Looking to the Instructor:

As this month nears its end and I prepare to leave for my preaching trip to Gastonia, I had a final thought that I wanted to share with you.

 

I was in my devotional time earlier this morning.  I was reading the Word, contemplating some meditations and spending some time in prayer.  In the process, I was also taking stock of my own life, which has had some twists and turns in recent months.  It has left me feeling a little lost and uncertain.  I realize some areas where my thinking has not been too clear.

 

It all sort of reminded me of a blind person using a white cane, starting out on a mobility lesson with the instructor.  Sometimes, I've been with an instructor as we start out in a new neighborhood, perhaps learning how to travel a new route, or even learning my way around a shopping mall.  After some lessons with the instructor by my side the whole way, the time comes for me to try it on my own, with the instructor still near at hand, but far enough away to tell if I really know the route and can travel it on my own.  Sometimes, I would do very well; but other times, I would get totally confused in such situations--forgetting a turn here, ignoring a clue there, and eventually feeling totally lost.  At times like that, and usually with no one close at hand from whom I could ask any intelligent directions, the only thing I knew to do was sit down on a bench or lean calmly against a tree and simply look to the instructor, waiting until the instructor came alongside me and explained what I had done wrong.  Sometimes in life, we feel overwhelmed by a problem, challenged by a new responsibility, or lost in a sea of grief or disappointment.  At other times, our lives simply may seem to have lost focus and direction.  In any situation, we need to have the humility of a learner, a little child, maybe even a blind person with a white cane.

 

It's hard for adults to stop, admitting we're lost, and simply wait.  How often we stumble along in our own false confidence.  How much better off we would be if we would simply stop, take stock, pray, and look to the Instructor, to God Himself, through Jesus Christ, by the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  He will explain to us what we have done wrong, and put us back on track.  

 

It's very humiliating for an adult male, in responsible positions of leadership in the community, the church, or the civic club, simply to have to stand against the columns of a shopping mall or sit on a bench, waiting for the instructor to show him how to get back to the entrance or the intersection;  but if I don't stop and wait, I can get even more frantic, more lost, and possibly even endanger my own safety.  That's also true in life.  If we'll just stop and wait, and look to the Instructor, He will show us the Way.

 

         

Interlude:

For me, the next week or so will be something of an interlude.  For you who read my blog, it will be a "quiet time."  We're leaving in the morning for my trip to Gastonia, North Carolina, and my weekend of special services at the First ARP of Gastonia, where my friend Mark Tankersley is the associate pastor.  The last few weeks have been such a whirlwind of activity and a roller coaster of emotions that I frankly feel a bit tired and drained tonight; but I have sensed the presence of God as I prepared the sermons for Gastonia, particularly in the past couple of days as I have put them into some kind of final outline form. 

 

Much has been going on over the last few months which I, of course, haven't recorded in this blog--since the blog is not so much a journal of my daily activities as a journal of my thoughts on a wide range of topics.  Still, there will be a time in the next few weeks and months when life and thoughts will converge and all will become clear--well, reasonably clear!

 

I pray that all who read this during the last week of October, 2006, will have a good weekend and a safe Halloween.  If you come across this at some time in the future, then it will be like looking inside a time capsule!  Hmmmmm.  Daniel Berry, a piece of history--a part of Americana.  That's a scary thought!  (Grin.)

 

Well, happy football and snow everybody.  Talk to you more next week some time--when it will be November, 2006.

 

Travel:

Throughout my youth and well into my adult years, I had no great interest in traveling outside the U.S.  Because of being able to go on convention trips with my parents when I was growing up, I had seen a large part of the United States by the time I graduated from high school   I had been to Philadelphia, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago--visiting almost every state in the continental U.S. 

 

But about twenty years ago, it dawned on me that for a blind person, travel has a much larger purpose than it perhaps does for most sighted people.  I think the turning point came one night when Lydia, my parents and I were vacationing at the beach.  There was a minor tropical disturbance just off shore.  It posed no real danger to us; but it did stir up the water quite a bit and made for some interesting viewing.  My father was pointing out to me that the high tide was coming right up to the sea wall within a few feet of where we were staying.  That seemed almost impossible to me.  It wasn't that I didn't believe him.  It was rather that I just couldn't quite get the picture in my mind of what the water was actually doing.  Consequently, he took me down to the beach, in the wind and the rain, so I could actually feel what he was talking about.  It was just as he said; and then, I understood.  (I had something of the same experience, though on a much different scale of magnitude and emotion, when the World Trade Center came down on September 11, 2001.  I couldn't see it, of course; and I had never been in the World Trade Center.  It was a little overwhelming to try  to conceptualize exactly what was going on.)

 

I began to realize, at some point as I was approaching middle age, that other people can see the pictures of the Holy Land, Europe, Hawaii, the major cities of the world; and through those pictures they can get a fairly accurate idea of what the places and the people are like.  Of course, the pictures mean nothing to me unless somebody describes them.  Even then, I'm experiencing the pictures through somebody else's eyes, through their interpretation.

 

I realize that I'll never really know what the world is like unless I could visit more of it--hear the sounds, smell the smells, experience the places in all the ways that are still open to me.  Of course, I don't expect to be able to do that, though I have thought from time to time how interesting and exciting it would be actually to preach in various parts of the world and challenge people on many continents with the biblical truths of our reformed heritage and faith.

 

Of course, I would enjoy the excitement of a luxury liner, the thrill of travel on a jumbo jet, the extravagance of the cuisine on a cruise ship.  For me however, those would not be the principal reasons for wanting to travel globally.  It would simply be to gain a better understanding of this world and the people in it.  And then, perhaps through that added understanding, I would be better able to communicate the message of faith--not only here, but even in places far away.  I would live what I cannot see.

      

Life Choices the Christian Makes:

We finally had to turn on our heat today.  The low temperature tonight will be just above freezing.  The climate is good in southwest Alabama--except that it can get awfully hot and muggy in the summertime.  And then, there are those hurricane possibilities with which one must reckon. 

 

I've been thinking a lot lately about people who say they would never live in a place with a particular climate--bitter cold, scorching heat, heavy snow.  Thinking of that made me think of all the other reasons people say they wouldn't move to certain areas--parents, children, grandchildren, topography, too rural, too urban, and on and on. 

 

We all have our preferences, of course, as to the types of places we would like to live.  I have mine as well.  But as a Christian, my own preferences are not primary.  As Christians, are we not to follow the leading of God, going where He would have us go, doing the job that He would have us do?

 

I particularly wonder about ministers who state such qualifications in their obedience to the call of God to ministry.  They are called to ministry.  Should they not be willing to go wherever their Master calls if they would truly be faithful servants? 

 

As a minister myself, it's hard for me to rule out anything.  How can I know where God may want me to serve until the specific call comes?  He knows our limitations, our preferences, our interests, and our abilities; but He also knows His plans for us. It is all well and good for us to have preferences and desires, dreams and ambitions.  But the life choices the Christian makes are not ultimately His to make.  Who can say what wonderful things God has prepared for those who love Him?

 

 

 

Hebrews 9:11-14, October 30-November 5, Year B:

Straight AheadThis passage could probably be considered the climax of this section of Hebrews, as the author speaks of the High Priest entering the Holy of Holies, purging our sins by His own blood. This sets Christ apart from the Old Testament high priests as nothing else could. This is certainly a wonderful passage for Holy Week use as well. The Old Testament tabernacle, the Levitical priesthood, and all the sacrifice rituals foreshadow the priesthood of Christ. It was especially important that the author of Hebrews point out to his readers--mostly Jewish converts to Christianity--the superiority of the priesthood of Christ. Many of them felt alienated from both Christian and Jewish life. Here, they were reminded that the priesthood of Christ was truly a more excellentway, and that eternal redemption didn't have to be renewed annually. Past and future sins were all covered by the atoning death of Christ on the cross. The contrasts between old and new are almost endless. The whole chapter presents a beautiful picture of the Holy of Holies and the more excellent ministry of Christ. In this passage, the ministry of Christ was declared, and was shown to be a more excellent ministry. To the readers of my blog, the previous essay on the lectionary epistle which dealt with Hebrews 7:23-28 did not appear on my blog because of a technical problem. I tried to email it, as I usually do, but it was not received for some reason. If my blog readers would like to read my meditation on Hebrews 7:23-28, please email me: berrys2@bellsouth.net and I will be happy to send it to you. Thanks for your patience and support.