Lord, Let Me Get Home Before Dark a prayer shared by Robertson McQuilken President Emeritus-Columbia International University

It's sundown, Lord.
The shadows of my life stretch back
into the dimness of the years long spent.
I fear not death, for that grim foe betrays himself at last,
thrusting me forever into life:
Life with You, unsoiled and free.
But I do fear.
I fear the Dark Spectre may come too soon -
or do I mean, too late?
That I should end before I finish
or finish, but not well.
That I should stain Your honor, shame Your name,
grieve Your loving heart.
Few, they tell me, finish well . . .
Lord, let me get home before dark.

The darkness of a spirit
grown mean and small, fruit shriveled on the vine,
bitter to the taste of my companions,
burden to be borne by those brave few who love me still.
No, Lord. Let the fruit grow lush and sweet,
A joy to all who taste;
Spirit-sign of God at work,
stronger, fuller, brighter at the end.
Lord, let me get home before dark.

The darkness of tattered gifts,
rust-locked, half-spent or ill-spent,
A life that once was used of God
now set aside.
Grief for glories gone or
Fretting for a task God never gave.
Mourning in the hollow chambers of memory,
Gazing on the faded banners of victories long gone.
Cannot I run well unto the end?
Lord, let me get home before dark.

The outer me decays -
I do not fret or ask reprieve.
The ebbing strength but weans me from mother earth
and grows me up for heaven.
I do not cling to shadows cast by immortality.
I do not patch the scaffold lent to build the real, eternal me.
I do not clutch about me my cocoon,
vainly struggling to hold hostage
a free spirit pressing to be born.
But will I reach the gate
in lingering pain, body distorted, grotesque?
Or will it be a mind
wandering untethered among light
phantasies or grim terrors?
Of Your grace, Father, I humbly ask. . .
Let me get home before dark.

Come to the Banquet Table of Blessings

"Several years ago I heard a story about a Scotsman who was coming to America. He had purchsed passage on one of the great ocean liners. He did not have much money, so he decided to save on food by stocking up on crackers, cheese, and fruit before his departure. The ship sailed, and he began to eat his Spartan meals. This went fairly well for the first four or five days. But as the ship drew closer to New York the crackers became increasingly stale, the cheese became moldy, and the fruit spoiled. Finally there was nothing left that was fit to eat. The Scotsman decided that he would go to the dining room and have one last , good meal before the liner docked in Manhattan and he went ashore. Imagine his surprise to discover that nothing in the dining room cost anything and that all that he could ever have eaten had already been included in the price of his ticket before he left the British Isles!" (excerpt from The Gospel of John by James M. Boice) Isn't this often true of the poverty of life in which we live by not realizing that Jesus has already paid with His life for blessings to us beyond our ability to count? "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him." I pray that we will all join each other today and this week at the banquet table of blessings He has prepared for us...

God, Mankind and Time

Picture in your mind a four foot long piece of string suspended horizontally in the air in the middle of an open gymnasium. One end of the string symbolizes the beginning of recorded time. The other end symbolizes the end of recorded time or life as it is known by humans dwelling upon the earth. There is a definite order and direction on the string with the first humans and events occurring on the Eastern end of the string and the last humans and events occurring on the Western end. Every human who has ever lived or who will ever live on Earth is on the string at the same time, looking like almost invisible microbes to us if we were able to look at the whole string. While we are on the string we can read about some of what occurred on the string that lies behind us, things that have occurred to people on the string that existed before we did. We cannot see backward, and we cannot see forward on the string. We can read about what happened before, but we have zero certainty of what will happen even one millionth of a second in the future ahead of us on the string. Without help from someone who can know the future our whole world is made up of the things we can understand from the past because in reality there is virtually no present. The instant you experience a moment in what we would call the present, it passes by and is almost simultaneously the past.
Conversely, God can move freely around he gymnasium and in fact can go outside the gym if He so chooses. His eyesight is so good He can see everything going on along the string and He can see all of it with clarity at the same point in time. He sees and knows all of the future as clearly as He sees and knows all of the past and present. He can see not only the events going on, but can see into the minds and hearts of each person on the string at the same time. He sees what happens to each person as they die. He sees when each person will die as well as when they will be born. He is not bound by time at all since all of time as we know it, exists on the string that He can fully see simultaneously. If He wanted to express the difference between His view of time and ours He might try to put it in human terms that while not completely accurate (since He transcends time) might at least give us some idea of the vastness of difference between us and Him. He might say it this way, “But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is as one day.” 2Peter 3:8 Therefore:

GOD Man
1 day= 1,000 years
1 day= 365,000 days
24 hours= 210,240,000 hours
1440 minutes= 12,614,400,000 minutes
So 10 years on earth to mankind is the same as 14.4 minutes to God. Since God is timeless, of course, this is still an inaccurate measure, but somehow because I believe He wanted to give us some understanding of His timelessness He chose to express it this way. On the one hand therefore, if we believe that the earth has been in existence for 10,000 years, that is still only 10 days to the Lord. If however, we believe the earth is 200 million years old that is still only 200 days for the Lord, less than one year by Earth time.
In the end a life time of 70 years for man is about an hour and a half for God. There are so many ways to break this down, some intellectually interesting and some personally interesting. Here is the way God impressed on me the value of this concept. My father passed away in January of 1990 after a brief illness. My mother who had been married to him for over 50 years grieved a great deal, missing her best friend. During the succeeding days following Dad’s death she developed a neuropathy in her legs and feet that would often either wake her up in the middle of the night or keep her from going to sleep from the intense pain. She records in her quiet time journal that one morning following a pain filled sleepless night, she was pouring her heart out to God. Trying to allow Him to take the burden she felt of the pain in her feet and legs and the hurt in her heart over the loss of her best friend. She said during this time of intense prayer she was confident she heard an audible voice say, “Dorothy, I’ll meet you at 2:00”. She was startled an almost instinctively said, “What did you say?” The “voice” repeated, “Dorothy, I’ll meet you at 2:00.” Being a very sober minded woman, she couldn’t for the life of her figure out what this voice that she felt in her soul was the Lord was telling her. She speculated that perhaps He was going to heal her neuropathy at 2-maybe in the morning and maybe in the afternoon. She wrote it down, told only my younger sister and decided He would have His way in His own time. Over the next 13 years, she spent many nights, walking the floor trying to get relief from her pain and praying for her kids and friends. While we agonized for her she was as usual making lemonade from what we thought were lemons. In the fall of 2003 she became very ill. After several pain and prayer filled days, and for her family and nurses a remarkable story that I’ll save for another time, she left her earthly shell and joined her Heavenly Father. As the whole family of 18 stood around her bed held captive by those few moments of transition and translation to the other side, we spoke out loud of the legacy she had left us of love for each other and the Lord. Trying all the way to the end to remind her that she had run the race well and we were the beneficiaries of that. When the monitors flat lined, her doctor came in to physically check her pulse and be sure that she had passed. Then he looked at the clock and said, “I’m putting her time of death as 2:00 p.m.” My sister gasped and related the story that Mom had shared with her over 13 years earlier. God had kept His promise to her. She was right in thinking He might heal her at 2. She just didn’t know how much of a healing it would be. For the Lord, those 13 years were less than 20 minutes. It was if for Him He was saying to her, “I’ll see you in just a few minutes, Dorothy.”
The best part about this story and this understanding of His transcendence and omnipresence is not that Mom was joined to Him in under 20 minutes of heavenly time. It’s also not that He was able to predict the time when she would pass, to the very hour. The profound beauty of all of this discussion is that He is Sovereign over every minute of this time. He declares what will come to pass and makes it so. He is not a fortune teller with the cheat sheet of seeing what man who is sovereign over his own choices will do. He is Sovereign over everything. “Who is there who speaks and it comes to pass unless the Lord has commanded it?” Lam. 3:37 “Even from eternity, I am He; and there is none who can deliver out of my hand; I act and who can reverse it?” Is. 43:13
What incredible comfort it gives to know that He is in charge of every moment. Our blessings and our pain, which He views, apparently as almost interchangeable concepts are both in His hands. He will accomplish His good pleasure.


(Handout)
The Timelessness of God

“But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is as one day.” 2Peter 3:8


Therefore:

GOD Man
1 day= 1,000 years
1 day= 365,000 days
24 hours= 210,240,000 hours
1440 minutes= 12,614,400,000 minutes

So 10 years on earth to mankind is the same as 14.4 minutes to God. Since God is timeless, of course, this is still an inaccurate measure, but somehow because I believe He wanted to give us some understanding of His timelessness He chose to express it this way. On the one hand therefore, if we believe that the earth has been in existence for 10,000 years, the time that has passed is still only 10 days to the Lord. If however, we believe the earth is 200 million years old, that is still only 200 days for the Lord, less than one year by Earth time.
In the end a life time of 70 years for man is about an hour and a half for God.

“Behold, Thou hast made my days as handbreadths, and my lifetime as nothing in Thy sight, surely every man at his best is a mere breath.” Ps. 39:5

While He has given us a desire to utilize the time we do have in the best possible way, as His children we can do it in a way that is not focused on ourselves and in a way not filled with anxiousness or frustration. Our knowledge of His timelessness should give us perspective to work hard, because it is the norm for His children, and to enjoy the hard work as we attempt to make it the best gift of praise to Him that we can give during our brief sojourn on earth.

“So teach us to number our days, that we may present to Thee a heart of wisdom.” Ps. 90:12
“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Phil. 4:6, 7

The Worth of a Pastor

While I don't believe I agree with many of the presuppositions of this article(ie,how can anyone measure personal worth-pastor or businessman?, goal of pastor on Sunday morning is to motivate, or even the idea of placing a monetary value on the expression of ministry. There are also many "ministries" who are paying their leader a significant sum of money and I don't view what they do as being in line with the scriptures)it is stimulating in that it attacks some long held views of the worth/salary of those who have been called to preach.I believe it implicitly asks the question, why, as Americans, we generally tend to only give 3-6% of our income to the church-statistically this is especially true of those making more than $150,000/yr. On the contrary, in my personal experience I find that I receive far more from the Lord than I deserve, and that the people we are most closely associated with tend to be amazingly generous on many fronts.


What's the fair market value of the services a pastor renders? How can you compare the pastorate to the business world? The varied responsibilities of pastoral ministry demand that the pastor be a versatile and time efficient professional. What other executive faces the pressures of research and multiple presentations every week, gives administrative leadership to a complex organization, makes personal visits to care for the spiritual well- being of members, enlists the unchurched and is on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week? A company would have to hire three or four people to fill the corporate positions corresponding to the pastor's job description!
In order to put some objective valuation of pastoral ministry, I checked the wages of comparable professionals. The reasoning is, if you hired a professional with a similar job description to do each part of the pastor's job, what would you expect to pay? The startling results are below. Remember, "The labourer is worthy of his reward." (The worker deserves his wages). I Timothy 5:18.
A. Preaching and teaching. To ascertain the value of the pastor's speaking ministry I checked on the costs of hiring a speaker from a talent agency. I called Gemini Talent Association in Denver and talked to Jim Sullivan. He said that the low figure for a competent speaker for a workshop would be $350 per speech. The least expensive motivational speaker was $1,500 for one of the few available in the Denver area. If you figure that a pastor preaches to motivate on Sunday morning and to teach during the other two presentations during the week (although the distinction is not always that clear), you could compute the value of the pastor's speaking ministry, which would also compensate for the 20 or so hours of study each week in preparation for those messages:
$1,500 X 50 sunday mornings = $75,000$350 X 2 teaching sessions a week = $750$750 X 50 weeks = $37,500Annual total = $112,500
B. Counseling. Counselors get between $50 and $95 for a 50-minute session. A pastor will probably average five in-office counseling sessions a week with individuals or families.
Counseling at $50 hour X 5 X 50 = $12,500Counseling at $75 hour X 5 X 50 = $18,750
C. Home visiting. A local M.D. informed me that the minimum rate for a house call is $62.50. A plumber will charge $35 plus parts and mileage. Let's use a conservative figure of $50 per hour for pastoral visitation to homes, rest homes or hospitals. That includes evangelism, checking on church families, and etc. Our surveys indicate that a pastor will spend between 11 and 18 hours a week in personal work outside of the church building.
So $50 X 11 hours a week = $550 X 50 = $27,500Or $50 X 18 hours a week = $900 X 50 = $45,000
D. Administration. A pastor is the chief operating officer responsible for a sizable business. To get a comparison I checked with our school system for the salary of a grade school principal. Figures hourly, the principal of a small grade school makes a little more than $20 per hour. That would be low for the manager of a small business. But we'll use the $20 per hour figure. Let's say that the pastor spends 15 hours a week planning, programming, attending to details, training and overseeing.
So 15 hours X $20 = $300 X 50 weeks = $15,000
Paying comparative professionals to perform the pastor's job, 51-58 hours a week, would cost between $167,500 and $191,250 per year. You'll notice that this doesn't include a paid vacation, compensation for being on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, extra pay for "hazardous- duty" crisis counseling and many other responsibilities the pastor routinely performs.
From the Pastoral Newsletter

Here are da-boys following a recent lecture on church history. You can tell you don't want to miss these...

In Honor of My Mother

Where Thy Feet Have Trod

For 80 years thy feet have trod
Upon this earthly sod of God
Leaving footprints both small and grand
Leading the way to the Savior’s hand


Your footprints on this earth, dearest Mother, have been made with shoes too large to fill. Whether it was tramping behind your mother and grandmother in the gardens and flower beds or squeezing mud between your toes down by the fishing hole. Your feet have walked the Muddy Boggy and through pastures full of the smell of new mown hay. These feet have walked the land in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, California, New York, New Jersey, and countless other states and cities in our country. They have been in castles in Ireland, malls in Arizona, discount stores in Atoka, Neiman-Marcus, and on the first golf courses. They have even walked where our Savior walked down into the Jordan. They carried you to church as a daughter, a wife, a mother, a grandmother and a great grandmother. They’ve been with you on your own stompin’ ground and without your shoes on Hallowed Ground. You have walked in the most fascinating locations this side of heaven.
More than anything though, these feet have shown a path for four generations to walk. You have broken trail for us all, and have been broken on the trail and allowed us to see you deal with it. Your feet have led us to fishing holes and timeless roles. You’ve walked in front of us, beside us and behind us. All the while encouraging and loving us to be more than we thought we could become. In these latter years your feet have become the conduits of pain for you. And even still you’re showing us how to not just survive it, but to prosper in it. Being honest when it hurts and yet still praising Him for His goodness to you. Mom, I’m still following. Keep leading on. “Feets don’t fail me now…”
And now those feet are firmly planted on heavenly turf. He came for you at 2, dearest mother, just as He promised…

Ten Reasons I Am a Pastor

Ten Reasons I Am a Pastor
John MacArthur
I remember reading Iain Murray's excellent biography of Jonathan Edwards. I found much to identify with, especially the personal heartaches Edwards endured as pastor of the same church for twenty-three years. After all that time his flock voted him out.
I've been the pastor of Grace Community Church now for nearly thirty-five years. While I don't envision a fate like Edwards's, I know what it is to be the subject of controversy, both inside and outside the church.
Do I ever contemplate leaving the pastorate? Admittedly, there are times when even the prospect of digging ditches for a living has a certain appeal. But I know God has called me to be a pastor, and I have never seriously considered bailing out.
Someone recently suggested that I could leave my church if I wanted to and still have a fruitful ministry preaching on the Bible-conference circuit and through radio, thereby avoiding the hassles of leading a church. But I wouldn't do that either. I can think of at least ten reasons I remain committed to church ministry.
1. The church is the only institution Christ promised to build and bless. He said, "I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not overpower it" (Matt. 16:18). Christ's purpose in the world is to call to Himself a redeemed people who would live to the praise of His glory. He is building the church. In that I take great comfort and confidence, thankful for having a small part in our Lord's great work.
2. The corporate functions of the Body all take place in the church. The church is where God has ordained His people to meet together to celebrate the Lord's Supper, to worship Him, and to encourage and edify one another. It's my joy to call God's people to worship, just as the psalmist said, "Come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand" (Ps. 95:6-7).
3. Preaching is the chief human means God uses to dispense His grace. The apostle Paul commanded Timothy to "preach the word" (2 Tim. 4:2). I have the privilege each Sunday of proclaiming God's message to His people - a message of grace, by which God saves people and transforms lives.
4. I can be consumed with study and communion with God. There's a public side to me that the congregation sees, but there's a private side to me that only God knows. While I might preach three hours a week, I study thirty. And those hours spent each week in God's presence are a high and holy privilege.
5. I am directly responsible to God for the lives of the people He has given me to shepherd. As a radio teacher, I'm not as personally accountable for how people apply God's Word. But as the pastor-teacher of a congregation, I have a relationship with my people like that of a shepherd and his sheep. I watch over their souls as one "who will give an account" (Heb. 13:17).
6. I am also accountable to the people in my church. Everything is exposed to them: my life and family, my personal strengths and weaknesses-everything. I cherish that accountability. It is a constant encouragement for me to reflect Christ in everything I say and do.
7. I love the challenge of building an effective leadership team from the people God has put in the church. When someone starts a business, he can hire anyone he wants. It's another thing entirely to build with the people God has called, when few of us are wise, mighty, or noble by the world's standards (1 Cor. 1:26). God reveals the greatness of His power by demonstrating that the world's nobodies are His most precious resources.
8. The pastorate embraces all of life. I share the joy of parents over the birth of a child, as well as the pain of children over the death of a mother or father. I help celebrate at a wedding; I also offer comfort at a funeral. There is an inevitable unpredictability that accompanies my calling-an incredible adventure may begin at any given moment. It is at those times that the pastor goes beyond his sermon to stand in the gap for God in the lives of His people.
9. The rewards in this life are marvelous. I feel loved, appreciated, needed, trusted, and admired-all a result of being an instrument God has used in the spiritual progress of His people. I know my people pray for me and care deeply about me. I owe a debt of gratitude to God for that. I am honored to be a channel through which the grace of God, love of Christ, and comfort of the Holy Spirit can be made real to people.
10. I'm afraid not to be a pastor. When I was eighteen, the Lord threw me out of a car traveling seventy miles an hour. I landed on my backside and slid 110 yards on the pavement. By the grace of God I wasn't killed. As I stood up on that highway, having never lost consciousness, I committed my life to serving Christ. I told Him I would no longer resist what He wanted me to do, which was to preach His Word.
God has called me to be a pastor-teacher "for the equipping of the saints for the work of service" (Eph. 4:12). The reward of being a pastor far surpasses any frustration I will ever feel in ministry. And so I say with the apostle Paul, "I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 3:14).
© Copyright 2002 by Grace to You.

Prayer of Thomas Aquinas 1225-1274

"Give me, O Lord, a steadfast heart, which no unworthy affection may drag downwards; give me an unconquered heart which no tribulation can wear out; give me an upright heart, which no unworthy purpose may tempt aside"