The radio and TV news are full of remembrance today, memories, and tributes to a president whose life was cut too short by an act of evil we still cannot fathom. President Kennedy's death still shocks us, still hurts us, fifty years later.

        We remember a president, here,  between Veteran's Day and Thanksgiving.    On Veteran's Day, we think of the human contribution to the making of our nation - so thankful, so proud, of the soldiers, sailors, marines, and flyboys who have secured our nation's borders and her future. Then, at Thanksgiving more than any time in the year, as a nation we pause to recognize the hand of God in our history.

          Today, as we remember President Kennedy, and Dallas, and the shocking scene that will play out across our televisions again and again today - red and yellow roses strewn in a car, that pink suit with the life of a president soaked up in its fabric, the tiny boy saluting on the steps as his father's casket passes by - it is good to remember that God still reigns. In the hard times, God still moves. He is still near. His view is eternal, His purposes reach far beyond our sight.

          During the founding period, our pilgrims and pioneers never forgot that. When half of the pilgrims died that first winter, they still were able to thank God for His hand in providing harvest the next year.  The privation and struggle of their daily experience brought them to their knees in dependence. Their nearness to the land and nearness to the raw edge of life brought them near to God in realization of their need for Him.

          As life grows easier, the sense of dependence disappears. We tend to forget the struggles of the pilgrims as we barbeque on our back deck. As the years pass away, our national memory grows fuzzy. There are untold tens of thousands of men whom we celebrate and praise on Veteran's Day, but forget by Thanksgiving. When hard times hit, soft people are surprised and overtaken. Trials seem to bring despair, instead of renewed faith. Today is so noisy with the static of constant communication, continual news cycles, and sensory overload; perhaps we cannot hear the voices of the past.

          When a nation loses its memory, it is in danger of losing its soul. Memory is ballast to hold us on course. If we forget the sacrifices that went into weaving the fabric of our society, we are in danger of tearing that fabric apart. When we forget the habit of dependence on God, we are in danger of forgetting God.

           “When you have eaten and are full,” said God to Israel in Deut. 6, “then beware lest you forget.”

          So, yes, let us remember President Kennedy today. Let's remember a young man, with a young family, serving a nation somehow so much more innocent than it is today. Remember a man who had already nearly given his life and his health for his country. Remember a family who has given so much to this nation, for no matter what you think of the Kennedy's politics, you must admire their generosity of spirit and dedication to service. Remember.

          But as we remember, as we look back this month across a tableau of those who have shaped our country, let's teach our children Whose hand charts the course. Let's learn the lessons of the past, and apply them to the future. Let's show them that no matter how deep today's struggle, how desperate the trial, we can rely on God to lead us out of it. That we follow Him not around the darkest valleys, but through them. Remember.

For Him,
Cara & Patti 
Classic Christianity

Faith is one of those  forces in human life, like love and hope, that can be illustrated better than defined. 

          Only one endeavor is found in the New Testament to define faith. In Hebrews the author says that faith is "the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen."  It is a great definition, but even the writer was not satisfied, for he at once leaves it behind and goes on to describe faith in terms of what it does to life. “By faith Abraham… by faith Moses,” and he illustrates faith through the lives of the great people in the Bible.  Faith that lives on the inside should certainly be visible on the outside!

           Along with our faith, goes our loyalty and love. If a man gives himself to a woman whom he loves,  he has faith in her. If a man gives himself to Christ as his Lord and Master, it is because he has faith in Him. Too many lives end like a broom, in a multitude of small straws instead of like a bayonet in point and power. It is faith that brings this focus.

          The New Testament (especially Galatians, Thessalonians, and Corinthians, as these were written within twenty-five years of the Crucifixion) portrays the great faith of the apostles. They didn't have faith in a formal creed, for no creed had yet been written. It was not faith in a New Testament for it was not yet in existence. It was not faith in an authoritarian church for the church was still unorganized. 

         This faith was personal. Christ had come. He had brought life. He had revealed what God was like. He told them how life ought to be lived to obtain the fullness and joy that was meant for them. Men had seen Him and fallen in love with Him and given themselves with trustful loyalty to Him. They placed their faith in Him.

          Faith makes God real to the soul. The deepest, truest, most abiding and reliable power for life is faith - faith in Christ alone, faith with nothing added, faith that indicates our loyalty and love for Him.  

          Take a look past your circumstances today. Look into the Word of God. Look deeply into the heart of God through prayer. Focus on Him - that's where joy, and peace, and love are revealed.

           Father God, Thank you that my relationship with You does not depend on anything but You. My joy in You does not depend on my circumstances, my faith in You does NOT depend on this world.    I want to be a bold,  constant testimony for You. Thank you for the gift of faith, enlarge it in my soul I pray, Amen. 


With Faith in HIM!
Cara & Patti

Based on:
Classic Christianity

I admit it. I was caught off guard.

When I first heard the announcement that this latest Christian leader had stepped out of leadership in his ministry due to an inappropriate relationship, I was stunned. No, not stunned that it had happened.  Ministry has its own set of pitfalls, and for men in ministry there is none so time-tested by the enemy as the ancient trap that caught David in its grasp.  

No, I was stunned because I know this man. I have moved in the same circles with his family and  his ministry for years. "Not HIM!" was my first thought.

Yes, him.

Yes, me - potentially. Yes, each of us.

The pain of having this so close brings two truths into startling clarity. First, it is far too easy to justify the small steps off the path we walk with our Lord, and we cannot afford that mistake.  Second, to think that you will not fall is the greatest pride we can know. We all must acknowledge that the qualities we have come to rely on to survive in this world do not protect us. Intelligence is not a shield. Good intentions - even a tender and gentle heart - do not provide protection from straying away from God's best for our lives.

Realize, the enemy of your soul does not need to persuade you into a 180 degree turn away from God - just one degree will do. One degree now is all that is required to drift away from the most important thing in life.

One degree off course, and a missile will be a mile from its destination after flying for sixty miles. One degree off course, and by the time a captain circumnavigates the globe, he will be 500 miles away from his intended port.  A pilot trying to land at JFK airport  from LAX had best not have gotten a single degree off course. He would miss his target and leave the passengers clinging to their seat cushions in the frigid waters of the Atlantic. Little foxes certainly do have a way of ruining the vineyard.

We must guard against the unconscious spiritual drift that leads us - not necessarily away from God - but that leads us anywhere but directly into His presence.

Take just a moment today to examine your course. Right now is the perfect time to make a course correction, to set your sights on God, and to pursue Him full speed ahead. His continual abiding presence in our lives is the best compass.

"Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.  I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing."
 - John 15:4-5 ESV


For His Glory,
Cara & Patti
Classic Christianity