What Have You Got Left?

     Well, back again, after a trip that was a wonderful adventure, and a special look at some of God’s amazing creation!  But first, I’d like to tell you about something that showed up on  my e-mail screen when I arrived home.

A friend sent me a story about Itzhak Perlman, a very noted concert violinist. It was about a concert he gave years ago at Lincoln Center in New York City.

Mr. Perlman contracted polio as a child.  He wore leg braces and hobbled across the concert stage with the help of two crutches.   He sat down, picked up his violin and motioned to the orchestra that he was ready to start.

To the dismay of the large audience, he had played only a few bars when a loud crack, almost like a gunshot, was heard.  One of the strings on the violin had broken.   The listeners expected him to hobble off the stage to get a new string or another violin. 

Instead, this amazing musician paused for a few moments, then motioned to the orchestra to begin playing again.  To the astonishment of the audience,  he improvised, made changes in his head as he continued, and did what seemed impossible.  He played the entire concert of incredibly beautiful music  with only three strings on his violin. 

At the end, the audience arose as one and gave him a long, exuberant standing ovation.  

Mr. Perlman commented, quietly:  “You know, sometimes it is the artist’s task to find out how much music you can still make with what you have left.”

What a lesson for all of us who name the name of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord!   Some of us, as we get older, feel as if we have “nothing left.”   We may tend to make excuses for laziness and lack of enthusiasm for the work of the Lord.   There are those who may say, “Well, I’ve served (in this, that or the other capacity) for many years.  It’s time to let the younger folks take over.”

Well, I’ve got news for you.  It is our task, as long as we have life and breath, to see how much “music” for the Lord we can still make with what we have left.   

You probably have more “left” than you may realize.   The command to “go into all the world does not go away just because of advancing years.   We can “go” through prayer, giving, serving, teaching and actually “going” as the Lord leads and makes possible.

“Lord, give me the sheer ”guts,” resourcefulness and determination of Itzsak Perlman.    I don’t want to sit around and rust out.   The time seems very short; let me burn out for you, Lord!”   

Seems Self-Evident to Me

    I step out the front door early on these spring mornings and am greeted by the glorious blossoms on several rose bushes.   The oleanders along the driveway are masses of white, pink and red blossoms.   A mockingbird is perched on a power pole, greeting the new day with an incredible variety of rills and trills.  Every so often, he flies up from his perch and does a joyful little air dance, while still singing, and then flies back down.    The prickly pear in my cactus garden has some bright yellow blossoms.

My only  response to this magnificent display of God’s creative genius must be: “The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows His handiwork” (Psalm 19:1).  And then there is the final verse in the Book of Psalms: “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.  Praise the Lord!”  (Psalm 150:6).

It makes me wonder how someone I know, who makes it known to everyone possible that he is a “humanist cleric,” responds to such beauty.   Does he look out and say thanks to “unguided evolutionary change” (Humanist Manifesto III, paragraph 5)?   Or maybe, “thanks” to these “accidents of nature”?

Dr. Richard Dawkins, atheist scientist of Oxford University, wrote a book titled “The Blind Watchmaker” espousing the idea that evolution can take place in very small steps.  He says the human eye could have started millions of years ago   as a single light cell. 

I have an optometrist friend.  He  started studying the human eye as an unbeliever.   He was so convicted by the overwhelming evidence that it could not function unless it was fully formed, that he placed his faith and trust in Jesus Christ. He feels that Dawkins’ idea that the eye could have evolved is pure baloney.

Discussing the principle of irreducible complexity, Dr. David Foster, mathematician, scientist and engineer, says that the probability of even one molecule of hemoglobin occurring by chance is the impossible number of 10 to the minus 654th power.

Well, the Apostle Paul summed up he situation  in the first chapter of the Book to the Romans: “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even by His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse” (1:20).  Paul also observed (2 Corinthians 4:3-4) “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, lest the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.”

 I’m so glad that I can look around me and thank the Lord for all He has created.   And thank Him also, that He has provided the answer, through His Son, for all of the evil that “the god of this world” has brought into God’s creation. 

“Let everythng that has breath praise the Lord!”

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A QUICK THOUGHT ON GAMBLING–I had taken my youngest daughter to the airport (about  100 miles from here) so she could make a very special trip to see some relatives.

On the way back, I stopped at a Denny’s to get some breakfast.  After eating, I went to the rest room and was washing my hands when another man came it. 

He was cheerful and friendly, but tired.   He said he had been gambling all night in a nearby Indian casino.   “How much  did you lose?” I asked.   “Oh, I made about $200,” he replied.  “Yeah,” said I, “no one ever talks about it when they lose.”  He just laughed, and agreed with me.

It made me think of a few weeks earlier when I had been the speaker at a Friday evening service at a local church.   Afterwards, I had a conversation with an attractive young woman with a sad story.  

She told me how she and her husband had worked together as long-haul truck drivers.   Between them, they were making about $150,000 a year.    However, their trips often took them to Las Vegas.   Her husband began gambling and “got hooked.” Every time they were in Las Vegas, he would disappear into the casinos for hours at a time. 

Soon, he found himself $200,000 in debt.  Desperate, and knowing no other way out, he committed suicide.  HIs widowed wife said they had had no children. 

We have gambling casinos all over the place in this area of the world.   They are excellent at public relations, often giving to various local organizations and causes. 

But the tragedies they create are shoved under the rug, while the big winners are publicized.     I call the casinos the “Indians’ Revenge.”   If you don’t take that first drink, you won’t become an alcoholic; likewise, if you don’t start gambling, you won’t get addicted.    Besides, it is good to remember,  every dollar won, is one that someone else lost.    It seems to me to be “ill-gotten gain.”   

Well, better get off this soap box.    I won’t be back on it for a few days, but hope to have other thoughts to share soon. Thanks to those who have made kind comments regarding my “blogs.”

                                       –30–

I know an optometrist who would dismiss this fantasy as so much foolishness.   He started studying the eye as an unbeliever, but was so convicted by its marvelous complexity and the impossibility of it functioning without being complete, that he became a believer in Jesus Christ. 

Epiphany or Hallucination?

     Several months ago I had an epiphany, or was it a hallucination?   Anyhow, it was a rather startling thought–actually a crazy idea. 

I was jogging along the path around my field out behind my house, but had to stop running so I could walk and chuckle to myself.    You see, a rather ludicrous thought had crossed my mind.  (Now don’t laugh too hard!)

A few weeks earlier I had viewed a TV documentary about the life of Albert Einstein.  It related how this genius had discovered his Theory of Relativity.    But it also pointed out how he had spend the last 25 years of his life in a frustrating search for what he called a Unified Field Theory.  This, he hoped, would put everything together in one comprehensive, all-inclusive equation that would somehow explain just about everything in the physical universe.

The presumptuous thought which suddenly popped into my head was, “Hey, I’m smarter than Einstein!”   Now, before you call the guys in the white suits, let me explain.

The Unified Field Theory (in this case, not theory, but fact), is contained in the New Testament in Paul’s Letter to the Colossians, Chapter 1, verses 16 and 17.   “For by Him (Jesus) all things were created that are in heaven and are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.  All things were created through Him and for Him.  And He is before all things AND IN HIM ALL THINGS CONSIST”  (New King James version, emphasis added).

Einstein wanted to figure out what holds all things together.  Well it is not a mathematical equation, it is a person, the Lord Jesus Christ. (Who, by the way, is the author of mathematics)    “For it is in Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts17:28) .    All things are held together, or “consist” in the Lord Jesus Christ. 

To present this idea to some conclave of scientists would doubtless produce derisive laughter.    Well, my mind is a dim candle compared to Einstein’s genius, but he worked for a frustrating 25 years to find another explanation.   I think that it was right in front of him on the pages of the New Testament.

What do you think?   If you have a better idea, I’ll consider it under one condition.  You have to produce a theory of gravity explaining  how and why it works the way it does! Good luck!

The Stink from the Slough Affects You

     I made a mistake last night.  (Probably, a lot of you could say the same thing!)   However, my mistake was in thinking I could relax in front of the TV for half an hour, and get a few laughs before going to bed.

I arrived home from a meeting about 9:30 p.m.  Tired, after a long, busy day, I grabbed the newspaper TV guide to see what was on.    There was only about a half hour left of a two-hour show called “TV’s Funniest Moments.”   This sounded harmless, so I clicked it on.   About 10 minutes later, I clicked it off.

 The so-called funny moments were totally vulgar, gross and indecent.   Whatever has happened to “community standards”?  It seems that nothing is off-limits for frank and crude joking.  And, according to the tumultuous laugh-tracks that accompany such shows,  the American viewing public has been reduced to the mental level of pre-adolescents who think that fart jokes  are the most riotous humor existing.

I had the same experience a few days earlier, and shut off the tube just as fast.   There was a show on with a panel of comedians.  They sat in a row and began cracking jokes.    Hey, guess what, “private parts” are not private anymore! Bathroom humor seems to be the norm, and all of us are supposed to crack up at the slop we are being served.   I could not help but wonder what cesspool these guys had crawled out of. 

It is good and healthy to laugh and enjoy life.  But today’s network TV causes nostalgia.   I long for “I Love Lucy,” or “The Dick Van Dyke Show” or maybe Andy Griffith and good-old Mayberry.  Is there another Red Skelton out there somewhere?    Do you ever wonder about the state of the personal lives of the writers who dream up the sit-com jokes?   I think these creative people need our prayers.

Speaking of prayer, the low state of TV entertainment reminds me of something the prophet Jeremiah wrote about 2,600 years ago.  He was very upset by the sin and corruption in ancient Israel.   He said, “Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No! They were not at all ashamed; nor did they know how to blush” (Jer. 6:15).  He voiced the same words again in chapter 8.

When is the last time you heard someone exclaim: “Oh, I was so embarrassed that I blushed.  My face got so red!”?  Somehow, we seem to need a Clean-Up The Culture movement.  But it will only happen when we tune out and turn off the sewage that the TV screen often spills into our homes.

Well, here I am, griping up a storm and actually disobeying an admonition of Scripture.   Near the end of a passage of  instruction on how to live at peace with God and with our fellow humans,  the Apostle Paul says: “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy–think on these things” (Philippians 4:8).

Just try that on for size!  And try to obey this instruction fully and completely for a day.   It ain’t easy!   How do we screen out all the daily input that is gross, vile and ugly?   It seems impossible, but we surely need to try.   One way to start is to establish standards about what is acceptable, and what is not acceptable in terms of  speech and conduct  in your home. 

Our society is becoming acclimated to greater and greater gross vulgarity.   Will we sink deeper into the putrid mire, or will we turn our focus to those things that “are lovely and of good report”?