Not Just the Love Boat

I have a confession to make.  Back in the late 70's and early 80's, I was a Love Boat junkie. Don't ask me why but that show was one of my guilty pleasures.  So I was very excited when I saw this new autobiography by Gavin MacLeod, This is Your Captain Speaking.  To my wife's amusement (embarrassment maybe), I continued to hum and sing the Love Boat theme while reading this book.

As for the book itself, it is just what you would expect from an actors autobiography.  Gavin MacLeod drops a lot of names in this book.  You read about his numerous encounters with the rich and famous and how his acting has opened many doors for him in life.  The book is pure nostalgia for fans of his work on the Mary Tyler Moore and the Love Boat.

Gavin also talks about his bad choices, from alcoholism to divorce.  He speaks about his ego and how he tried to be the "Captain" of his own life.  The book then moves to a new level when Gavin talks about how he came to faith in Christ.  Not only that, but God restored his marriage, which had ended in divorce a couple years before.

Gavin continued to act, but with a new focus.  He worked with his wife Patti as hosts of a 17 year marriage program on TBN.  He also became a spokesman for Princess cruise lines.  He also talks about what he feels is his best work now, The Secret of Jonathan Sperry.  This move has been used to lead many to Christ over the last 5+ years.

I enjoyed this book and any fan of MacLeod's work as an actor will find this book a nice cruise through his life.  His journey of faith is interesting and encouraging.  You can't ask for much more than that.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com® book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

The Man At The Counter

The man standing at the counter was pouring his heart out.

"I may not make it through the winter.  If I die, will you remember my name?"

We could see his pain and began praying for him.  He doffed his cap, and bowed his head.  As we continued praying, tears rolled down his cheek.  After we finished praying, he began to cry out to the Lord.

He mentioned his struggles, his addictions and the fact that he felt his life was near it's end.  Yet he also began to pray for us.  He prayed that God would bless the work we do, that God would watch over us and help us to help others like him.

Some would write this off as the rambling of an intoxicated man. 

Yet that line, "would you remember my name", resonates with me.  I assured him that we knew him, would never forget him and more importantly that Jesus would never forget him. 

How often do we forget though?  How often do we forget that each person we meet has a story.  We can write off whole segments of society, or write a check for others to do the work...but we are all called to be ministers of grace, ministers of hope. 

How often do we listen for the stories of those around us?  We often ask people how they are but do we want to hear the truth?  Do we take the time to actually listen?

Jesus did, He still does.

Lord help us to have listening ears, listening hearts and to be your hands of grace to everyone we meet.

Real - A Book Review

Real by Jamie Snyder encourages readers to become a 24/7 follower of Jesus.

The book is divided into 3 parts: The Real Question, the Real Life and the Real Answer.  All three sections left me feeling different things about the book.  Part one really seemed to be to narrowly focused on the question "If Sunday didn't exist, would people know we were Christians."  Snyder spent way to long looking at variations of that question. I kept waiting for him to move on to the ways we could become the 24/7 follower of Jesus.

Once getting through part one however, the book began to pick up steam and seemed to hit the marks that Snyder promised at the beginning of the book.

I loved how he ended each chapter with discussion questions and a prayer.  I also found the 7 areas he focused on in part 2 to be encouraging, challenging and motivating.  I particularly liked his section on Mad Love.

The book also wrapped up well.  If not for the first section, I would say this was a great book.  I would still recommend this book though for anyone wanting more out of their relationship with God!

I received this book for free from Bethany House Publishers as part of their Blogger Review Program.

Glimpses of Hope

Wars, floods, hurricanes, famine, tornadoes, poverty, sickness and pain.

You can't follow the news without seeing a daily does of all of the above.

I have heard for years that in reference to the news: If it bleeds, It leads.

What we don't often hear though are the stories of hope.

"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope."  Jeremiah 29 :11

It may be hard to have hope in the midst of hardship, yet if you look for it, you will find the stories of those who are looking to a future beyond the suffering of the present.

At times during my teen years, hope was the only thing I had.

By the early 80's we were a middle class family.  My Dad had his own business, we owned our own home and though we had other problems, poverty wasn't one of them.

My folks moved to Tennessee when I was 14 and we all gave our lives to Christ within a few months.   Within a couple years, the bottom fell out of our middle class life. 

My Dad's business wasn't doing well, then we lost our home.  We moved and moved again.  Then we got behind on the rent, and our electricity, and before long we were in a deep, deep hole.

The church we were attending wondered out loud what "sin" we had committed to go through this suffering. 

As for me, I found it a struggle to have joy.  I tried to remain upbeat but the continuous blow after blow began to take it's toll on my faith.  Where was God?  Why did we suffer like this?  Was there any way our circumstances could change?  Well change they did, as we had to leave our most recent home and were driving around in our van, homeless.  We found a one room cabin for a month and then it was on the road again looking for another home...and another.

At the lowest point, all I had left was the little glimpses of hope God provided in the midst of the struggle. 

Like the lady who offered to pay for me to go to Bible College.  (I didn't at the time.)
Like the fact that we always had a place to lay our head.  Even if that place wasn't our home.
Like the time God provided for me to go for a week to California to volunteer at a missions base.

In the midst of all this, I saw God provide, one day at a time, day after day. 

Hope.

Now, looking back on my life, I see how God was always there.  He never left me, even in the darkest hours.

He is a God of Hope!   

Here There be Giants

Reading through the book of Numbers, I got caught up in the story (ch. 13) of the 1st time the Israelites were about to enter the promised land.  They were there, on the cusp of entering the place God had told them He would give them.  He had prepared them for this...the promised land.  He directed Moses to send out spies (scouts) to check out the land and to report back.  Moses chose 12 men and sent them out to with instructions to report on the land (the trees, food sources, layout, etc) and the people.  He wasn't asking for an assessment on what he thought their chances were, just a report on the DETAILS of what they saw.

These 12 men spent 40 days spying out the lay of the land.  They came back and the Israelites gathered to hear their report.  Ten men praised the land but focused on the fact that they saw GIANTS!  Tall men of big build who would eat the nation of Israel alive.  They told the people that the land would devour them and it was hopeless.  Despite the fact that God said he was giving them this land, the 10 spies told stories that made the Israelites knees turn to jelly.  However, 2 spies went counter to this narrative.  Joshua and Caleb spoke truth.  they said, Yes there are giants there but we can do this.  God is giving us the land, let's take it.

No one else was wanting to take them up on this.  The people doubted God and wanted to turn back.  The Lord told Moses that because of this, they would wander around until this generation died off and that it would be their descendents who inherited the land.  All except Joshua and Caleb who gave the true report and had the faith that God would do what He said he would do.  It took 40 years, but the people did end up taking the land after the previous generation passed. 

I read that story and I think about God's call on my life.  There have been times that I have faced giants.  Obstacles that would seem to say I should not pass.  Yet I knew God called and I had to precede. 

When I was living in East Tennessee, I had a good job and though we were not well off, we were making ends meet.  I was moving up the ladder at work and new opportunities were presenting themselves.  However, my wife and I felt the Lord calling us to Canada.  It was not an easy choice.  We spent months in prayer.  We wrestled with the decision and wanted to make sure God was calling us to make it.  There came a point where we knew, yes this was the direction God was calling us in. 

That did not go down easy with everyone.  I remember being counseled by some to turn back from this decision.  I was leaving a "good job and a home" to go to a place where we had neither.  To top it off, we felt the Lord calling Sarah to go 3 months ahead of me.  She did and as soon as she departed, the Lord opened new doors for both of us.  Sarah was able to present her testimony in ways she had never had before.  I had an opportunity to begin lay counseling training without distractions.  Later, when we reunited in Canada, we had what looked like many giants before us.  I was unemployed for the first 2 years as I sought landed immigrant status.  God saw us through this time and opened the door for me to find work with the Salvation Army in Smithers.  I began running the local food bank part time and did that for nearly 4 years while my wife worked part time at the local Christian bookstore.  There came a point where I needed full time work as Sarah was pregnant with our second child.  Just as I thought I would need to look elsewhere for employment, God orchestrated events in a way that I was promoted to full time work at the exact moment Sarah had to stop working. 

Three years later and he has expanded our ministry even more as we both became soldiers in the Salvation Army.

It would have been easy to say, Here there be Giants and to turn back from obvious obstacles.  Instead, we persevered and have seen God expand our family, our calling, our ministry outreach and our love for Him and each other.

If God has called you, then press forward despite the giants!  Let Him take you into the place He has called you to be.

Leaving the Safe and Sound

"Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, "This man receives sinners and eats with them." So he told them this parable: "What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.' Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. "(Luke 15:1-7)

I love this parable.  Jesus follows it up with one about a lost coin and the story of the prodigal son.  All stories about the rejoicing that goes on when the lost (sheep, coin, son) were found again.  Stories about the rejoicing when a sinner repents.

Yet to me, I see a story of so much more.  Especially in this parable of the lost sheep.  I see a man who left the 99 who were safe and sound, and went out into the night looking for one in danger.  He put himself in harm's way to find that one lost sheep.  He did not know what he would encounter, but out into the night he went: searching, seeking, with love and care for the sheep in his heart, hoping to find the straggler before harm came upon him.  When He did, he rejoiced!  The "lost" was found.  The "dead" was alive again!

A great picture of Jesus.  Jesus who leaves the 99 safe, sound and secure in Him and goes out into the night looking for the lost, the sick, the depressed, the disappointed, the wounded and the enslaved.  He not only seeks out the sinner but the disenfranchised, the ones hurt by other believers, the unloved and the bitter.; those who have known safety within His flock, but whose confusion and pain has led them off the path.  He pursues the brokenhearted, the lonely and even those whose choices put them where they are today.  He doesn't give up, He doesn't surrender.

He loves.

He calls us to do the same. 

We are surrounded by "lost sheep."  The streets are filled with them.  We cross their path at work, shopping and walking downtown.  We see them and yet we do not always look with the eyes of Jesus.  Jesus looked with love.  He saw what they could be and not what they were.

He pointed them to the Father and he called them with love.

He calls us to do the same. 

We are called to leave the safety and security of this world and to seek out the lost sheep, pointing them to the life eternal.

In Love, let us seek out those who are hurting and walk with them, sharing not just in word but in action and deed as well.

Let's be seekers.  Seekers of the Lost Sheep.

Wounded By God's People

I've been wounded.  I've been hurt by God's people.  So when I heard that Anne Graham Lotz was releasing a new book with Zondervan called, Wounded by God's People, I immediately acquired a copy.

A quarter of the way through the book I was a bit bored.  Half way through the book I was planning a negative review.  Three quarters of the way through God orchestrated events in such a way that I could talk with someone who had wounded me and vice-verse.  Now that I have finished the book, I believe every person who has ever been hurt by God's people should read this book.

Anne uses the story of Hagar, found in the book of Genesis, as the Biblical underpinning for this book.  I found the links to be forced at time.  I believe she made the right choice by using the story of Hagar.  However, my issue was that she also added "thoughts" to what Hagar may have been thinking, feeling, etc.  In doing so, I became quite distracted by these "thoughts" and felt she was forcing links at times where there were none.

This happened less frequently through the book and as it did, I felt the book began to improve and Anne began to hit her stride.  She was truly digging up ground that needed to be addressed and poked holes in any justification or defense the reader might throw up.  Anne not only addresses the wounded but the wounder as well (often the same person).

I would highly recommend this book.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com®  book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”