PastorTim

IT HAPPENS EVERY TIME…..

It happened again this week. I was driving home from having my car repaired and while taking the scenic route from South Webster through Minford I saw it. And as soon as I saw it, I remembered. In fact it happens every time I see one, I mean every time. It doesn’t matter what color or year. It doesn’t matter whether it’s in a magazine or in real life it makes me remember. It’s a memory peg that’s anchored deep in my mind. Falcons. Ford Falcon’s!
I’m sure most of you know what I am referring to but in case you are under the age of my oldest child allow me to explain, with the help of falconfanclub.com. “The Ford Motor Company produced the Falcon family of vehicles from 1960 through the 1970 model years. Everything from sedans to vans to innovative small trucks could be ordered with the Falcon emblem. Originally envisioned as a compact economy car, Falcons evolved through four distinct body style phases. Of these, model years 1963-1965 are considered to be the most collectible. In the first five years of its existence, the Falcon marque transitioned from bare bones econo-boxes to an array of small cars offering sporty convertibles, as well as exciting V-8 powered cars. The Falcon marque began to realize its potential when, late in the 1964 model year, Ford introduced the Mustang, another sporty compact car that achieved some (small) amount of popularity. Ford utilized the Falcon's unitized chassis, as well as many elements of the Falcon drive train, to "re-skin" and "re-market" the Mustang. From then on, the Falcon existed in the shadow of its more popular offspring, finally fading away in 1971, a victim of corporate marketing neglect. The success of the Volkswagen and other compacts, along with the Arab oil embargo just a few years later, proved how forward-thinking the original Falcon designers were. Like many good ideas, it peaked just a little too early.”
Just telling you the history of the car comes no where close to explaining to you why the Ford Falcon catches my eye and takes me back in time every time I see one. To understand this phenomenon, you have to know a little about my life. You see the first car I ever remember is the Ford Falcon. It’s the car my grandpa owned when I was a little boy. It’s the car I remember seeing him pull into the driveway in, as he would come home from Williams shoe factory in Portsmouth where he worked. I can still see it in my mind. Strange isn’t it, the things that trigger our memories? The things that take us back to a time when life was simple and all we had to worry about was where we should go fishing what we would do after lunch. Whether that’s what attracts me to the falcon or not, I’m not really sure. What I do know for sure is that I sometimes long for a few less complicated days in the week. Fewer calls to return, and deadlines to meet. A slower schedule, a little more time to think and enjoy the seasons. We all do.
The psalmist wrote in Psalm 137:1-2
”By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. There on the poplars we hung our harps,” Enslaved and far from home someone looked back to a time when life was better and less complicated. Israel had turned from God and because of that, their enemy who by the way made fun of them in their predicament took them captive. Listen to verses 3-4 “for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion!" How can we sing the songs of the LORD while in a foreign land?” I think a lot of people have lost their song and their hope because they long for the good old days. Well, I miss an easier time myself; sorry to say we can’t go back. But let me tell you, the answer to not going back is not quitting. It’s keeping your song. The psalmist now reaches deep and remembers, and looks ahead to what God will do if he keeps his trust in Him. “If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill. May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy. Things have changed, but listen; we can’t hang our harps on the willows because things have changed. There is one that hasn’t changed. God has not changed. God will make a way, but first we must make a decision. When a traveler in the early days of the west, came to the Mississippi, he discovered there was no bridge. Fortunately it was winter and the great river was sheeted over with ice. But the traveler was afraid to trust himself to it, not knowing how thick it was. Finally with infinite caution, he crept on his hands and knees and managed to get halfway over. And then he heard--yes he heard singing from behind. Cautiously he turned, and there, out of the dusk, came another traveler, driving a four-horse load of coal over the ice, singing as he went! Faith is to believe what we do not see; and the reward of this faith is to see what we believe.
I most confess that when I saw the falcon last week I stopped to take a picture for my blog which you can see below. Oh I’ll still admire Falcon’s whenever I see them, and I’ll enjoy it. And I’ll still remember grandpa and a simpler time when I was but a boy, "Also pictured below". My focus now however is on Jesus. I’m following Christ and that’s where my hope lies.

GODS COLORING BOOK…

I love this time of the year don’t you? It’s almost as if we find ourselves walking through a gallery of beautiful artwork that we simply cannot ignore. God’s creation gives one last concert before settling down into winter's sleep. We are blessed to live in one of those lucky places where as days shorten and temperatures become crisp, the quiet green palette of summer foliage is transformed into the vivid autumn images of reds, oranges, golds, and browns before the leaves fall off the trees. My wife Terri’s Grandmother used to call one of those picturesque sights we are now enjoying “God’s coloring book.” In the hills of Southern Ohio where I live we are treated to a wall-to-wall masterpiece. "As seen Below" Thank the Lord for digital cameras! So how does God do it anyway?
For years, scientists have worked to understand the changes that happen to trees and shrubs in the autumn. Although we don't know all the details, we do know enough to explain the basics. Three factors influence autumn leaf color-leaf pigments, length of night, and weather, but not quite in the way we think. The timing of color change and leaf fall is primarily regulated by the calendar, that is, the increasing length of night. As days grow shorter, and nights grow longer and cooler, biochemical processes in the leaf begin to paint the landscape with God’s grand design. All that being said, it is still amazing to see what God does with his creation. Just because we can’t understand how it all happens doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy his handiwork. Listen, I don’t know how that God can make a black cow eat green grass and give white milk, but I sure can enjoy a good scoop of ice cream now and then!
One of the things that I learned about the changing of the color of leaves is that those beautiful colors we see now were really in the leaf all summer long. It is just the absence of a certain element called Chlorophyll, which gives leaves their basic green color which causes the brilliant colors to now be seen. In other words the beauty was there all the time only to be revealed when God’s grand timing purposed it to be. Often we miss the beauty God has for us when we refuse to wait patiently for his timing in our lives. We want things now don’t we? We have a sitcom mindset that expects things to be resolved in short order so that we can go on to the next thing. But we often miss the divine plan God has for us. In Isaiah 40 God says, “Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” You se when we trust God by faith no matter what we face he will be there to help us, even when we can’t see Him clearly. One night a house caught fire and a young boy was forced to flee to the roof. The father stood on the ground below with outstretched arms, calling to his son, "Jump! I'll catch you." He knew the boy had to jump to save his life. All the boy could see, however, was flame, smoke, and blackness. As can be imagined, he was afraid to leave the roof. His father kept yelling: "Jump! I will catch you." But the boy protested, "Daddy, I can't see you." The father replied, "But I can see you and that's all that matters." God not only knows and sees all, but his timing is always perfect. It just behooves us to wait on him.
Keith Miller and Bruce Larson, in The Edge of Adventure share the following story, “A letter was found in a baking-power can wired to the handle of an old pump that offered the only hope of drinking water on a very long and seldom-used trail across Nevada's Amargosa Desert: "This pump is all right as of June 1932. I put a new sucker washer into it and it ought to last five years. But the washer dries out and the pump has got to be primed. Under the white rock I buried a bottle of water, out of the sun and cork end up. There's enough water in it to prime the pump, but not if you drink some first. Pour about one-fourth and let her soak to wet the leather. Then pour in the rest medium fast and pump like crazy. You'll git water. The well has never run dry. Have faith. When you git watered up, fill the bottle and put it back like you found it for the next feller. (signed) Desert Pete. P.S. Don't go drinking the water first. Prime the pump with it and you'll git all you can hold." Priming the pump involves two very important things. The first is faith. Faith that God really is who he says he is, that he really loves us, and that His plan for our lives is what’s truly best. Secondly, that when we are willing to wait on Him, only then can the thirst of our hearts be satisfied and we can begin to see the real beauty in living. Oh boy let me get my camera, there’s another great picture….

THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME….

That little phrase in itself conjures up images of Dorothy clicking the heels of her ruby red slippers together at the end of the timeless classic the Wizard of Oz. And I suppose there is a great deal of truth to the statement. I remember often listening with surprise at my Grandma Mabel, my Dad’s mom, as she would whisper not more than five minutes into a visit to our house for a meal or a birthday party saying “I’d better get back home now, someone may stop by for a visit”. Grandma! I would think, You Just Got Here! Just this past week I had to chuckle as my Mom told me about her mother’s words. She and Grandma Henson were getting ready to pull out of the driveway to go to a doctor’s appointment…… “I just can’t wait to get back home” she said to mom in a forlorn tone. They hadn’t even left the drive way for Pete’s sake! I must admit though, I sort of now the feeling, as I am sure do. You know when you return home from a vacation or trip of some kind and you look around and say, it sure is good to be home. I suppose there really is no place like home.
As we journey throughout the Bible we see that same longing in the heart of Christ followers. Paul had that mindset I believe in the first chapter of the letter he wrote to the church at Philippi…. “But I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel; so that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace, and in all other places; and many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife; and some also of good will: the one preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds: but the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defence of the gospel. What then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice. For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour: yet what I shall choose I wot not. For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better: nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.” As we read those words we realize that things were not the best for Paul. He was in prison, wrongly accused. He was mistreated by those who should have been a help and support for him. “Having a desire to depart and be with Christ makes sense, doesn’t it? But the real reason behind Paul’s desire to leave wasn’t because of his circumstances, his writings bear that out. His reason was because of his Love for his Lord. The thrust wasn’t, “get me out of here because I’m hurting”. Might have been my motive, but never Paul’s. He would have, as I should be, willing to, face any obstacle and let God worry about the timing of my home going. But what we do absorb from Paul’s letter is the desire to be in the presence of the Lord because of his incredible love for his savior. Now there’s a reason to want to go home!
There will probably come a day when I will frustrate my children by whispering to them as soon as I arrive in their home for a family event “Well kids, I think I’m ready to go home now”. They will roll their eyes and think to themselves, Dad, you just got here! The sinister smile on my face as they begrudgingly take me home just may be because I remember back to the day I wrote this column. If I can still remember back that far! There is really no place like home, is there?
I often think of the words of Samuel Wilberforce, and English cleric of years gone by, who in trying to articulate what really happens at the death of a Christ follower. “It’s kind of like a ship that sails from a harbor, and as we see it leave we say there they go as they sail out of sight. But in reality, they are the same, just out of our sight”. Then Wilberforce said, “When we watch someone leave this world and say there they go, remember that there is a great crowd on the other shore saying, here they come!” Now that will make a feller want to head home……

WHAT WAS THAT YOU SAID?

I am a man, a red blooded American male and proud of it! That being said, I immediately find myself in the category of those who suffer from what is commonly known, “to American women especially”, as selective hearing. Now I don’t know about most men, but I believe that I developed this abnormality at a tender age. Many was the time my mom would call me in from playing to supper or some other distraction from an important task such as building a fort or saving the world from space invaders. She would claim that she had called me many times before. I actually only heard her voice, which had by that time raised to the decibel level of lets say, a low flying 727, when she would shout TIMOTHY NEAL THROCKMORTON!
This so called selective hearing has persisted over the years into my life as a married man and father. It began to resurface I think when the children were little and Terri would recall instances during the night when the children would cry terribly and somehow unbelievably I couldn’t recall hearing them at all! Mine however is not the only case of this strange disorder. If you want a laugh or two just do a Google search on selective hearing. The articles are very humorous, but I must admit, a little hard on men. Can’t understand why? According to useless-knowledge.com, in a column By Kristen Houghton Sept. 19, 2004, she writes, “It should come as no surprise that, while husbands and wives, technically speak the same language, they are, in reality, speaking two totally different ones. How has this been ascertained? Having done exhaustive research on the subject but coming to no concrete answer for this phenomenon, the language authorities have finally decided to go to the real experts. In short, they just decided to ask husbands and wives what they hear when their spouse speaks to them. It seems that there is a big difference between what one says and the other hears.” I know that Some of you wives out there are really surprised by this discovery. “just kiddin” Moving right along before Terri gets wind of this column. The very term selective hearing reminds me of a couple of passages of scripture.

First off in Luke 10:38-42 “Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word. But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things. But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.” Did you hear that? One of the sisters was so busy with getting everything ready for the meal that she was missing hearing the words Jesus had to say. Now I don’t think that Martha was doing anything that would be classified as sin, she just allowed good things to get in the way of listening to Jesus. Ever been there? Ever let good things keep you from hearing what Jesus has to say to you? Ever let good things keep you from church services or events?
Now lets listen in to James 1:22-25, “ But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.” Now the Bible seems to remind us that when it comes to listening to and hearing the word of God there is no room for selective hearing! If we don’t really hear, we don’t really act. And in not responding we are in danger of missing out on the blessings of God in our lives. Or worse, missing God altogether!
Erik Weihenmayer is blind, yet on May 25,2001 (Nepal time), he reached the peak of Mt. everest. Suffering from a degenerative eye disease, he lost his sight whn he was 13, but that did not stop him. On a mountain where 90 percent of the climbers never make it to the top- and 165 have died tring since 1953- Erik succeded, in large measure because he listened well. He listened to the little bell tied to the back of the climber in from of him, so he would know what direction to go. He listened to the voice of teammates who would shout back at him, “death fall two feet to your right!” so he would know what direction not to go. He listened to the sound of his pick jabbing the ice, so he would know whether the ice was safe to cross. As I read that story I was reminded that as we take the journey of life we need to really listen and hear. We need to listen to the bell of one who has gone before us to prepare the way so that we might enjoy eternal life. We ned to listen to those who can see a little better from their perspective of life, teammate if you will who give us good advice and warning. And we need to pay attention to our own experience, making sure we are safe and have sure footing in our spiritual lives. So rather than ask you how’s your hearing, let me ask you, how’s your listening? Gotta go, I think Terri just said something!

Obey your thirst…

As a teenager I would often find work on neighboring farms in the quaint little setting of McDermott Ohio. Pulling weeds out of soybean fields on the Emmett farm, off bearing on me friend Brent Koenig’s dad’s sawmill and of course working in hay fields during the hot summer month’s. Hard work in the hot sun was a little easier then, lot fewer years on me, and lot less pounds! One day way back then as I recollect, I was helping put in hay on the Music farm just up the road from where I live. Did I mention it was hot? Well it was and we found ourselves with a break in the action and my eyes spotted a fresh water spring just full of cool water. You may recall those fresh water springs that still dot some pasture fields today. There is a large cement circle brimming to the top with the coolest and freshest water you have ever tasted. And when you’re hot, sweaty and covered with hay cool and wet is all it takes to satisfy parched thirst. Thirst, thirst that overruled the warnings from Mr. Music that we probably shouldn't drink the water. But it’s cold and it’s delicious, what’s the problem. Unless your body is used to well water, and mine wasn’t, it might make you sick. But it tastes so good, and did I mention cold? Well, we showed him, we satisfied my thirst, and was just about twenty minutes or so into the next wagonload of hay when it hit me. Hit me hard it did. Needless to say I found myself sitting out the next few hours under a shade tree with Mr. Music grinning at me from time to time from the seat of his tractor. A victim of allowing my thirst to override truth. Funny thing that truth. When you come face to face, or well water to stomach whichever the case may be, you have to deal with it.

SPRITE ® in it’s latest marketing campaigns has enticed us with it’s slogan, “Image is nothing. Thirst is everything. OBEY YOUR THIRST!” Fact of the matter is, we all thirst for something… We long to feel loved, we long to experience happiness & joy, we desperately search for meaning and significance. And many people do obey their thirst. They drink up what everyone around them calls love, they pursue what their neighbors call happiness, and they try to find meaning and significance as defined by Dr. Phil, Oprah and MTV. The result is an even greater thirst that seems as though it will never be satisfied.
In John chapter 4 Jesus met a thirsty woman at a well in Samaria, lets listen into their conversation…. “Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.) Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.” Jesus knew the truth about her, and forced her to see and admit the truth about herself. But that is the way it is when we come into contact with God. Suddenly his light shines on us and reveals the truth about us, and we understand that he sees us as we really are. And when the real us is exposed by God, we have to admit the truth.
Admitting who we are and what we have done seems frightening, but in reality it is freeing. There is no other way to find God. She learned that the great question of faith is not about mountains or doctrines, it is the truth about who Jesus Christ really is. He lovingly confronted her with the truth, and then let her decide what to do with it. And herein lies the final point.
She left her water jar — either because she was so overtaken by what she had experienced that she forgot it, or she knew she was coming back. Either way, she left Jesus unceremoniously and without explanation. Have you ever been thirsty? Are you thirsty right now? Then why not obey your thirst and let a real experience with living water satisfy your soul?

Drink up

I DID IT AGAIN!

This time it was white paint but it cold have been anything. Other occurrences have included anything from drywall tape to drywall screws. In most cases it’s not a real problem because I’ll probably need the stuff in the future anyway. It’s just annoying because I didn’t need to spend the money! Bottom line, I wasted my time, I went out of my way and in the end I bought something I didn’t need! The thought of searching for something not needed entered my mind this week as I read the story of Danny Simpson. According to a Canadian newspaper, if Danny had known more about guns, he might not have needed to rob a bank. But in 1990, in Ottawa Canada, this 24 year old went to jail and his gun went to a museum. He was arrested for robbing a bank of $6,000.00 and then sent to jail for six years. He used a 45 caliber Colt semiautomatic, which turned out to be an antique made by the Ross Rifle Company, Quebec City in 1918. The pistol ended up being worth up to $100,000.00, much more than Danny had stolen. If it was money Danny was after, he already had what he needed.
There is so much to be said of living a God centered life. Following Jesus Christ brings everything into it’s proper perspective and the things we think we need seem to fall into their proper place so that we enjoy the life God has given us to it’s fullest extent. Jesus words in the Sermon on the Mount mean much here, “Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” Matthew 6:25-34.
You say, “Tim, what’s this got to do with my life today?” Well I’m tickled you asked. We live in a culture that is in many ways lust centered. Now when I use the word lust I am not simply referring to the sensual issues that abound in our society, but the truest meaning of the word. The best illustration for lust that I have heard pictures someone on a ladder reaching out in a dangerous way to get something not that important or even needed. Can you see that in your mind? The thought of risking ones safety for something that’s just not that important. That’s lust. Paul in his first letter to his protégée Timothy said “But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.”
Radio personality Paul Harvey tells the story of how an Eskimo kills a wolf. The account is grisly, yet it offers fresh insight into the consuming, self destructive nature of sin: First, the Eskimo coats his knife blade with animal blood and lets it freeze, then he adds another layer of blood, and another, until the blade is completely concealed with frozen blood. Next the hunter fixes his knife in the ground with the blade up. When a wolf follows his sensitive nose to the source of the scent and discovers the bait, he licks it tasting the fresh frozen blood. He begins to lick faster, more and more vigorously, lapping the blade until the keen edge is bare. Feverishly now the wolf licks the blade into the cold artic night. So great becomes his craving for blood that the wolf does not notice the razor sharp sting of the blade on his own tounge, nor does he recognize the instant at which his insatiable thirst is being satisfied by his own warm blood. His appetite just raves more no matter what until the dawn finds him dead in the snow! It is a fearful thing to be consumed by lust. Now remembering why I wrote this column in the first place, we get into trouble reaching for things we don’t need when we forget what we actually have in the first place. Lets remember Paul’s words, ““But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.” Or in more simpler terms, count your many blessings, name them one by one, and you’ll be surprised by what the Lord has done!” Oh no, now I’m out of paintbrushes, I think!