SHOULDER TO SHOULDER #53 ---- 1/18/99
Posted by: lifeunlimited <lifeunlimited@...>
As We fight The Good Fight
TITLE: "If I Were To Start Over I Would -- Spend More Time In God's
Word" (#3 in series).
Dear Fellow Warrior:
Isn't it exciting to know that, regardless of what comes our way in the
interim, we already stand and live from a victory already accomplished
and secured! Even though we often err by fighting "For" victory instead
of fighting "From" victory given to us nearly 2,000 years ago, God is
always faithful to bring us back to those unshakeable facts that
motivate us onward.
Today is a far cry from this time last week. Last week Jo Ann and I were
in Hartford, WI, 18" of snow was on the ground, it was -10 degrees below
zero, and I was writing at midnight. Today we are in Branson, MO, snow
and ice are gone, the temperature is 58 degrees above zero, ---- and I'm
writing at 4:00 Sunday afternoon.
I like today's setting a little better.
LAST WEEK'S TITLE:
You certainly noticed what I did just five minutes after I sent last
week's letter ---- NO TITLE!
Well ---- last week's title should have been "Mentor More Timothy's".
So, if you're one of the detail people, you can add that.
A VERY SPECIAL WEEK-END:
Two weeks ago I mentioned the physical challenges my parents are facing.
In spite of those conditions, and as a result of some last-minute changes
in plans, Mother and Dad came down for a couple days' visit in our home
this past week end. It was another highly emotional time for me,
enjoying their presence and conversation on one hand, and observing their
continuing physical struggles on the other.
Maybe that's what made Saturday night so special.
While the four of us sat in our new family room earlier in the day, Dad
got up to fix a stuck key on our piano ---- a baby grand Baldwin he and
Mother had purchased in 1942 and had given to us in 1965. Suddenly it
dawned on me ---- "Video tape him playing the piano!"
I realized that, while we did have his LP album from 1971 and a variety
of home recorded audio tapes, we had nothing on video. "What a special
treasure for us all to have!" Our four daughters always wanted "Grandpa"
to play "Onward Christian Soldiers" and "When They Ring Those Golden
Bells". When they got older and began singing, "Grandpa" was the one
accompanist they wanted first.
So, after dinner Saturday night, Dad sat down at the piano, and for more
than one hour, played one song after another ---- "Blessed Assurance",
"There's Something About That Name", "The King Is Coming", "Christ For
Me", "Every Day With Jesus", "The Old Rugged Cross", and so many more
---- and, yes, "Onward Christian Soldiers".
But ---- the thing that made it so very special was ---- Saturday was
Dad's 84th birthday. You'd have thought it was 30 years ago.
True, his concentration sometimes lapsed, and his fingers stumbled a
little on some of those special "trade mark" runs and chords, but that
hour took me back in my own mind through nearly 60 years of memories,
reviewing some of the multiplied thousands of lessons and blessings God
has poured out on me through my parents.
I could see in Jo Ann's face the memories of special youth gatherings in
Tucson when she and 40 or 50 other teens would crowd into our living room
and sing for hours at a time while Dad played. I could sense her mind
replaying those many times when she sat in revival meetings where I led
singing, Dad played the piano, we sang together, and we "tag-teamed" the
preaching responsibilities.
It was apparent that Dad was caught up in his own thoughts of days gone
by ---- and of perhaps the pure pleasure of playing again on the
instrument that had grown accustomed to his special style and touch. He
had given that piano a soul that responded to his special attention.
Seeing Mother, now 70% blind, sit motionless on the couch listening and
watching as Dad played songs she had heard a hundred times but of which
she had never tired, I could not help but see the distant gaze in her
eyes. At times it seemed she was gazing into the 70 years of the past in
which she had known Dad, or the nearly 63 years of marriage they had
shared together.
At other times I sensed she might be gazing into the future ---- part of
me didn't want to think about that.
Then there were moments when I thought perhaps she was gazing into the
abyss of her own "here and now" and the conditions she carries without a
whimper, and thinking about things she used to do but no longer could ---
she has one of the most beautiful mezzo-soprano voices I have ever heard.
I wanted to ask her to sing again, but just didn't get around to doing
so.
I want to tell you about them both ---- soon. However, for today, I want
to share one thing I would do more, if I were to begin my ministry over.
IF I WERE TO START OVER: . . . .
I would spend much more time in reading God's Word. Like you have
perhaps done at times, I have studied it often and long, but I have read
it far too few times.
In order to communicate that concept to you, I'm copying the third
"Shoulder To Shoulder" letter I ever sent, originally written January
19th, 1998 ---- before I even knew how often I'd write, how long this
ministry would last, or before it even had a name ---- which shares from
my Dad's life the great value of daily ravenously feeding on God's Word.
The vast majority of readers have never seen this letter, because there
were perhaps no more than 50 or 60 people receiving those early letters.
I pray, if you haven't, that you will be blessed and encouraged. If you
have, I pray it will bless you again.
Join with me as we ask the Lord, "Take Me Back".
"TAKE ME BACK TO THE PLACE I BELONG"
It came out of nowhere. There was no warning ---- not a hint of any
kind. "I make a motion that the pulpit be declared vacant."
It happened on a Wednesday night business meeting when most of the
regular members were gone for the long holiday week-end. The stunned
pastor was in such a state of shock that he actually called for a second
to the motion. It was readily made, and the vote was nearly unanimous.
In less than thirty seconds of an otherwise routine business meeting, he
was fired. My own father had just suffered the vitriolic and demonic
attack that has put an end to the ministries of thousands of pastors and
staff members. One of the key church leaders (who years later would
hypocritically embrace my father and tell him how much his ministry had
meant) carefully and deliberately set the agenda, pulled the strings, and
dropped the axe.
He was out. One moment he was pastoring the fastest growing church of
his denomination in the entire state, and the next moment he was a fired
pastor, with a nauseating knot in his stomach, still trying to catch his
breath. Perhaps five building programs in five years had taken their
toll.
Dad was (and still is) a powerful and biblically accurate preacher. He
was an outstanding shepherd throughout all of the years of the pastorate
until he" re-retired" a little over a year ago. He was an outstanding
musician, playing the piano like you would expect to hear on Billy Graham
crusades, singing the great old songs of the faith.
Jo Ann and I were in seminary at the time. We were thoroughly shocked
when we opened the door to our little duplex and found them standing
there after a 900 mile drive. They told us they were taking some
"vacation" time to get away for awhile and go to Illinois where Dad's
family still lived. Mother later told us what had happened.
When they returned to Arizona and had found a little apartment in which
to live, a gracious brother in the church created a position in his
business and gave Dad a job to help initiate a healing process and
provide finances for their personal needs.
It was indeed a dark time in my parents' lives ---- one of the darkest.
But it was not the end.
In fact, it was the beginning of a new era ---- a new day ---- in their
lives and in Dad's ministry.
In the midst of that episode my father's trust in the Lord never wavered.
But, he still hurt deeply. It is possible to be in deep pain and be
walking in faith at the same time. Sorrow and pain are signs of neither
failure nor unbelief ---- they are legitimate gifts from the Lord to
remind us of our humanity and His absolute faithfulness.
During the months that followed, Dad began to sense that the hectic pace
of a rapidly growing church with all the administrative and pastoral
duties had somehow diminished his walk with the Lord. He sensed that he
had been operating more and more in the energy of human flesh,
progressively but yet destructively neglecting the spiritual disciplines
that had made him into the effective man of God he had become and that
had sustained him through twenty-five years of successful ministry up to
that time..
One day, in the darkness of his midnight, he prayed, "Lord, I'm not where
I used to be in my walk with you. And, I'm not where I want to be.
Worse yet, I don't know how to get back to where I once was and long to
be again. All I know to do is to read the Bible. I ask you just one
thing; when I get back to where I once was, please let me know."
With that simple prayer, he committed himself to read the Bible through
within the next twelve months. He didn't read it to learn scripture or
get new sermon ideas. He did it just to be spiritually fed. Later he
would coin a phrase I have never forgotten:
"What food is to the body, the Bible is to the soul."
You don't analyze how many times to chew a bite of food, you don't try
to understand how all the proteins, enzymes, and nutrients break down and
enter the blood stream. You just eat.
That's how he decided to read the Bible.
Reading less than ten minutes a day, he completed reading it through in
that first year. He then reasoned, "If I can read it through in a near
by reading only ten minutes a day, then I can read it through twice this
next year by doubling the time to twenty minutes."
He did it.
The next year he read it four times; the next, six times.
Finally, in his fifth year, the Lord said, "You're back."
You may be wondering how a pastor (or anyone for that matter) could
spend four hours a day reading the Bible. Dad developed what he called a
"Bible break". He figured that if you can take time for a coffee break
throughout the day, you should be able to take a "Bible break" as well.
So, sandwiched in between more lengthy periods of Bible reading and
prayer time at the beginning and end of the day, he inserted several
shorter times.
During that fifth year, Dad and I were en route to Danville, IL early one
Sunday morning to minister together in a revival meeting. As he drove
down the highway, he turned to me and said, "open my Bible there in the
seat to II Timothy."
I did, and the margins were filled with his hand written notations.
He said, "I read II Timothy last night, and I found thirty sermons I have
never preached before." I was stunned. Suddenly I knew that, with Dad,
it was no longer a matter of "what" he should preach, but now "which" he
should preach.
The story doesn't end there.
He decided, just for the challenge of it, to make a final push for the
next year, and ---- yes, you guessed it ---- read the Bible through EVERY
MONTH!
Did he do it? Well, ---- not exactly.
Actually, he made a mistake in his calculations and finished the twelfth
reading on December 4th. So, he just read it again for good measure ----
thirteen times in one year!
Between 1962 and 1992, Dad read the Bible through from cover to cover ONE
HUNDRED TIMES. That's an average of over three times a year.
Then, in 1993 he changed his reading pattern and began reading only
through the New Testament. Two years ago he narrowed it down even more
to only the Gospels. He told me that in his final years he wanted to
know all he could possible know about the words that Jesus spoke, the
miracles He performed, and the lives He touched.
If you were to visit him in his home in Independence, MO today, you would
find him sitting in front of the fireplace reading his Bible, now a large
print edition with no marginal references. If you had happened along
this past Thursday, you could have helped him celebrate his 83rd birthday
---- January 16th.
How is it with you, my friend? I don't know about you, but time in the
Word is one of the most difficult disciplines of my life, and requires
more determination and exercise of the will against the flesh than just
about anything I do.
While I can never match the standard my Dad set in the same length of
time, I need that time in the Word as desperately as he did ---- and
still does after over 65 years in the vocational ministry.
You and I both probably could well say what that old gospel song I once
heard the Free Spirit singing group sing ---- "Take me back. Take me
back! Take me back to the place where I met you. Take me back to the
place where I belong."
As you anticipate this new week, please let me encourage you to immerse
yourself in the Word of God and bathe your soul in the presence of God.
There's no telling what God will do!
IF I WERE TO START OVER: . . . .
There are many things I would do as a result of the example of my Father.
With only two years of piano as a very young boy, Dad developed into one
of the greatest pianists I have ever heard. I had nearly four times as
many years of piano, and all I can do is play for my own amazement and
everyone else's amusement. I'd practice the piano harder and longer.
I'd laugh more; I'd care for my wife more; I'd be more courageous in my
preaching; I'd be more compassionate in ministering to people; I'd spend
more time raising and enjoying flowers; I'd laugh more at myself and not
take myself so seriously.
Now, before you think Dad made no mistakes, there are also things I'd do
over that he didn't do.
But ---- above all else, If I were to start over, I'd spend much more
time immersing myself in the life-breathing, precious, and sacred, Word
of God.
How about you, my friend?
If an average of one hour a day would take you through the entire Bible
at least four times in a year, maybe you and I could covenant together to
become people who are immersed in The Book. It's not all that costly to
do ---- but it's extremely costly to neglect.
In Christ's Bond,
Bob Tolliver ---- (Rom 1:11-12)
Copyright January, 1999. All rights reserved.
ADDENDUM:
Our good friends from Wisconsin with whom we spent last Sunday evening
sent me the following yesterday. Since it is so appropriate, thought I'd
pass it on to you. Enjoy.
>>> << IF I HAD MY LIFE TO LIVE OVER
>>> by Erma Bombeck
>>>
>>> I would have talked less and listened more.
>>>
>>> I would have invited friends over to dinner even if the carpet was
>>> stained and the sofa faded.
>>>
>>> I would have eaten the popcorn in the 'good' living room and worried
>>> much less about the dirt when someone wanted to light a fire in the
>>> fireplace.
>>>
>>> I would have taken the time to listen to my grandfather ramble about
>>> his youth.
>>>
>>> I would never have insisted the car windows be rolled up on a summer
>>> day because my hair had just been teased and sprayed.
>>>
>>> I would have burned the pink candle sculpted like a rose before it
>>> melted in storage.
>>>
>>> I would have sat on the lawn with my children and not worried about
>>> grass stains.
>>>
>>> I would have cried and laughed less while watching television - and
>>> more while watching life.
>>>
>>> I would have shared more of the responsibility carried by my
husband.
>>>
>>> I would have gone to bed when I was sick instead of pretending the
>>> earth would go into a holding pattern if I weren't there for the
day.
>>>
>>> I would never have bought anything just because it was practical,
>>> wouldn't show soil or was guaranteed to last a lifetime.
>>>
>>> Instead of wishing away nine months of pregnancy, I'd have cherished
>>> every moment and realized that the wonderment growing inside me was
>>> the only chance in life to assist God in a miracle.
>>>
>>> When my kids kissed me impetuously, I would never have said, "Later.
>>> Now go
>>> get washed up for dinner."
>>>
>>> There would have been more "I love yous.," more "I'm sorrys"... but
>>> mostly, given another shot at life, I would seize every
minute...look
>>> at it and really see it... live it...and never give it back.
>>>
>>> --In memory of Erma Bombeck who lost her fight with cancer.
If this letter has blessed you and you know of someone else who needs to
be encouraged, feel free to forward it in its entirety to all such people
you know.
If you would like a list of past issues which you could receive upon
request, just let us know.
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Hang in there! I'm with you!
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