Obedience and Sacrifice

I have had several conversations with my children, ages 8, 9 and 22, over the last several months. These conversations have forced me to look at my relationship with the Father in a way I had not really considered previously.

My children love to give gifts to their mom and I, drawings, nick-knacks, silly bands, and doing somethings we don’t ask them to do. But, many times they neglect to do the tasks that we have asked them to complete. You know stuff like feed the dog, clean your room, wipe the table, don’t leave your junks all over the house, wash the dishes, etc. Those are the items they have been tasked to complete on a regular basis, they don’t change from day to day. In other words they are not a surprise to them.

Over time I have become frustrated that it seems like a battle to get these minor tasks completed on a daily basis. Oh, but the little extras come in on a regular basis. Most of the time I adore getting those gifts that have cost my children something, time, effort or money. These things are an aroma of their love for us and I cherish them.

The problem is that they have begun to believe these “extras” should replace those things which I expect from them each day. Let me repeat, I love the little extras, even when they cost me. The problem is I love their freely given obedience to those things I have asked of them even more.

I have had to tell each of them in different ways how much I appreciate their gifts but that is not what I asked of them. Each one of them have been upset when I have expressed this to them. Telling me that I am unfair or that I do not love them or they run off and pout.

Sometimes I feel I am in an impossible position. It is in these times I have begun to understand that I put God into that very same position with my fickle and oscillating obedience to Him. I do things that He has not asked me to do and I expect it to make up for the things I have not done that He has asked me to do.

The story of Saul begins to fill my mind, God regretted making Saul King for his disobedience.

¹⁰The word of the LORD came to Samuel: ¹¹“I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments.” And Samuel was angry, and he cried to the LORD all night. (1 Sam 15:10-11).

Samuel confronts Saul. Saul makes good excuses for his disobedience. “Look, Sam, we did not destroy it all because we want to bring the best of it back and sacrifice it to The Lord.”

²²And Samuel said, “Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. ²³ For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has also rejected you from being king.”

Where do I disobey His simple instructions? In what ways do I justify my disobedience?

Oh, Father, open my eyes and ears…

One Month Ago

It is one month ago tomorrow that I held Jerry Lou’s head in my left hand and her arm in my right while singing quietly in her ear, “I’ll Fly Away”. She flew away. I am not sure what compelled me to sing, but I did. One month, she has been with the Father, free. Sin and death can never again touch her as she worships and waits for the resurrection body that Paul tells us about in 1 Cor. 15.

Imagine it…

Free from the affects and effects of sin.

The enemy, death, with no more power.

Some glad morning when this life is o’er,
I’ll fly away;
To a home on God’s celestial shore,
I’ll fly away (I’ll fly away).

Chorus
I’ll fly away, Oh Glory
I’ll fly away; (in the morning)
When I die, Hallelujah, by and by,
I’ll fly away (I’ll fly away).

When the shadows of this life have gone,
I’ll fly away;
Like a bird from prison bars has flown,
I’ll fly away (I’ll fly away)

Chorus

Just a few more weary days and then,
I’ll fly away;
To a land where joy shall never end,
I’ll fly away (I’ll fly away)

Today, we wait as Jerry Lou’s Mother-in-law, Iris, Wanda’s grandmother, is longing to fly away, also.

Visit this link for more information on the song, “I’ll Fly Away”

Jerry Lou Hames

Stephanie, Jerry and Wanda in 2004

In November 2004 I wrote the following letter to my family, friends and Co-workers:

What do I know? I know what we, My family, are to do: move near Wanda’s parents. That also answers where.

Why? Wanda needs to honor her parents, particularly her mother. I believe this is how God is calling me to love my wife at this point in time. This also answers the who question. Who? God the Father has told us to honor and love. So, to serve God and bring glory to Him, we will leave all the comfort and ease we have known for the last fourteen years. We will move to a place where we have no guarantees, only God our Lord.

When? Well, we will do this now! Here is what the future holds, the Promise that Alzhiemer’s has for us: We will loose Jerry a little bit each day. This is the promise of God: In that loss God will hold us in the palm of His hand, cover us with His wings. Knowing that He holds on to every part of Jerry that we no longer see.

We will no doubt cry out to Him”WHY??!!!”. We will wish for a quick and comforting answer. It will be this, “I Am with you”. Just as Jesus was moved in the Spirit at Mary’s sorrow over Lazarus, He also weeps with us, no words only His tears. “See how He Loved” her? Just as he was not weeping for His friend Lazarus, He is not weeping for her. He weeps with us at our temporary loss. She is not gone from Him. She is complete more complete than she ever could be here, lacking nothing. Praise Jesus!

I am writing this down now not for you, but for us, my family. We will not have the strength to hear Him speak in the mist of tears. Too full of sorrow, seeing only what is before us, loss, loss. This loss that will seem permanent, at the time. We will see only glimpses of sunshine through the clouds of sorrow. Hope will come as He weeps with us and for us.

-Randy

August 6th 2010 around 10pm, Jerry Lou was made complete and whole. She dances and worships before the throne of the Father.

Services will be held at Owen Funeral Home
12 Collins Drive
Cartersville GA 30120

770-382-3030

http://www.owenfunerals.com

Visitation  8-9-2010  5pm-7pm
Funeral    8-10-2010 12pm
Moves to the GA National Cemetery  at 1:30pm

In lieu of flowers please make donations to:
The Alzheimer’s Association Dalton Chapter In Memory of Jerry Lou Hames.
922 East Morris Street
Dalton, GA 30721

THE TUNE

On this Easter Morning I thought a little Larry Norman would be appropriate.

“Where are you?”

“Randy, where are you?”, God calls.

“Well, Crap! Where have I gone that You can’t find me?”, I whisper under my breath.

God replies, “No, I know where you are, you silly man, I am only asking because I want you to know where you are.”

“Oh, You heard that? Um… You, had me worried for a moment”, I say. “In that case, I am here in Georgia, You know that place I said I would never go to live again. I’ll tell You, these past five years have been hard on us (Wanda, the kids and I). We are tired, emotionally, spiritually and physically. Also, I am bored intellectually. I know this is where You wanted us to go, and I thought I was prepared for the difficulty we would face, but, this has been even harder than I imagined.

“It isn’t really hard physical work for me, it’s the limited hours of sleep. Of course You know that. It is hard to watch any person die slowly day by day. It is even harder to watch Wanda, watch her mom die. Then, at the same time watch Wanda’s dad cling to some hope that he can keep his wife by shear force of will. It wears on my soul. How do I express the hope we have in You, without making him feel like I have given up on her. I know he misses her, but only her body is here. Sure there are the occasional moments of twinkle in her eye or when she says something that may make you think she is with us, but those moments are happening far less frequently. Those moments reenforce his hope. I don’t understand why he can’t see that as we lose more of her, You have not lost Your hold of her, she is secure.

“This time has had a dual affect on my spirit, I am constantly running to You and from You. Sometimes both at once. My emotions tell me to run from You as quickly as I can! ‘Do you really want to face the next heart ache He has in store for you?’, they say.  Then, You do some thing miraculous, like speak some truth from Your word, from one of Your children, or even from on of Your enemies and I collapse into Your peace clinging to You. So, does that make any sense to you? Because I have a hard time with it.”

“Yes.”

“Yes? Well um, thats it?”, my confused reply.

“Yes.”

“Okay. I guess it is kind of like that song ‘Storm’ by Lifehouse, Crying out to You in the mist of this crazy storm of which I can make no sense. Then realizing that if I could just see You everything would be okay. Everything is okay”, I say, “right?”

“Yes, so what next?”

“You’re asking me? I suppose I am going to keep taking care of the Jerrys, the kids and Wanda while I pursue the MATL at Bethel. You know I have wanted to get a masters degree for a long time, but I have put it off three other times in order ‘to do ministry’ rather than learn about it. I can’t really say what will come after that. I mean I never thought I would be the one taking care of Wanda’s mom. You know there are some people I just never wanted to bathe and/or see naked. Anyway, as I look at it now my being laid off seems to come right when Wanda couldn’t keep lifting her three or four times a day. Then you give me the part-time job at Woodland just when I thought my brain was going to turn to jelly from lack of use. So, I am just hoping to live each day and not worry about three years from now. You know, I am not very good at living for today. So, is that what you are trying to teach me?”

“Maybe.”

“Maybe? That is awful vague.”

“Hmm.”

Knowledge and Reality

This statement was posed to me this week in my hermeneutics class:

Suppose someone said to you: ‘Knowledge is not so much like a statement that we consider objectively true, it’s more like a lens humans employ for making sense of reality.’ What would you say to that?
This was my response:

I would have to ask the question, ‘What is reality?’ Is it the world I can see and touch? Is it that plus what I feel? Does it include what I imagine? Or is reality, what exists outside of self? How do we define real?

I am going to define reality as the Creator GOD (God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit). God created “everything that is”, it is real because He made it. I am viewing things from my finite created position within “everything that is”. So if I follow through with the lens analogy, because I am within “everything that is” I cannot see but from my perspective (my knowledge) which is then also tainted by sin. So my lens is small and broken.

Therefore my view of “everything that is” is also small and broken. So, yes I use my small and broken lens of knowledge to view “reality”. Now, because of that small and broken lens I may not be able to see enough of “everything that is” to want to admit that there is a creator that made “everything that is”.

The good news is that the Creator God has stepped into “everything that is” and wants to repair my small broken lens. Thus, He widens my view of reality (my knowledge) to gain a clearer, yet, still small view. Overtime as I submit to him that view gets less and less distorted, though I will never have the Creators perspective.

Ministry Lessons from a Muslim | LeadershipJournal.net

Ministry Lessons from a Muslim | LeadershipJournal.net

His unexpected message to church leaders: fully embrace your Christian identity.

Skye Jethani and Brandon O’Brien | posted 7/06/2009

Eboo Patel is not the most likely seminary professor. His credentials are not the issue. Patel earned his doctorate from Oxford University, and he is a respected commentator on religion for The Washington Post and National Public Radio. He has spoken in venues across the world, including conferences for evangelical church leaders.

What makes Eboo Patel an unlikely seminary professor is that he is Muslim.

The editors of Leadership first encountered Patel at the 2008 Q Conference, where he challenged 500 Christian leaders to change the rules of interfaith dialogue. “Muslims and Christians might not fully agree on worldview,” he said, “but we share a world.” Patel spoke of his enduring friendships with a number of evangelicals and his desire to move beyond the “clash of civilizations” rhetoric that dominates Christian/Muslim interaction. While holding firmly to his belief in Islam, he also affirmed church leaders. “Even though it is not my tradition and my community,” Patel wrote after the conference, “I believe deeply that this type of evangelical Christianity is one of the most positive forces on Earth.”

We were intrigued, so we contacted Patel to talk more about the ramifications of increasing religious diversity in America, as well as his outsider’s perspective of the church’s response. Patel gave us more than we bargained for. He invited us to attend a class he was teaching on interfaith leadership at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago.

Patel is not on the seminary faculty. He serves as the executive director of the Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC)—a Chicago-based international non-profit that brings together religiously diverse young leaders to serve their communities. The seminary invited Patel to co-teach the course on interfaith leadership with Cassie Meyer, a Christian who serves as the training director at IFYC.

Be more Christian (to read the rest of the article click here)

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Our Wedding Vows

Our Vows in Wanda's Hand Writing

Our Wedding Vows were tucked in a bag of junk in the basement with a bunch of other stuff. Since finding them I have been asking myself, “how have I been doing at fulfilling these vows?” Almost 18 years ago, I made these vows before many of you and before God, so the question is serious business. All of you, who were there have the right and responsibility to hold me to them. All of you who claim to know God have that responsibility as well. What would happen if we held each other accountable?

How have you fulfilled yours?

Do Islamists Have a Plan For The U.S.? How Should Christians Respond?

The video above is long for a blog, but I would encourage you to watch it. Also I have attached a link to Govt. Exhibit 003-0085 that was submitted in the U.S. v  HLF(the first 15 pages are in Arabic followed by the English translation).

Clearly there is a deep desire to spread Islam by any means necessary and we as a country have become lulled into thinking it will have to come by violence. Violence is not what should make us sit up and take notice, but I digress.

So, back to my 2nd question, “ How should Christians respond?” How do I love my neighbor or enemy who is set upon the destruction of land of my birth? I know, this place is no longer my “home”, but it is where I reside now.

How do I resists such a subtle invasion without placing a wedge that would then negate my ability to communicate the love of Christ with Muslims in my community?

Luke 6:27-36
27 “But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. 29 To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. 30 Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. 31 And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.

32 “If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount. 35 But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. 36 Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.

This passage is a command to me and you as individuals, but does that mean we give up our way of life nationally?  It has been made clear that the current administration does not view the U.S. as a “Christian Nation” any longer. So does this not apply to “us” as a nation?

It seems, I have more questions than answers. So what are your thoughts?

Official Dedication and Opening – Heart for Children, Uganda

I would like to introduce you to some friends I met when I was in Uganda in 2004. They were getting ready to start a new ministry around Torroro. Click the link below:

Official Dedication and opening – News

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I would like to put a work team together from the US to go in the next 12-18 months, If you are interested please contact me.