Hope for Life Blog

It was an email that carried the news. It was one of those things that catches you off guard and makes you think. I needed to express my appreciation, my honor of their work, so I wrote my email and addressed it to their daughter. It was my way of giving honor to whom honor is due, based on Romans 13:7.

I was told yesterday that Mrs. Scott went to be with the Lord that morning. You will note that even after all these years it was and still is Brother and Mrs. Scott. I have been thinking a lot about both of them since receiving that news. And about their Legacy.
I was a young, immature know it all when I came to Freed Hardeman College in the summer of 1967. Hopefully I have grown out of at least two of those afore mentioned items. That summer I enrolled in your Dad’s world history class and entered a world of discovery. As a result I think I took every class your Dad offered into Acts and Church History. I also had the opportunity to have your Mom for British Literature when I learned the prologue to the “Cranberry” Tales. (my name for them). Which to this day I try to work those words into many of my presentations (I learned it so I want to use it).
As you already know, both of your parents worked with me on my commentaries on WFHC-FM. I would write, they would comment in red, I would rewrite, they would comment in red again and finally when they approved, I would record and air the result of our collaborations. There were times when it wasn’t so pleasant, probably for all three of us, but we kept at it.
When I came to Herald of Truth one of the first things I noted as I looked at our donor base was your Mom’s name. In fact I wrote on her receipt asking if she had taught at Freed and in fact had she been my teacher. Her response was that in fact she was. For 29 years your parents contributed to the work of Herald of Truth, most of that time sending their gifts monthly.
Your parent’s legacy is multifaceted. They have helped more people know Jesus through their gifts of money to Herald of Truth, their local church and numerous other efforts that they championed. They taught students not just the facts of their respective disciplines, but also about God and His Son.
There is a personal legacy that I hold. For they shared with me a quiet determination to finish even when things become unpleasant. They shared with me a sense of discovery and appreciation for things that I view as different. They shared their time, energy and counsel with a young, immature, know it all, who years later still cherishes those memories.
You already know these things from your personal closeness to your family. I hope knowing that when your Mom joins your Dad in Heaven, there will be people there they know and then someone will approach them and say: “ you don’t know me, but you taught so in so, and they taught so in so, and they taught so in so, who taught me about Jesus. So I wanted to thank you for sharing your faith with all of us.” I pray that this will ease a bit of the loss you feel.

We should acknowledge those influences before the eulogies. Why do we want until after someone dies to acknowledge what they meant to us? Shouldn’t we tell them before we unable to tell them?
Whom do you need to honor? What did they do to make your life different?

He knew the answer before he asked the question. He was one of the outstanding Hebrew scholars of his time, noted author, recognized speaker, leader, prisoner and eventually martyr for a religious cause.

His treatise is a letter he sent to Christians in the city of Rome and it is in the eighth chapter that he poses the question and notes that no external influence can cause separation.

Yet Paul, the Apostle, knew the whole answer which began in Moses’ book of Genesis, in Chapter 3 when God asks of His creation “where are you?”, Adam was afraid for he had disobeyed the Lord God and hid himself. The answer was finalized by the visionary prophet Isaiah when God used his pen say:

“Your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear.” Isa 59:2

The question remains, who can separate us from the love of God? And the answer is—we can when we choose not to follow his ways. We can when we disobey his rules for living. We can when we hide behind our habitual sin. We can when we decide to be unholy and unworthy.
But, if we choose to allow Jesus to redeem us, save us, make us Holy, affirm that we are worthy—Then NOTHING can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord!

Sooooo.. Are you separated from God?

Why have you chosen to be so distant from Him?

Are you like Adam, having disobeyed God that you have hidden yourself from him?

“Let your Yes be Yes and your No, No.” The words in Matt 5:37 were spoken by Jesus as he explained that swearing by something or making an oath based on validation should not be necessary. When you say something, your actions must support your words.

In our culture saying “I swear on my mother’s grave” or “Cross my heart, hope to die” or
using profanity to convey a sense of importance or urgency are modern manifestations of the swearing or oath taking. Yet even in the 21st century we ultimately respect and believe someone who is as “good as his word,” “his word is as good as his bond.”

In spite of political correctness and public relations attempt to say something that is ambivalent and thus cannot be attributed as a stand, people still hope to find those who say what they mean, whose Yes is Yes and No is No.

Jesus was saying that during His time on earth and His words are pertinent as well for today, some will verbally commit to do something, but not follow through. Thus, to emphasize that they really mean to do it, they would swear by something.

Jesus says two things here that remain relevant today—say what you mean and then do what you say. Those around you will come to trust you when your actions are the same as your words.

So the question is this, does your Yes mean Yes and your No mean No?

Is that a first century idea relevant for our 21st Century world?

Do you know people who say Yes for Yes and No for No and how do you feel about them?

The call went out and he answered it right away, without knowing any of the details. “Send me” were his words. Then he found out what he was to do, tell everyone in the geographic area that calamity and destruction were coming. He then asked how long did he have to do that? Until it all happened!

From a modern perspective, that job description left a lot to be desired. For Isaiah, the Old Testament seer of vision and preacher of woe took years to complete his task. His writings cover 66 chapters almost all focusing on one theme: God is God.

Over and over through Isaiah’s pen Jehovah says: “I am the Lord, that is my Name!” (42:8); “… says the Lord that I am God” (43:12). Declarative statements of power and authority. Foundational basis for the coming of His son Jesus. That may be why Isaiah is the most quoted Old Testament prophet in the New Testament and Jesus himself quotes Isaiah extensively.

The importance and value of knowing that God is God are also in the words of Isaiah:

But those who wait on the Lord
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary
They shall walk and not faint (40:31).

So, do you believe God is God? Why? What specific things can you point to or that you have experienced prove to you that God is God?

How many times did he sit after a grueling day and wonder how he got into this mess?

His instructions were clear—lead this group to a specific place. While he delegated tasks to different teams, the responsibility was always his. He set security, dealt with health issues, even made sure there was enough to eat and drink.

And always he took the instructions he was given and led the way.

Many times his teams thought they knew better, presented different plans of action, wanted to change directions, even wanted to reinterpret the instructions he’d been given. And how many times did they ask “are we there yet?”

Things got so bad that more than once the power that be wanted to terminate the whole organization and create a new group. Even his own brother, chosen for a unique function, had failed miserably. And so he would beg and plead that one be eliminated.

And every day, he was responsible, he was the one who had to get them there.

It takes the whole books of Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy to tell of his getting there. Moses leading his rag tag motley group of humanity as they purpose to enter the promised land.

“Then the Lord said to me, ‘Arise, begin your journey before the people, that they may go in and possess the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. And now, Israel, what does the lord your God require of you, but to fear the lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the lord and His statutes which I command you today for your good?’”
Deut. 10:11-13

Those ancient words are the same that we ask our people to embrace as we move to our own promised land—Heaven. All who claim Jesus as our Savior must accept the responsibility of helping get our people to Heaven. It cannot be abdicated. The instructions we’ve been given, the God breathed scripture we believe, cannot be reinterpreted to match the demands of our culture.

We, too, must impress the words of God upon the hearts of our rag-tag, motley, sinful portion of humanity.

So the questions remain: Have you abdicated your responsibility to help get people to Heaven? Have the demands of our culture redirected your attention and interests? Should you care?

What do you think?

She sits in a straight backed desk chair, dressed in a festive shirt and sweater, slowly and carefully unwrapping each item, running her fingers over the surface as if to absorb the impression contained within. Then she carefully hangs the treasure on just the right branch somehow knowing the place had been reserved for it only. Her white hair gleams, the result of the decision to cease the hair coloring addiction and go a la natural a year or so earlier. Her eyes dart from the item to its assigned place and a smile curves her lips, as images of years past flood her mind.

To my wife of 40 years, Christmas is wondrous time and decorating the tree may be the single best part of the season. It’s not the ornaments, but the memories they evoke that bring her so much joy. Each ornament has a story; the parachuting Santa Clause when both of our sons jumped out of a perfectly functioning airplane, the flannel Beefeaters from Harrods’s when we visited England, the ornaments purchased to commemorate the births of our 3 grandchildren, the handmade wreath with our middle son’s picture from first grade. These are Christmas ornaments some decades old, chronicling our life’s events, big and small. When the grandchildren help decorate the tree, she has told them the stories so often that they now say, “and this little ferryboat was when you and Papa went to some island, isn’t it Nana?” and then she tells about our brief visit to Martha’s Vineyard some 15 years ago.

The scene takes place every December and every year new memories are added to the tree. Every year she unwraps them, and remembers. I am envious of her gift and am thankful that she freely tells all who listen, the memories of our family.

In our family, the green artificial pine tree with its multicolored lights and ornaments is the Brant Family Memory Tree.

So this holiday season as you gather around the Thanksgiving table and sit by the Yule Tree also remember the words of the doctor as he described that night long ago:

“Then the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.
For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord and this will be the sign to you; you will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men.”

So what are your favorite memories of the Thanksgiving and Christmas?
Do God and Jesus have a part in your families celebration of those days?
Has the reason for the season been forgotten?
What does “and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men” look like to you?

In 1855, at the age of 43, an English man penned the question: “ Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp or what’s a Heaven for?”

Robert Browning, a major poet of the Victorian Age and husband of equally famous poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning and considered a “hottie” of the time, framed the query in his Andrea Del Sarto, “The Faultless Painter”. In dramatic style, the concept is formed that humans strive for things seemingly unattainable. Yet they still reach, struggle, stretch in hope of acquiring that which they desire.

One hundred and fifty five years later you and I are no different, except that we accept the flimsy instead of the real. We grasp for fame, fortune, wannabeism, fashions of the moment and chose not to aspire for the things that are eternally important and significant.

So what are you reaching for? Once you attain it, will it really be worthwhile? Where is God in your life or is He?

I know what they felt like:

I understand how Abraham felt when he said “I am a foreigner and a visitor among you” in Genesis 23:4.

I have experienced the loneliness that is expressed by Moses when he names his first born, “I have been a stranger in a foreign land” in Exodus 2:22.

I know what it’s like to travel to someplace for the first time, not speaking the language, not understanding the customs, not recognizing the sign for the bathrooms, being alone.

I have been a stranger in a foreign land.

I know those feelings, that dread, fear, because that’s how I felt when I went to Cuba for the first time two years ago.

Let me tell you about that first trip:

The flight was 3 hours late, arriving at 12:30 in the morning. After going through customs and immigration we stepped outside and saw Tony Fernandez, who had been Herald of Truth’s representative in that island nation for 14 years, waiting for us. I recognized him from pictures taken by my colleagues Tim Archer and Steve Ridgell on their previous visits.

After a very short night’s sleep in Havana, the trip to Matanzas, about two hours northeast, is somewhat of a blur only highlighted by the people we met: Ammiel Perez who is the minister of the Havana Church, some radio listeners who had learned about Jesus from Tim’s daily program, the men who were rebuilding an old city bus to be used to pick up members of the congregation living in the surrounding country side, the visit to the farm where food is grown to give to church members, and meeting Tony’s wife Liudmila and his young daughter Susana.

Then we went to the church building. I had seen it in pictures, but being there reminded me that a courtyard of a home with a corrugated sheet metal roof is just as holy as any building we have in the United States. Suddenly, I felt at home. I sat down and just thought about all that God had done there. And that tomorrow, Sunday, I would worship here.

I was both anxious and eager that Sunday morning as Tony drove us the 20 minutes from our hotel in Varadero back to Matanzas. The closer we got the more anxious and less eager I got. How would they greet me, an old white haired Yankee?

That morning I was the last of our group to enter. I, the stranger in a foreign land, was greeted with smiles, hugs, kisses; I was a distant relative returning home. It didn’t matter that all I could say was “halo”, “gracias”; it didn’t matter that I was different.

I had felt like Abraham and Moses, a stranger in a foreign land, but I was and am family.

It’s the same thing that the apostle Paul talks about in Ephesians 2:19-22.

Now, Therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

They and I are no longer strangers or foreigners. And while we live far apart, we are family! We are part of the household of God. We are brothers and sisters because of Jesus.

This last March I again traveled back to Matanzas and again worshipped with my Cuban church family. We were united physically and spiritually.

And I thanked them for welcoming me home.

So here is the question for you: Are you a stranger in a foreign land?

And another: Do you want to be part of a family and will always care about you?

And then: How do you think you’ll find it?

It was something that happened on a regular basis, at least from the image of the Hebrew language, the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.

But this time it was different:

• Both the man and woman had disobeyed God

• They had hidden themselves from God

• God was walking alone

• God must have known why it was different because He is God

Then the question that could be heard throughout the garden, by all of God’s creatures “Where Are You?”

This is how Genesis 3:8-9 reads: “And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him ‘where are you’.”

I am struck by the fact that immediately after they disobeyed Him, God still wants to know where they are. And while there are consequences to their action, it is God who makes them clothes (v 21) and even after they left the garden, the man and the woman acknowledge God as the one from who life comes. Gen. 4:1

God is always asking “where are you?”, even after you have sinned against Him.

How many times after the Jews leave Egypt did they say they would do what God has commanded, and didn’t?

How many times in the book of Judges does it say “and the Jews did what was right in their own eyes” and had to have God rescue them by sending judge after judge?

Saul, David and the prophets personally and representationally claimed to follow God and then disobeyed.

And still God called, wanting to know where they were.

It is in Luke 15:4-9, that Jesus tells about the Shepherd who searches until he finds the last sheep and rejoices. It was the Shepherd who did the looking.

It is God who sent His Son to allow us to live with Him (John 3:16) and then read verse 17. “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that through Him might be saved.”

It is the final book of the Bible, Revelation, where this idea becomes complete, 3:20 “Behold I stand at the door and knock, if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to Him and dine with him and he with me.”

God, Jesus, take the initiative, they are at the door.

The action of God at the beginning of the world-calling to know where you are; knowing that you have disobeyed Him is the same at the end of the world as He stands at the door waiting for you to open it.

So when God asked you “where are you?” why haven’t you answered?

Do you feel unworthy to open the door?

If you have answered and opened the door, tell me what that felt like.