100 Sermon Illustrations on Father

Sermon in Parables series. Prodigal Son

Luke 15:11-32

"OUR LOVING FATHER"

I. The most beautiful story ever told.

II. First sign of father's love: he lets his son go.

A. In Romans 1, Paul calls this "letting go" the wrath of God.

B. The son goes, as soon as possible and as far as possible.

III. Three things give out.

A. His resources give out. 15:14

B. His environment gives out. 15:14

C. His "friends" give out. 15:16

IV. Turnaround.

A. Son "comes to himself." 15:17

B. When a person says "I am dying" they are not far from God. 15:17

C. The son turns home. 15:20

V. Acceptance. The second sign of love is the greatest.

A. Face the Father and he will do the rest. 15:20

B. Unfair and unchristian?

C. The father takes the initiative.

D. Robe, ring and sandals. 15:22

VI. The Presbyterian son. (from Greek)

A. He was a dutiful worker, but refused to go home. 15:25

B. He gives a disrespectful speech. 15:29

C. Third act of love by father: he goes and pleads with older son.

VII. Message of the parable.

A. To all prodigals: Come home, the father is good.

B. To elder brothers: Come into the house, enjoy the feast.

#2157

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From standpoint of Genesis 27 looks at influence of a parent's blessing on

their child. (The life of a pastor who blesses his flock yet neglects his own

family is compared.) A Harvard study concluded that women in class of 1956

who left home feeling valued did significantly better in relationships and

professions over the next 30 years. Key elements in a parental blessing are:

1. Meaningful touch.

2. Picturing a special future.

3. Attaching high value.

#1012

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In his book STRESS FRACTURES, Charles Swindoll writes:

I vividly remember some time back being caught in the undertow of too many commitments in too few days. It wasn't long before I was snapping at my wife and our children, choking down my food at mealtimes, and feeling irritated at those unexpected interruptions through the day. Before long, things around our home started reflecting the pattern of my hurry-up style. It was becoming unbearable.

I distinctly recall after supper one evening the words of our youngest daughter, Colleen. She wanted to tell me about something important that had happened to her at school that day. She hurriedly began, "Daddy-I-wanna-tell-you-somethin'-and-I'll-tell-you-really-fast."

Suddenly realizing her frustration, I answered, "Honey, you can tell me .. and you don't have to tell me really fast. Say it slowly."

I'll never forget her answer: "Then listen slowly."

Travis Simpkins was neglected by an absent father who gave him "quality"

time instead of quantity time. Dads are always heroes in their kids' eyes;

Travis even invented stories about his dad to impress his friends. Dad rarely

sent child support and claimed birthday presents were lost in the mail. Son's

conclusion: it is better to do things right the first time around instead of

dreaming of second chances. Travis finds it hard to trust others now, and

ended up in Fulton County Jail awaiting trial armed robbery.

#2546

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A week after his cancerous right lung was removed, my father asked me over for an afternoon chat. That afternoon he told me his wishes regarding his funeral service. He never left anything to chance. Every action had a purpose and each sentence he spoke was planned to evoke a specific response.

He died two months later, after a four-year battle against colon cancer. His funeral wishes were simple. Someone of my mother’s choice would do the eulogy. A person of color would sing the hymn, “God Is.” Henry Webb, a co-worker at the Baptist Sunday School Board, would bring an evangelistic message and Olivia Cloud, a close friend and colleague, would end the service with prayer. His pallbearers must include three women and only two Anglos.

Dad’s life, as with his funeral service, reflected an unrelenting focus on inclusiveness and racial harmony and the basic thought that God is the reason for everything and everyone.

For Dad, racial reconciliation was biblical and multiculturalism was not just a catchword -- it was who he was. He believed it was important to be multicultural simply because one could not successfully share the love of Christ with a person of another culture without first knowing a little about his/her history, customs, laws or language.

No matter a person’s skin color, Dad simply treated others as he wanted to be treated. He always seemed to be watching out for the oppressed and enjoyed playing advocate for the downtrodden. His heroes had names like Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Caesar Chavez and Gandhi.

My sister and I became the direct beneficiaries of Dad’s relentless pursuit of a healthy cultural sensitivity. Our parents continuously exposed us to other cultures and beliefs outside our Anglo-European heritage. At times, Dad’s bent toward multiculturalism seemed almost obsessive, but he believed that if we learned a multicultural outlook as children, we would have no need for racial reconciliation later in our lives.

Whenever we were introduced to derogatory racial or gender-related stereotypes at school or in the media, our parents taught us the root of the stereotypes. Political and gender correctness were norms in our home for as long as I can remember. For instance, Pollock jokes and the use of racist words like blackmail, blacksheep, blackball or blacklist definitely were forbidden.

He had a knack for using everyday situations to teach us about racism and prejudice and the difference between the two. One such lesson came on a summer day, as I played baseball with other neighborhood children. We began choosing professional baseball players after whom we wanted to model our style of play. I chose my favorite, Willie McCovey, a strong, power-hitting, first-baseman for my hometown San Francisco Giants. I was quickly told that Willie McCovey was black and I couldn’t be him because I was white. I didn’t care that he was black; he was my favorite ballplayer. An argument ensued. Finally, insults were thrown and I was branded a “nigger-lover” and forced to pick a white player or not play at all. I didn’t exactly know what that meant, but I knew it wasn’t nice. So I picked up my Reggie Jackson bat and Willie Mays outfielders glove and went home.

That evening, I asked my father about the word I had heard. He told me the word was used mostly by Anglos as a derogatory term for anyone of dark skin. He explained to me the African etymology of the word and how it had been purposely distorted over the years to become an ugly racial slur.

Racism, a form of prejudice, was what my friends had shown toward Willie McCovey because of his skin color. Prejudice, on the other hand, was how my friends had treated me for my beliefs. I’ll always remember that talk because of what he told me at the end, “Son, it’s OK to be a nigger-lover.”

About the same time I was learning about prejudice on the baseball diamond, my family began visiting Emmanuel Baptist Church, a predominately black Southern Baptist church in San Jose, Calif. Visiting different churches each Sunday was not out of the ordinary for us since my father, as a home missionary, related to a large Southern Baptist constituency throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. On any given Sunday, Dad might be called upon to preach, share his testimony or conduct an evening Bible study.

However, Emmanuel was different. Soon our visits became regular and as a result of the friendliness and genuine Christian love we experienced, the church became our home.

For the next 11 years, Emmanuel played a vital role in my family. My father worked as a part-time minister of education and helped the church’s Sunday school grow into one of the state leaders in attendance. My mother taught Sunday school and my sister sang in the children’s choir. Church members also supported our family through prayer during my recovery from brain surgery in 1979. During our time at Emmanuel, we all developed strong friendships that last even today.

Because of the reputation he nurtured and earned while at Emmanuel, my father came to the Baptist Sunday School Board in 1987 to work in Black Church Development. At first Dad worked as a liaison between the section and Anglo leaders of state conventions. Soon he shifted his focus and began working directly with churches and pastors.

From the outset, many thought of Dad as the token white in a section dedicated solely to black church work. Some even questioned why he’d accept such a position. Wasn’t this a demotion? What were his qualifications? Did he actually think he could successfully work among African Americans, whose church style, culture and language were so different from mainstream Southern Baptists?

Many assumed his “calling” in life was to work with African Americans, just as a foreign missionary is called to work among non-Christians in far-off places like Africa, China and India. Some thought his job was to show black Southern Baptists how to “do” church the Southern Baptist way.

But nothing could be further from the truth. Really, we never discussed why he worked where he did. It was simply his job and what he loved to do. I know he felt comfortable in the black community and never found his skin color to be an obstacle.

Throughout his career, Dad constantly worked to broaden the racial sensitivity of others. Even while working at the Sunday School Board, he routinely confronted co-workers about their views of race in the workplace and in the Christian community. Although his entire career in Christian ministry seems dedicated to racial reconciliation, he had a somewhat critical view of the Racial Reconciliation Resolution adopted by the Southern Baptist Convention last June.

He thought, as do many black Southern Baptists who attended the SBC, that the resolution by itself will not change anything in the relationship between blacks and whites in the Southern Baptist Convention. Openness and a willingness to learn and understand -- qualities my Dad’s life exemplified -- will make a real difference.

He knew that racial reconciliation is more than just saying you’re sorry. It will come only when actions begin to speak louder than words.

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Copyright (c) 1995 Baptist Press

Sermon in Lord's Prayer series. Our Father in Heaven. Matthew 6:9

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HALLOWING OUR HEAVENLY FATHER

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I. God doesn't get much respect.

A. This is a tough time for God.

B. Before we pray, we should recall who God is.

C. It matters what kind of God we pray to.

II. Importance of "Father" in Jesus' theology.

A. Jesus' unique emphasis on an approachable God. Romans 8:14-16

B. Father of all humanity? 1 John 3:1

C. "Our" Father - a prayer for the whole community of faith.

III. He is in heaven.

A. What is heaven?

B. Updating our image of heaven. 2 Cor 12

C. Proper balance of intimacy and awe.

IV. Hallowed be name.

A. Obscurity of "hallow".

B. Meaning of "name." Exod 20:7

V. How to really honor God.

The outrageously fruitful ministry of my father.

It is unnerving to say that the most godly person I have ever known is my father, James "Buck" Hatch, who turns 80 this year -- unnerving because he has never been a tower of strength. Those of us who have known him best saw his weaknesses as clearly as his strengths. Grace amid weakness is, I suppose, the theme of this birthday tribute, for it was through his brokenness, not his strength, that he brought healing attention to the shadowed interior rooms of people's lives. His life has much to say about the nature of Christian ministry.

A painfully shy person, always near the brink of depression, Buck has experienced life more as a vale of tears than as a vista of opportunities. I often remember Dad coming to dinner -- a boisterous affair with four sons -- and just sitting at the table, not uttering a word.

His life cannot be canonized as an all-American success story. It was his father who had been the Horatio Alger type, rising from poverty on a hard-scrabble North Carolina farm to ownership of a prosperous hosiery mill in Charlotte. My father had little use for the respectability my grandfather sought. Driving a Pierce Arrow, owning a fashionable home, joining the country club -- these did nothing to fill the void of a soul not at home with itself.

Why his eldest son consistently forfeited opportunities for success was an enormous puzzle to my grandfather. An honors student at Duke University, Buck abandoned his pursuit of a career in medicine, much to his father's dismay, after a powerful conversion experience drew him toward the ministry. He served for a time as a Presbyterian minister in Mississippi and then did graduate work in psychology at the University of Chicago under the renowned Carl Rogers. Once again he refused to use his degree as a professional springboard. He went to work for what his father feared was an upstart, fundamentalist institution, Columbia Bible College. To my grandfather, a dyed-in-the-wool member of Charlotte's staid First Presbyterian Church, this made no sense.

Without fanfare, for over 40 years, my father has poured himself into people at Columbia Bible College and the surrounding community. Year after year he taught classes in Scripture, biblical hermeneutics, psychology, and family life. His office was open ten hours a week for counseling, a pattern he continues today without charging a fee.

My parents' relationship has been a model of gentleness and mutual respect. Dad was the most untypical Southern gentlemen I have known. He didn't wait around to be waited upon. From bathing the children to washing the dishes, he did whatever would be of most help to my mother. Mother, in turn, used our home and her warm hospitality to enhance Buck's calling. Their commitment to a common ministry cemented their beautiful relationship. Toward this end, they gladly submitted themselves to each other.

Dad has been no respecter of persons. He has naturally gravitated to "little" people, the ungifted, the unattractive, those often regarded as unlovely, or troublesome, or unuseful. One deeply wounded person whom he counseled for years wrote, "You have been Jesus in flesh and bone to me."

As an adolescent, I could never understand how the ministry of my shy and private father reverberated with such power in people's lives. When he taught, people listened, riveted. When he preached, people's views of God and themselves changed, often in dramatic ways. And when he counseled, broken people tasted healing.

No amount of analysis can explain the contagious quality of love he radiates: he is a vessel simply brimming with the powerful love of Christ. But it is instructive to think about the central characteristics of his life and ministry.

OUTRAGEOUS AFFIRMATION

Describing my father's character requires a word that is the antithesis of judgmental. Robertson McQuilkin, Dad's longtime friend and colleague, coined it on my parents' fiftieth anniversary when he wrote, "Your affirmation was constant and outrageous."

That's the word -- outrageous. Buck showers boundless affirmation upon family, friends, and students alike. A family friend recently told me he regularly visits my parents' home feeling that his life is a failure, and he always comes away buoyed with hope. "I could walk into Mr. Hatch's house unshaven, dirty, and completely disheveled," he noted. "If I had only one strand of hair in place, Buck would stop me to note how great I looked."

What a refreshing gift -- to release others from judging themselves severely. In the exercise of this gift, Buck's life and beliefs converge. The depths of his own experience awakened him to the heights of divine grace and care. His bedrock conviction: God is far more reliable, faithful, and forgiving than his people imagine.

Dad has known that inner yearnings for the embrace of God are rarely fulfilled, that people hear the message of grace but seldom believe it intended for them. Whatever people profess about God's love and care, Buck knows the default mode of the human heart: God seems aloof and indifferent, and we are distanced from him by our repeated failures and lack of faith.

Dad's single-minded goal throughout his preaching, teaching, and counseling has been this -- to remove the veils that keep people from seeing God's lovingkindness. As Philip Yancey once noted in a letter, Dad's influence was key in "unpolluting" his faulty concepts of God. Dad's purpose, as Augustine put it, was to "restore to health the eye of the heart whereby God might be seen." He did not chide people for their lack of spiritual vitality. Instead, deftly as a surgeon, he lifted away layer upon opaque layer of guilt and shame. In Buck Hatch's presence, people experienced love and acceptance.

Buck lived what he taught -- unconditional love. He knew nothing of stern fundamentalist moralism, despite living in an environment steeped in it. Instead, he gravitated to those who were out of step: the lonely, the rebellious, the angry, the confused-and particularly anyone whose self-esteem had been stripped away. Scores of letters to my parents attest to his rare ability to pour himself into hurting people. One student wrote: "You have been a father to the hundreds of people who needed a father like you."

OWNING BROKENNESS

The sterling quality of my dad's ministry was not forged without great cost. Through the goodness of God over fourscore years, my father has come to radiate a deep and abiding joy. But you could not call him a happy person. He has always wrestled with thorns in the flesh that drove him not to rely on himself.

Buck Hatch bore the scars of a terribly dysfunctional family, whatever its outward success may have been. He remembers sitting at the top of the stairs, night after night, straining to hear a single kind word between his parents. He always climbed into bed disappointed.

The second of five children, Buck seemed most buffeted by his shattered home life. Although bright, he was insecure, melancholy, and introverted. His older sister and two younger brothers, however, came to maturity visibly confident, outgoing, and successful. One brother became student body president at Wheaton College where a friend described him as the most natural leader he knew. Similarly, his sister was a professional woman in the 1950s, rising to be director of personnel at the Carson, Pirie, Scott department store in Chicago.

Their success was short-lived. My aunt became a chronic alcoholic and lost her job, her apartment on the Magnificent Mile, and her exquisite furniture. My uncle's story was yet more tragic. After serving as a chaplain in World War II, he openly renounced the ministry and his faith, cut off ties with the family, and lived a meager existence, bouncing from odd job to odd job, until his death. Another brother, whose life as a young man seemed stable and prosperous, witnessed the collapse of his personal and family life. He died prematurely, his health also compromised by alcoholism.

This story of a shattered family is a parable of grace. Buck Hatch, who began his pilgrimage carrying the heaviest burden, found strength in his infirmity and became a stronghold for his troubled siblings. My aunt, beaten and fatigued, moved in with my parents, who worked patiently to get her back on her feet.

Dad's sister-in-law, rudely divorced by his brother, also moved to Columbia and found loving support in our home. Years later she wrote my parents: "I am not writing this letter just for myself. This comes from all the Hatches alive and dead whom you two have loved, helped in so many ways, and prayed for through the years.... [You have] helped a very unhappy and sorrow-filled woman get her life back together-again so gently, so lovingly and unfailingly there when needed."

Dad never fled from his own brokenness or tried to paper it over. It is this lack of pretense that people found so winsome. My dad's brokenness, not his strength, gives him ready access into the interior rooms of people's lives. He typically listens more than he speaks. When he does have something to say, it springs from deep wells of experience. And when people confess to him their dark nights of the soul, they do not get pat solutions but an embrace from one who has also traversed the darkness.

AFFIRMING THE NATURAL AND THE SPIRITUAL

My father always laughs at any suggestion of his being an intellectual and points to my mother whose love for books outstrips his own. Yet from the time of his graduate training at the University of Chicago in the 1940s, my dad pursued a serious intellectual agenda: how to relate the natural "truths" of modern psychology to biblical revelation. In personal terms, he explored what it meant to have a relationship with God for those severely wounded by broken relationships.

This was Dad's passion a generation before the church became awash in therapeutic forms of Christianity. Dad rejected any suggestion that he was an authority on the subject and refused to put his thoughts into writing, despite repeated suggestions from former students. Yet his insights were profound.

In his teaching and counseling, Dad emphasized an incarnational view of reality, a careful blend and balance of the natural and the spiritual. He did not, for example, expect quick and easy spiritual solutions to problems faced by Christians who had been denied healthy intimate relationships. If Christianity is a relationship, my father reasoned, how can someone who has grown up in a web of poisoned relationships learn to identify with a nurturing and covenant-keeping God? Like the Swiss physician Paul Tournier, Dad emphasized that new life in Christ does not free us from obedience to the natural order. In other words, no progress in faith erases a person's past. Everything that has been lived and gathered by experience still exists and must be reckoned with.

At the same time, Dad insisted that helping people to cope psychologically was only the beginning of the pilgrimage to know God and his ways. Effective counseling, as he saw it, allowed people to get beyond themselves and prepared them to encounter the matchless grace of God, the only enduring reason for living.

Moving easily among these diverse realities -- psychological, theological, and pastoral -- gave my father acute insight into how broken people easily miss the essence of the gospel. How do hurting people negotiate the lofty expectations of the Christian life? The Bible speaks of a life characterized by love, joy, and peace, yet people often look within and find pain, frustration, and bitterness. Buck Hatch understood that the logical reaction for many was to despair of living a fruitful Christian life. Similarly, he understood the tendency of persons who had not known much affirmation to try to win God's acceptance through a flurry of good works.

With words gentle but firm, Dad called a halt to the cycle of guilt that plagued these Christians. He insisted that the gospel offered no quick fixes for deep-seated dispositions of the soul. Using Jeremiah, a man of tears, he was able to explain to some why life, given their backgrounds, would be a continuing struggle. At the same time, he pointed them to a faithful Savior whose mercy was always new. My father knew that for some, just getting through each day could be a glorious victory of grace.

Try as they might, some people over the years were slow to believe that God loved and understood them. Yet they could count on the acceptance of at least one other person. Bitter travail and gracious healing allowed this friend to stand in the stead of his Savior.

My father's ministry became widespread despite his best efforts to keep it small and local. He resisted lecturing at other institutions, putting his thoughts into print, or -- perish the thought -- creating a clinic or a parachurch organization to continue his work.

We live in a day when Christians strive to emulate the latest successful ministry, unaware that as a goal that is a contradiction in terms. The life of Buck Hatch is a vivid reminder that the divine economy inverts natural priorities. In Christ's kingdom, the last shall be first, life is saved by losing it, and weakness confounds strength. In the greatest paradox of all, bitter affliction may allow the power of Christ to rest upon us. This is the best training I could have received in a religion that worships a crucified Savior.

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Nathan Hatch is vice president for graduate studies and research at the University of Notre Dame.

Copyright (c) 1994 Christianity Today, Inc./CHRISTIANITY TODAY Magazine

We often learn the most from our children.

Some time ago, a friend of mine punished his 3-year-old daughter for wasting a roll of gold wrapping paper. Money was tight, and he became infuriated when the child tried to decorate a box to put under the tree.

Nevertheless, the little girl brought the gift to her father the next morning and said, “This is for you, Daddy.”

He was embarrassed by his earlier overreaction, but his anger flared again when he found that the box was empty.

He yelled at her, “Don’t you know that when you give someone a present, there’s supposed to be something inside of it?”

The little girl looked up at him with tears in her eyes and said, “Oh, Daddy it’s not empty. I blew kisses into the box. All for you, Daddy.”

The father was crushed. He put his arms around his little girl, and he begged her forgiveness. My friend told me that he kept that gold box by his bed for years. Whenever he was discouraged, he would take out an imaginary kiss and remember the love of the child who had put it there.

In a very real sense, each of us as parents has been given a gold container filled with unconditional love and kisses from our children. There is no more precious possession anyone could hold.

It started out as a family adventure - it ended as a family tragedy. James Reddick took his 12-year-old son and his 11-year-old daughter on a hiking expedition up Mount Rainier in Washington State. All of a sudden, a freak snowstorm arose, creating instant blizzard conditions and hurricane-force winds. With a blinding "white out" around them, they could not go any further. Dad knew they had to create some kind of shelter. All he could do was to cut out a large hole in the ground, using a cup from their cooking kit, and then he put his children in that hole and covered it with a tarp. But the fierce winds kept blowing the tarp away, leaving the children exposed to that deadly storm. The father tried everything he could find to hold down the tarp, but nothing worked. Finally, in one last, desperate attempt to save his children, he actually lay across that hole himself to keep the snow from blowing in. Two days later, a search party noticed an edge of a backpack. They uncovered the hole and they found the two children alive and well. But first they uncovered their father - who froze to death, protecting the ones he loved.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Magnet In That Old Hunk Of Wood."

That father had given the highest kind of love there is - the giving of his life so people he loved wouldn't have to die. It is that kind of love that touches us in the deepest part of us - compelling love. It's why I'm asking you to open your heart today to the One who has loved you like that.

It's Jesus who said those oft-quoted words: "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13) Then, in John 10:11, our word for today from the Word of God, Jesus says, "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep." I'm one of those sheep He laid down His life for. And so are you. And that's why it is so important that you make sure you belong to Him, that you've responded to Jesus. The Son of God put His body between you and the awful consequences of running your own life - eternal separation from God. When He died on the cross, Jesus took the storm of God's judgment on Himself. He died so you don't have to.

Malcolm Muggeridge was one of the most respected British journalists of the last century. His keen insights and distinctive writings appeared regularly in some of England's most respected publications. For much of his life, he was an articulate unbeliever when it came to Jesus Christ. But later in life, his perspective changed dramatically. He became a committed and outspoken follower of Jesus Christ. When he was asked what drew him to Christ, he simply said, "It is the Cross, more than anything else, that has called me inexorably to Christ."

Not Christianity, not rituals, not beliefs, not even the great teachings and miracles of Jesus - it was His cross. See, there really is a magnet in that old hunk of wood - a magnet that draws us to the foot of that cross to see how very much He loves us. In your heart, would you allow yourself to walk up to that old skull-shaped hill, stand there at the foot of that cross and look at the agony of the Son of God, nailed to that cross. And listen as He looks your way and says, "Father, forgive him" ... "Father, forgive her." Put all the excuses aside, all your religion, all your failures, all those hypocrites you've known, all those questions - and just let it finally overwhelm you - God's one and only Son loves me ... He died for me!

And then, bow down at that cross and give yourself to this One who cared more about your life than His own. Tell Him, "Jesus, I'm Yours!" If that's what you want, let me send you the booklet, "Yours For Life," that I wrote about this relationship. I'll let you know how to get it in just a moment.

I can understand if you walk by Christians or even Christianity. But please - don't walk by the Cross! That's a love you dare not pass by. And it's your only hope of heaven.

________________

Copyright © Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc., PO Box 400, Harrison, AR 72602. Used by permission. Written by Ron Hutchcraft. 'Practical Answers to Real Life Issues'

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A young woman brings home her fiancee to meet her parents. After dinner, her mother tells her father to find out about the young man.

The father invites the fiancee to his study for a drink.

"So what are your plans?" the father asks the young man.

"I am a Torah scholar," he replies.

"A Torah scholar. Hmmm," the father says. "Admirable, but what will you do to provide a nice house for my daughter to live in, as she's accustomed to?"

"I will study," the young man replies, "and God will provide for us."

"And how will you buy her a beautiful engagement ring, such as she deserves?" asks the father.

"I will concentrate on my studies," the young man replies, "God will provide for us."

"And children?" asks the father. "How will you support children?" "Don't worry, sir, God will provide," replies the fiancee.

The conversation proceeds like this, and each time the father questions, the young idealist insists that God will provide.

Later, the mother asks, "How did it go, Honey?"

The father answers, "He has no job and no plans, but the good news is he thinks I'm God."

[another version substitutes "seminary student" for "Torah scholar."]

"When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years."

-- attributed to Mark Twain, Reader's Digest, September 1937

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Frankly, most of us didn't know much about the space shuttle Columbia's amazing crew until the ship and the crew were lost in that awful re-entry tragedy. But then we began to learn what truly outstanding men and women these people were. Starting with their commander, Rick Husband. Hearing from his family and friends, it quickly became clear that he was a magnetic follower of Jesus Christ. He quoted from memory verses from Joshua 1 to prepare his crew the night before the launch. He prayed with his crew just before they met the press and boarded the shuttle. He molded his diverse crew into a bonded team. What touched me most was what Rick Husband did for his kids before he left. He made 17 videos for his daughter and 17 videos for his young son, each one a “devotional with Daddy” for each day he was scheduled to be gone - it was Daddy with the Word of God and Daddy praying with them. Can you imagine what a treasure that will be to them?

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “A Father's Legacy.”

The kind of gift a space shuttle commander left for his children is the kind of legacy God intends for every father to leave - a contagious love for Jesus, the teaching of God's words and God's ways, and a consistent life of Christ-like love and purity.

And just in case someone asks, “How do you know that's what a father's supposed to be doing?” we can just look at Ephesians 6:4, our word for today from the Word of God. It says, “Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.” There are some men who might say, “That's women's work.” A lot of men try to delegate to their wife the spiritual leadership for which God holds them accountable. Throughout the Bible - beginning with Adam - God makes it clear where the buck stops when it comes to spiritual leadership in a family. It stops with the man.

But that's not supposed to be a bad thing. It means that a man can leave a legacy for his children that can literally change their lives and last forever. And that's an exciting prospect! Rick Husband modeled this God-given assignment of being your children's spiritual coach when he left God's Word for his children along with hearing him talk with God on their behalf.

Some of us haven't really stepped up to building this spiritual legacy as we should. One reason might be fear of failure. You know, we men tend to only do things where we're pretty sure we won't look stupid. We ask out a girl only when we're pretty sure she won't shoot us down. We show up for a sport where we can look reasonably coordinated. We avoid sports we're not very good at. And because trying to lead our family in praying and exploring God's Word is unsure ground, we tend to shy away from it. Or we hide behind the fact that we think our wife is better at it. But God doesn't buy any of that. There's only one way you can be a failure in being a spiritual leader for your family - and that's by not stepping up! Just do it - however clumsy and unsure you may be at first.

When your children remember you, will they remember a praying man? Will they remember a Godly man? A man who loved and lived by the words of God? It's the greatest legacy you can give them. In the words of the psalmist, “We will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord,” and will follow God's mandate that men should “teach their children, so the next generation would know ... even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children. Then they would put their trust in God...” (Psalm 78:4, 6-7)

We never know when our own mission on earth will end. Which means we can't waste another day in working on our spiritual legacy. The greatest gifts you will leave your children will not be in your will - they will be in your life. As you pass onto them your living faith in your living God!

________________

Copyright © Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc., PO Box 400, Harrison, AR 72602. Used by permission. Written by Ron Hutchcraft. "Practical Answers to Real Life Issues"

*

[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #1753]

Gary Bowell tells of two men that lived in a country home in their boyhood, and they became rich men when they went away from home. They went occasionally to visit their father and mother living in the home. And finally the father and mother went to heaven.

The sons did not know what to do with this old home. One of them said to the other, “If you'll sell out your interest in it, I'll tear down the house and I'll build a summer home there, and let you come out to it when you want to.” Accordingly they took a trip out to the old homestead to tear it down.

Around that spot there swept many sacred memories. Then these two brothers, past middle life and rich, went into the house and looked around through it. One walked up and down in front of the old fireplace and the other sat down. Finally one said to the other: “You know, Bob, what I'm thinking about? I've changed my mind since I've been here. We're not going to tear down this old house. This house is going to stand here; it's not going to be torn down.”

“That is a strange thing,” the other brother said, “because when I was walking up and down in front of the fireplace, that is the same thing I was thinking about.” He looked at the chair in which his father used to sit. “Her is the old chair that father sat in when he read the Bible, when we had family worship... the chair around which we knelt as father lifted our hearts to God.”

They stayed there two hours to talk things over. They both go down on their knees by the old chair, repented, and wept their hearts out before God. They went back, saved men, and gave their money to God and lived for God. And the old house stands. Not a single thing was moved out. It was too sacred to touch because of a father's prayers that had been prayed there!

________

Gary Bowell, “Stones with Fair Colors” p. 151, 152

Our friends' two boys were about to eat with the baby-sitter when the

six-year-old said, "You can't sit in Daddy's seat."

"Daddy's not home," the baby-sitter replied. "Since I'm responsible for you while he's gone, I can sit here. Today I'm the boss."

The four-year-old quickly piped up, "If you're the boss, you sit over there." He pointed his fork to his mother's chair.

__________

Ellen P. Bernard; Reader's Digest, Copyright (c) October 2000,

http://www.readersdigest.com/

*

[Original illustration at this number was added to HolwickID #2063]

I watched intently as my little brother was caught in the act. He sat in the corner of the living room, a pen in one hand and my father's hymnbook in the other. As my father walked into the room, my brother cowered slightly; he sensed that he had done something wrong. From a distance, I saw that he had opened my father's brand-new book and scribbled across the length and breadth of the entire first page with a pen. Now, staring at my father fearfully, he and I both waited for his punishment.

My father picked up his prized hymnal, looked at it carefully, and then sat down without saying a word. Books were precious to him; he was a clergyman and the holder of several degrees. For him, books were knowledge, and yet, he loved his children. What he did in the next few minutes was remarkable. Instead of punishing my brother, instead of scolding or yelling or reprimanding, he sat down, took the pen from my brother's hand and then wrote in the book himself, alongside the scribbles John had made: "John's word 1959, age two. How many times have I looked into your beautiful face and into your warm, alert eyes looking up at me and thanked God for the one who has now scribbled in my new hymnal? You have made the book sacred as have your brothers and sister to so much of my life." Wow, I thought. This is punishment?

From time to time I take a book down -- not just a cheesy paperback but a real book that I know I will have for many years to come -- and I give it to one of my children to scribble or write their names in. And as I look at their artwork, I think about my father, and how he taught me about what really matters in life: people, not objects; tolerance, not judgment; love which is at the very heart of a family. I think about these things, and I smile. And I whisper, "Thank you, Dad."

_________________

By Arthur Bowler from Chicken Soup for the Christian Family Soul, Copyright 2000 by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen

In an insightful and surprising meeting, I recently heard a prominent author and speaker make a startling statement about the family. He boldly declared, "We have lost the culture. We must not lose the family!" How very true. The attack on the family starts with culture: same-sex marriages, court rulings against prayer in school, Christianity and Christian values marginalized in the media and on television: these are all attacks against Christian values. Coupled with the cultural attack, the breakdown of the home is occurring with division, violence, and divorce. Our families are under siege, and we must not succumb to this adversity.

We must strengthen our families. They are central to the health of our society. And they are essential to the health of our individual lives. After twenty-five years of research of over 14,000 families around the world, culminating in their sapient book on the family entitled Fantastic Families, Nick Stinnett and Joe Beam concluded:

We are confronted daily with evidence that the quality of family

life is crucial to our happiness, emotional well-being, and

mental health. There isn't a question about it any more: We know

that poor relationships within the family are related to many

problems in society.

With this said, and the priority that the Scriptures give on the family, we must strive to strengthen our homes.

How can we bolster our defenses? How can we reinforce the walls of the home? First, we must learn to treasure family relationships. In the book of Ephesians, the apostle Paul places premium value on the family. He did that by writing about the interlocking relationships within the family unit (Eph. 6). He compared the relationship of the husband and wife to that of Christ and the Church, Jesus' bride. He took the highest relationship, that of Jesus and the Church, and placed it beside the highest human relationship, the husband and the wife. Both Jesus and the church treasure the beautiful relationship they experience under God's design. Likewise, the husband and wife also should treasure the beautiful relationship they experience under God's design. Both God and His children treasure the relationship they experience together. So it is with the parents and children in the human family. Parents and children should treasure their relationship with each other. No doubt, relationships within the family make for a treasure. And as Christian homes place primary importance on the treasure of family relationships, we will begin to bolster our defenses and strengthen our families.

Second, to bolster our defenses against the siege against the family, we must live out family relationships as the Scriptures teach us. First, the husband is to love and lead his wife and family, as recorded in Eph. 6:23a, "For the husband is the head of the wife"; the husband must lead the home. The manner of leadership is love. The husband lovingly leads his wife, "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church" (Eph. 6:25). Out of love the husband should sacrificially love his wife. The wife, then, adhering to the Scripture, follows and respects her husband, as delineated in Eph. 6:22, "Wives submit to your own husbands." This means that the wife should follow the leadership of the husband. Next, Paul addressed the relationship of children to their parents in Eph. 6:1-2, "Obey your parents and honor your parents." This means in action and attitude, children should be obedient and respectful to their parents. Finally, parents adhere to the Biblical prescription for relating to their children, as revealed in Eph. 6:4, "do not provoke your children to wrath...bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord." This simply means that parents should strive to avoid provoking the children by being a poor model. Each relationship within the family is important: husband and wife, parent and child, child and parent, wife and husband. Each is important and to be treasured!

Families will bolster their defenses and reinforce the walls of the home when we follow these two principles from Scripture: 1) treasure family relationships, and 2) live out family relationships as the Scriptures teach us. Healthy and happy homes don't just happen. They happen after we prioritize and follow the principles of Scripture. As we strive to serve the Lord in this way, we will find strength in the midst of the siege.

*

A Dad Who Didn't Quit

Read: Ephesians 6:1-4

Fathers, ... bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord. --Ephesians 6:4

Three months before my father died of cancer, he wrote me a letter. I had just left the security of teaching and had gone into fulltime freelance writing. Life was very uncertain.

Dad said, "I know you, I know what's behind you, and I am pretty sure that I understand your goals and the kind of writing you hope to do and the message you wish to convey. Stay in there, and may the Lord bless you. If you ever get in a tight place and need some ready cash, let me know. I think I know where I can lay my hands on a little of it."

When Dad sent me that letter, I was 36 years old and had a wife and three children. But I was still his son and he knew I needed encouragement. He was still parenting, in the best sense of the word.

When the Bible tells fathers to bring up their children "in the training and admonition of the Lord" (Eph. 6:4), it doesn't put a time limit on the process. As children grow, a parent's role changes, but the responsibility to care remains the same. Loving, training, admonishing, and encouraging never go out of style.

I still have that letter. I'm still thankful for the man who never stopped being my dad. --DCM

We're thankful for our fathers, Lord,

They're special gifts from You;

Help us to show we honor them

By what we say and do. --Sper

The best fathers not only give us life - they also teach us how to live.

Only 12 men have done it in the history of civilization. For Charlie Duke, it was the culmination of a lifetime of study and training. Standing on the moon's rough Descartes Highlands in April 1972, the Apollo 16 lunar module commander was, literally, over the earth with pride. After a 71-hour mission, he and astronaut John Young left a few of the usual mementos from earth, such as an American flag, before leaving the moon.

Charlie left another, more significant object: a snapshot of his family enclosed in a plastic bag. It was a telling gesture because, while the moon mission had gone almost flawlessly and he was at the height of his career, Charlie's family back on earth was close to crashing. Divorce loomed on the horizon, and Charlie was a tyrant to his children. But as God's creation was evident that day in the magnificent blue jewel of the earth suspended in space, God's handiwork was also made evident as He would come to rescue a failing marriage and reconcile husband, wife and children.

AN UNLIKELY DREAM

Charlie Duke had never dreamed of being an astronaut. "We had Buck Rogers and cartoons like that when I was growing up," he says, "but I had really no desire to do anything, no desire to fly, much less even think about going into space."

But while attending the U.S. Naval Academy, he fell in love with airplanes and, upon graduating in 1957, transferred his commission to the Air Force to become a fighter pilot. Up to that time, he remembers, space travel was just a fantasy. But the same year he graduated, the Soviet Union launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik, and in April 1961 put the first man into orbit, Yuri Gagarin. "After the United States put Alan Shepard into space, the dream started bubbling," Charlie says.

The dream took a short detour, though. In 1962, while in graduate school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he met a young woman named Dotty. "She had a charming personality, a beautiful smile, and there was a magnetism between us - still is - that I just knew she was the one," he says.

They married on June 1, 1963, in Atlanta. "When Dotty and I were finally married we even discussed getting out of the military," Charlie says. But it turned out that after MIT I had commitment of two years to the Air Force. Then I was sent to test pilot school, which gave me another two-year commitment, and all of a sudden the astronaut program came up, and there we were."

In 1966 Charlie was one of only 19 selected out of thousands of astronaut candidates. The following years involved intense training and a lot of time at the "office." In the meantime, two sons, Charles and Tom, were born.

"Our marriage started coming under a lot of strain, especially when we got to NASA," he says. "The travel and the intensity of the job, Dotty at home with two little kids - I'd say we were steaming full-speed toward the rocks of divorce by 1972."

His relationship with his sons was also headed for a wreck. "I was a very strong disciplinarian. Sort of a military drill instructor dad, these are the rules, this is what I expect you to do. I demanded, basically, perfection from these kids," he says. "I was gone a lot. I would come home, we would have to readjust, and I was on them again. So it was a strained relationship, and they didn't want to be around their dad too much."

By 1975, Dotty was in despair. Since college, she had tried to fill her life with other things. "Sunday school, career, philosophy, good works, volunteering, things like that," she says. "I was trying to find if there must be some reason we're here on earth." Her marriage to Charlie, she later realized, was just another attempt to fill the void.

"I had been faithful in Sunday school and throughout college," she says. "I respected Jesus. I knew who Jesus was, I said He was my savior, I hoped I was going to heaven, but it was more of a Sunday event for me. It didn't really control my life. 'I' was in charge of my life."

Soon her despair reached the point of contemplating suicide. But in October of that year, the church they attended held a weekend conference called Faith Alive. "I had never really heard the gospel in a way that it would relate to me," Dotty says. "That's when I made a commitment to find out if God was real. The way I was going to find out was to start praying, specific praying. It took about a month for enough prayers to be answered for me to realize that it was true: God is who He says He is."

And gradually Dotty began to climb out of her despair. "One night in bed I just said, 'Charlie, I can't depend on you any more. I have to depend on the Lord.' I had tried marriage; I had tried all these other things. And marriage failed me, too. Charlie didn't mean to fail me, because I was looking for him to be the perfect husband in the perfect marriage. That was my Cinderella dream."

Charlie remembers that night. "Well, it hurt my feelings," he says. "I didn't understand the spiritual focus of her statement. Actually, as it turned out, I really loved it because she wasn't on me any more, she was not nagging. I didn't have to change."

Soon thereafter Charlie retired from the Air Force, moved to New Braunfels, Texas, and bought into a beer distributorship. "Two years later I'd gotten really upset with this business," he says. "I decided to sell it in March 1978."

The next month, a friend invited Charlie and Dotty to a weekend retreat at the T-Bar-M Ranch. During a "Walk Thru the Bible study," Charlie's eyes were opened. "I just got fascinated with all of that stuff," he says. I realized that weekend that Jesus really is who He says He is. So after that weekend, as we were getting ready to leave, we were sitting in our automobile and I just told Dotty, 'You know, Darling, there's no doubt in my mind that Jesus Christ really is the Son of God, and Lord, I just commit my life to You."

Dotty's reaction: She clapped her hands and smiled. "That's exactly what God's been waiting to hear," she said.

"The Lord spoke to my heart," Charlie says. "He said, 'The problem with your marriage is you don't love your wife like I love you.' I said, 'Lord, You're right, but I'd like to. Help me to be the husband You want me to be.' That process is still going on, trying to be a husband and father and grandfather, the person that God wants me to be."

Charlie also came across Proverbs 18:21: "The tongue has the power of life and death."

"The Lord spoke to me and said, 'You have cursed your own children.' It was true. We can be devastating with our words."

THE MASTER'S HAND

Psalm 19:1 says, "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands." Charlie has seen the truth of that from a perspective few have. But one does not need only look skyward to see God at work.

"Our story really is the power of God to heal relationships," Charlie says. "I don't care how broken a relationship is; Jesus can heal it if we are humble and seek God's will. It's been a tremendously exciting adventure as we walk with the Lord as a couple and see God's hand in our marriage as He saved us from the divorce court."

*

Friday August 10 9:52 AM ET

Taxi Driver's Passenger Is His Long-Lost Son

LONDON (Reuters) - A taxi driver has found the son he last saw 34 years ago -- as a fare in the back of his cab.

The chance reunion came when Barry Bagshaw, 61, picked up a fare at a motel near Brighton in southern England.

A short time into the journey, the woman accompanying the man in the back spotted the driver's identity badge and noticed he had the same surname as her boyfriend.

"The blood just drained out of me when he said `I'm your son'," Barry told BBC radio. ``I didn't recognize him at first. It certainly won't be another 34 years before I see him again."

His son Colin, 39, a chef, who was about to leave the area for good, had thought his father was dead -- even though they found they lived just streets apart.

Barry, who has another son and a daughter, lost touch with his children when his marriage broke down while he was serving in the army in Hong Kong.

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/htx/nm/20010810/od/taxidriver_dc_2.html

It was pretty scary for a four-year-old little girl. My wife's grandfather had somehow managed to drop his favorite pen down a cistern in his yard. Karen remembers it as being about 25 feet deep. And she remembers that because she was the one who had to retrieve Granddad's valuable pen. Her Daddy made this makeshift harness for her to sit in, tied a tope around her waist, and began to lower her down that hole. Karen had one hand on the rope, and one hand free to carry out her mission. Her mind was focused partly on the lost pen, and partly on what snakes might be down there in that damp hole in the ground. As she dangled in space in a scary place, she was counting on one thing - her big, strong Father was holding the rope.

Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A WORD WITH YOU today about "Dangling In Space."

Dangling in space in a scary place - that may describe where you are in your life right now. It just feels as if you're holding onto nothing right now - you're moving through the dark - concerned about the dangers.

That must be some of what David was feeling when he wrote our word for today from the Word of God - it's in Psalm 34 (one of my favorite Psalms), beginning at verse 3. David is actually hiding out in caves - the king, the most powerful man in the country - is hunting him to kill him. He's got all the troops out looking for him. Talk about anxiety!

But David writes, "Glorify the Lord with me; let us exalt His name together. I sought the Lord, and He answered me; He delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to Him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame. This poor man called and the Lord heard him; He saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him, and He delivers them ... those who seek the Lord lack no good thing."

Notice - there's nothing in here about the "snakes" at the bottom - the king, the death threats, the danger, the uncertain future. As scary as David's situation is, he's living without fear - he's radiant - in a word, he's OK. Why? Because of who's holding the rope!

And that's why you're OK, too. Right now there may be far more questions than answers. The future is uncertain. You feel like you're dangling in space, and there's danger below. You can't see where the money could possibly come from - where an answer could come from - how that person could ever change - how you're going to find a way through this - or a way out of this.

But if you've given yourself to Jesus Christ, you are a child of the Most High God! And your security does not come from the environment you're in, the position you're in, or the resources you can see. Your security comes from who is holding the rope - your big, strong Heavenly Father. You may be in a situation where it seems as if God is all you've got - well, that's when you find out that God is all you need. And it has nothing to do with you ability to hang on - it's all about God's ability to hang on.

Yes, it looks scary ... yes, it feels like you're dangling in space. But you are safe - because your Father is holding the rope - and He will never let you fall!

________________

Copyright © Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc., PO Box 400, Harrison, AR 72602. Used by permission. Written by Ron Hutchcraft. 'Practical Answers to Real Life Issues'

*

Bruce Wilkinson describes this poignant scene from the epic novel and movie, "Grapes of Wrath." Steinbeck's story is about families that are forever changed by the Depression-era events in the Dust Bowl of mid-America, where these huge dust storms were wiping out the lifetime work of many farmers. In one scene, an Oklahoma farm family has gathered in front of their house to watch the approach of this massive dust storm. The working men in the family are looking toward the horizon, no doubt wondering what this storm is going to do to their world. The children are hanging onto their parents' knees - their eyes are on the horizon, too. But not the women. The women are watching only their men's faces. What they need to know is there.

Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A WORD WITH YOU today about "Woman Watching Their Men."

That scene is a revealing picture of where a wife's sense of security and well-being is supposed to lie - it's in the man she married. In fact, our word for today from the Word of God in Proverbs 14:26 describes the home of a real man this way - "He who fears the Lord has a secure fortress, and for his children it will be a refuge." A secure fortress - that's the kind of environment a man should provide for his wife and for his children.

God seems to have designed the home in such a way that the man is the thermostat - his marriage and his home reflect whatever climate he sets. That climate could be peaceful or stressful, affectionate or cold, communicating or disconnected. He could be setting a climate that is kind or harsh, selfish or unselfish, positive or negative. The woman seems to be the thermometer of the family, reflecting the temperature set by her man. And I guess you might say that the children are the seismograph who register every disturbance.

When Eve ate the forbidden fruit, it was Adam God came looking for - because it was the man God held accountable for the condition of that first family. When Sarah laughed at God's promise of a son in her old age, it was Abraham God confronted about unbelief. The buck stops with the man.

In our wedding ceremony, I asked God to help me be for Karen "the harbor for which the heart of woman truly longs." I haven't always been that harbor, but it's what God expects me to be - what Karen needs me to be - and what I'm trying to be more and more.

But it's hard for a woman to feel secure in her husband's love when he doesn't take time to listen to her heart - when he continually criticizes her - when he seldom praises her - when he speaks harshly in anger - when his eyes are wandering - when he doesn't seem to value what she does. A man has incredible power to build a woman up or to tear her down.

And she has every right to expect what God expects - that the man will be the spiritual leader in his home; leading them to pray, to consult God's Word, to make godly choices.

A man may be scanning the horizon, weighing what he needs to do. But if you're married, your wife is looking at you to decide whether she's safe or not. You're her horizon. Don't let her down.

________________

Copyright © Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc., PO Box 400, Harrison, AR 72602. Used by permission. Written by Ron Hutchcraft. 'Practical Answers to Real Life Issues'

*

Our friend - we'll call her Diane - shocked her family years ago when she announced at the age of 17 that she was pregnant. Even with some folks urging her to have an abortion, she made the choice to have that child - a son. When her son was seven, Diane met a guy we'll call Gary - and she knew they were falling in love. With some fear and trembling, she told him about her son. Gary said, “Let's go meet him.” Diane's boy took to Gary immediately. Diane and Gary were married, and the boy grew up with a wonderful relationship with Gary. But something happened when he turned 17 - this unexplainable rebellion that ultimately made him decide to go live with his biological father. A few months later, he returned to the home he'd grown up in. He had made a powerful discovery in the intervening months. He said to Gary, “You know, you're the one I walk like, you're the one I talk like, and I do things the way you taught me. You are my father!”

Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about “Finding Your Father.”

In that emotional, unforgettable moment, a young man decided who his father really was, who would be the anchor for his identity as a son. It may be that someone listening today needs to make a choice like that - about the One the Bible actually calls the “father to the fatherless.” (Psalm 68:5) There's a reason that God chose, out of all the names He could have asked us to call Him, the name “Heavenly Father.”

In my lifetime, I've known many people who have come from a very rough background ... sometimes a fatherless background - either because they never knew their father or the one they had never acted like on. I've known people who have come from a background where they never really felt like they belonged - and they still don't. Maybe I've just described you in some way.

I have to tell you that so many people who have lived emotionally unanchored and painful lives have found something amazing when they found Jesus Christ - they found the Father their heart had yearned for so long. There is so much hope for hurting people in our word for today from the Word of God in Psalm 10:14. It says, “But you, O God, do see trouble and grief; You consider it to take it in hand. The victim commits himself to You; You are the helper of the fatherless.”

But like that young man who made the choice that Gary was his father, you have to come to the place where you make that deliberate choice about the God who made you ... about Jesus Christ, who loved you enough to come all the way from His throne in heaven to an old rugged cross to die to get you back. Nobody can love you like He does. But you have to decide that you will no longer define yourself as “the victim” ... that you will no longer define yourself by some other relationship that can never be what you really need - and that you will, from this day forward, say, “I know who I am. I belong to Jesus Christ. I am totally His, for now and forever!”

That's coming home to the identity you were made for. You've been away, trying to get other people and other things to do for you what only Jesus can do. Let this be the day you come home to Him and say, “Jesus, I'm Yours. You died for me, and I'm yours.”

Let Him be the one you follow. Do things the way He teaches you. And live with that sense of worth and security that belongs only to those who belong to Jesus Christ.

________________

Copyright © Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc., PO Box 400, Harrison, AR 72602. Used by permission. Written by Ron Hutchcraft. "Practical Answers to Real Life Issues"

*

Zig Ziglar often paraphrases St. Augustine who said something like this: “Man travels hundreds of miles to gaze at the broad expanse of the ocean, he looks into the heavens with awe and amazement … he gazes at the rivers and fields and streams in awe, and then passes himself by without a thought … the most amazing creation of them all!”

And then Zig reminds us that “Man was designed for accomplishment, engineered for success, and endowed with the seeds of greatness.”

The great tragedy in life is that many of us do not recognize the qualities we possess.

During this week leading up to Father’s Day, this is a good time for men to remember that we all have qualities of success. If you’re not a man, then put this message into the hands of a special man in your life. It’s important to develop these qualities of success and to use them frequently.

In the event you don’t know which qualities of success you possess, Zig has identified 30 of them for you! We’ll list them below in the hope that you will read them and claim them for your own life.

Honesty, Humor, Friendliness, Confidence, Integrity, Persistence, Humility, Goal Setter, Decisive, Hard Working, Learner, Humorous, Positive Mental Attitude, Compassionate, Disciplined, Dedicated, Faithful, Dependable, Knowledgeable, Communicator, Loving, Enthusiastic, Motivated, Patient, Loyal, Organized, Good Listener, Empathetic, a man of Self-Respect, one with Common Sense, and Character.

Men: Go ahead now. Look yourself in the mirror and claim these qualities! Do it for several weeks and you’ll notice a change in your life. Let us know how it works. No husband has ever been shot while doing the dishes.

As we got ready to leave our motel one morning, I hugged Betty and softly sang in my stroke impaired voice my version of the children’s chorus, “Running over. Running over. My cup is full and running over. Since the Lord gave you to me, I’m as happy as can be. My cup is full and running over.” It was just a little thing, but it meant a lot to her.

You’ve heard the old popular song, “Little Things Mean A Lot.” Many marriages may be in trouble not necessarily from big things, but an accumulation of little things. Neglected little things add up to aggravation, which leads to agitation and then possible separation. Take proper care of the little things in your marriage and maybe the big things won’t happen.

Song of Songs 2:15 (NLT): “Quick! Catch all the little foxes before they ruin the vineyard of your love… “ As little foxes nibble away at vineyards, so neglected little things can nibble away at our marriages. Let’s pay attention to those little things.

Children’s children are the crown of old men; and the glory of children are their fathers. Proverbs 17:6

• When I was: Four years old: My daddy can do anything.

• When I was: Five years old: My daddy knows a whole lot.

• When I was: Six years old: My dad is smarter than your dad.

• When I was: Eight years old: My dad doesn’t know exactly everything.

• When I was: 10 years old: In the olden days, when my dad grew up, things were sure different.

• When I was: 12 years old: Oh, well, naturally, Dad doesn’t know anything about that. He is too old to remember his childhood.

• When I was: 14 years old: Don’t pay any attention to my dad. He is so old-fashioned.

• When I was: 21 years old: Him? He’s hopelessly out of date.

• When I was: 25 years old: Dad knows about it, but then he should, because he has been around so long.

• When I was: 30 years old: Maybe we should ask Dad what he thinks. After all, he’s had a lot of experience.

• When I was: 35 years old: I’m not doing a single thing until I talk to Dad.

• When I was: 40 years old: I wonder how Dad would have handled it. He was so wise.

• When I was: 50 years old: I’d give anything if Dad were here now so I could talk this over with him. Too bad I didn’t appreciate how smart he was. I could have learned a lot from him.

10. Comes home directly from work knowing his “real” job is about to start.

9. Is not afraid to get down on hands and knees and play “horsie”.

8. Kisses his children and shows them a man can be gentle.

7. Kisses his wife in front of his children so the children can be secure in the knowledge of a united home.

6. Hugs his family and says “I love you.”

5. Is not afraid to cry.

4. Goes with his family to church.

3. Values the advice of his wife.

2. Starts each day with a “quiet time”, talking to the Lord.

And the number one thing:

1. Prays