Two Matters of Concern

by Randy Becton

Iris Delgado has had enough.  She’s fed up with Satan’s attacks on our children and grandchildren without parents and grandparents standing up, getting properly equipped and taking the fight to the forces of darkness.  The king of this world’s wicked kingdom must know God’s youth will fight successfully and faithfully with parents’ help as well as youth ministers with a largely overlooked band of grandparents and great grandparents.

Fueled with information and righteous indignation they can quickly take up the fight.  They will act again and again to help young hearts and minds know who to trust and who the real enemies are. They will understand how to steer clear of really harmful thoughts.  Let me be clear: if you don’t think there is a war on for the minds of our kids you are sound asleep!

You and I know God’s light is stronger than Satan’s darkness.  But if God’s light is in the closet, darkness dominates for sure.  Iris Delgado’s Satan, You Can’t Have My Children, must be read.  It provides real practical help so we can have confidence and faith to stand firm against Satan’s attacks.  God’s power is greater than the power of the enemy.  But let me be gut honest – one hour of Sunday School, one hour of Wednesday night class will not equip our children and grandchildren.  Nor will the effective but limited work of our youth ministers.  “Well Randy,” you ask, “what more will it take?”  I’ve got a Heart to Heart DVD on “Saving Our Children” with a stiffer plan I want you to have.  It’s free if you cover the postage and handling.  Among other things, we must pay a steeper price in time and prayer.  I want you to see it and, if you want, return it to me.  Please take me seriously.  I’m not the smartest mind but I know we can do better…and we must!  Tell me what you think.

We see New York State’s approval of same sex marriage and grow ill in our soul.  We see our highest leaders at the state level calling for “Days of Prayer and Fasting.”  This call from our governor in Texas was met with severe ridicule as a prelude to his announcement to run for president in 2012.  It was a call based on Joel 2 which calls for a people to return to the Lord with all their heart with fasting, prayer, weeping and mourning.  The event was called “The Response,” hoping for lasting change in America whether from the cynical, the pious, the politically interested or the curious.

There exists in America 365,000 churches and we know the Lord can use deeper devotion from each of us beginning with me and, I think, you too.  Whatever groups lent their name in support of this effort may or may not have helped the effort.  It’s fairly certain, however, that pointing fingers has never helped build a bridge between people who differ when it comes to righteous issues.  You might not believe it to have been spiritually wise to participate yet I believe it’s a beginning without a compromise.  At the least, pray for each attendee to grow closer to Jesus, his way of handling conflict and the core message of how he wants us to live.  I know we can do better.

Kate’s Dilemma

Kate asked me if I’d meet with her Sunday afternoon to talk about something very important.  “Sure,” I said, “I’ll be glad to meet.”  Shortly after, we sat across the table from each other and she began to talk about what had gone wrong with her senior year in high school.  She clearly doubted her future.  The she dropped the bomb: “And on top of all that I stupidly got pregnant.”  All was silent.  What was I going to say?  After what seemed like five minutes she said, “Randy, I’ve made the decision to go to Dallas on Monday to have an abortion.  My friends have taken up a collection to pay the fee and my travel expenses.  What do you think?”

“I think you are a very special young lady,” I replied.  “I’m sure you’ve thought a lot about your decision.  If you are asking me if this decision is the right one, I’ll give you my thinking but I believe you already know what I really think.  You know I believe what you are carrying is a real live human being, not just a fetus.  God makes a human life and if you’ll allow me, I’ll do everything possible to persuade you to allow that baby to be born.  I’ll try not to preach or make you feel worse than you already do.  But if you’ll let me, I’ll try to persuade you.  Of course, I promise to keep our visit confidential as you asked before we began our visit.”

Here I know many readers might write angry words telling me I had no choice but to tell Kate’s parents so they could stop her using whatever means necessary!  I did not believe she could be stopped unless it was by means of loving persuasion.  She had already proved she could outsmart a number of adults.

I made the best case I could.  I prayed with Kate.  She asked a final question before we left our meeting.  “If I go through with this will you hate me when I come back?”  Why would she ask that?  What difference would it make?

I answered, “If you go I’ll weep for a long time.  But hate you?  Never!  You are someone Jesus won’t hate so if I’m trying to be a follower of His, I will only keep loving.”  What else should I do?  I added, “Kate, I want to ask you for a bold reversal: have that baby, let me have the privilege of holding that newborn and then either let me help you work with a Christian adoption agency or to rear that child with the help of a number of us Christians.”

As time went by, I learned that she chose to give birth to a beautiful baby girl – and yes – she let me hold her.  Don’t be misled.  I didn’t change her mind.  Her years of Christian nurture at home and through church tipped the scales in Kate’s heart to do what she herself believed the Lord wanted her to do (To God Be the Glory Great Things He Has Done).

Kate’s decision was very, very difficult for she had to live with her parent’s sense of her having betrayed them because of sexual promiscuity.  She wasn’t welcome in their home for a few months.  I don’t want to be too hard on them.  Time helped move them to rethink their hostile feelings and love grew toward their daughter.  This story has a purpose and that is to remind us: people are making up their minds every day about many things.  Try to be a Christian someone would want to talk over the decisions of life with.  It makes a big difference if you’ll hold your judgment and try to point people to a better way.

Dad’s “Killing” Secret

My dad was an everyday alcoholic.  As a talented general contractor, he developed a number of housing units that were characterized by solid workmanship and were always brought in under budget.  This made my father popular with investors in development projects.

He was up and out of the house by 5 in the morning drinking the strongest coffee I’d ever smelled or tasted.  A thick Maxwell House thermos jug helped him start his crew each day.

I worked as a lumber associate one summer and found my father’s work ethic amazing.  I wanted this quality in my own work life.  As the mid-afternoon came, dad began to drink alongside his work.  By the time he arrived home he was “lit,” a word that denotes one who is on his way to being drunk.  Why?  I don’t really know.  One theory I thought I picked up from him was a deep-seated resentment/conflict with his mother and two sisters.  I’m under the impression his mother was super-critical of him.  She opposed him going to college claiming he was needed to help his father build houses after their shift on the railroad.  To be honest, I don’t really know why he had such a strong urge toward daily drunkenness.

Our family never heard of AA or Al Anon in any practical way.  We never found a way to help dad for he swore that he did not drink and resented anyone who said that he did.  When I read what Bill and The Big Book have done for millions of alcoholics, I ache in my heart that our family bypassed that wonderful program.  I know for a fact that having a problem in one’s life is not the big sin.  Failing to address the problem is.  Help is available from God and properly chosen people who can help us.  But it all begins with the genuine cry, “O Lord, I have a problem that is destroying the quality of my life.  I know it brings me shame, guilt and stops my forward progress.  I need to tell you the truth.  And I need someone who can help me.  Help me be a courageous man and meet my problem head on.  I know truth is the first step toward healing and hope.  Help me act, Lord.”

Do you need help to overcome something that has a boot holding your neck down on the pavement, crushing the life out of you?  Take a chance with trusting me.  I’ll try to help you.  I know your Heavenly Father wants you to succeed.  Start today, please.

Remember: to have problems is human.  To address them shows your courage.

Just One Thing I Deeply Long For

By Randy Becton

                There are only six things I want between now and when I hang up my boots for the last time.  Five of the six are not crucial and time may run out before they are actually reached.  I constantly search my soul to determine the goal I truly long for.  And think about how to reach it.  Also, I want to know if my goal is based on man’s effort or God’s gift.  Is it something I do or something God does for me.  Interesting, isn’t it?

It could be that you debate my goal and that’s all right.  Spiritually speaking, you may well agree with me.  Most of us don’t want to leave this world and go to the next without having in our possession what we desire above all else.

I simply ask you to seek to consider my desire and why I yearn so deeply for it.  Above every other goal is the desire to be at peace with God.  Many might describe it another way but for me I want peace with the One who made me, a peace that only He can give.  I can’t earn it work hard enough that He owes it to me.  No, it is His gift, given freely from His hand to my heart and to all others who put their trust in Him.

Paul, a spokesman for God, wrote:

“There is no one righteous, not even one;
There is no one who understands,
no one who seeks God
All have turned away,
They have together become worthless:
there is no one who does good,
not even one” (Romans 3:10-12).

Deep in our heart we might not want God’s will or His ways.  We might pull away from Him instead of yearning to please Him.  But God doesn’t leave us in the pit of despair.  He has clearly made a way for us to be right in His eyes and to have peace with Him if we are interested.

Scripture says that God has made a way.  We couldn’t do it and frankly, didn’t want to have it.  God makes people right through their faith in His Son, Jesus Christ.  Everyone has sinned and is not good enough to share God’s divine greatness.  We are all made right by His grace, and it is a free gift.

The blood sacrifice of Jesus pays for our sins; it is nothing that we have done.  It is by accepting what God has done that we are saved.  We don’t deserve or earn it but He loves and gives it anyway.  Jesus took our place.  We are not enemies of God anymore.  Because of Jesus He is no longer angry with us.  We are now His children.  He did it.  Wow!

So the one thing I want more than any other, God has given to me – peace with Him because of what Jesus did for me.  And, it is also there for you (Romans 5:1).  Let me know what your number one goal is for your life, will you?

Standing on the Rock

It’s not as important to overcome sin as it is to struggle mightily against it.  The battle allows the powerful mercy and grace of God to join us as we struggle.  For this reason I’m convinced that if we will confess to each other that we’re in the battle and ask for prayers from a friend we will find that we’re not alone.  As we battle we also begin to realize that God has given us friends in addition to his Holy Spirit.  We will not lose our battle if we refuse to stop fighting.  God gives victory to His children not because they are so strong but because they lean on His strong arms.

God is watching us all the time not so He can see how strong we are but where the direction of our lives is going.  I cry over my sins sometime because I don’t want to violate God’s will for my life.  I find that I’m trying to live for my own pleasures and purposes.  Of course it’s pigheaded on my part but it’s clearly my selfish choices that get me in so much trouble.  I know how much I need God’s mercy.  And I depend on it to feel cleansed from my sin.  That’s why I pray Father forgive me and help me to feel your grace covering me.

I became conscious of how much I need God’s blessing of forgiveness early in my life.  I remember a trip to Indiana and a late night discussion with a college freshman.  We discussed the holiness of God and how miserably we’d failed to live holy and clean lives.  Guilt was heavy and covered us totally.  We felt lost and sought someone to tell us the good news of forgiveness in Jesus.  As we listened to the good news we wanted it in our lives.  About 1:30 AM we found a baptistery and were baptized into the grace of Jesus.  We put on Jesus as our Savior.  That should have been the end of the bad in our lives and the beginning of only good, better, and the best days.  But neither Ed nor I were that naïve.  We knew Satan wouldn’t let us stay on God’s side without fighting fiercely for us to return to his ways of rebellion against God.  And every day has surely presented occasions where we’ve had to render allegiance either to Jesus as supreme leader of our lives or Satan.  Many days have found me floundering between these two allegiances.  I grow weary of my own sloppy discipleship.  I made a decision once for all time.  I love Jesus and that settles it.  Yes, but sometimes I go back to the old ways.

This is not the real story.  The fact is I am God’s and nothing can separate me from his love.  Paul says in Romans 8 that death or life, angels or demons, no powers will be able to separate us from the love of God.  Only one thing would do it; if I quit trusting him as my Savior and I will not do that.  He will help me hold on.  And, what about you?  It’s the same with you now isn’t it?  I thought so.  Neither you nor I are strong rocks – we’re pebbles.  Jesus is the real rock—the boulder who will uphold us all the way home.