HOPE'S CHILD

In the darkness of a quiet night,  

Hope found a place on earth.

From eternity to measured time 

arrived through virgin birth.

In a new born child Messiah dwelt

Though no one really knew,

The day would come when called upon

To see this mission through.

His mother watched her child grow strong,

and too soon become a man.

In sorrow knowing deep within

He would complete God's plan.

He healed the sick, and raised the dead,

still few would dare believe,

This man was who He said He was

We just could not conceive.

Then one dark day the time arrived 

His mission was complete.

I watched as He was beaten, 

nails in His hands and feet.

Compassion still shown through His eyes

Like none I'd ever known.

He closed His eyes and hung His head 

To His Father He had flown.

The next two days had stumbled on 

The future held the same.

The third day broke the darkened sky

And once again Hope came.

Oh death where is your victory,

Oh grave where is your sting.

This child born into darkness wins 

and with Him HOPE He brings.

Larry Houghton 12-09-2019
 © 2019 All Rights Reserved
Used With Permission from the Author 

Losing A Bearing

A few weeks ago while in a worship service at church, the Lord "spoke to me" and said; “You will find your bearings; I promise you; you will find them."

For the past two years I felt that I was out of place, lost, displaced, uprooted, removed (and (luxated and ectopic for those of you who read your dictionary on a regular basis). Some of it started a over two years ago when I had sensed that it was time to leave both the place where I was working (for five years) and the church that we had been attending (for over twenty years).

I had spent the season seeking the Lord's face for direction. I had also sought counsel from Cathy, my friends, counselors, therapists, and my board of directors and board of advisers. And now it was time to step out into a place that was uncharted territory.

Simply put, I had lost my bearings and I couldn't find my true north.

To 'lose one's bearings' means to lose sight of or become unable to determine one's orientation, position, or abilities relative to one's surroundings or situation. 

I knew that I was still called to be a father to my children and their spouses and a grandfather to their children. I knew that I was called to be a pastor and to preach and equip others and to write; but where and to whom? 

On a side note, when a bearing is going out on a car, usually there is a loud noise coming from the tire or wheel of the vehicle. And, if a wheel bearing is missing, it is not recommended you drive the vehicle at all as the wheel can fall off entirely while the vehicle is in motion.

That sounded a lot like me, at least on the inside. And at times on the outside as my anguish came out in short reactions to bad drivers or misunderstandings with Cathy and other minor irritants.

So I filled my time with playing hockey and making guitars and walking and picking up pucks and praying and crying and wandering (seemingly) aimlessly. I worked on projects and traveled and drank a lot of coffee. I applied for many too many jobs; only to get no response...which fed into my sense of lostness.

But I came to realize that I was still seeking identity, validation, and affirmation from circumstances, places, accomplishments, and people; which can lead to a false identity.

Then, while my hands were lifted up in worship of a God who calls Himself Father, I heard His voice deep in my soul; “You will find your bearings; I promise you; you will find them."

Hope arose, for I knew that voice and I had confidence because of His faithfulness to me in the past. I KNEW that somehow I would get to where I needed to be and I could be quiet and not make a loud noise as the lostness of the bearing ground against my soul.

He has been and will be faithful.

In time, at unplanned places (many times and many places) such as at a wedding or while working with a friend, the Lord spoke to me through many voices to encourage me to keep doing what I was doing. To remind me that HE had called me and that HE would get me to where He wanted me to be. 

His gifts were without repentance:

"For God’s gifts and his call can never be withdrawn." (Romans 11:29 NLT)

When did I forget that He is the One who holds it all? When did I forget that He is still holding me? He's a Good, Good Father who is still is Lord of All.

Rink Closed for Resurfacing

In a hockey game, intermissions affect the outcome of the game in the respect that they give players a chance to rest and allows team coaches to evaluate the team’s performance and to make changes regarding strategy as required.

They also provide an opportunity to clean/resurface the ice.

I need to take an intermission in my life to take some rest, allow me to talk to my Coach (God), to spend time with Him, to evaluate my performance, and to make changes regarding strategy as required, as well as to clean/resurface the ice. Metaphorically of course.

So, I am taking an intermission from writing for a short season.

In the interim, please check out my Blog Archive.

 “Be still, and know that I am God…” (Psalm 46:10)

“In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” (Isaiah 30:15)

Today, please take some time to think about life and death and what’s important. Death is a reality - but so is God's offer of salvation in Christ. Is your hope in Christ? Don't put off your decision for Him, because you could be called into eternity at any moment - and then it will be too late.

Take time to talk to God and to talk to your friends. Take time to think about what’s important. Take time to slow down and smell the roses; it will be next week soon enough.

“Keep your stick on the ice; I’m pulling for you!” -Red Green

All Scripture is from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

Sand, Rocks, and Trees

Recently, Cathy and I spent three days and two nights up on the North Shore. It is located on Lake Superior in Northern Minnesota. It is a destination that we have been going to over the thirty six years that we have been married; as well as the times when we individually went to that area prior to our marriage.

Our goal was to go from St. Paul to Grand Marais; staying in Two Harbors at night. The whole trip from St. Paul to Grand Marais can be done in a little over four hours. The from St. Paul to Two Harbors can be done in around two and one-half hours. We would have gone to Canada, but I forgot to take along our passports.

In the past, my goal was to get from point “a” to point “b” in a little time as possible; because I had a destination to get to. Over the years I have been trying to slow myself down and take in the scenery along the way.

Each and every time we discover something new and exciting that we hadn't seen before. This time was no exception.

What stood out to us this time was how many different beaches and coves there are on Lake Superior. It is almost as though someone had sorted out all of the rocks, sand, trees, and water into different beaches and coves on the entire shoreline of Lake Superior! 

Let me share with you some of my observations…

ROCKS: Each and every beach or cove has a different type, shape, and color of rocks. Some beaches have jagged rocks that are hard to walk on without the right type of shoes. Some have rocks so smooth they look as though someone came in and tumbled them in a rock polisher. Some have rocks that were all the perfect rock for skipping. Some were perfectly round made out of taconite or sand.

Some rocks were black; others were orange, gay, white, tan or red. Some were dull, and some were filled with stones that sparkled as they reflected the sunshine. Some areas even had rocks that look liked someone had gathered all of the variety of stones and melted them together into individual rocks made up of a composite of multiple types of rocks.

SAND: Each and every beach or cove has a different type, shape, and color of sand; from jet black to pristine white, as well as orange, gray, tan and red. Some of the sand was large grains, others were as fine as dust. Some was warm and some was cold to the touch.

WATER: Each and every beach or cove has a different type and color of water; from choppy to calm, from green water to almost clear. Some that was so clear that one could almost drink it and some was so covered in algae that one wondered why the water was stagnant.

TREES: Each and every beach or cove has a different type and color of trees; from pine trees to hardwoods. Some were tall and some were short; almost like bonsai trees! Some were fallen; others were so attached into the rocks that the very winter storms that ravage that area couldn’t remove them from where they were planted.

WILDLIFE: Each and every beach or cove has a different type of wildlife; from birds to fish to other types of waterfowl.

ATMOSPHERE: Finally, Each and every beach or cove has a different type of atmosphere. Some were crowded, while others were secluded. Some were covered in debris, others were pristine with absolutely no trash in any form. Some felt inviting while others gave off a feeling of uncertainty.

Some were harbors for large ocean-going ships, while others were places for kayakers to explore as they calmly paddled along. Some were littered with trash and even old ship wrecks that contained a reminder of who vastly different this great lake can be from one location to the next.

All of these different coves were on the same lake and yet each had their own unique things to offer to anyone who was willing to stop, wait, and observe. Each and every one came with the observation that someone had to have put this all together as part of some master plan.

My thoughts and take away:

Don't just go through this next week as though you are running a race; you already did last week.

Don’t go through this week thinking that you are alone and that no one is behind all of this placing into your life each and everything that is necessary to make you who you are called to be.

Don't just go through this next week as though there is no master plan for your life. Let God show you what He is doing.

Don't just get through this next week; there is so much to see that you won't notice if you don't slow down and enjoy the trip and soon you will be at thirty plus years wondering how the time flew by.

I'm praying for you and looking forward to your observations.

I Don’t Understand

We all been there. Someone is trying to explain something to you and after going through an explanation you respond with; “I don’t get it.”

And, so, with all of the confidence of an American Ninja Warrior trying to run up the “warped-wall” one more time, they take another shot at it.

And you respond once again; “I still don’t get it.”

And they respond by trying to explain it to you again and you end up being even more confused and dazed; or was it the other way around…

So how do you feel? Lost, confused, ashamed, stupid, wondering what is wrong with me…all the above?

The problem is that much like anything else that is explained to us, we don’t always grasp what is being said simply because we don’t always have the same vantage point as the one who is trying to teach us or explain something to us.

In Luke 18:31-33, we read a story when Jesus is telling His disciples for the third time how He is going to die and then be resurrected.

These are men who had been with for three or more years. These are men who were with the greatest Teacher to have ever walked the earth. These are men who at any time could ask Him anything! These are men who were hand selected to be a part of His team…

 

And Jesus is trying to make another attempt to get them to understand something very important.

“Then He took the twelve aside and said to them, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be accomplished.  For He will be delivered to the Gentiles and will be mocked and insulted and spit upon.  They will scourge Him and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again.”

And yet, as we will read, after all the teachings and all of the time that they spent with Him, they still don’t understand what He is talking about.

V.34 “But they understood none of these things; this saying was hidden from them, and they did not know the things which were spoken.”

After all of the teachings and all of the time that they spent with Him, even they still don’t understand.

I guess that means that we also are qualified to be a disciple of Jesus Christ; right?

Yes….But, let me remind you, the problem is that much like anything else that is explained to us, we don’t always grasp what is being said simply because we don’t always have the same vantage point as the one who is trying to teach us or explain something to us.

I like how Oswald Chambers puts it:

God called Jesus Christ to what seemed absolute disaster. And Jesus Christ called His disciples to see Him put to death, leading every one of them to the place where their hearts were broken.

His life was an absolute failure from every standpoint except God’s.

But what seemed to be failure from man’s standpoint was a triumph from God’s standpoint, because God’s purpose is never the same as man’s purpose.

This bewildering call of God comes into our lives as well. The call of God can never be understood absolutely or explained externally; it is a call that can only be perceived and understood internally by our true inner-nature.

The call of God is like the call of the sea— no one hears it except the person who has the nature of the sea in him. What God calls us to cannot be definitely stated, because His call is simply to be His friend to accomplish His own purposes.

Our real test is in truly believing that God knows what He desires. The things that happen do not happen by chance— they happen entirely by the decree of God. God is sovereignly working out His own purposes.

If we are in fellowship and oneness with God and recognize that He is taking us into His purposes, then we will no longer strive to find out what His purposes are.

As we grow in the Christian life, it becomes simpler to us, because we are less inclined to say, “I wonder why God allowed this or that?” And we begin to see that the compelling purpose of God lies behind everything in life, and that God is divinely shaping us into oneness with that purpose.

A Christian is someone who trusts in the knowledge and the wisdom of God, not in his own abilities.

If we have a purpose of our own, it destroys the simplicity and the calm, relaxed pace which should be characteristic of the children of God.

So the next time that you find yourself in a quandary because you don’t understand, remind yourself that you may not be seeing the fuller picture.

Remind yourself that you are in great company and let the Lord take you to place of retelling you what you need to know as you once again say; “I don’t understand.”

What in The Heaven Is Going On?

It doesn’t matter how the tragedy comes…

A bridge collapsed, a car crashed, the economy tanked, a job was lost, a marriage came to an end, a baby dies, an injury took place, your favorite sports team lose for the fifth straight game….

And the reaction is often the same response…

(Pardon my French)

But…“What in the hell is going on???”

Why is it that we often assume that all hell itself has been launched as though God was nowhere to be found?

And if God is mentioned, He is either blamed or cursed.

Why is that? Why are we so obsessed with always seeing the negative and assuming the worst?  

Some people are so obsessed: With asking God to damn this and to damn that –marriage, home, car, etc…

Why not ask God to bless this and to bless that?

It is as though we are fixated on what is wrong and rarely focused; or even ask the question;

“What in the heaven is going on?”

In Chapter 3 of the Book of Habakkuk (in the Bible), the prophet was given a vison of some impending disaster that was about to strike. His response was (at first) to have a view from below. Verse 16:

      “When I heard, my body trembled;
      My lips quivered at the voice;
      Rottenness entered my bones;
      And I trembled in myself…”

You might be thinking; “Well at least he was dealing with reality…he wasn’t sugar-coating in some Pollyanna dreamland view...some happy-happy-joy-joy everything will work out you’ll see” view point.

But I would submit that his perspective changed when God showed him a view from above and he asked (implied):

“What in the heaven is going on?”

We pick up his response in verse 17:

      “Though the fig tree may not blossom,
      Nor fruit be on the vines;
      Though the labor of the olive may fail,
      And the fields yield no food;
      Though the flock may be cut off from the fold,
      And there be no herd in the stalls—“

See, he was dealing with real life, real death, reality! He spoke of seeing no crops, no food, and no livestock. He spoke of truth (from man’s perspective) and said it like it is.

BUT his response was to ask (implied):

“What in the heaven is going on?”

We pick up his response in verse 18:

       “Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.”

His response to the question; “What in the heaven is going on?” was one of praise and determination to see this disastrous situation from God’s perspective and REJOICE!

It is as though he chose to say; “I choose to see and look for how God will and is responding!”

And in doing so, from God’s perspective, he could see that God was still in control and He was his source of strength to get him through this disaster!

We pick up his response in verse 19:

       “The Lord God is my strength;
      He will make my feet like deer’s feet,
      And He will make me walk on my high hills.”

The difference in how we face disasters or bad news for that matter is really about CHOICE.

Choice to ask, “what in the hell is going on?” and choice to ask; “what in the heaven is going on?”

One will feed into your fears and anxieties and one will produce hope and faith and joy!

It’s really doesn’t change the circumstance; just how you CHOOSE to go through it/them.

A Beautiful Bride

One of my daughters (Judith) got married this past week. Man, was that was tough on this old man! No, not because of any costs or time associated with the wedding, but because of the emotions connected with being the father of the bride as well as the officiant.

I am a pastor and at the time of this writing, I have about eight weddings to officiate this summer and several booked for next year...so weddings can be “old hat” for me…yet they never are. I guess I am just a romantic at heart.

Or, as one of my other daughters (Elizabeth) said to me eight years ago just before I walked her down the aisle; “Dad, you’re not as tough as you think you are!” pointing out that the pastor who had done premarital counseling for her and her husband was in the audience just in case I “couldn’t finish the task” of being both dad and officiant.

I have done this before, so you would think that it would get easier; no, it doesn’t! With each of my children I appreciated that they had asked me to even be a part of their wedding as a guest.

On the day of Judith’s wedding, my heart was on a roller coaster of emotions as I made a protein shake. I was using the time to deal with my nervous energy awaiting decision as to whether the wedding would be outdoors or inside depending on the weather.

Rain, rain, go away….

 

As I stood in the kitchen drinking my shake, I was filled with gratefulness as I thought about how the Lord had faithfully walked us through some tough times as she, as a teen, had questions and struggles about life and its meaning.

To use up some of my time I went back into my office and re-edited the message over and over until I told myself to stop.

My OCD was interrupted by a text from my daughter confirming that we would go ahead and do the ceremony outdoors. The weather had shifted and instead of rain, the clouds gave way and became a very beautiful day filled with sunshine.

My heart shouted out a responsive; “Praise God!” because I knew that the outdoor location had great significance for my daughter (as well as for the rest of our family).

So, I packed up my briefcase, a podium, and my dress clothes and headed out the door to meet my soon-to be son-in-law to set up the place for the wedding; which was located twenty minutes from our house.

The location was fifty yards from a river in a state park that has a large bridge overhead. The shore was lined with geese and this year’s goslings and a couple of fishermen who offered to move somewhere else; but we told them to stay and enjoy the weather.

This was a special place where my daughter searched and cried out for answers during a season in her past when life didn’t make sense. And here today we celebrated the some of those answers.

It was also a spot very close to where grandpa Gene died almost ten years earlier; in the same state park and below the very same bridge.

The time came for me to walk my beautiful daughter, dressed in a stunning dress, down the aisle to the front; looking into each other’s eyes, knowing the grace of this precious moment. Tears of joy filled my eyes as we exchanged private tender words to each other as we made our way to her awaiting groom.

Up front I assumed the role of officiant and added some comic relief as I asked; “Who gives this woman away?”; quickly stepping back into my position as dad as I replied; “I do”.

As I looked out at the audience made up of immediate family members, I realized just how handsome my two sons (and sons-in-law) are and how beautiful my four daughters (and daughters-in-law) are; I am so grateful that I had married a beautiful woman!

The wedding ceremony was short and sweet and went off without a hitch, that is until I looked at each of my four daughters, my wife, and my mother-in-law as I recalled to the audience the significance of this place.

At that point, I became so chocked up with emotion that I could hardly speak as tears began to fill their eyes. Maybe Elizabeth was right that I’m not as tough as I think that I am!

I regained my composure and finished joining these two in matrimony and then took time for the photographs.

After we packed up and loaded our vehicles with all of the props, I headed home to change my shirt, now saturated from the humid air and from standing in the bright sunshine, and then headed off to the reception located twenty minutes away.

Feasting and joy was on the itinerary for the evening as a large group of friends and family joined us to celebrate this delightful couple. The food was out of this world and the service was second to none!

Cathy and I were able to mingle from guest to guest playing the role as two of the hosts and hostesses; that is, in between times of chasing the grandchildren around at their request.

When I was asked by my Judith to join her for the “Father-Daughter Dance”, I made my way to the awaiting audience of one. As we danced, it became another opportunity for us to exchange private tender words to each other as we held on to each other and slowly shuffled our feet to the music.  

I realized this wasn’t anything that I had “earned” by being a "perfect dad", nor was I “owed” this opportunity; this was a gift of love! And, hockey player or not, I was deeply moved and once again tears came to my eyes. 

She chose me to walk her down the aisle, and she chose me to officiate, and she chose to invite me to be a dad at her wedding, and she chose me to dance with her and to share this joyous day with her.

The evening continued to be filled with great joy and much more food as guests made themselves available for conversations with people who, prior to this event, had not known each other and now could because we were all friends of the bride and groom.

Eventually, the celebration wound down and we all headed to our homes or to an adjoining hotel. God had clearly heard and answered this poor man’s cries.

“This poor man cried out, and the Lord heard him,
And saved him out of all his troubles.” (Psalm 34:6 NKJV)