Mile High Rev

REVrant 39.1 - Zondervan faces $60M federal lawsuit over Bible, homosexuality

Grand Rapids news - Zondervan faces $60M federal lawsuit over Bible, homosexuality.

If you don’t have time to read the link, the short story is that a guy named Bradley Fowler is suing Zondervan - a Christian publisher – because he claims that their translation of the biblical word – “homosexual” in I Corinthians 6:9 has caused him suffering.  His family’s pastor used that Zondervan Bible and because of it, his family “considered him a sinner and he suffered.”  He is asking for an apology and $60 million.  Why?  “20 years of emotional duress and mental instability,” according to Fowler.

Zondervan is passing the buck to the translators.  Fowler needs to sue the translators, says Zondervan, because the publishers simply rely on the “scholarly judgment of credible translation committees.”

A while back, I read about an “emergent” writer who made the comment that perhaps “we should declare a five year moratorium on saying anything about homosexuality until we figure out what the Bible really says about it!”  Perhaps this lawsuit makes sense to him?  NOT to me!

I suppose we should anticipate actions like this.  People have been trying to justify sinful behaviors since the beginning of time.  Remember Adam blaming Eve in Eden?

Mr. Fowler needs to read Romans 1:24–27 – “Therefore God gave the over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.  They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator – who is forever praised.  Amen.  Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts.  Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones.  In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another.  Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.”     

Lawsuit or not, this is the Word of the Lord!

REVerie - 35th Wedding Anniversary

On July 14, 1973, I made the best decision of my life – I pledged my love to Janice Ann Nicholson in the Cascades Baptist Church in Jackson, Michigan.  We dated for nearly three years.  I can still remember the first time I saw her standing in the choir at the church on a Sunday morning in August of 1970.  She was wearing a sleeveless yellow dress, was tanned from a summer in the sun, and had cute blond hair.  I couldn’t take my eyes off her.  I didn’t think there were Christian girls who looked that great!  After church I met her, and immediately fell in love with her smile and vibrant personality. 

 (Don’t laugh…it was the 70’s!)

Later in the month, we met again at college (Grand Rapids Baptist College), and I started pursuing her relentlessly.  I asked her out the first night.  We sat and talked for three hours.  I couldn’t get enough of her.  It took me a while to talk her into marrying me, but on February 12, 1973, she finally said yes.  My family loved her.  In fact, I’ve said through the years that I think they liked her better than me!  I understand why.  Clearly, I “married up!”  She is not only gorgeous on the outside, she radiates internal beauty the Bible talks about.  I’ve never met anyone like her.  She is the perfect fit for me!

Today, as I look back on our 35 years, the memories flood my heart.  We’ve loved and lived and served and suffered and played and prayed.  Jan has always been right at my side.  She’s never wavered in her encouragement and support of me. 

We’ve both been through some deep valleys with health struggles.  At certain points, both of us have ended up at Mayo Clinic, seeking answers to health riddles.  Our inability to have children has been, and remains, a heavy burden.  When we vowed, “in sickness and in health…” I’m sure we both anticipated more health than sickness.  But God has carried us every step of the way.  I believe we’re closer because of what we’ve faced.

Ministering together in two churches (7 years in Michigan, and 23 years in Colorado) has been a profound blessing.  It’s not easy to be a pastor’s wife.  Expectations can be stifling.  Jan isn’t a “take-over” kind of person.  She’s a kind, humble, supportive woman who loves to be in the background, praying and encouraging.  She’s also very gifted in music.  Piano, violin, and voice!  Her health challenges have kept her from significant involvement in church music for a while, but I benefit from her gifts in our home.  We actually love singing together, and haven’t stopped doing that in 35 years!

Serving the Lord is a blessing, but it can also be a tough calling.  We both know what it’s like to be in a deep pit, but we’ve also found (in the words of Corrie Ten Boom) that “there is not pit so deep but that God is deeper still!”  We absolutely love serving together.  Jan particularly loves moving into the lives of people in crisis to provide comfort, love, and hope.  In my view, she’s an angel in hospitals, nursing homes, and hospices.  We’ve been there hundreds of times…together.

On this, our 35th anniversary, I want to publicly declare my love for the “wife of my youth!”  Other than my salvation, Janice Ann is the greatest gift God has ever given me.  In fact, that’s what her name – JANICE – means – “God’s gracious gift!”  I love her…TODAY…and ALWAYS!  Happy Anniversary, my little wife!

      

REVved - Mount Hermon Afterglow

Amazing!  Stupendous!  Glorious!  Wondrous!  Heavenly!

We’re home after a week “on the mountain!”  Mount Hermon Camp exceeded all of my expectations.  From the time we arrived until the time we left we were convinced that this was a Divine Appointment!  As we said our final good-byes yesterday morning, I felt like a kid at camp who didn’t want to leave all of my new friends.  This was an amazing spiritual adventure.

One of the best parts of the week for Jan and me was the opportunity to once again minister with my friend, Dave Burns. (photo above) Dave and I served together at FBC for just over 6 years, and since his return to California he got married to Leslie (after the death of his first wife, Terri) and joined the Mount Hermon Staff.  He is the reason why this opportunity came to me.  Thanks Dave!  Dave’s band led the worship in each session.  I found myself regularly “lost in wonder, love, and praise!”  To reconnect and serve with Dave was simply too good to be true.

To top it off, I also had the honor of teaching the Bible alongside international evangelist, Luis Palau.  I taught in the morning sessions – a series from the Book of Job – and Luis handled the evening sessions - a study in Joshua.  Luis is not only a powerful teacher of the Word, he is hilariously funny!  We had fun playing off each other’s talks (if you were there, remember -> “wafting incense!”) and by the end of the week, it felt like we were life-time friends.  No pretense or pomposity with this amazing man of God.  He’s spoken in 72 countries to over 25 million and has seen over 1 million people respond to faith in Christ – and is one of the most humble men I’ve ever met.  He and his wife, Pat, accepted us and warmly welcomed us into the Mount Hermon family – and we’re forever grateful.  Their whole family was there and as an extra blessing, we got to meet all four sons and their families. (Kevin, Keith, Andrew, and Steve.)

Mount Hermon is situated among the towering California redwood trees.  The camp has created a one of a kind zip-line canopy course in the forest on their property.  It’s not open to the public yet, but to my surprise I was given an opportunity to try it out on Friday afternoon, with seven other people.  140 ft. high narrow platforms, speedy “zip lines” (the longest was 440 ft.), and stunning views of the redwoods from the “canopy” section was a life-time adventure.  The adrenaline was pumping like mad as we walked across a bridge and stood on that first platform.  Pictures don’t do it justice.  (I’ll include a few below to give perspective.)  My speaking was done by this point, so if I had become a fatality, it would have been OK, and Luis agreed to do my funeral if it was necessary!  (Ha!)  I can’t imagine I’ll ever again do something with a higher thrill factor than this!

 (Bridge)

 (Platform)

 (Me, arriving at end of course)

I’ve got so much more to write, but I need to keep this short.  Here’s a quick summary of some other highlights of the week: 1) The way the campers engaged with Jan and me – we had so many great conversations, 2) The fun connection with several Mt. Hermon staff, 3) The Opening Night “David Betterman Show,” 4) The piano/organ concert by Dave Talbott, 5) Visits by some of our FBC friends and some friends from our first church in Michigan, 6) blueberry scones, 7) Purell and plastic gloves – after a couple of cases of sickness early in the week, all campers were met at the door of the dining hall with Purell and required to wear plastic gloves in the buffet line at EVERY meal!  YES!, 8) Joking with Chris about “zip-zip” (<—you had to be there!), 9) Cotton candy on Friday night, 10) Capitola, Santa Cruz, and Monterey, and 11) Frogs!  Every night outside our room, we were serenaded by bass notes of the loudest frogs I’ve heard in my life!

 (A parting gift from one of the campers!)

You can probably tell, Jan and I had the “time of our lives” at Mount Hermon,  Although we arrived home tired, it’s a “good tired” - the sense that we were able to serve the Lord with all of our strength.  God stirred us all in some amazing ways.  Thank you Lord, and thank you Mount Hermon!

REVved - 4th of July 2008

As I hung my huge American flag off the deck this morning, I got a little lump in my throat.  I am an unabashed patriot and feel blessed to have been born in America. 

Sure, we have our problems.  Yes, I’ve seen decades of moral decay in my 58 years.  It’s not too difficult to identify things about the U.S. that concern and disappoint me (like California judges passing the gay marriage law recently…).  But despite the obvious challenges we have, I still believe that being an American citizen is a tremendous privilege.  One that I don’t take lightly.  On this Independence Day 2008, I declare my gratitude for this great nation.  I also thank the Lord for men and women who have been willing to fight to guarantee the freedoms I enjoy every day.

This makes me want to sing “The Star-Spangled Banner!” (Unlike the woman who was invited to do so at the Denver State of the City gathering led by Mayor Hickenlooper this week – she chose instead to sing a song referred to as the “black national anthem,” to the tune of the National Anthem.  She is defiant and said she would do it again.  Apparently, she doesn’t “feel like an American.”) Click on this link if you want to read more.

http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_9758376

I hope this is a day we can all set aside what we think is wrong with America in order to celebrate what we know is right!

REVved - 2008 Summer Break

Obviously, blogging has once again slipped to the bottom half of the priority list…July 1 launched our annual “summer break” month.  Jan and I are embracing the gracious gift our church leaders provided about five years ago.  For us, the month of July is a “mini-sabbatical” month.  We usually spend the month catching up on life and relaxation that eludes us for most of the rest of the year.  We rarely have two days in a row off.  “Weekends off” are scarce, due to our Saturday PM and Sunday AM schedule.  It is amazing how different it feels to have two days in a row, much less, a week or two.

I know this is going to strike some of you as odd, but one of the things I wanted to do in July was to “deep-vacuum” the house.  Yes, I’m a clean freak!  And, to top it off, we’ve been saving for a Dyson(www.dyson.com).  Get this – we found a clearance price on a Dyson DC18, had a 20% off coupon, had quite a bit of change we had saved in a jar over several months, and had a couple of gift checks from Christmas, that added up to the most reasonable price on a Dyson (VERY expensive cyclonic – never looses suction – vacuum!) that you could imagine.  Call me crazy, but I find vacuuming a spiritual experience!

 Dyson DC18

We leave on Saturday for a week at Mt. Hermon(www.mounthermon.org), in Northern California.  As I blogged a while back we will be teaming with Luis Palau (www.palau.org),  July 6–12. There are wildfires everywhere in N. Cal, but Mt. Hermon has been spared so far.  We fly into San Jose – saw a news item where they were telling people to stay inside in San Jose, due to the “particulate matter” in the air.  Maybe I will preach with a gas mask?  I’ll let you know how the week goes later.  Appreciate your prayers.

I just put a vacation notice on my email, since I’m not sure how “cyber-active” I’ll be during the month.  I may post from time to time, and I certainly hope to post your comments in a timely fashion, but I may be sporadic.  There’s still plenty of “blog-worthy” events occurring on a daily basis.  I hope to get to some of it, but plan to default to rest and relaxation!