In the late 1950’s the price of a gallon of gasoline jumped from about 19 to 26 cents. That was a big increase—about 37%. There was a crisis in the Middle East. Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal; the safe shipment of oil was threatened and then Israel and Egypt went to war. The U.S. and some of our European allies got involved. Eventually that Mid-east Crisis was resolved, but the price of gas never went back to 19 cents. Nearly every time there is a crisis in the world, the price of gas goes up. Sometimes it makes us more cautious about how much we drive. Sometimes we just get angry. 

Around 1959 a man in our Florida church discovered someone was stealing gas from his car. His indignation, his pride and his anger led him astray. Ordinarily he was like a next-door buddy in my parents’ Sunday School class. He and his wife loved to host backyard cookouts and were the first to arrive with food when the need arose. They had two or three children a little younger than we were. He was the joke-teller and the life of every party. Then someone started siphoning gas from his car late at night. His house had an open carport so he could not put his car in the garage. He finally settled on a way to deter his robber. This was revenge.

One evening after dinner he set his trap. He stripped apart the end of a long extension cord and attached the bare wires to the bumper of his car. (In those days cars were made of metal.) He was going to teach that thief a shocking lesson. He thought of one more touch—water. He brought out the garden hose and wet down the car and driveway. He plugged in the extension cord and walked around the car to survey his work. As he neared the front of the car he slipped or tripped, falling with both hands on the hood. His wife ran to unplug the cord, but it was too late. A family lost a husband and father. My parents lost a good friend. I learned a tragic lesson about anger and the high price of revenge. Proverbs 22:24-25 says, Do not make friends with a hot-tempered man, do not associate with one easily angered, or you may learn his ways and get yourself ensnared.  Vengeance is a trap you set for yourself. 

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Vengeance belongs to God. So let’s experience the love and power of God together.

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In 2015 Eva Jensen discovered a mystery deep in the Great Basin National Park in Nevada. She is an archeologist for the park who was surveying a section of the mountain wilderness looking for Native American artifacts when she saw a very rusted old rifle leaning against a juniper tree. The 1873 model Winchester rifle, according to the still visible serial number, was manufactured in 1882. What happened to the owner of this gun? “One thing we all assumed was that someone had a very bad day,” said Jensen. Archeologists are detectives. Conservationists discovered the rifle had been repaired a few times. Hidden in its stock was a .44 caliber cartridge made between 1887-1911. Findings indicated that the rifle was not loaded. Had the owner gone after something he had shot, then forgot where he left his gun? Was he camped there and attacked by a wild animal? A good detective story may one day come from this.

I love a good mystery. I enjoy the challenge of finding the threads and pieces, trying to discover the patterns, and finally solving the puzzle of the mystery. There is a sense of satisfaction when the mystery is resolved. In a book or TV show it helps to have realistic and somewhat likable characters playing detective. In everyday life our mysteries are not always solved in an hour or to our satisfaction. I once misplaced a set of car keys while on a fishing trip by myself at the lake. I had to call Dorothy to come rescue me with another set of keys. We will not go into that conversation. Years later, when preparing to sell the car, I found those keys wedged under a corner of the trunk. Mystery solved and still feeling foolish.  

The mystery of God and His ways has been sought after since the days of Genesis. It is the greatest story ever told and it is all revealed in Scripture. The apostle Paul often speaks of the revealed “mystery of God” when seeking to encourage believers. The mystery of the gospel is revealed in the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus. Read Paul’s benediction of his letter to the church at Rome for a glorious word for today. (Romans 16:25-26)

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Help someone solve the mystery.  And let’s experience the love and power of God together.

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It was the day before Christmas Eve and all through the church the pastor and the organist were printing bulletins and practicing the music for the two services the next day. At some point during the preparations we realized it might be handy to dust off the organ light for the candlelight service. No problem, it was where we remembered storing it. The problem was, it would not work. This light clips on to the music stand and shines three LED lights on the music. Solution, change the AAA batteries. We had some in the office. Still, it did not work and would not even flicker. We tried other solutions involving other lights, but they were too big or too bright, and cast shadows on the music. It was too late to buy a new one, so we pressed on, and the evening service was beautiful.

What do you do with an electronic gadget that does not work anymore? It’s too nice to throw away and no one wants a broken one. So after the holidays and the snow days, I consulted our family fixer-of-things, Deacon Enos, to see if he could discover the problem. He is a tinkerer and problem solver. I told him it would be okay if he broke it beyond repair because it was easily replaceable. Deacon built his own computer from scratch when he was 13.  Now almost 17, he is on an academic path in high school and at Tulsa Tech to earn an engineering degree one day. The next Sunday morning he brought the now-working organ light to us, smiling all the way. He said he found one of the battery holders had a loose wire, which wasn’t connecting properly. He fixed it like new. 

We are in this disposable culture where it is easier to buy a new one, than to fix it. If we are not careful, we can end up treating people as disposable also. I read about a church that started a Repair and Renew Ministry for their neighborhood. They call it The Repair Café because it has coffee and goodies to share. People bring their broken appliances, electronics, and furniture to the church basement where volunteers help them figure out what is wrong. If something needs a new part, the owner purchases the part and brings it back another time. While working on these projects, friendships are forged, and spiritual conversations are initiated. It seems everyone is a little broken somewhere and could use some renewal from time to time. 

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Repair and renew.  And let’s experience the love and power of God together.

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I received an unanticipated letter from the Social Security Administration enclosing my new Medicare Card and not really providing an explanation. I  was not expecting a new card, but I do know why I was issued a new one. Last fall I called to report suspected Medicare fraud. Monthly medical supplies that no one had ordered appeared on one of my “This Is Not a Bill” summary statements. I called the Fraud Hotline and was told they would investigate it. I was not the only one noticing these false billings to Medicare and insurance companies. The fraudsters count on people of a certain age to have multiple health issues so they can slip in an extra item or two. They also count on thousands of people not looking at their medical statements at all. I heard on the news that a possible two-billion-dollar billing fraud had been uncovered involving seven high-volume suppliers of medical catheters. These catheter billings targeted 450,000 people in 2023, up a bit from the 50,000 in 2022. Becoming the victim of any crime is never a good experience. Look at those statements.

Over the weekend we received a letter from our former mortgage holder confessing that we may have been the victims of a scam in their company where false accident and disability insurance was bought in our name and paid for by us through hidden fees. Not nice at all. We checked, and sure enough, we were defrauded $45.60 in 2010! Does not sound like much, but when multiplied by thousands of customers, someone made off with a sizable sum. Greed in all its forms is roundly condemned throughout the Scriptures. Fraud is lying, dishonesty, bearing false witness, thievery, covetousness, and worship of the false god mammon. Fraud deprives the widow of her dignity, the orphan of his future, and the neighbor of their livelihood. Corporate greed increases the cost of everything we use and need. Political greed costs self-respect, decency, and the courage of true convictions. Religious greed is another way of taking God’s name in vain. It manipulates people’s good hearts for personal gain by misusing the sacred and the holy. The threat of artificial intelligence (AI) is in its potential use for fraud and deceit, times a million.

What can we do about fraud? I suggest three on-going steps everyone should be taking:

Stay vigilant in the small and the large matters. Call out and expose fraud. Live in honesty through the power of Christ each day. 

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Be honest. And let’s experience the love and power of God together.

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Decades ago, we had a leader in our church who would on occasion recite from memory a poem from Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) called Success:

To laugh often and much;

To win the respect of intelligent people, and affection of children;

To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;

To find the best in others;

To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, garden patch, or a redeemed social condition;

To have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exultation;

To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.

This is to have succeeded.

This is a beautiful understanding of a satisfying life.How do you measure success? Emerson began his public life as a Harvard-taught minister two hundred years ago. Then his young wife died of tuberculosis. A crisis of faith naturally followed. He questioned his place in the great scheme of life. He struggled with issues of faith and science, eventually settling on what I characterize as “the transcendence of creation” as the touchstone of his life. Sadly, he had abandoned the Christ of Christianity. His writings became foundations for what was called “Transcendentalism,” which still has great appeal today.

The Bible speaks very little about success as we define it today. My understanding of Biblical success is not found in popularity, prestige, possessions, or power. Biblical success does not equal great leadership or numbers of followers or ministries or even mission endeavors. To me the Biblical definition of success is faithfulness to the teachings of Jesus. When things come down to the very end, the question from on High will not be if you were successful, but rather, “Were you faithful?” Were you faithful to God’s word, faithful in your relationships, faithful in your daily actions? Faith is fully trusting God. Faithfulness is living in gratitude for God’s great love and salvation.

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Succeed through faithfulness. And let’s experience the love and power of God together.

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Celebrity news has surpassed the old-fashioned soap opera, although some of us still remember Luke and Laura. With the Grammys behind us and the Super Bowl and Oscars headed our way, who can avoid hearing about the misadventures, drama, controversies, loves and losses of the headliners of entertainment, sports, and politics today? What do you know of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce? Who was snubbed by the award givers?  Whose tweet set off a firestorm of applause and outrage this week? There is so much celebrity news you may not know the answer to that last question? 

  He sent out a perfectly gentle and caring question to his followers on X, formerly known as Twitter. Then his innocent and sheltered world was unexpectedly rocked like an earthquake in Oklahoma. I am speaking, of course, of Elmo. I assumed a Muppet’s life was fairly simple like any TV personality: sitting in a make-up chair, rehearsing lines, hitting the mark when the director says “Action,” sleeping on a shelf the rest of the time.  I did not realize Elmo was also a celebrity influencer. I should have known better because we are all influencers. Elmo asked his followers: Elmo is checking in! How is everybody doing? The responses came in overwhelming numbers—10’s of thousands followed by 100’s of thousands, soon a million and a half people shared how hard things were. Because of this Elmo was invited to talk about mental health on the Today Show. Comedian Larry David, listening off stage was enraged, charged over to Elmo, and began to strangle the Muppet saying he could not listen to this any longer. David offered a reluctant apology. Elmo accepted the apology, but later David publicly retracted his apology to Elmo.  The next day Elmo tweeted: Wow! Elmo is glad he asked! Elmo learned it is important to ask a friend how they are doing. Elmo will check in again soon, friends! Elmo loves you. 

We should all have a friend like Elmo. No matter who you are, you are an influencer. Someone is looking at you and maybe thinking, so that’s how I am supposed to… act as an adult; talk when I’m mad; treat elderly people…  The questions always become then, how am I doing in my own soul today? How am I influencing others? 

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. You are a Christian influencer. And let’s experience the love and power of God together.

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The future is with us right now.  Today is the future, most likely even tomorrow. But tomorrow is not here yet. There is one thing about the future I always hope to see—a new awakening of the Church in America. A sweeping wind of the Spirit, a revival of the church writ large, is always found in generational repentance and humility before God.  And it is always led by young people. Every world-shaking, soul-wrenching Great Awakening over the last 600 years has been born out of the tender hearts of teenagers and young adults. The elders are the faithful prayerful. They are also the encouragers and disciplers of children and teens. The rising generation among us is Generation Z (Gen Z).  It is a generation like no other in US history.

Gen X: Born 1965-1980

Millennials: Born 1981-1996

Gen Z: Born 1997-2012 

Gen Z’ers are the first generation to be totally immersed in digital technology. The i-Phone was released in 2007.  Covid disrupted their education and brought social isolation. They feel death and sickness is always near.  Generally, they are mostly urban and suburban, following social influencers like ducklings from fad to fad and scam to scam. They long to do things irl (in real life). They would rather shop in a store than online. Yet Snapchat, Whisper and TikTok is where they retreat with their friends. Gen Z’ers have dealt with continuous economic setbacks (the great recession of 2008-2009 and Covid.) Their focus is on economic security and materialism. Gen Z’ers long for good mental health. They want authentic experiences, truthful relationships, and less violence and meanness. I asked an 18-year-old waitress recently what she was thinking about these days. She told me she was terrified of AI. She said she was always stressed out, and she did not understand the world anymore. Religious faith had no place in her life. She just wanted to go skiing in Colorado with her boyfriend.

What does a stressed out, materialistic, digitized future look like? A whole lot like today. How, then, can they call on the One they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the One of whom they have not heard?  And how can they hear without someone teaching them? (Romans 10:14)

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Love them to Jesus. And let’s experience the love and power of God together.

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Our daughter Dayna introduced me to a series of books a few years ago that have captured my imagination and tickled my funny bone. The books are literate but not stuffy, Christian but slightly irreverent. They are written from the perspective of a motherless little girl, harassed by her older sisters, fascinated with chemistry (poisons are her specialty), who regularly chooses to wedge her way into murder mysteries. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie is the first in a series of ten novels following eleven-year-old sleuth Flavia de Luce in post-war England. 

The Canadian author Alan Bradley began writing this, his first novel, in 2007 when he was 69. In 1994 Alan Bradley took an early retirement as director of television engineering for a university to begin his writing career. He wrote short stories and articles for magazines and published a couple of non-fiction books. His success came after a little girl he later named Flavia “took over” a story he was trying to write one spring day in 2007. Born in 1938, Mr. Bradley published the tenth book in his series in 2019. According to Variety Magazine, the movie version of The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie starring British actors Martin Freeman (Sherlock) and young Isle Gie (The Sandman) went into production last spring.

“There are choices in life which you are aware, even as you make them, cannot be undone; choices after which, once made, things will never be the same. There is that moment when you can still walk away, but if you do, you will never know what might have been.” –Alan Bradley, The Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust, 2015.

Advertisers want us to choose their products. Our families, friends and co-workers want us to go along with their choices. Politicians want us to choose them. We are faced with choices about everything, in every area of our lives, every day. Some choices are bigger than others. How do you choose? Day by day we decide, or we let someone else decide for us, how we will live today. Proverbs 3:6 declares: In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path. Invite God into your decisions. 

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Choose wisely. And let’s experience the love and power of God together.

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Penguins are fascinating. They are all from the southern hemisphere—all 18 different kinds of penguins. Most live in Antarctica, South America, Southern Africa, New Zealand, and Australia. One group lives up in the Galapagos Islands. Most of us remember the award-winning film, The March of the Penguins, narrated by Morgan Freeman. Those were Emperor Penguins, but the life cycles and dangers are universal to all. The important thing to remember about penguins is not that they do not live anywhere near the Arctic Circle, but that they know how to walk on snow, ice, glaciers, and icebergs. We do not. They also know how to hop out of water onto said iceberg with bare feet. We should not even try. On my trip to Antarctica, we observed Adalie, Gentoo, and Chinstrap penguin colonies from a respectful distance of a few yards, although a few crossed the path right in front of me while hiking one day.  It amazed me to see how agile and skilled they are in and out of the ocean. 

One lesson that I learned from the penguins was how to walk on frozen water. Even with their short legs, penguins can slip and slide, but they mostly do that for fun—sliding headfirst, like a small missile into the sea. We, with our longer legs, are top heavy. (I’m speaking for myself, of course.) This means our slips and slides are not as much fun, especially that first bounce. Penguins teach us to keep our center of gravity low and beneath us. This means taking small steps, shifting your weight slightly side to side as you walk. Humans tend to walk shifting our weight forward, while waiting for the other leg to catch up with us and go forward even further. It does not take much to get ahead of ourselves. Add a little ice or mud, and we fall. Walking like a penguin might keep you safer in this frigid weather.

When it comes to walking through life, walk in the ways of Jesus. May I suggest a little spiritual exercise to help stretch us for our Christian walk today? First Corinthians 13 is known to us as the Love Chapter in the Bible. (There are other love chapters in the Bible, by the way.) Read chapter 13, substituting the name of Jesus every time the word love or it is used. This is how we live the Christian walk each day.

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Walk like a Christian. And let’s experience the love and power of God together.

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When were you last hungry?  It has been observed that some people will get up from their holiday meal with the announcement, I am so full I could burst. Yet not ten minutes later they are spotted rummaging through the turkey carcass or picking up another bite of dessert. Then there are teenagers who periodically emerge from their caves growling for something else to eat. Imagine being the single parent of three children, working one or two minimum wage jobs, trying to keep everyone clothed and fed, plus cover rent and utilities; or a disabled vet living on the street; or a senior couple trying to make it until the end of the month. These are some of our church neighbors. 

Our People’s Pantry ministry has not missed a single week of sharing bags of groceries each Wednesday night for ten years straight—no matter the storms, Covid, the heat or the cold. Today a group of volunteers unloaded 1,792 pounds of commodities from the Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma. This included dozens of bags of frozen chicken thighs and drumsticks, canned goods, and bottled juices. This, combined with donations of goods, and the purchase of supplemental items will last us about a month. All of this ministry is under the direction of Lori Dryer with her husband David and Terri Qualls at her side.

Here is a summary report for 2023:

Total Families served: 393

Total Individuals served: 948

Total Grocery Meals provided: 11,376

These numbers reflect a 15 percent increase in the number of people served over 2022.   We provide good quality food, an opportunity for conversations and prayer. Diep Vo and Terri Qualls oversee our Clothes Closet ministry, which is available each week for those who have additional needs. We also provide personal hygiene kits, can openers, and other necessities. We invite our neighbors inside for a light hot meal prepared by Russell Ford, Ben Shepard, and Patty Hickman. The People’s Pantry is open each Wednesday evening from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Volunteers are needed around 4:00 p.m. to help us set up. Thank you for your on-going prayers, food and clothing contributions, and financial support.

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Live faithfully. And let’s experience the love and power of God together.

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