The Dead Man's Float

There’s a song we sing with the kids during Vacation Bible School called Pharaoh Pharaoh. One of the verses ends with the kids going limp and singing “And all of Pharaoh’s army did the dead man’s float.” Swimmers know that this is an actual position used for life saving purposes for when things are at their worst. Imagine being stuck on a sinking ship in the middle of the sea without any land in sight or anything to cling to. If you can somehow manage to relax and let your body’s natural buoyancy take over, keeping your head just barely above water so your airways are dry; you just might stand a chance of letting the current take you to the nearest shoreline. Exhausted, beat up, at your mental and physical limits; the only thing you have left in you is to sit back and let the tides take you where they may. For better or worse your fate rests in whichever way the winds blow.

This may seem like a scenario most of us are not likely to face, but some of us are doing the dead man’s float this very moment and not even realizing it. Your feelings have been hurt. You’ve lost your faith, your trust in God, in His church, and you are just going through the motions letting the tide take you where it sees fit. You feel like you’ve got nothing else to give and you’re hurt too bad to do anything more than keep your head barely above water. Will you end up in a good place? Will you be worse off than before? Those questions aren’t up you to answer any longer….unless you kick. If you are reading this and find yourself floating through life, I urge you to kick! Point yourself towards God, towards His church, stop floating, and start fighting for your soul! I know these words are easier to write than they are to act on, but you are not alone! God is by your side, Jesus died so you would have a chance to survive, and there are people all around that want to help. Send up a flare, get somebody’s attention, ask for a prayer, tell them you are drowning and need something to hold on to. Stop floating and start swimming towards Christ. 

Do you know?

"Do you know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak" 

Isaiah 40:28-29 is one of my favorite verses because it speaks to the reader at the time they are at their most vulnerable. Down on their luck with all hope about to be lost, Isaiah's words are almost like a slap in the face as if he’s in shock that there may yet be those that do not understand God’s power. "Have you not heard?!" It is in these two verses that we are reminded of God's all knowing, all understanding, all powerful heart. His is the kind of love that wraps you tight like a warm blanket on a cold night and keeps you safe in the knowledge that you are stronger than you will ever truly understand when God is your focus. There isn't a greater love than His and with Him by your side during those moments when all seems lost, you can rest easy in knowing that one day soon you will stand tall in God’s shining light. 

Worth The Hype!!

Well there it went! The greatest and in my opinion most overly hyped scientific event this millennium SOLAR ECLIPSE 2017! finally arrived and was over in 2 minutes. For the past 12 months the legend of the SOLAR ECLIPSE OF 2017!!! got bigger by the day along with the expectation that we were all about to witness a life altering event the likes of which would never be seen again for 100 years. Hide your pets, blindfold your children, grab your welder’s mask, and stare in amazement as the world goes dark during the middle of the day…but not really. Lets be honest it barely got cloudy outside. I’m not saying it wasn’t something to take a peek at, but was it really drive 200 miles, rent a hotel room for 3 days, stand outside in a 100 degree blazing mid-day sun kinda neat? I just don’t see it (even though I did see it).

Frankly after seeing how packed Spring Park was, not to mention the millions of pictures on social media showing football stadiums at standing room only crowd levels, I couldn’t help but think of another day when we will all be staring up at the sky waiting for something truly amazing to happen. A time when as Jesus described it in Matthew 24 verses 29-31 “the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken. Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.”

Now that’s something worth risking blindness over!

Bill Beck iii

The Words That Hurt

Matthew 26:69-75 describes what Peter went through as Jesus was being beaten. Three times someone within the crowd that had gathered pointed Peter out and revealed to everyone his connection to Jesus. With each attempt to unmask his true identity, Peter became more and more outrageous in his denial of ever knowing Jesus. Finally it is said in verse 24 that “he began to curse and swear, saying, “I do not know the Man!”

Peter was afraid of the large crowd and what they may do to him if it was discovered that he was a student of Jesus. Peter had to do something to separate himself from the man on the other side of the courtyard being spit on and whipped and he had to do it quick. So Peter did the only thing he could think of and that was to begin to curse and swear as loud as he could; the thought behind this being that if Jesus was who he proclaimed to be, than no follower of the Son of God would dare say such vile and disgusting words. The same connections are just as easily destroyed by us today when we proclaim our love for Jesus one moment and let loose a string of curse words the next. Whether it be while singing along to the radio or quoting a line from a movie or stubbing our toe on the coffee table and lashing out in a fit of rage, when the outside world hears us who profess our love for Christ and then say those same words Peter used that day in Gethsemane; the same affect is achieved…and the same betrayal is repeated. 

The Fire Within

Fall is finally arriving and it never fails that once we start waking up to those cool mornings with the temps in the 50’s, my boys become fascinated with being able to see their breath. The moment we walk out the door headed to school, the excitement hits them. “Dad I can see my breath!” “Look Dad, I’m blowing smoke like a dragon” “I need a jacket Dad it’s so cold my breath is freezing!” I try to explain the science; when you inhale your body temperature warms the air which causes the moisture to condense when you exhale as the warm air hits the cold air all around you. Your breath is always there, but you can only see it when the conditions are right. Like most kids they aren’t interested in the science behind it, they just like running around pretending they have the power to shoot fire out of their faces. “Look Dad I can blow smoke out of my nose!”

Like my children I also find myself waking up with excitement at what I see each morning; The bright yellow sun lighting a brilliant blue sky; Parents kissing their children on the tops of their head and hustling them into school; Joggers running up and down the sidewalks trying to stay in shape; People everywhere beginning a brand new day. When the conditions are right though I find myself looking through all of the happenings and marveling at what else I see…a promise kept by a Man sent from Heaven to save the World. And just like my boys who I hope never get bored with seeing smoke come from their noses, I pray I never become blind to the sight of Jesus working his magic in my life.