by Wade Crews | Jan 26, 2015
In 1969, I was in first grade, and I remember the teacher rolling in a big tube TV set on a cart. She plugged it in and was very excited, as she told us kids about this really cool new show. It was Sesame Street! You know, with Big Bird, Bert and Ernie and Oscar the Grouch and many other famous characters. One of the skits we always looked forward to was “Which One of These is NOT Like the Other?” It taught us to recognize how things are different even if they are mostly the same.
Fast forward 35 years to 2004. My children are in first and third grade. My mother is a lung transplant candidate, and my wife, boys and I are with her at a pot luck lunch with her and many other transplant recipients and candidates. A very pretty young lady with short blonde hair, sits down at our table next to Tommy, my third grader. It doesn’t take long to notice that due to a birth defect, it appears she has hands, but no arms.
Tommy looks wide eyed at me and then because we raised him to be a good communicator, he turns to her and asks the question. “What’s wrong with your hands?” I could have crawled under the table. My mother was mortified. My wife gave me “the look.”
This obviously was not the first time the young lady had been in this situation, as she gracefully rescued Tommy and me from our predicament. She explained that nothing was “wrong” with her, she was just born different. She had to have a heart transplant several years ago and the same developmental issue caused her to not have arms as long as most people have.
I waited a few tics and then pulled Tommy close to me and whispered fatherly advice about how we need to say nice and positive things as we recognize and point out the differences we notice in people. Feeling all Ward Cleaver about myself, as Tommy nodded that he understood, I watched as he turned to her and confidently said “Hey….. nice hands.’ Wow! Kids…… What are you going to do?
But you know, over the years, God has used that as a life lesson for me in this sense. In the Bible, Romans 12:2 tells us “Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”
God calls us to be different! Transformed and renewed. Not the same as the world. Obviously and clearly different. We prove what God’s will is for us by being DIFFERENT. We are all made in the same image of God, but as Christians we are called to not be like the others.
When we sit at the table, does anyone notice we are different, or do we blend right in? Do we try to please and conform to the world’s standard or live by God’s? Does anyone ever ask us “What’s wrong with you? Why don’t you hold a grudge…Why are you so forgiving…Why are you always happy….Why do you care?” And finally….. do we understand we have a Heavenly Father Who will lay on their hearts that our being different is not a bad thing?
Which one of you is not like the other?
Photo credit: Public Broadcasting Service
by Wade Crews | Jan 12, 2015
My teenage son and I enjoy the “oldies” radio station together. Recently, we surfed YouTube for videos of 60’s music and Smothers Brothers clips. For some reason, a 17-year-old loves 50-year-old music. It is a very enjoyable thing to take a “Magic Carpet Ride” with him and sing in the car to Three Dog Night, The Beach Boys and others. He knows the songs, but not the groups as much.
To me, it doesn’t seem like those songs are 40 or 50 years old. On January 8, Elvis turned 80! How can that be? I remember Elvis. I lived the Apollo moon landings and Skylab. I drank Tang. How can time go by that fast? I was in High School when Elvis died. Now I am 10 years older than Elvis when he died.
I was fortunate to recently be able to move out of one career and into another. I feel so blessed and humbled in my present work. I am the Assistant Senior Adult Pastor at my church. Talk about not feeling worthy! It is very rewarding and humbling to serve Older Adults.
Maybe it is like when you get a new car. All of a sudden you notice almost everyone has the same kind of car. I have noticed something. Throughout the Bible, God most often uses older adults in the way He works. Grandparents are very influential on their grandchildren. Methuselah was the grandfather of Noah, and Noah was the only righteous dude on the planet.
Moses was 80 before he was needed to go back to Egypt. Wow! 80 years old to begin his work is a huge message to our seniors today. There’s not enough space in this blog to note all the seniors God used in the Bible, from the widow and her mite to an old Apostle exiled on an island to receive a special Revelation. God uses Seniors! Occasionally there is a boy with fishes and loaves, or a young shepherd slays a giant, or a beautiful young woman becomes a queen, but more often than not…. God uses Seniors!
If you are a Senior Adult, you need to know, God has a plan for your life today and there are many things He needs you to do. “How do you know this?” you ask. Because you’re still here! You have friends and neighbors and grandchildren or their friends who need to be prayed for, loved on and witnessed to. There is still much work to do. In the God’s Word, the book of Hebrews talks about needing endurance because life is such a long run.
Hebrews 12:1 -3(NASB)
Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
Hebrews 12:12-13 (NASB) Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble, and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.
Our hands may be feeble and our knees may be weak – either from fear or age, but…..You are still in the race, you still have influence, you may need to talk about Christ to your grandkids or their friends. We need to finish strong and run with good form – because we have such a great cloud of witnesses.
Anyone can be an “Oldie”, but it requires effort to be a “Goodie”.
by Wade Crews | Jan 5, 2015
I have given several toasts in the last few weeks (with sparkling grape juice), and each time, I have “pray-toasted” for a 2015 that was better than 2014. But then I began to wonder, “Who makes that happen?” Who is responsible for ensuring 2015 is better than 2014?
This is the season when many of us make New Year’s resolutions. We might resolve to lose weight (again) or resolve to quit some ugly habit (again). But what are we really doing? What is a “Resolution”? Why does it involve making a promise we find so hard to keep?
I like to study the history and origination of words. I often will use a web search or dictionary to “discover” word meaning and original intent. My search of “resolution” made me stop and ponder over the results.
Resolution is used modernly to describe clarity in audio or video output. It is also used as the statement in a legal setting or debate over which a decision will be rendered. In a personal sense, it is a self -declarative term used as a way to draw a line in the sand, as in “I am resolved!”.
One of the hats I wear is that of a Federal Mediator. I have worked with numerous federal agencies over the past several years, attempting to assist in bringing staff and their supervisors together. You are literally trying to mend broken relationships and help people see each other differently. Often the “Boss” is seen as unapproachable or difficult to communicate with. The result we are looking for is called “resolution”.
The Bible tells us in 1Timothy, 2:5 “For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,”. In Hebrews 9:15, God’s Word also tells us “For this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.”
Many believers first verse they memorize or hear is John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” What a concept! God provided His Son as the mediator so we could have resolution to our relationship with Him. God was resolved to get us back in relationship with Himself. A trinity of needs was met by the Triune God. Substitutional atonement, a mediator, and the ability to approach and communicate with “The Boss”. In short, resolution to our sin problem.
This year I challenge you to be resolved. Make your resolution one of clarity in what you see and hear from God. Make your resolution a statement of faith no one can debate or challenge. Make your resolution a line in the sand over which no one or any temptation can push you. Resolve to move closer to God in 2015 than you were in 2014, for the answer to who is responsible for making 2015 better than 2014 is …….You. This year will you be resolved or will you be found wanting (again)?
by Wade Crews | Jan 1, 2015
There is a saying in the Information Security business: “The only way to be completely safe on the internet is to never get on it.”
Prior to being blessed to be the Assistant Senior Adult Pastor at my church, I retired from the Justice Department as an Information Security Officer, Compliance Officer, local National Crime Information Center Instructor/Coordinator and Network Administrator. As Sony recently learned, you can do everything right with your internet security policies and still get in a bind.
“Cyber Vandalism” is not new, but it is normally not conducted by a nation state in such an overt way. Multiply that by 100 million and that is how many “bad guys” are out there every day trying to get to your information. If I could get anything through to people it would be this one thing. Never ever click on a link you receive in an e-mail. You have no idea where it is really sending you. Do not believe an email if it tells you your bank account was compromised and they need you to reset your password.
We can look at all the heroes in the Bible who for the most part did everything right and were still persecuted. Job, Joseph, Daniel and many others come to mind. You can do everything right and still be attacked. There is a mindset to give up America’s control of the internet for “fairness and neutrality”. With the recent attack on Sony, one should be aware, the Pentagon, and many other high level government agencies as well as department stores have already had their systems compromised.
The least fair or neutral thing we could is to give up our ability to control internet content and access. There are roughly between 800,000,000 and one billion or so active web sites today. There has been some misinformation that half of them are pornography sites. An online Forbes article from 2011 did “some” research and crunched numbers to come up with a 5% to 10% number of “porn sites”. That still extrapolates to 50 – 100 MILLION. What do you think it would be if the internet went further into the shadows for the sake of not offending people because it seems too judgmental for one nation to have that much oversight?
The spiritual correlation is, we need to thank God that He is not “fair” with us and does not leave us to our own devices. He could easily say “Go ahead – pursue your own lusts…” and not pour out His conviction and grace upon us. We really do not want what we deserve. Most Christians know “The wages of sin is death – but the free gift of God is eternal life”. We deserve the former, but God loves us so much, He provides the latter.
Aren’t you glad God is active in our lives and not neutral? I want Him to control the content and access to things in my life, because I know it is for my own good and a better outcome. We need to beg Him to shine His light on us and not allow us to slide back into the shadows where we think we are getting away with some secret little sin. And remember, you are never really alone when you surf the web either.
by Wade Crews | Nov 3, 2014
The old hymn proclaims “I can face tomorrow….and life is worth the living just because He lives…..” Unfortunately, Brittany Maynard could not. I hope she was ready for her eternity. I know there are some who read these blogs who do not know Christ as Lord and Savior, but I believe these readers are sensitive to His desire to have a relationship with them. In Romans, the Bible tells us “they are without excuse…” Jesus declared (and Christians should believe) in John 14:6 “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father but through Me.” That is a bold statement.
Oregon has a law allowing Brittany Maynard’s decision to end her life and her “suffering.” I have a scathing rebuke of that law. The slippery slope upon which we step is how we define “suffering” and when that decision is made. Someone may decide for you some day.
We often hear “No one would want to live like that…. Why should they suffer?” There are medical ways to help make people more comfortable, free them from pain and lessen their feeling of despair without killing them.
In the same sense, there is no eternal hope without The Great Physician. Christ died on our behalf. The Bible tells us “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life.” Jesus rose again on the third day as He defeated sin and death for us. We are self-condemned for eternity without Christ as Lord and Savior.
So much love, so much concern the Creator has for us that He made a way for us to get back to Him. My concern is the glorification of suicide and physician assisted suicide is one more weapon in the enemy’s arsenal of spiritual warfare.
As a society, we have made the taking of life much too easy, much too convenient. We should always err on the side of life; which by definition would be on the side of Christ. Sacrificing 50 million babies and now friends and family to the god of convenience is not how we celebrate life. To describe those things as health choices is repugnant. I have been at the bedside of loved ones as they have died. Death is not pretty. It is not romantic. We should not glorify it.
Medically, socially, ethically and morally, there is a major difference the size of the Grand Canyon, between choosing to no longer support life (such as a DNR order) and choosing to end it. As we face and debate the ethical and often faith-related questions, I would ask what is the hope that is within you? Are you prepared to face your Creator and justify your decisions? Do you know where and with whom you will spend eternity?
People know deep in their hearts they need to repent and ask Christ to save them from an eternity of hopelessness and darkness. The most self-destructive behavior we can display is to continue to live in a way that is totally self-serving and refuses that free gift of God.
I hope she was ready…
Proverbs tells us “There is a way which seems right to a man, but it leads to death.” Fortunately for us, “For God so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him, should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16.