A Dad's Precious Memories

Weekend of June 15

 

Some of my fondest memories didn't come of Father's Day but when I least expected.

A four year boy runs up and grabbing my leg says, "Isn't this fun dad? You and me in the woods picking up sticks to make a campfire."

 

A ten-year old jumps into my arms when his team scores the winning basket in overtime.

 

A young girl, now grown, says in one of those special conversations, "Thanks dad for being my friend."

 

A college age daughter that I acquired when I married Joy wrote, "Thank you for all your support and advice, I 've been needing a Dad for a long time and I rejoice in being able to call you Dad." 

 

Now I understand better how our heavenly Father felt when I said, "This is my son in whom I am well pleased. HEAR HIM! (Matthew 17:5)



Loving the Wrong Things

 

June 14

I had other things that I loved more than God, like money, sex, sports, recognition,

alcohol and tobacco. I spent more time pursuing these than I did the Lord.

 

God sent me a gentle soul who shared with me that by asking the Lord Jesus into my life as my Lord and Savior, I would  "be born again of the Spirit." I did, was baptized, and became a new creation and its beautifully awesome. I see the hand of God everywhere.

 

Jesus said. "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh, is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you that you must be born again." (John 3: 5-7)



 

 

 

Reflections, What Do You See?

 

 

 

 Dilly, the drake, died.. Daffy Duck, his mate, was devastated and would spend hours in front of our cellar window quacking at her reflection. We ended her loneliness by taking her out to a farm with other ducks.

Years later a robin was throwing itself at  our front window. I called the Wild Bird Center and was told that male robins are territorial during mating season. 

 

 

The duck saw her reflection as a friend, the robin saw his as an enemy. What do I see when I look in the glass? What do I do then?

 "For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was."

(1 James 1:23-24)





 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is your Passion? 

June13,2018

I have a friend who is a financial planner. I have to call weeks in advance to schedule a lunch date. Yet someone will call and invite him to go fly fishing in Belize and he is on the next plane. He literally will drop everything to go fly fishing.

 

  Peter dropped his nets when he heard the Lord say, “follow me.”

Am I ready to do the same? Will I have the same passion for my Lord as my friend does for fly-fishing?  Am I ready to drop whatever I'm doing and follow Him  when He calls, for a week on a mission trip, for a day of service or witnessing to someone for an hour?

 

"Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross, and follow Me." (Mark 8:34)

                                                        Who do you Trust?
                                                      
Tuesday, June 12

Jeremiah said: Thus says the Lord: Cursed are the persons who trusts in man, and make flesh their strength and their heart departs from the Lord. They "+will be like a shrub in the desert."(17:6)

I read these words and a light bulb goes on in my feeble brain. That is my problem. I have been trusting in man. I am judging my life by the world's standard and what other people think. No wonder I feel like a "shrub in the desert."

I need to trust in the Lord Who, "will lead me by still waters."(Psalm 23)

"Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river." (Jeremiah 17: 7-8)

Have a blessed day. Peace

                                                     Late Night Conversation
I ask my wife how the women's retreat went. Joy says, Remember the night you were reading
and the words, "God is really in you," and how you felt? (I had sat up straight. It was a
defining moment for me.)
"Imagine feeling like that for an entire weekend." she said. "I didn't want to go home."
"Were you afraid that you would be leaving God behind," I asked?
"Something like that," she whispers.
"Well you didn't, I offer, "God is never far away. We just need to say in touch."

"For indeed, the Kingdom  of God is within you." (Luke 17:21)

 

Unshakeable Faith

 

 Shortly after moving my family from the States  to Johannesburg, South Africa to work with Bibles For Africa, I woke up with pins and needles and a numbness in my left arm.

 

It was like when people would say, "my arm has fallen asleep." In my case my arm stayed asleep for three weeks and simple tasks were awkward and painful to perform.

 

I visited the Neurology Department  of an academic hospital in Pretoria. I was diagnosed with a pinched nerve in my cervical spine and referred to Radiology for x-rays.

 

The technician there reminded me that the nominal fee to enter the hospital entitled me to visit as many departments as there was time in that business day at no cost except for pharmaceuticals. I told her I had injured my lumbar spine several years ago. She took x-rays of my lumbar.

 

The government hospital did not have an MRI machine so I opted to see a radiologist in private practice. The radiologist who interpreted the MRI referred me to a local Neurosurgeon, who he highly recommended with the caution, "this guy likes to perform surgeries."

 

My visit to the Neurosurgeon confirmed I had a pinched nerve in the cervical spine but he was stunned when he looked at the lumbar x-rays.

 

"How do you walk," he asked?

 

I abruptly answered, "I put one foot in front of the other, same as you do."

 

He pointed to the x-ray which showed that the disc between the lowest two vertebrae had disintegrated. He predicted that if I didn't have corrective surgery I would likely be in a wheelchair in five years.

 

To treat the cervical spine issue he gave me two options. The first was to admit me to a hospital where I would be heavily sedated while in traction for a week. The second option, which the Neurosurgeon reluctantly mentioned, was a home traction kit which I could use over time, hopefully with success.

 

As I drove home I simply said to the Lord, "Father when Jesus was offered the vinegar to drink mingled with gall, (on the cross) he would not drink. Therefore I cannot subject myself to whatever is involved with a weeklong sedation." As for the home traction kit, I said to the Lord,  "at home I have a three-year old and a one-year-old. I would become a human gym set. This won't work either. I'm simply going to trust you and go back to work."

 

From that day the pins and needles went away and over the course of the next few weeks my hand became stronger and atrophy was overcome by the return of muscle tone.

 

This  happened 21 years ago. I'm back in America working without limitation or hindrance. Through the grace of God, I continue to put one foot in front of another.

 

Mark Walker

      Antwerp, OH