"That's Life"

By John Stallings

I don’t know if you’re familiar with the popular song Frank Sinatra sang called, “That’s life.” One of the lines in the songs says;

That’s life, that’s what all the people say,
Riding high in April shot down in May,
But I know I’m gonna change that tune,
When I’m back on top in June….

Life can turn on a dime. It can change in a heart-beat for good or ill. It recently did for me. For ill that is.

I hope you’ll indulge me while I tell you how we spent this past Labor Day. I’ll make it as short as possible.

Saturday night before Labor Day was “a dark and stormy night.” An old wisdom tooth that has been with me for over fifty years started getting sore & throbbing.

Maybe you know that dental pain is a pain in a class all by itself. I’ve known the pain of kidney stones, migraines headaches & I’ve had my share of other pains but tooth pain is different. Tooth pain brings big men to their knees & can cause them to beg for relief.

I’ve seen & heard of people who had amputations, were shot, had strokes & heart attacks & I know those things can be painful & even fatal; but still, most people will attest to the fact that bad tooth pain is in a class all by itself.

My personal motto is, “No pain, No Pain!” I got through Saturday night & Sunday with prayer & some over-the-counter pain medication. It hadn’t dawned on me that the next day being Labor Day no dentist would be in his office. By God’s grace I got through Sunday & Sunday night & early on Labor Day we were calling dentists.

Our usual dentist didn’t answer & didn’t call back & messages were left at several other dentists’ offices. By eleven o’clock we’d pretty much given up. One lady at a local medical center told Juda we just weren’t going to find a dentist in his office on Labor Day.

Around noon the phone rang & a warm understanding voice was on the line. It was a dentist I’d never met but just picked him out of the yellow pages because he seemed to be close by. His name is Dr. Steven Stapp in Winter Park, Florida & unbeknownst to us his office is only about three miles from our home.

To make a long story a short as possible, if I had sat down & in my prayers described to God exactly the kind of dentist I’d like to see that day it wouldn’t have been any more perfect. His voice was so heartening & reassuring [nothing like a vampire] that I couldn’t help but ask him if he was a Christian. He answered in the affirmative; “yes & making that decision years ago was the best thing I’ve ever done.” Just talking to this good man somehow made the almost unbearable pain start to feel tolerable.

He also made points with me by knowing “Learning to lean,” & he possessed a keen sense of humor. After he got me “numbed up” for the surgical extraction, he informed me he’d pull- “The tooth, the whole tooth & nothing but the tooth, so help me God.” The man even has scripture verses on his ceiling so that when you lay back in the chair you see a comforting Bible verse. What a blessing!

Dr. Stapp got me in by 2:15 P.M, Monday, x-rayed the tooth, & confirmed it had to come out but it would require some oral surgery. I’d have to spend the rest of the week on antibiotics & medication to get the infection under control. The following Tuesday, September 9th he extracted the tooth painlessly & only a few stitches were necessary. Extractions, the few I’ve had in my life have always been hard for me. I expected Dr. Stapp to have to put this knee in my chest to get the tooth out but he did it with great ease.

When I returned yesterday from having the stitches removed & looked at the calendar I realize the whole episode took sixteen days.

I’d like to thank this extraordinary Doctor for making himself available on a Holiday, for his kind understanding approach, his expertise & his marvelous Christian testimony that shines through. It’s people like Dr. Stapp who give dentistry or any other profession a good name. If you live in the Orlando area & need dental attention but don’t like to be in total misery in the process & don’t particularly enjoy dentists who are travel agents for guilt trips, I highly recommend this remarkable man.

EVERYTHING CAN CHANGE IN ONE DAY—EVEN ONE HOUR

Can you relate to those words? I certainly can. And I know another man called Job who could have written the song--“That’s life.”

As Job is introduced to us in the Bible book that bears his name, we’re told he was a man of great wealth & substance. He had seven sons & three daughters, & was blessed with 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen & 500 donkeys. By today’s standards Job would have been a Rockefeller, Gates or a Getty. He’d have lived in a mansion & driven a Rolls Royce. Job was wealthy beyond comprehension & his story is one of the most incredible accounts in Scripture.

No one ever suffered like Job did. He lost it all in two days. Job’s story reveals the cosmic struggle that goes on in heaven behind the scenes of this life.

Job was a righteous man who loved God & despised evil with all his heart. He was blessed of God & used his wealth to bring glory to God.

VERY BAD THINGS CAN HAPPEN TO GOD’S PEOPLE

Let me throw something in here that I can’t prove but it will be a little food for thought. Scholars say the book of Job is the oldest book in the Bible. Now hold on to your hat; we don’t know who wrote the book but some Scholars believe GOD HIMSELF may have penned the book & saw to it that it was entered into the cannon of Scripture.

I don’t want to get spooky here but if it’s true, & God literally wrote the book of Job, [obviously God inspired the entire Bible] that fact portends some interesting things. One thing it would suggest is that God knew our most profound questions revolve around human suffering so He wanted Job’s story told & made crystal clear that yes, very bad things happen to His people & there will always be things we can’t grasp with our finite minds.

We’re told that Satan appeared before God & accused Job of serving God only because he was so abundantly blessed.

Here was God’s answer to Satan;

Behold all that he hath is in thy power but upon himself put not forth thine hand. Job 1:12

OUR SPIRITUAL DEPTH IS REVEALED BY OUR RESPONSE TO TRAGEDY

When all hell was breaking loose; Job said, Naked came I out of my mothers womb & naked shall I return thither. The Lord gave & the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord. Job 1:21.

The Bible makes it clear that in all that happened Job didn’t sin against God with his heart.

Then Satan came before God again & said;

Skin for skin, yea all that a man hath will he give for his life. But put forth thine hand now & touch his bone & his flesh & he will curse thee to thy face.—Job 2:4-5

This time Satan struck Job with a terrible disease. Job came down with boils which covered his entire body from head to foot. He had not only lost his children that he loved, & all his possessions, but now he’d lost his health as well.

Job was now a pauper sitting in a pile of ashes pathetically scraping himself with broken pieces of pottery. He was reduced to the garbage heap of life. Can you imagine his suffering? Isn’t it amazing how quickly a person’s fortunes can change?

Job uttered one of the great statements of faith in all of Scripture when he said;

Though He slay me yet will I trust Him; but I will maintain mine own ways before Him. Job 13:15

Job’s wife wasn’t much help during all this. Sometimes we forget what she went through. She used to be the wife of the richest man in the country & now she’s reduced to poverty. She got so frustrated she said, “Job why don’t you just get it over with? Why fight this it’s not worth it?”

Job’s friend’s who came to comfort him ended up accusing him of hiding some secret sin. Their consolation turned to condemnation & criticism. Now Job’s worst nightmare had come to pass because his wife & friends had given up on him.

In his darkest hours Job didn’t let his faith in God waver. He learned to “keep on keeping on” by the grace of God & eventually God blessed him with ten more children & twice as much as he had before.

IT’S OFTEN DARKEST JUST BEFORE DAWN

A good question for us to ask ourselves is can we really trust God to meet our every need? There’s never a proper time for the Christian to quit & throw in the towel. We all get down at times but when that happens we should never give in to self-pity feeling like nobody understands or cares about our problems.

Here’ a good thing to remember; “when everything else is going wrong, God is always going right.”

HANG ON TO GOD’S PROMISES

Psalm 121: 1-2 says,

I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven & earth.

God is always there even when we can’t see Him or track Him.

Abraham is one of my favorite Bible characters. Abraham believed the promises of God & is one of the great faith giants in the Bible. God told Abraham to leave his native city of Ur in ancient Babylon & travel to that outpost called Canaan.

Abraham had no friends there to welcome him in this strange new place but he had confidence that God went with him.

The Psalmist seemed to be having somewhat the same dilemma in 73 & 74 when he cries out to God about the injustices he sees all around him.

In Psalm 73:2 he says, --But as for me my feet were almost gone my steps had well-nigh slipped, for I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

He actually says in verse one of chapter 74,--Oh God why hast thou cast us off for ever? Why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture?

ONE DAY AT A TIME

You & I should live every day with our eyes on the ultimate prize.
Paul said, -- I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.—Phil.3:14

The story of Job rises to a climax when he cries out to meet God face to face. Though we know Job never acted foolishly he came close. He wants God to come down & face him & explain why all this calamity was happening to him when he’d done nothing but be faithful to Him.

Well Job does finally get an audience of sorts with God but when He gets it, nothing he thought to be important ever came up. God didn’t answer Job’s questions but rather He asked questions of His own.

Job responded, --My ears had heard of you but now I have seen you. Therefore I despise myself & repent in dust & ashes.

Job told God a bit of what it was like to be Job & God countered with what it was like to be God. Job gets a glimpse of the activities of God & after a few chapters of that he ends all his accusations.

What a change in Job after he meets God. He goes from accusing God to despising himself. He repents in dust & ashes.

But notice God doesn’t ever condemn Job nor despise him. What does happen is Job’s encounter with God changes him completely. Gone too is Job’s anger at his losses. I doubt his pain was immediately gone, certainly the pain of the loss of his children never goes away, nor does his physical pain suddenly vanish.

“THAT’S LIFE!”

As far as Frank Sinatra’s song goes, not being spiritual in orientation, it losses its relevance here because as I remember, Old Frank says,

If nothing changes between now & July,
I’m gonna roll myself up in a big ball, and die.

Sounds like, come July if things don’t start looking up, they’re going to have to talk Frankie down off a ledge doesn’t it?

But look what’s happening with old Job toward the end of his book. God blesses him with more than the devil had taken from him. Health, & not just health, but fullness of years. Job lives more then 140 years; a new life & more.

The question of why the good suffer is never answered but remains a mystery. However, another mystery is revealed; in spite of all the carnage & human suffering, why is there so much good & so many blessings in the world?” Isn’t this really the other side of the coin?

The answer to that question is revealed in Jesus Christ who came down as God incarnate & healed the sick, welcomed the outcast, forgave the sinner & lived out the truth of Almighty God.

Despite its challenges, I find the book of Job fascinating & filled with riches for the child of God. By studying this book we can see how men of God in ancient times grappled with unanswered questions.

The book also shows us people who are willing to serve God even in adversity. May we be such people! However, that doesn’t mean we won’t have questions for which answers won’t be found until we awake in another world.

With the book of Job, we learn that we can never fully comprehend God’s working in our lives or in the world. That should also awaken us to the need to comfort the suffering in this world where & when we can.

I started this blog with my experience with a dental situation & we took flight from there to look at the greatest suffering issues a man ever endured. How mundane that makes my small problem seem. Right? Not really!

In my last message, I did my best to express the importance of praising God for all his tender mercies, big & small. The answer probably lies in the position of our hearts before a munificent God.

Let’s consider the kind of faith the prophet Habakkuk had when he said;

Though the fig tree may not blossom, Nor fruit be found on the vines; Though the labor of the olive may fail, and the field yield no food; though the flock may be cut off from the field, and there be no herd in the stalls:

Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord is my strength; He will make my feet like deer’s feet, and He will make me walk on my high hills.

[Hab.3:17-19]

Maybe this is where we get the marvelous statement of faith;

“Praise God anyway!!”


Blessings,

John

Amazing Ebenezer

By John Stallings


Ebenezer sounds like a person’s name doesn’t it? How wrong can we be until we know? Names can sometimes be confusing.

I heard the other day that among high school & college students, a commonly miss spelled word is Madagascar. That surprised me until I got to thinking, --now where is Madagascar on the map? Of course Madagascar is an Island in the Indian Ocean, off the Southeastern coast of Africa.

Isn’t that strange that we wouldn’t be more familiar with the nation who runs the car races in Daytona Beach? [Just kidding!]

We know that in Charles Dickens’ story, A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge is the name of the lead character.

We’ve all heard & know of churches, many of them Baptist, named Ebenezer- this-that- or the other. Dr. Martin Luther King Junior’s father pastored the famous Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta Georgia.

Another mistake we often make is, because Ebenezer Scrooge was so famous as a skeptic whose attitude toward Christmas was “Bah, humbug,” we tend to think Ebenezer must be a by-word for coldness of heart & stinginess.

But the name Ebenezer is quite the opposite of cold-heartedness. For that matter it doesn’t remotely stand for anything negative.


One of the oft recurring themes of scripture is; as God’s people we should make every effort not to be in the negative column, always grumbling & complaining.

I heard the story of a family driving home from church one Sunday. Dad was fussing & complaining about the sermon being too long & he also thought it was boring. Mom said she thought the organist played too loud & the choir was off key much of the time. Sis chimed in & mentioned that the soloist was as usual very much off key during most of her solo. Grandma complained that she couldn’t hear what the preacher was saying & as usual she missed almost all of it. As they pulled into the driveway Junior said, “Yep, but you gotta admit, it was a pretty good show for a nickel.”

BACKGROUND ON EBENEZER

Israel was in a tough place. They were under siege from the armies of the Philistines who were closing in on them. Their leader was the great Old Testament judge & prophet Samuel who begins to cry out to God to spare & rescue the people.

While Samuel was praying & offering sacrificial offerings to the Lord, the Philistines drew near to engage Israel in battle. But that day the Lord thundered against the Philistines & threw them into such panic that they were routed before the Israelites.

Samuel does a wonderful thing at this point. He recognized the source of their blessing & strength & does something important. He took a stone & set it up as a monument to God’s deliverance & he named the stone Ebenezer, meaning “Thus far the Lord has helped us.”

Far from Ebenezer, the old sour puss of Dickens’ story who won’t pay Bob Cratchet what he deserves, here is the Ebenezer of God….a simple stone that declared something very powerful: Thus far the Lord has helped us-, or—A stone of help!

Listen to The Message Bible;

The men of Kiriath Jearim came & got the chest [Ark] of God & delivered it to the house of Abinadab on the hill. They ordained his son, Eleazer to take responsibility for the chest of God.

From the time that the chest came to rest in Kiriath Jearim, a long time passed—twenty years it was--& throughout Israel there was a widespread, fearful movement toward God.

Then Samuel addressed the house of Israel: If you are truly serious about coming back to God, clean house. Get rid of the foreign gods & fertility goddesses, ground yourselves firmly in God, worship Him & Him alone & he’ll save you from Philistine oppression.

They did it. They got rid of the gods & goddesses, the images of Baal & Ashtoreth & gave their exclusive attention & service to God.

Next Samuel said, get everybody together at Mizpah & I’ll pray for you.

So everyone assembled at Mizpah. They drew water from the wells & poured it out before God in a ritual of cleansing. They all fasted all day & prayed, -we have sinned against God.

So Samuel prepared the Israelites for holy war there at Mizpah.

When the Philistines heard that Israel was meeting at Mizpah the Philistine leaders went on the offensive. Israel got the report & became frightened—Philistines on the move again!

They pleaded with Samuel,--pray with all your might! And don’t let up! Pray to God, our God that he’ll save us from the boot of the Philistines.

Samuel took a young lamb not yet weaned & offered it whole as a Whole-Burnt-Offering to God. He prayed fervently to God, interceding for Israel. And God answered.

While Samuel was offering the sacrifice the Philistines came within range to fight Israel. Just then God thundered a huge thunderclap exploding among the Philistines. They panicked-mass confusion!—and ran helter-skelter from Israel. Israel poured out of Mizpah & gave chase, killing Philistines right & left to a point just beyond Beth Car. He named it “EBENEZER” [Rock of help,] saying,--This marks the place where God helped us.--1 Sam.7:1-12

There are some lessons we can learn from this story;

1. GOD WILL HELP YOU WHEN YOU’RE FAITHFUL TO HIM.

Israel had been unfaithful to God but they repented & heeded the advice of Samuel. After that, God fought the Philistines on their behalf. All Israel had to do was mop-up.

2. WE SHOULD RECOGNIZED GOD’S HELP WHEN IT APPEARS.

In the past I’ve been unduly critical of things sometimes used to mark or remind us of God’s blessings like T-shirts with slogans written on them, bumper stickers etc. because they in some way were like idols or cold dead things.

However, I see it differently now. As I write this, in the background the television is tuned to the 9/11 celebration in New York City. The president as well as other dignitaries are present at “ground-zero” & as a nation we’re marking that dreadful day seven years ago.

Shortly after 9/11, wars were being fought in Afghanistan & Iraq & on other fronts around the world. However, in the end we keep coming back to one spot in lower Manhattan where it all started. This is as it should be in a nation that values life as we do in America. We might call this one of our national Ebenezers.

Spiritually speaking, Thanksgiving Day is an Ebenezer as well as Christmas & Easter. Also, each time we celebrate communion, the Sacramental Elements, a cross, a picture or even a hymn can serve as reminders of God’s love, His presence & His assistance.

Far from being idol worship, anything that takes us back to remember God’s intervention in our lives can be wonderful places of encouragement & can be called our personal Ebenezers.

I once read a story about three men who carried two sacks on their shoulders, one tied in front & the other tied on their back. When the first man was asked what was in his sacks, he said, “In the sack on my back are all the good things all my friends & family have done for me. They are hidden from view. In the front sack are all the bad things that have happened to me. Every now & then I stop, open the front sack, take the things out, examine them, & think about them.” Because he stopped so much to concentrate on the bad stuff he didn’t make much progress in life.

The second man was asked about his sacks. He replied, “In the front sack are all the good things I’ve done. I like to see them so quite often I take them out to show them off to people. The sack in the back? I keep all my mistakes in there & carry them all the time. Sure they’re heavy. They slow me down, but you know, for some reason I can’t put them down.”

When the third man was asked about his sacks he answered, “The sack in front is great. There I keep all the positive thoughts I have about people, all the blessings I’ve experienced, & all the great things God & other people have done for me. The weight isn’t a problem. The sack is like sails of a ship. It keeps me going forward. The sack on my back used to hold all the negative things I could think of about me & others. But a long time ago I cut a hole in the bottom of it so that things go in & right back out. I have no extra weight at all back there."

What are you & I carrying around with us? Are we carrying around the remembrance of God’s help in our lives? Are we marking the places where God has helped us? Or are we allowing the negative events in our lives to drag us down? Our growth in life depends on our remembrance of the faithfulness of God.

Why do you think Samuel named the stone Ebenezer? It was for the edification of the Israelites. Ebenezer—stone of help, marks the spot where God had helped them.

Ebenezer marks the milestones in our spiritual life. It points to where we’ve been so we can have confidence in where we’re going.

Many things around us shout EBENEZER- “this far the Lord has helped so I can trust Him the rest of the way.”

Don’t be ashamed to find your Ebenezers & set them high in your heart to honor the Lord.

I will lift up my eyes to the hills from whence cometh my help. My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven & earth.-Psalm 121:1-2

Bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all His benefits. -Psalm 103:2

EBENEZER!!

Blessings,

John