Pastor Buddy’s Blog

Hi Journal,

In my last entry ‘From generation to generation’, I included a bit about my mom. Now I want to share some things about my dad. So here goes… 

I said to my ship mates, “Boys, I’m going to find me a good woman and settle down.” That was in May, 1963. I was wearied of all the travels, the sea ports, the bars, the gambling, the seedy side of life, and just the plain emptiness of everything.

I had gone into the Navy as an idealistic and somewhat naive lad of 18 years. Now I felt battle worn and hardened at age 22.  

And the news from home wasn’t the best. Mom and dad were busting up. It would be my role to take my mom and my two sisters from Louisiana to Colorado, where one of mom’s sisters lived. But I’ll never forget what happened the morning we were to leave. Dad came to where I was laying on a pallet on the floor. He bent over and said, “I love you son.”

There was just something in his voice that struck a cord deep inside of me. I saw such a longing in his voice. After I got up, I saw dad walking across the field in front of our house. I will never forget that scene. It spoke to me of sadness. I think dad felt sorrow for me, for  what I was having to come home to.

It is true that every son needs to hear his dad say, ‘I love you.’ This wasn’t new with me and my dad. We often affirmed our love on a regular basis. This time it was just different. Kinda hard to explain.

The picture - I’m reaching across time with this one. My dad was a younger man. This picture was taken during WWII. 

The two smaller pictures are of me. (Vietnam era) Notice how the bottom picture shows a certain hardness. These two pictures tell the story of how hardness can creep up on anyone over the years. And especially when the Lord is not in the center of our life picture.

Off we go to Colorado. In the next few weeks I would drop from 190 pounds to about 145 pounds. My heart was in disarray. I was popping pills right and left. (Had a can of diet pills that a friend had given me.)

First - A little more about my dad –  

Pardon me if I jump back and forth across time. My dad went to be with the Lord, March 19, 1973. He was only 61 years old. But it was one of my greatest joys in life to get to baptize him a month before he passed over. My dad always had a tender heart. He just wasn’t a church goer. Later on in years you would find him attending more services, and sometimes in revivals that I was holding.

But let’s continue on with the story.

I need to get back on track. We arrived in Colorado the first of June, 1963. Keep in mind some of my final words to my ship mates; ‘Boys, I’m going to find me a good woman and settle down.’

Over the years I’ve come to understand and to believe just how much the Lord is involved in the events of our lives, and that even before we come to know Him personally. By July, 1963, I had already met this beautiful young Christian girl. To this day when I look at Betty, my toes curl. 

Anyway, this is where a letter to my dad comes in. After my dad passed on, we found a letter in his belongings that I had written him. It was about my sweet Betty. I wrote the letter July 23, 1963. The letter is now close to 45 years old. It seems my dad treasured my letter over the years. This says something about the love of a father for his son.

Although the letter is quite private, I felt it would be good to share it. The letter speaks to the heart of a young man, where other words would fail me. But there is also a spiritual lesson involved. We’ll look at the lesson a bit later.

Here it is.

A son writes his father…

“Dear Dad,

“Forgive my delay in answering as is my usual custom. Not much at writing letters and there hasn’t been much news to speak of.

“Everyone is fine on this end. My job finding efforts have paid off a little. I’m now working as a salesman for the Notifier Home Fire Alarm Company. Straight commission. Afraid this will have to do until I can hook onto something steady. Still hoping for that position in Utah, but the missile site isn’t due completion until October.

“That is the main reason I haven’t married yet. Plus Betty’s good sense. Of course we need something to start on and being a salesman just doesn’t get it. We had planned to be married a couple weeks ago but my not having a job stopped that.

“Say Dad, how are the jobs back home? We’ve been talking about moving to Louisiana if I could get a decent job there. I intend to stick this job out in Utah if possible. So far I haven’t heard from them and that leaves much in doubt. Actually I haven’t anything definite to look forward to. Haven’t decided yet but, perhaps I’ll go back to Louisiana. Betty is the only reason I’ve stuck here thus far. There’s nothing worse that being without work and wanting to get married.

“Don’t misunderstand this letter. I do like it here a lot but a person has to eat. Betty has set September more-so a date for us. Certainly is disgusting.

“You’d surely like Betty, Dad. Couldn’t have made a better choice I assure you. She’s smart and from what I’ve observed, very conservative. Frankly, Betty has done an ‘A one’ job at keeping my head above water.

“Afraid her family doesn’t take a shine towards me and that has me bothered. Won’t go into that though. Just hoping for the best.

“Well Dad, I don’t want to bore you any more, so answer when you get time and maybe I’ll be home before too long.

“Always your son,

Buddy

“PS. Give my love to Bertie, Donnis and the boys.”

Well, where do I go with all this? Is there anything of a spiritual nature that I can draw on. Absolutely! Very much indeed.

Did you know that the gospel is the story of a love between a Father and His Son? Sure it is.  And let me point out that the story of the gospel is the story of the Father saying…

Let Me introduce you to My Son…

Did you know that the Bible teaches that you cannot have the Father without the Son, nor can you have the Son without the Father. Think about these Scriptures:

“Worship the LORD with reverence And rejoice with trembling. Do homage to the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in the way, for His wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!” (Psalm 2:11,12 - Early Church drew on this Psalm with regard to Jesus.)

“Who has ascended into heaven and descended? Who has gathered the wind in His fists? Who has wrapped the waters in His garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is His name or His son’s name? Surely you know!” (Pro 39:4)

“After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him, and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.’” (Mat 3:16,17)

“While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud said, ‘This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!’” (Matt 17:5)

“For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” (Col 1:13,14)

“Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the Antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also.” (1 John 2:22,23)

The Bible we love so dearly is deeply imbued with the Father’s love for His Son. 

The reason it is so deeply imbued is because the Bible is the book of heaven, and Jesus is the Son from heaven. And the Bible as heaven’s book has much to do with God’s work of salvation.

The reason an unbeliever finds no life in the Bible is because unbelief always cuts a person off from the life of God. This life is only found in God’s Son. Does this sound a bit odd? Let’s look into it.

“And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.” (1 John 5:11,12)

The Bible teaches that Jesus Christ is the exact expression of all that God is. Thus it can be said that as we study the gospels we are studying the character of God. Jesus is also the Word of God wrapped in the form of humanity. He is the Word made flesh. Thus Jesus Himself is the secret life of the Bible.

Let’s take a closer look at this. In quoting from Psalm 40:7,8, Hebrews 10:7 says, “Behold, I have come. In the scroll of the book it is written of Me.”

The term for scroll (kephalis) originally spoke of the knob at the head of the stick around which the parchments were wrapped. The ancients saw Psalm 40:7,8 as referring to Messiah. In addition they saw the Torah as containing the very life of God and His Messiah. So the ancients believed that the sacred writings wrapped themselves around God’s Messiah.

The idea of God’s life being in the book isn’t new to the Christian faith. To the Jews the Torah was a living thing. We see this in how Jesus spoke to certain of the Jews;

“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life.” (Jn5:39,40)

Here is an incident that speaks to the life of God in the Scriptures. There was a lady who suffered greatly from a female disorder. Hearing about Jesus, she said to herself, “If I only touch His garment, I will get well.” (Mt9:21) We don’t often catch what she was really saying. The part of His garment she wanted to touch was the fringe (tassel) of His cloak.

The Jews had a tradition concerning the fringe that had to do with God’s Messiah. The background for this was God’s commandment to Moses, saying,

“Speak to the sons of Israel, and tell them that they shall make for themselves tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and that they shall put on the tassel of each corner a cord of blue.” (Num15:38)

The cord of blue was said to represent the throne of glory, or the heavenly life. Over time these tassels took on the term ‘wings.’ Keep this in mind and you’ll have a bit more insight into certain Scriptures that speak of God’s wings and as to why the lady wanted to touch the garment (tassels) of Jesus. Here are examples:

“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty … He will cover you with His pinions, and under His wings you may seek refuge.” (Ps91:1,4)

“But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall.” (Mal4:2)

Then we hear Jesus say,

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling.” (Mt23:37)

The point at hand is that the Jewish people made a strong association between the fringes of the garment and the Messiah. Wanting to touch the garment of Jesus was another way of the recognizing Him as the Messiah of God. Follow this with another Scripture:

“Wherever He entered villages, or cities, or countryside, they were laying the sick in the market places, and imploring Him that they might just touch the fringe of His cloak; and as many as touched it were cured.” (Mar6:56)

But a question remains — What does this have to do with the Scriptures themselves, and, how can it be said that the Scriptures can be imbued with the very life of Jesus? It all comes back to the Bible being the book of heaven.

It isn’t the Bible itself that causes miracles and gives us the answers that we need. It is the voice that speaks to us from the Scriptures. Make this distinction and you have the true essence of why we love the book of heaven so deeply, and why we can say that the Bible is imbued with the life of Jesus.

Recall when Jesus opened the scroll of Isaiah and began to read,

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.” (Cf. Luke 4:16-22)

What happens next? The people are astonished at what they are hearing. It says they were wondering at the gracious words that were flowing from His lips. What made the difference in this case? It was Jesus speaking from the Scriptures. The people were hearing a living voice speaking from the book of heaven. It is the voice of heaven that makes the Bible the book of heaven.

The Bible explains this aspect of hearing God from the book. For example, Isaiah 29:18,19, says,

“On that day the deaf will hear words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see. The afflicted also will increase their gladness in the Lord, and the needy of mankind will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.”

It takes awhile for the child of God to understand the principle of how God speaks to us. This is why it is so important for the believer to be in the congregation of God’s holy people. As the man of God speaks from the Scriptures, we began to hear the Lord speaking to our own hearts.

It isn’t the man of God who is speaking to us. It is the Lord speaking from the book of heaven. This is what Jesus is pointing out when He said, “For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.” (Mt18:20 - He is present in His Word.)

Here is the crux of the matter. You see, no one can come to know the Lord Jesus, God’s Son, unless the Father gives that person the knowing experience. And it works both ways.  No one can truly know the Father unless the Son reveals Him. Listen:

“At that time Jesus said, ‘I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in Your sight.’

“All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.

“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matt 11:25-30)

Did you catch the heart of the story behind a son writes his father…

Sure there is more to be said. But let me end up with another of my great joys in life. It was when I was able to present my children to my dad. The sad note is that he did not get to meet my daughter. Shana was born a year after daddy passed. But he will get to met her one day.

Did you know that one day Jesus will present all of us to the heavenly Father. Oh yes. Listen to this wonderful portion:

“For it was fitting for Him [Jesus], for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings. For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father;

“…for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, ‘I will proclaim Your name to my Brethren, in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.’

“And again, ‘I will put My trust in Him.’

“And again, ‘Behold, I and the children whom God has given Me.’” (Heb 2:19-13)

So now you have my story. I really do miss my dad. There is so much more I could say about him.

The one thing that really stood out to me about daddy, was how he loved his grandchildren.

My very first son, Nathan, captured daddy’s heart from the start. I remember daddy picking Nathan up, putting a diaper in one back pocket, and a bottle in the other back pocket, and off they would go to visit kin folk.

OK - I’m about to tear up. Nuff for now. Didn’t mean to write a book.

Much love coming your way,

Buddy