Where is my river going?*

As I reflect on Papa Johns and the influence he had on my life and others, it causes me to think about my own life. As I reflect on a sermon I just listen to, I think of the title above, Where is my river going?  Papa Johns had an influence on me. Mike Mathis the evangelist at Papa Johns revival some 29 years 3 weeks and several days ago, had an influence on me. Others had an influence on me also. I remember a lady I worked with and the influence she had on me. I just went thru my first divorce and was still trying to live the Christian life as best I could. Her words "this is the nineties", had a negative influence on me as a christian man still trying to live a christian life. We can use the Word of God to justify ungodly actions, and I have.  I used King David - a man after God's own heart - who committed adultery. Wasn't there also many other stories in the bible of people who failed? Yes, there are, and so have I. But has my river of influence caused or helped people to move closer to God? Or has it helped them to allow sin in their life looking at my example? I had a conversation recently about Ministers, or perhaps one in particular who I heard some gossip about. I wish I hadn't heard this gossip.  By the way, we are living will it help someone move closer to God. As a man well into my forties, I struggled with adultery, and I was on this river a long time. What about the young men in a church, what kind of a struggle will they have if they see the leadership allowing sin in their lives? No one knows the number of their days. My cousin's son was called home to his heavenly father at age 27. God has blessed me with 60 years and counting. Will my influence help someone draw closer? What more important aspect of life is there then the spiritual? Money comes and goes, time comes and goes, and we know not the number of our days. Is my influence in the right direction? Is my river of life flowing in the right direction? If someone fell into my river of influence would it help them when they stand before God to give an account of their life?  Papa's influence and Mike Mathis's influence helped me, may I do the same for others. God bless, LVZ.

Papa Johns*

Edmund Wayne Johns "Papa Johns" passed away December 26th. He was my father-in-law for 20 years. He was more than just a father-in-law, he was like a Dad to me. I first met him when I was 18 years old in Hermiston Oregon. Papa was holding a revival at the church he was pastoring in Hermiston. Shortly after that he was doing some tree work in the Tricities and asked me to help him.
He was topping this huge tree and had two stumps side by side 30 feet up in the air. He stood there with one foot planted on each stump and was telling me a joke. Remember this is 30 feet up in the air.
I don't remember the joke but I do remember thinking will you please get down from there. He received his ministers license in 1950. He retired from active ministry in, I think it was 1993. In his letter explaining his desire to retire from active ministry because of his age, he concluded "but if you need me just call".  One of his fellow church members was in the hospital not too long ago and they heard this werid noise out in the hallway as they were laying there. In a few minutes as this noise continued walked Papa Johns pushing his walker to visit this person in the hospital. The last time I visited him, he told me that he had climbed a tree on his 80th birthday. I was 26 when I tried to put a electrical service on a power pole for my mobile home. I had borrowed Papa Johns tree climbing gear to do this. I got up as high as the Mobile home roof and my knees were shaking so bad, I couldn't do it.  Papa came and finished the job for me. Yet he was still able to climb a tree with his gear at the age of 80. In January of 1984, Papa was holding revival services at his church in Burlington, WA. Papa called me and asked if I could bring Jenie to sing that evening. I said sure, I hadn't been to church in about four years but figured I could sit thru another church serviced, no problem. After the service progressed to the time for the evangelist to preach, Mike Mathis, who was speaker for this revival walked up to the pulpit, and saidsomething similar to this as near as I can recollect including using my name. "Leon, some day you will stand befor God and have to give an account for your life. God is not going to ask, who hurt you? or who did this and who did that, but simply: What have you done with Jesus? Have you accepted him as Lord and Saviour or have you rejected him? That is the only thing that will matter on that Day." I recommitted my life to the Lord on that day and I have never forgotten those word, I may not remember them exactly word for word, but at least the message. Papa Johns was short in stature in his physical body and I once teased him, that he was a Texas Midget.
One of the last things he said to me during that last visit was "If you have any unfinished business, get it taken care off, for none of us knows the number of our days."  He may have been short in physical stature, but I believe the Johns family lost a spiritual Giant of a man on December 26th 2012. I miss him but plan to see him again in heaven. God Bless, LVZ.

reflections*

Some days I think back to the way I was raised in the church. There are some things I was taught or told that I have had to rethink. 1. I remember a particular pastor asking me what I thought my knowledge of the Bible was on a scale of 1 to 10. I said probably about 5. He said, just because you are a member of the church (I will not give the name here), you are probably at least an 8. Maybe it was intended as a compliment or to encourage, I don't know. But with statements like that and other things, I probably developed a sort of superiority complex as far as church affiliation. As I look back to my roots I think that is so far from the truth and it actually took me some time to feel comfortable in another church that was not of the above denomination. Now I realize I have heard a lot of excellent preaching and teaching outside of that organization. When I look for a church, I look for a church that will challenge me in my walk with Christ. I look for a church that will give a word that makes me reflect on things in my heart and my life. I don't want to just be told this is it, this is where you will find God. Shout and praise God for the truth - even if it doesn't challenge me.  2. There was teaching on spiritual perfection, and how Christ would come back after a church without spot or wrinkle. I remember many times feeling so discouraged because I wasn't able to live the life that sounded to me like I needed to be perfect. I think some of the scriptures we use were meant to show that we need Jesus, he is the only one that lived a sinless life. Sometimes I get into discussions involving 1 John and sometimes you still run into people that feel they are sinless. I don't, but I don't feel condemned anymore either. I recall the scripture that says we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: If we could do it on our own we would not need an Advocate.  I don't believe that this means we can sin a little or promote cheap grace. We are human, we mess up. I think some times we ignore things like gossip. We ignore a prideful heart. As long as we don't do the big things like adultery, stealing, bearing false witness, we think we are sinless. But when Jesus said when you have thought it in your heart you have already committed the sin. To show us we need him. We may do good for a while, and then a day happens where we slip in one form or another. We need reminders and get back on track. I remember years of feeling discouraged, and even giving up at one time because I just didn't feel I could live it. It was for someone else, I just wasn't good enough. But the gospel has never been about being good enough, in fact, the opposite is true. He says if I knock on your heart's door open and I will come in.  It is God that comes to us, just as we are, burdened with cares and sins. heads hung low. He comes to us just as we are, drunk, adulterer, dope addict, liar, filthy mouth whatever the human condition is, where we are at that moment. We can be in the pig trough of life, and when he knocks we just need to let him in. We don't have to get good enough to meet him partway. Just as we are, with no excuses, loaded with sin and shame and Jesus can take the garbage of our life and make it beautiful again. It's a grace thing, not something we can work for or even buy, a gift that we just need to accept at whatever place we are. To the woman caught in the act of adultery, he asked where are your accusers. Neither did he condemn but lifted person after person out of the low place they were in. This teaching of perfection seems to cause me to think I had to be good enough. He took me from where I was on that day and has changed me. All I had to do was follow after him as best I could. When I had trouble with sin, I took it to him, there were times I felt bad for my sins. There are sins I wouldn't want to talk about even on this page. Somewhere I stopped feeling condemned and just started doing the best I could. I was honest with God, I can't live this like I have been taught. Somewhere from that starting point things changed, things came out of my life that shouldn't be there.  It was his effort in my life, not mine. I just tried to follow as best I could. If I messed up, I said I was sorry. I went thru 4 divorces knowing God hates divorce. God this is what is happening in my life, I know its not right, help me, forgive me where I have disobeyed your word. Somewhere along the way that discouragement left me, that hopelessness disappeared, the condemnation went away, and I know it was not because of any great effort on my part, but just accepting Jesus as my savior and asking him to come into my heart and life.  I have made a lot of changes, and I have no regrets. God bless, LVZ

Love Life*

I Peter 3:10 "For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile: 11. Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it." In my last blog, I mentioned honoring parents and there was a promise given with that; that they days may be long. Here again is a promise, for he that would love life, and see good days let him do certain things. One of the reasons I retired as early as I did, I wanted to see a long life. There are studies showing the earlier you retire the longer you live. I loved my job, I enjoyed the majority of my days at Boeing. But I did have a stressful job. I did lead a group of individuals that were difficult, not all of them, just enough that it made the job stressful. This chapter has a lot of good things in it. Duties of husbands, that their prayers be not hindered. Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing but contrariwise blessing. There is another verse, I believe it is in Titus and it tells us to speak evil or to slander no man. There is a promise once again with this behavior, in the border of my bible, it has the word longevity associated with this verse. The 11th verse continues on, let him eschew evil and do good and seek peace. The 12th verse goes on, the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. You cannot expect the Lord's help if you are an evildoer. But with doing good, eschewing evil - according to the dictionary eschew means to avoid habitually especially on moral or practical grounds: shun. Habitually, it takes effort and practice to form a habit, so I see this as something that doesn't come naturally but we have to make an effort to form these things in our life. Practice doing good, practice speaking good not evil. seeking peace. It takes effort on our part but there is a promise: love life and see good days. It starts with a relationship with God. God bless LVZ.

Parents*

"Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise; That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth." Ephesians 6:2 I think the interesting part of this is the "with promise". That thou mayest live long on the earth, is the promise. I have often wondered when I hear of people living a very long life, how they treated their parents.  Most parents are not perfect, I certainly wasn't. When I look back, I see so many things I could have differently or better when raising my kids. I also know my parents were not perfect either. I have been taught that it means honour them because they are. Not honour them because they were good partents or don't honour them if they were bad parents. Just Honour them because they are your parents. We live in an age when we hear a third of all children are being raised without a father in the home.  I heard just this past week in the United Kingdom, children were asked what they wanted for Christmas and the number 1 thing was they wanted a dad. Years ago after I went thru my first divorce, I  saw how that divorce negatively affected my children. I started noticing how many children I saw at church without their Dads. People I met, the children had no dad in the home. I knew some people that were raising their grandchildren because both parents were not raising their kids. It seems to happen more and more. How thankful I am for my imperfect parents that worked everyday, fed me, sheltered me, clothed me as much as they did. There are so many kids that didn't even have imperfect parents. I saw hungry, neglected kids with both parents on drugs and I am thankful for what I had. I left shortly after I graduated from high school because I was unhappy.  But when I look at the world around me and after having raised kids when I couldn't quit a job when I wanted too, when I was mistreated. I am thankful. I grew up and had to make my own difficult choices and can not blame the previous generation for eveything. I made my own choices, some good some bad and suffered the consequences or enjoyed the results of my own choices. Honour them just because they were the parents God gave us to.  God bless, LVZ.

I declare*

I declare that you are blessed with God’s supernatural wisdom, and you have clear direction for your life.

I declare that you are blessed with creativity, with courage, with ability, and with abundance.

I declare that you are blessed with a strong will and with self-control and self-discipline.

I declare that you are blessed with great family, with good friends, with good health, and with faith, favor, and fulfillment.

I declare that you are blessed with success, with supernatural strength, with promotion, and with divine protection.

I declare that you are blessed with an obedient heart and with a positive outlook on life.

I declare that any curse that has ever been spoken over you, any negative evil word that has ever come against you, is broken right now.

I declare that you are blessed in the city. You are blessed in the country. You are blessed when you go in. You are blessed when you come out.

I declare that everything you put your hands to do is going to prosper and succeed.

I declare that you are blessed!


This is a list of blessings I copied from a book by Joel Osteen. I copied them down, put them in a frame and gave it to both of my children one year.  I note that many churches including Eastside Baptist, CFAN, and of course Joel Osteen's church all have a proclamation that they repeat usually at the start of their sermon. I think it is a good thing. I remember in a book I read some time ago or maybe it was something I heard in a Mens Group some years past that it takes 20 positives to make up for one negative. I believe it. I remember at the mens group 50 year old men still had negative messages from  their father going thru their brain. WHy not say positive things over our family, our loved ones. We want good to happen, speak good things. Even in the Old Testament, fathers would give a blessing to their children, usually the oldest son, and maybe a lesser blessing to the others. I wonder some times what an impact I could have had on my children if I had been consitent in my relationship with God especially in the early years, when it seemed I was struggling in my own faith. We can never relive those years, we have to just go on from where we are. THe best thing I believe I could have given my children was a good home life, and modeling a good relationship with God.  THat is something that would help them thru the difficulties we all face in life. God bless, LVZ.