Uncle Jerry

My Uncle Jerry Dziadul was called home by Christ this morning at age 56. I cannot believe he's gone. He visited here some time back when we had a bad storm & lost our electricity. He went right out & got a camping stove & lantern & made a big time out of it. He had his grand kids with him at the time. I loved watching how he loved them & yet how he refused to lower his standards for them. Instead, time after time, I watched him patiently bring those grandchildren to his standard. It was instructive to say the least.
Uncle Jerry lived in Daytona Beach Florida for all of my memory. He would come home to Connecticut every few years to visit his parents. I was in his wedding as the ring bearer. On one of those visits, I was 14 & he wanted to go pheasant hunting. I told him that I could show him some places. He picked me up early one morning & we hit the woods. We walked & talked for miles that day. He told me the account of his divorce & then he charged me to fight for my marriage with all that is in me. I'll never forget his words, "The pain of divorce far outweighs the pain that is motivating the divorce." I never heard a man talk this way. The regret & remorse were stark and I never forgot it.
During that hunt, Uncle Jerry also shared with me his conversion to Christ. He left home as an older teen & made it to Daytona Beach Florida. He got in with a bad element & got arrested. Somehow a couple showed up & bailed him out of jail. He lived with them for a while and saw them live out the Gospel. It was during that time that God revealed Christ to him & redeemed him from his sin. He shared his heart with me that day & it endeared me to him for the rest of his life. Now I will preach his funeral. Five years ago, I invited him to attend Paul Jr.'s Barmitzvah. He couldn't make it but he did send a hand written letter. In it he told my son that many people say that living the Christian life is hard. To that he responded,"No it isn't. Living like the devil is hard. Hard on you and hard on everyone you love. Living for Christ is easy compared to that road." I never heard it communicated that way before.
In a few days, I will stand before my family & declare the Gospel of Jesus Christ that my Uncle went out into eternity believing. I praise God for the Gospel for it is truly the power of God unto Salvation. And to my dear Uncle Jerry...I'll see you again one day!
Maranatha!

T4G 08

I spent the week in Louisville Ky with three fellow Pastors from Macon. The conference was called "Together For the Gospel". There was really no fluff of any sort - just straight preaching & polemics relating directly to the Gospel itself. Because of that, it was massively powerful because the gospel is massively powerful. It was such a confirmation to me that what God has lead me to believe concerning his gospel is on target. Not because these great men said so, though they did, but because God said so through his word. These types of conferences can tend to be discouraging in that most of us guys will never be close to the level of the men that spoke. The last speaker, C J Mahaney gave us a quote from Spurgeon that just debunked any such discouragement. Spurgeon said, "Whitfield & Wesley might be able to preach the gospel better than me but they cannot preach a better gospel." Wow! How true & how affirming!
I really liked that fact that this was not a 'rah rah! recharge your batteries' kind of a conference. Those only last for a day or so. This was a meaty conference about the most important topic in all of history. I've been to some that try to encourage us pastors by telling us how important we are and actually appealing to our flesh. They didn't go there at T4G. They let us know that we were inconsequential & that the only thing that made us 'important' was the message we are to proclaim to the world. That kind of encouragement sticks with a man for life.
I want to thank God for my wonderful congregation at the Church of the Wildwood for sending me to T4G. I will do my best to make it worth their while through the Grace of God & the goodness of the gospel.

Jesus & the Red Sox

I was gone from Thursday to Saturday night late. When I finally made it home, Sam was in bed. His stomach was giving him "bathroom problems". He awoke at 3 am & I helped him. He was miserable. Before returning him to bed, I held him for a bit. We hadn't seen each other for three days which to him is an eternity. A sleepy head raised up off of my chest and groggily said, "Dad, we like the Red Sox the best". "Well" I replied, "We actually like Jesus the best." He blinked a long blink then laid his head back on my chest. The he whispered, "Dad, I bet Jesus likes the Red Sox!"
I love that kid.

My Son "Sven"

Well, we love our little "Sven". Allow me to explain. We are having the hardest time not calling 'Ben' 'Sam'. We'll start to call him Sam then we'll catch ourselves & insert the proper name 'Ben'. It comes out sounding like "Sven". Poor kid. He's going to think that's his name. Beth was talking to him the other day & called him Benjamin Isaac - again, that's Sam's middle name. Benjamin Robert Anthony. I suppose if we were true rednecks, we'd have named him "Ben Bob Tony". His middle names are after his Grandpas. I know you're wondering about the picture of the dog. Well that is Trigger as many of you know. The reason he's in the post is because we used to talk baby talk to him (and still do but not as much when you have a 'real' baby around). I'm ashamed to say the Ben doesn't have it so bad...We used to call Sam 'Trigger' all the time! Now that's bad!

Tech Savvy Baby

Apparently Baby Ben is no slouch in the Tech area. I came in to check on him the other day & he was listening to John Piper on my ipod! That is some smart kid!

NATIONAL ATHIEST DAY!

Today is Psalm 14:1 & Psalm 53:1 Day otherwise known as April fools Day
"The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God'"