One of the first chapel sermons I attended at Dallas Theological Seminary back in 1982 was based on the Biblical account of the Israelites wandering in the wilderness for 40 years.  If they had been obedient and had trusted God, their journey would have been only an eight day trip!  Yet, it was necessary for them to learn God’s standard of obedience the hard way, even to the point of death for many. In our current politically correct culture the term “obedience” is quickly becoming “deconstructed” or taken out of the main stream of life.  “Obedience to what?” one may ask.  In a post-modern world where Biblical absolutes have been all but removed (even in many churches) obedience has lost its original intent and meaning.  Now it (obedience) is almost synonymous with being “intolerant” and unloving, and certainly “legalistic.”  Therefore in many areas, the Emerging Church is evolving out of the “Seeker Friendly” movement to minister at a time when the pagans as well as many believers are looking for the ultimate spiritual experience in combination with what will make them feel good. The thought that sinners might be sinning is unmentionable.  We can all have our pie and eat it and do what is right in our own eyes, with no consideration of the consequences (especially if we can get away with it)!  The political correctness of our day is literally Cultural Marxism.  There is no gun to the head as in Classical Marxism, but the peer pressure and the desire to have the approval of men more than God (John 5:44, 12:43) is the global societal rule. We fear men and their opinion of us much more than we fear God and His righteous opinion of us. In our culture there is a great feeling of entitlement for everything, but not consequences for anything! Everyone is some sort of a “victim” of something (thank you psychology) thus more excuses for a lack of integrity in every area. Western Christian Civilization has been built on a system of Biblical absolutes which are being demolished.  Decadence rules!

All this to say that we personally have had what seems like a 40 year trek condensed into this past couple of years, with especially increasing pressures this past year. Aging is definitely a factor. Our ability to minister and to try to keep up at home with a myriad of situations that have taken our time and resources over this past year has been truly challenging, along with the various health issues we have both had.  Managing the ministry is one thing, but managing the STUFF is quite another.  The admonition of  I John 2:15-17 hits us all. Paraphrased it says not to  love the world or the things of the world because the world is passing away, but the one who does the will of the Father abides forever. Serving STUFF interferes with serving our heavenly FATHER! 

We have started trying to dig out from 13 years of living here and traveling nearly three weeks out of most months.  It has been a bitter pill to swallow to realize how much time it takes to service  STUFF, AND to keep up with the demands of entropy on property (roofing, plumbing, A/C problems, fencing frustrations) as well as fight a tax appraisal increase which should have been frozen at age 65!  Only by God’s grace have we been able to consider it all joy when we encounter these testings and to give thanks in ALL things, even when it does not FEEL GOOD (James 4:17). We KNOW that these very small trials are nothing compared to what so much of the persecuted church is going through around the world, as well as many of our missionary friends serving in friendly fields.  When the newly serviced A/C system overflowed into Taryn’s carpeted bedroom, it was almost laughable…another workshop in responses!

Now might be a good time for us all to re-access our attitudes about the world, its stuff and our commitments to it, especially in light of the world’s deteriorating situation, (the least of which is “global warming”).  As God’s people, let us not let the world take dominion over us, but let us fix our eyes on the Lord Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2) and press on toward the true goal  (Philippians 3:14), and control our STUFF, not letting our STUFF control us! The popular bumper sticker, “He who dies with the most toys wins” is FALSE!

As Yale’s William Borden, we want to be able to look back on our lives someday and say that we have served our Savior, the Lord Jesus, with “No reserve, no retreats, and no regrets.” William Borden was the heir to the Borden fortune, but chose to go to the Muslims as a missionary of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and yet died on the way to Egypt, before reaching his target. The God of the Bible is sovereign.  God had accomplished through Borden all that He had ordained for him before he died, in spite of his seemingly early demise (Acts 13:36).