So you have one of those of the mystery-moods at your house! Sometimes he seems to have rebellion for a back-bone and moods changable as the winds. One day he (or she) is as proud as a peacock sporting two tails, and the next he looks as disheveled as if he had been drug by a bull through a thicket. He knows only two moods, hilarity and depression. Besides what's going on inside his body (and there is plenty) consider his outward circumstances.
The only legal thing he can do is go to school--it is illegal not to!
He cannot do so many things adults do, and he is disinterested in things little children do.
Cigarette sales are illegal (to him).
He (in Texas) cannot drive a car.
It is illegal for him to possess alcohol.
It is illegal for him to work (on most jobs.)
He has a fat chance of being able to marry.
He can not vote to change anything.
He cannot enlist in the armed forces.
Granted that there are some things listed here that Christians do not engage in, PARENTS, how rich would life be for you under those conditions?
Would you get sulky, moody, discontented and unhappy?
Let us remember that good deprived of adventure and excitement becomes demonic. We have given some reasons for the young feeling disconnected. It beooves us to provide moments dripping with life for them. BL
Sunday, December 4, 2011
"Blessings/Curses" (8/23/1981)
The odd thing about handicaps is that they frequently propel people to height they could never have attained without them.
There used to be a doctor in Amarillo (perhaps he is still here, I never knew his name) who was reared on a farm down off the caprock east of here, who had a crippled arm from polio. Always, there was instilled in him during childhood, "John will have to be a doctor because he will be unable to farm." Sure enough, the others of the family farmed, but he is reported to have often said, "Thank God for my crippled arm." For without it he would never have been a man of healing.
Norman vincent Peale in his efforts to overcome excessive shyness wrote a bestseller, "The Power of Positive Thinking." "It came out of my own struggles to find myself." he wrote. I have often wondered what kind of a person he would have been if making friends and small talk had been easy for him.
Was it Demosthenes, who placed the rocks in his mouth to overcome speech impediment to become the great orator?
Most of us have some kind of handicap to overcome. We may be shy, or have been raised 'poor'. May be we have to compensate for a mediocre brain with extra work effort. maybe we are fearful when we would like to be a person known as brave.
Whatever our personal handicap, as long as we have a modicum of brains and energy, we can overcome tremendous obstacles. Some of the most prosperous people I know are not really extra bright. Some of the most talented speakers are not really all that deep. Some of the college profs are eggheads who kept on trying. As somebody said, "it not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog." That's right. God never gives us the spirit of fear, but rather the spirit of power. BL
There used to be a doctor in Amarillo (perhaps he is still here, I never knew his name) who was reared on a farm down off the caprock east of here, who had a crippled arm from polio. Always, there was instilled in him during childhood, "John will have to be a doctor because he will be unable to farm." Sure enough, the others of the family farmed, but he is reported to have often said, "Thank God for my crippled arm." For without it he would never have been a man of healing.
Norman vincent Peale in his efforts to overcome excessive shyness wrote a bestseller, "The Power of Positive Thinking." "It came out of my own struggles to find myself." he wrote. I have often wondered what kind of a person he would have been if making friends and small talk had been easy for him.
Was it Demosthenes, who placed the rocks in his mouth to overcome speech impediment to become the great orator?
Most of us have some kind of handicap to overcome. We may be shy, or have been raised 'poor'. May be we have to compensate for a mediocre brain with extra work effort. maybe we are fearful when we would like to be a person known as brave.
Whatever our personal handicap, as long as we have a modicum of brains and energy, we can overcome tremendous obstacles. Some of the most prosperous people I know are not really extra bright. Some of the most talented speakers are not really all that deep. Some of the college profs are eggheads who kept on trying. As somebody said, "it not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog." That's right. God never gives us the spirit of fear, but rather the spirit of power. BL
"Ministers Are Messengers Not Judges" (no date provided)
*from a published Amarillo Globe-Times 'Letters to the Editor' Baxter sent in.
DEAR EDITOR:
In your sensitive series of articles about the hospice, there was mention of one confrontational event that, as a minster, troubles me. It concerned the perception of the homosexual community toward gospel ministers. In a moment laden with emotions, the homosexuals are quoted as saying to a room full of pastors, "You are the people we fear. You are the people that condemn us." There is enough truth to that statement to make me, as a minster, uncomfortable. But there is some explaining that needs to be done.
The role of a minster is not that of a judge, as he is often perceived, rather he is a messenger -God's messenger. His duties can be compared to the man who sees the house fire; the fire should be reported if the house is to be saved. And the one doing the reporting is a friend, not an enemy. The minster's attitude, if he is true to his calling is to love the sinner and hate the sin. That's what Christ did. The crux of the minister message has to be, "we cannot break God's laws; God's laws will break us if we flaunt them." One danger to the soul of a person who rebels against God's laws is that the minster will become his conscience rather than the objective word of God.
The Apostle Paul, in speaking of unnamed people of the past, said: "...God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error (Romans 1: 26-27)."
It would be wrong for me to bring to mind these scriptures except it be with the intent of informing and lovingly warning, and offering hope to the penitent. Judgment does not belong to us poor preachers, rather it is God's word that judges. I have no apology for that.
If I could be allowed to draw a conclusion about AIDS, which is part of the thrust of your series, I would like to state -warn is a better word- that it appears to me that we are seeing the beginning of a scourge that is without parallel in history. Not even the numbers in the black plague of Europe can compare with what appears to be looming ahead -unless a cure is found. This means that a cleansing of the world is about to take place; one that will claim many innocent lives along with those who have refused to practice chastity. Now, morals aside, it behooves parents to warn their children that their very lives depend upon the practice of chastity.
As a minster, I have never seen graver problems than those facing the world and neither have I ever been as optimistic about the future.
BAXTER LOE
4606 River Road
DEAR EDITOR:
In your sensitive series of articles about the hospice, there was mention of one confrontational event that, as a minster, troubles me. It concerned the perception of the homosexual community toward gospel ministers. In a moment laden with emotions, the homosexuals are quoted as saying to a room full of pastors, "You are the people we fear. You are the people that condemn us." There is enough truth to that statement to make me, as a minster, uncomfortable. But there is some explaining that needs to be done.
The role of a minster is not that of a judge, as he is often perceived, rather he is a messenger -God's messenger. His duties can be compared to the man who sees the house fire; the fire should be reported if the house is to be saved. And the one doing the reporting is a friend, not an enemy. The minster's attitude, if he is true to his calling is to love the sinner and hate the sin. That's what Christ did. The crux of the minister message has to be, "we cannot break God's laws; God's laws will break us if we flaunt them." One danger to the soul of a person who rebels against God's laws is that the minster will become his conscience rather than the objective word of God.
The Apostle Paul, in speaking of unnamed people of the past, said: "...God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error (Romans 1: 26-27)."
It would be wrong for me to bring to mind these scriptures except it be with the intent of informing and lovingly warning, and offering hope to the penitent. Judgment does not belong to us poor preachers, rather it is God's word that judges. I have no apology for that.
If I could be allowed to draw a conclusion about AIDS, which is part of the thrust of your series, I would like to state -warn is a better word- that it appears to me that we are seeing the beginning of a scourge that is without parallel in history. Not even the numbers in the black plague of Europe can compare with what appears to be looming ahead -unless a cure is found. This means that a cleansing of the world is about to take place; one that will claim many innocent lives along with those who have refused to practice chastity. Now, morals aside, it behooves parents to warn their children that their very lives depend upon the practice of chastity.
As a minster, I have never seen graver problems than those facing the world and neither have I ever been as optimistic about the future.
BAXTER LOE
4606 River Road
"A Loe Family Proclamation"
*not from a bulletin but, in fact, a blown-up, hand-made poster that seems intended to have hung in (my) great-grandmother Loe's nursing home room.
Dear Service Provider,
Please let us recount to you how the frail, wrinkled little body you labor over in this bed is worthy of your most diligent ministrations.
She is but a shadow of her former self, making her family all the more solicious of her tender and safe keeping.
Though there is a Higher reason she is worthy, we want to mention a few of the reasons.
In January 1991, she will enter her fiftieth year as a citizen of Terry County, where she has served well in making a better life for citizens of the county.
In 1942, the first crop year she and her husband farmed here -a frightening time of mobilization for war, they and their family produced enough cotton to give a change of shirts and perhaps a change of underwear for the entire then city of Lubbock, including airmen at the air bases. This is at least approximately correct, for they produced about 63,000 pounds of baled cotton. Additionally, they raised and sold grainsorgums by the carloads. There was also a full range of produce from the animals and the gardens in the fields. Then, as now, the contribution of farmers does not show up in the prices people are willing to pay.
We saw them raise and give away vegetable produce literally by pickup truck loads-with sideboards! This was for poor residents of the towns.
Additionally, she served Terry County as county welfare officer for fifteen years. In dealing with welfare cases she was a splendid mixture of velvet and steel. She had twin interests -keeping free-loaders off the rolls, and ministering to those genuinely in need. Hers was a position of not only giving away surplus commodities, but it was also one of constant search for ways of meeting special needs of hurting people. In the same week these services, provided by private citizens, could include used clothing for some, or an airline ticket to the burn hospital in Galveston. She knew every kind-hearted pocketbook in the area, and many around here can testify that she worked them.
This particular statement is a contradiction of sorts: during eight years of those fifteen years, she was a sheriff's deputy! In this capacity she served without pay. There were twin reasons why she was deputized: one, she had bought a house in a dangerous part of town -the best she could do. Second, she peddled Avon products in the most dangerous part of town! Though the sheriff was uneasy about her, she was unfazed by danger.
Mr. or Mrs. service provider: recounted here is an incident of which her family is supremely proud of her; her humanity showed all the way through.
On the day her youngest son, Rals Jr. was buried, June 7, 1962 following an automobile accident, she looked at the mountains of fancy food on her table when she arrived back at the house after the funeral. .She said, "son, this food will ruin if left here; I know a lot of hungry people in this town. let's load it up and take it to the hungry people. That day, we went into places where the people had never seen fancy salads like the ones we were delivering to them.
Then, just a few days before her disabling accident, she remembered the house located in a big sand pile where we went and where the kitchen was floored by deep sand. And she said, "Do you remember how the little children clapped their hands when they saw us drive up?" Her very presence was good news.
Then, in the early 1980's, at the urging of columnist Billie Norman, she sat down and wrote the chronicles of her life. They are a story of how, as a fifteen-year old girl, it was to move to west Texas in a covered wagon. She recounted the excitement of falling in love and establishing a family, and how hard the times were, especially in the 1930's during the Depression.
This prejudiced scribe was amazed that this woman who counted her schooling in months, could do such a good job of organizing her material. Her family were not the only ones who thought she did a good job in telling what it was like during the first half of the twentieth century in west Texas, but there is evidence others thought so, too! The Texas Tech Library sought and obtained the story, and now her account is a part of the permanent Southwest Collection at the Texas Tech Library!
She met all the good traits of a Godly woman mentioned in Proverbs 31. We are proud to call her Mom.
So, we, her family petition you for your tenderest ministrations, and we thank you for them. For your care was manifest during even the first ten minutes after her arrival.
Her Family
Dear Service Provider,
Please let us recount to you how the frail, wrinkled little body you labor over in this bed is worthy of your most diligent ministrations.
She is but a shadow of her former self, making her family all the more solicious of her tender and safe keeping.
Though there is a Higher reason she is worthy, we want to mention a few of the reasons.
In January 1991, she will enter her fiftieth year as a citizen of Terry County, where she has served well in making a better life for citizens of the county.
In 1942, the first crop year she and her husband farmed here -a frightening time of mobilization for war, they and their family produced enough cotton to give a change of shirts and perhaps a change of underwear for the entire then city of Lubbock, including airmen at the air bases. This is at least approximately correct, for they produced about 63,000 pounds of baled cotton. Additionally, they raised and sold grainsorgums by the carloads. There was also a full range of produce from the animals and the gardens in the fields. Then, as now, the contribution of farmers does not show up in the prices people are willing to pay.
We saw them raise and give away vegetable produce literally by pickup truck loads-with sideboards! This was for poor residents of the towns.
Additionally, she served Terry County as county welfare officer for fifteen years. In dealing with welfare cases she was a splendid mixture of velvet and steel. She had twin interests -keeping free-loaders off the rolls, and ministering to those genuinely in need. Hers was a position of not only giving away surplus commodities, but it was also one of constant search for ways of meeting special needs of hurting people. In the same week these services, provided by private citizens, could include used clothing for some, or an airline ticket to the burn hospital in Galveston. She knew every kind-hearted pocketbook in the area, and many around here can testify that she worked them.
This particular statement is a contradiction of sorts: during eight years of those fifteen years, she was a sheriff's deputy! In this capacity she served without pay. There were twin reasons why she was deputized: one, she had bought a house in a dangerous part of town -the best she could do. Second, she peddled Avon products in the most dangerous part of town! Though the sheriff was uneasy about her, she was unfazed by danger.
Mr. or Mrs. service provider: recounted here is an incident of which her family is supremely proud of her; her humanity showed all the way through.
On the day her youngest son, Rals Jr. was buried, June 7, 1962 following an automobile accident, she looked at the mountains of fancy food on her table when she arrived back at the house after the funeral. .She said, "son, this food will ruin if left here; I know a lot of hungry people in this town. let's load it up and take it to the hungry people. That day, we went into places where the people had never seen fancy salads like the ones we were delivering to them.
Then, just a few days before her disabling accident, she remembered the house located in a big sand pile where we went and where the kitchen was floored by deep sand. And she said, "Do you remember how the little children clapped their hands when they saw us drive up?" Her very presence was good news.
Then, in the early 1980's, at the urging of columnist Billie Norman, she sat down and wrote the chronicles of her life. They are a story of how, as a fifteen-year old girl, it was to move to west Texas in a covered wagon. She recounted the excitement of falling in love and establishing a family, and how hard the times were, especially in the 1930's during the Depression.
This prejudiced scribe was amazed that this woman who counted her schooling in months, could do such a good job of organizing her material. Her family were not the only ones who thought she did a good job in telling what it was like during the first half of the twentieth century in west Texas, but there is evidence others thought so, too! The Texas Tech Library sought and obtained the story, and now her account is a part of the permanent Southwest Collection at the Texas Tech Library!
She met all the good traits of a Godly woman mentioned in Proverbs 31. We are proud to call her Mom.
So, we, her family petition you for your tenderest ministrations, and we thank you for them. For your care was manifest during even the first ten minutes after her arrival.
Her Family
"searching for treasure" (5/31/1981)
Recently I read a story written by a woman who made her first metal-detector treasure hunt with her son and husband.
They were anxious for her to have a try at it. So, detector in hand she started a sweep of a 'new' area they were anxious to try out. But quickly the son cried out, "Mother you are going too fast! You've got to go slow or you'll miss the deeper things; the most valuable stuff is buried the deepest!"
Well, you are already ahead of this preacher, for you know the application that follows.
In all areas, of life we are admonished, "haste makes waste." Or, "slow down and live." "Slow down and smell the flowers along the way." "Fools are swift too run into trouble." On and on one could go with our aphorisms. After looking, shall we leap?
These are admonitions that may be applied to our every day lives. It is difficult not to make hasty judgments; it requires self discipline; to check the child's behavior before spanking; to see if it is a problem in his personal life that makes a neighbor, a husband or wife so grouchy. Elders in the church are required to look before leaping in their running of public church affairs or, for that matter, the workings in the church family. Every person they have contact with has a bearing on the whole.
In preaching, the minister who would feed a congregation must search as the men looking for treasure. One has to move slowly and methodically. Else he will have one scripture pitted against another. Or he will be emphasizing one facet of doctrine to the neglect of the others. He has to go through the scriptures sentence by sentence and word by word and letter by letter. Truly he is looking for buried treasure, and the slower he covers the ground, the better chance he has of finding the buried treasure.
bl
They were anxious for her to have a try at it. So, detector in hand she started a sweep of a 'new' area they were anxious to try out. But quickly the son cried out, "Mother you are going too fast! You've got to go slow or you'll miss the deeper things; the most valuable stuff is buried the deepest!"
Well, you are already ahead of this preacher, for you know the application that follows.
In all areas, of life we are admonished, "haste makes waste." Or, "slow down and live." "Slow down and smell the flowers along the way." "Fools are swift too run into trouble." On and on one could go with our aphorisms. After looking, shall we leap?
These are admonitions that may be applied to our every day lives. It is difficult not to make hasty judgments; it requires self discipline; to check the child's behavior before spanking; to see if it is a problem in his personal life that makes a neighbor, a husband or wife so grouchy. Elders in the church are required to look before leaping in their running of public church affairs or, for that matter, the workings in the church family. Every person they have contact with has a bearing on the whole.
In preaching, the minister who would feed a congregation must search as the men looking for treasure. One has to move slowly and methodically. Else he will have one scripture pitted against another. Or he will be emphasizing one facet of doctrine to the neglect of the others. He has to go through the scriptures sentence by sentence and word by word and letter by letter. Truly he is looking for buried treasure, and the slower he covers the ground, the better chance he has of finding the buried treasure.
bl
"Days of the Lord" (6/8/1980)
The day dawned hot. We had been traveling one and one half hours at daybreak. We were halfway to our destination, having made about forty miles. Frank Duckworth and I were lonesome. I had one month in India behind and two more to go. He was nearing the day to come home, and I would be a lone American. As we stopped to view and photograph the sun coming up I remembered a Psalm: "This is the Day the Lord hath made, we will rejoice and be glad." Frank said "Amen." Needless to say, remembering that this, indeed, was the Lord's say, lifted our spirits away from concentrating on how lonely we were. I cannot remember a more exhausting day of preaching. We were out in the Indian villages, we had for food a piece or two of fruit--bananas, and little water.
The world is full of people with weighty problems. Sometimes we would cheer someone but instead of cheer we hear a rebuttal: "I'm about to lose my house," or "my car", or "my family." Others have lost their job. Someone else is seriously ill, and another is lonely. On and on go the maladies that rob people of happiness.
There is a sure-fire cure for what ails the spirit, however, and that, of course, is concentrating on the scriptures. There, we find out that God is in charge, and that he will ultimately square all things, and right all wrongs. There, in the Bible, we find those who suffered being thrown to the lions, lived in caves for fear of their lives, were put to the sword and sometimes saw their babies empaled on soldiers spears.
Then, we can say, "I don't have it so bad." One of our children had a car ruined by hail a couple of nights ago. It made us all sick for awhile, then we remembered, we have our health. WE are not in fear of a booted heel. We are not afraid of being hungry. Ah, yes, we have only to look for it, and life is good. "He who began a good work in you will perfect it." (Phil. 1:6)
The world is full of people with weighty problems. Sometimes we would cheer someone but instead of cheer we hear a rebuttal: "I'm about to lose my house," or "my car", or "my family." Others have lost their job. Someone else is seriously ill, and another is lonely. On and on go the maladies that rob people of happiness.
There is a sure-fire cure for what ails the spirit, however, and that, of course, is concentrating on the scriptures. There, we find out that God is in charge, and that he will ultimately square all things, and right all wrongs. There, in the Bible, we find those who suffered being thrown to the lions, lived in caves for fear of their lives, were put to the sword and sometimes saw their babies empaled on soldiers spears.
Then, we can say, "I don't have it so bad." One of our children had a car ruined by hail a couple of nights ago. It made us all sick for awhile, then we remembered, we have our health. WE are not in fear of a booted heel. We are not afraid of being hungry. Ah, yes, we have only to look for it, and life is good. "He who began a good work in you will perfect it." (Phil. 1:6)
"Laughter" (8/3/1980)
Laughter has a spiritual value. Men miss it when they think religion is melancholy. Abraham named his promised son "Laughter". We know him as Isaac.
Laughter has constructive power. Let one laugh heartily and well and his body pains leave. His troubles fly away while he laughs.
Laughter can be such a release of tension. How oft we have seen tenseness melt away when someone breaks the tension with hearty laughter.
Laughter binds people together in secret signals. Sometimes you can hear it 'travel around the globe' but notice--however large the circle may be, it is a closed circle.
Laughter makes men brave. I have seen men facing dire danger break out in laughter when someone was witty to make fun of our plight.
Laughter at a proper time can devastate profanity.
Laughter can return a sense of proportion to a troubled mind. For it erases self pity, self-justification, self-importance.
But, perhaps, the most wonderful thing laughter can do is to bring back the will to live.--And, when the times comes, give us the courage to go with cheer.
The Psalmist said, "Laughter doeth good like medicine."
I have seen preachers go into wards where everybody was hooked up to tubes, hoses, and tractions and blurt out "Oh! Don't get up for me." One has to see it to know what medicine that can be for a tortured body.
The power works both ways, the healthy person is sustained by the appreciation that comes back to him.
There is a kind of geniality that brings mirth and confidence. There are two kinds of people, those who have to lean on others and those who have to prop the others up. It is wonderful to be around one of those lifters. Geniality might be described as strength to spare. The power of laughter lies in its ability to lift the spirit. It cannot fly with clipped winger. BL
Laughter has constructive power. Let one laugh heartily and well and his body pains leave. His troubles fly away while he laughs.
Laughter can be such a release of tension. How oft we have seen tenseness melt away when someone breaks the tension with hearty laughter.
Laughter binds people together in secret signals. Sometimes you can hear it 'travel around the globe' but notice--however large the circle may be, it is a closed circle.
Laughter makes men brave. I have seen men facing dire danger break out in laughter when someone was witty to make fun of our plight.
Laughter at a proper time can devastate profanity.
Laughter can return a sense of proportion to a troubled mind. For it erases self pity, self-justification, self-importance.
But, perhaps, the most wonderful thing laughter can do is to bring back the will to live.--And, when the times comes, give us the courage to go with cheer.
The Psalmist said, "Laughter doeth good like medicine."
I have seen preachers go into wards where everybody was hooked up to tubes, hoses, and tractions and blurt out "Oh! Don't get up for me." One has to see it to know what medicine that can be for a tortured body.
The power works both ways, the healthy person is sustained by the appreciation that comes back to him.
There is a kind of geniality that brings mirth and confidence. There are two kinds of people, those who have to lean on others and those who have to prop the others up. It is wonderful to be around one of those lifters. Geniality might be described as strength to spare. The power of laughter lies in its ability to lift the spirit. It cannot fly with clipped winger. BL
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