different parts of the Roman Empire.

In Isaiah 55:8,9 we read - “‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are My ways your ways’, declares the Lord.  ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts that your thoughts.’”  The bottom line is that only God knows why He allowed events to happen the way they did in Acts 12 and only He knows why things happen in our world.  Two people get cancer - one is cured the other one dies.  Two people are in an accident - one survives, the other one dies.  Two people give birth - one child is born healthy, one child is not.  The fact that some people suffer more misfortune in life or die earlier than others does not always indicate divine displeasure or judgment.  It just means that God’s will for each person is different.  Someday, when all is said and done, we will discover how everything fits together - for the glory of God and the accomplishment of His will on earth.

Lord, help me to embrace Your plan for my life and for those I love.  Also help me not to be angry or bitter when Your plans are different from what I had planned.  Help me to learn that, in all of life, Father knows best!  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

The Destruction Of Sennacherib

Since I spoke on the life of Sennacherib this morning as a part of my series, Good King/Bad King - the Foreign Edition, I thought I would share this poem concerning him.  It was first published in 1815 by the British poet Lord Byron. 

The Destruction Of Sennacherib

The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold,   
And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;   
And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,   
When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.   

Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green,
That host with their banners at sunset were seen:   
Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown,   
That host on the morrow lay withered and strown.   

For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,   
And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed;     
And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill,   
And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still!   

And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide,   
But through it there rolled not the breath of his pride;   
And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf,     
And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf.   

And there lay the rider distorted and pale,   
With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail:   
And the tents were all silent, the banners alone,   
The lances unlifted, the trumpet unblown.           

And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail,   
And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal;   
And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,   
Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!

The Router

Recently I purchased a router for my home.  I have a laptop computer that I use at the office and a desktop that I use at home.  On Tuesdays & Wednesdays I work on my sermon in my study at home because I need quiet so that I can concentrate.  The problem is that I use my laptop while working on my sermon and it doesn’t have internet access when I’m home.  It does when I’m at the office, since it is connected to the church wireless network, but at home only the desktop is connected to the internet.  I could unplug the phone line from the desk top and switch it to my laptop but that is a real pain.  So what I end up doing is using my desktop to look things up on the internet and then type them into my laptop.  It is rather comical to see me sitting at the chair in front of my desktop, looking at the screen, while typing on my laptop!

Before I get to the spiritual aspect of this story allow me to rant.  When I purchased the router from the store the side of the box said, in big, bold letters - Easy 3 Step Connection Process.  I should have known not to trust the advertisement.  Let me say this - THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS ‘EASY’ WHEN IT COMES TO COMPUTERS!!!  I took the router out of the package, hooked everything up, put in the installation CD, and nothing!  When my son-in-law came over (who knows more about this stuff than I do) he confirmed that everything was connected properly.  So he called the 800# for tech support.  He must have been on the phone with this guy for 30+ minutes, going to all kinds of screens, making all kinds of changes.  After all was said and done, the router still didn’t work and I could no longer access the internet!  Long story short, I had to call the tech guy at my local internet provider to get back on the internet and take the router to my provider and have it physically programmed.  Finally the router worked!  3 Easy Steps.  Yeah, right.  (I feel so much better now having typed this!)

Anyway, now that my router is working it is heaven on earth at my house.  I can take my laptop anywhere, anywhere, and connect to the internet - while sitting on the couch, lying in bed, even in the bathroom! :)  It is absolutely wonderful and has made my life much, much easier.

It occurred to me that this is a wonderful example of prayer.  Because we are God’s children through faith in Jesus, we have 24/7 access to Him anywhere, anywhere - at home, work, school, on the road, in the air, on the water, on vacation.  It’s absolutely wonderful and it makes our lives so much better!

Lord, thank you for the incredible privilege of prayer, that we can talk to You, the Lord of the Universe, anytime, anywhere!  Thank you that You want us to call on You and when we do, You always answer.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Cottonwood Seeds

Every June the gentle breezes in our neighborhood blow white, wispy seeds from some nearby cottonwood trees for miles and miles around.  (At least I've been told that they are cottonwood trees!)  As I look out the window of my house on a sunny day I see the seeds everywhere - at all levels of the atmosphere.  I admit that it is sort of nice to see them floating effortlessly through the sky - that is, until I go out into my garage!

We leave our garage door open most of the time when we are home because we use the door inside the garage to go in and out of our house.  Leaving the garage open this time of year means that it becomes a haven for thousands of cottonwood seeds.  They are everywhere.  On the shelves, on the floor, in the corners, underneath things.  So I take my shop vac and suck up all the seeds I can find in order to make my garage tidy again.  Of course, several days later, there are just as many, if not more, seeds in my garage than before!  So I get out my shop vac and suck them up once more.  This continues for several weeks until the cottonwoods finally quit shedding for another year.

As I look at all those cottonwood seeds I think of my recent reading in the book of Acts.  In Acts 8:1 it says “On that day a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles, scattered throughout Judea and Samaria.”  The ‘day’ being referred to here is the stoning of Stephen in the previous chapter.  From the Day of Pentecost and the birth of the church right up to Stephen’s death, the church in Jerusalem grew and grew until we read in Acts 6:7 - “So the Word of God spread.  The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.”  After the death of Stephen, just like cottonwood seeds, the church was blown by the wind of the Holy Spirit so that it scattered everywhere.  First believers went into neighboring Judea and Samaria, then on to Antioch, and ultimately throughout the Roman Empire.

So the next time I get out my shop vac to sweep up some more of those cottonwood seeds, I want to remember that God works in mysterious ways.  He uses wind to blow seeds from cottonwood trees so that new trees can develop and He uses persecution and other means to scatter His people so that new believers can develop.  What an amazing God!

Lord, thank you for the way that You have scattered Your people over all the earth.  The result of this is that someday every nation, tribe, people and tongue are going to be gathered around Your throne in worship.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Whistleblowers

If you keep up with sports like I do, you are sure to notice a disturbing trend lately.  It’s all the so-called whistleblowers, people who come forward and point an incriminating finger at someone who has done wrong.  Tuesday it was an anonymous friend of former Ohio State QB Terrelle Pryor who says that he personally witnessed Pryor getting paid cash for his signing of OSU memorabilia.  Just recently it was Tyler Hamilton who pointed an accusing finger at cyclist Lance Armstrong, saying that they both had used illegal PED’s previously.  Before that it was Floyd Landis saying the same thing about Armstrong.

If these allegations are indeed true, then I am glad that they were made because God is a god of truth and He wants it be known.  Unfortunately, it seems that there are ulterior motives for all these sudden displays of honesty.  In the case of Terelle Pryor, the accusations came from a former friend who no longer likes him.  Hmmm, let me think about that one.  Could jealousy be the reason he is coming out with these allegations now?  Or is it revenge?  As for Hamilton & Landis, they only made allegations against Armstrong after they were both caught doping.  Let’s think about that one, too.  Could these allegations also be the result of jealousy or vindictiveness?  Or do they now stand to make all kinds of money from some publisher for a tell-all book?

The problem I have with all these suddenly-honest-accusers coming forward is this - why didn’t they blow the whistle when the alleged crime was actually taking place?  If what was being done was wrong, why wait?  Why wait until later, sometimes years later, and then make the accusations?  It appears that none of the three above accusers had any scruples with what was going on when it was happening.  Isn't this being an accomplice?  This means that they should bear some of the guilt as well.  Beside this, in my opinion, when people come forward long after the event in question, they lose some of their credibility.  Now all kinds of questions begin to surface about their delay in coming forward and what their motivation might be.

In James 4:17 we are clearly told "Anyone who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins."  Among other things, what this means is that each of us has the responsibility to speak up when something unlawful or evil is happening.  We can't be silent and look the other way, thinking that we have done nothing wrong.  In the words of Edmund Burke, "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."

Lord, help me to be a person of integrity.  When I see a situation where things are happening that are not right give me the courage and the boldness to speak out, right then.  Then help me to be a conduit of Your forgiveness, grace and mercy.  In Jesus' name, Amen.

BCE ✞ CE

I was reading an article the other day that mentioned a date as being CE.  Having seen the initials previously, and not knowing exactly what they meant, I decided to investigate.  It seems that BCE is the equivalent of BC and CE is the equivalent of AD.  Now, a little of the history of these designations and the reason for the change.

In 525 AD, the monk Dionysius Exiguus used the designation Anno Domini (AD) to help calculate Easter.  Anno Domini is Latin for ‘In the year of our Lord’ which used as a reference point the birth of Jesus.  (Later it was determined that Exiguus was off by 4 years but I think that’s pretty close for a 6th century monk!).  Eventually, the designation AD was used to date historical events.  Later, the English monk, the Venerable Bede, began to use the term ‘Before Christ’ (BC) to date events before Christ was born.  These have been the standard notations for expressing years for almost 1,500 years since.

Somewhere in the mid-19th century some Jewish scholars began to use the designations BCE (before the Common Era) and CE (Common Era).  This was gradually adopted by other scholars.  Since 1980 the use of these non-religious designations has dramatically increased and will one day, no doubt, be universally accepted.

The reason for the switch is that some people, attempting to separate the religious from the secular, want to be sensitive toward non-Christians, and not use a designation that refers to the birth of Jesus or to Him as ‘Lord’, either of which might be ‘offensive’.  Really?  I use the calendar all the time which refers to months that are pagan in origin and I’m not offended.  For example, January refers to the Roman god Janus, the god of beginnings and endings; March is named after Mars, the Roman god of war; May comes from Maiesta, the Roman goddess of honor and reverence.  They are nothing more than names of gods and goddesses that I don’t believe in so why should their use bother me?  This is precisely the point. 

If a person doesn’t believe in Jesus Christ what difference should it make to them to use BC and AD?  In my opinion, none.  However, apparently some non-Christians are bothered by Jesus and any reference or connection to Him whatsoever.  This could be the result of any number of things - spiritual abuse, poor Christian examples, being brought up in an anti-Christian environment, etc.  It also could the result of an uneasy conscience - a nagging feeling, deep down, that there may be some truth to Jesus’ claims after all.  Rather than be reminded of this they have chosen the old adage, ‘Out of sight, out of mind.’

This is yet another indicator of our world’s move away from Christianity.  In fact, there is even some thought currently about why time is measured from the birth of Jesus in the first place, since it is both an exclusively Western and a religious event?  Based upon views such as this, I suspect that somewhere in the future a new numbering system for our calendar will be put into place worldwide.  It will be inclusive and won’t offend anyone.  Maybe this will be something that happens during the reign of the Antichrist?

For me, I’m sticking with using BC and AD.  As a Christian, obviously I like the reference to Jesus Christ.  I like the idea that the birth of Jesus divides history into ‘before’ and ‘after’.  The fact is that the coming of Jesus into our world was long awaited and has been since celebrated.  He changed the course of history.  He changed me.  He can change you.

Lord, help me to remember every time I write or mention the year, that it is a reference to You and Your entrance into this world.  That entrance is the pivotal point of human history.  May Your life, death and resurrection continue to impact our world.  May it continue to impact my life as well.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.