Archive for November, 2024

This World Is Not My Home

History is a marvelous mentor. There is no better teacher regarding money than the following. It comes from the lives of some of the wealthiest men of a past era, 1928. Consider the men who were:

President of the largest steel company.

President of the largest gas company.

President of the New York Stock Exchange.

Greatest wheat speculator.

President of the Bank of International Settlement.

Greatest Bear on Wall Street.

These men were considered some of the world’s most wealthy and powerful.

History’s pages have been turned long enough for us to learn from their lives. Consider their end.

The president of the largest steel company, Charles Schwab, died a pauper.

The president of the largest gas company, Edward Hopson, went insane.

The president of the NYSE, Richard Whitney, was released from prison and died at home.

The greatest wheat speculator, Arthur Cooge, died abroad penniless.

The president of the Bank of International Settlement shot himself.

The greatest bear on Wall Street, Cosabee Livermore, also committed suicide.

However in the same year, 1923, the PGA Champion and the winner of the most important golf tournament, the US Open, was Gene Sarazen. What became of him? He played golf until the age of 92, died in 1999 at the age of 95. He was financially secure at the time of his death.

Moral of the story: Play golf instead!

Better still is the Scripture which advocated, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6: 19 – 21).

There is an old hymn that sets that truth to music, “This World in Not My Home”:   

“This world is not my home I’m just passing through
my treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue
the angels beckon me from Heaven’s open door
and I can’t feel at home in this world anymore

O Lord you know I have no friend like you
if Heaven’s not my home then Lord what will I do?
the angels beckon me from Heaven’s open door
and I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.”

Our Transforming God

If you would you like a summary mantra for life, try these verses:

“Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, The power and the glory, The victory and the majesty; For all that is in heaven and in earth is Yours; Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, And You are exalted as head over all. Both riches and honor come from You, And You reign over all. In Your hand is power and might; In Your hand it is to make great And to give strength to all. Now therefore, our God, We thank You And praise Your glorious name” I Chronicles 29: 11 – 13.

Pause and ask yourself if this is descriptive of the God you profess to believe in. If so, act like it when things seem to go wrong. That kind of God can control things good and bad. Relax and rejoice. When you respond to Him as one  having such traits and resources then alacrity replaces anxiety.

An illustration of His willingness and ability is illustrated by author and artist John Ruskin in his book entitled “Modern Painters” he tells of a footprint in a manufacturing town. It was the personification of impurity. It is composed of four elements: clay mixed with soot, a little sand, and water. If the four left to follow their own instinctive qualities of unity would become clear and hard. They gathered light in splendid ways. Gathering only the blue rays of the sun they produced a sapphire.

The sand arranges itself in a mysterious way and infinitely fine particles which when properly aligned reflect the blue, green, purple, and red rays in their greatest beauty called an opal.

The soot becomes one of the hardest substances in the world and is transformed from its blackness into a substance reflecting all the rays of the sun at once. The vivid blaze of reflected light from the solid substance is called a diamond.

The purified water becomes a dew drop or a crystalline star of snow.

If God can refine and redefine the impurities of a footprint surely He can transform the vilest of sinners, and meet the needs of the most disadvantaged of people.

There is a line from an old hymn with the appeal to  “Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there.” The relief does not come from taking the burden to the Lord, but in leaving it there.

You may be facing a challenge that suggests a hopeless end. The God who awaits to help you offers endless hope. It is boundless.

His transforming power is available to meet your personal challenges. Your puddle of mud can be transformed into an assortment of attributes.

The concluding verse from the Lord’s Prayer is a summary of this passage. “For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory.” (Matthew 6:13).

Now go back and read once more the paragraph opening this post. Read it as to the Lord.

Give Your Best in All Things

“Know you not that they which run in a race run all, but one receives the prize? So run, that you may obtain. And every man that strives for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beats the air: But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.” (I Cor. 9: 24 – 27)

William Mervin Mills, also known as Tamakoce Te’Hila, was an Oglala Lakota native on the Pine Ridge Reservation. His is perhaps the most underrated performance in the history of Olympic sports. As a  Native American he experienced rejection on and off the reservation. He was given little attention as he entered the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. His rejections were many, but he remembered his dad said, “It takes a dream to heal a broken soul.”  He wrote down his dream to heal his broken soul: “Gold medal, Olympic 10,000-meter run.”

The sun hung low in the late afternoon sky. It’s October 14, 1964, National Olympic Stadium, Tokyo. The runners toe the line for the 10,000-meter race. No American had ever won this race.

Mills was lightly considered in the games by virtue of the several world class athletes entered in the 10,000 meters race. This race belongs to Ron Clarke, an Australian who holds a world record in this event. An announcer puts it plainly about Billy’s chances: “Billy Mills of the United States is in there — a man no one expects to win this particular event.”

As the race progressed he was shuffled around and given unsettling elbows as he maneuvered for position. Working his way into fourth position his teammates were amazed and proud, finishing fourth would be remarkable, they thought. They became amazed at what they beheld. With this long race nearing an end, underdog Mills sprinted unbelievably fast to move to the front and win the Gold Medal in what is considered one of the greatest upsets in Olympic history.

“It takes a dream,” do you have one? That is, what do you envision as to what the Lord wants to use you to achieve. Remember, God doesn’t expect you to be the best at anything.  He expects you to be your best at everything.

It is a dream to be your best at even the most menial task. In all things:

“Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.” (Philippians 3: 12)

Don’t allow yourself to develop an “I have attained” mentality, but maintain an “I press on” outlook.

An infant is a human being, but not yet fully developed. Set your dream and press on to become the mature Christian Jesus created you with the capacity to be.

Some Christians know, and even rejoice that Jesus has laid hold of them, but fail to realize there is a reason for which Jesus has also laid hold of them.

Find and fulfill your dream and that will heal even the most broken spirit.

Resolve, “I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:14) Dream it! Make it a lifelong process of pressing.

Finding Strength in the Lord

“Know you not that they which run in a race run all, but one receives the prize? So run, that you may obtain. And every man that strives for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beats the air: But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.” I Corinthians 9: 24 – 27

In the February 1952 issue of Iron Man Magazine Bob Peeples, a world-renown lifter and writer for the magazine, tells the story of their first meeting. A 19 year old Paul Anderson from Taccoa, Georgia went into Peeple’s weight room, and without any warm up or wraps, squatted 550 lbs… in just his regular shoes. At 5’10” tall, the 275 lb teenager with the 50-inch chest had just squatted 25 lbs under the standing 575 lb world record, and he did it twice.

Paul didn’t always have access to traditional weights, so he made his own out of household items like 55 gallon drums filled with concrete, the aforementioned safe, and iron wheels. Paul also developed his own training methods that included squatting all day, every other day.

Three days before the Olympic weight lifting competition Paul developed a high fever and inner ear infection. At the last minute he was allowed to compete.

An ailing Anderson fell so far behind his chief rival that on the final of three required lifts, he needed to clean and jerk 413.5 pounds, an Olympic record, to claim the gold. Twice he tried and failed. On the third attempt Paul had a talk with the Lord saying, “I’m not trying to make a deal, Lord, no deals, but I must have Your help to get this weight overhead.” Paul made a true commitment to serve God for the rest of his life. He gave the final push and drove the bar overhead, and it stayed. The crowd went wild as Paul returned the bar to the floor. He suddenly was the Olympic Gold Medalist.

Paul often said, “If the strongest man in the world needs Jesus, so do you.”

Paul died on August 15, 1994 from complications from kidney disease at the age of 61, and I conducted his funeral.

Experientially on his deathbed Paul knew, “He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.” (Isaiah 40:29)

This bouquet of Scripture typified Paul regarding his true strength… “Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” “The Lord is my strength and my song; he has given me victory.”

Paul often issued this challenge, “If I, Paul Anderson, the World’s Strongest Man, can not make it through one day without Jesus Christ, how can you?”

Like Paul, call on the Lord and commit to Him.