A Father's Love Letter

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Come to the Table

Some count carbs, some count calories, and others follow strict diet plans, all in an effort to insure that they have proper nutrition. The old saying, "you are what you eat”, rings true for our physical health. Proper nutrition is also of paramount importance for our spiritual health. The Word of God is compared to both "milk" (1 Peter 2:2) and "solid food" (1 Corinthians 3:2). Pastors are commanded to "feed the flock" (John 21:25). Without a doubt, the Word of God is the source of our spiritual nourishment.

It has been, and remains, the commitment of Bible Center Church that we provide a balanced diet of God's truth in every ministry. Whether it is a preschooler learning a simple verse in Cubbies, or if it is Scripture shared at the bedside of an ailing senior citizen, we desire to deliver a well prepared and well served “helping” of God's Word. For more than 65 years we have been blessed with great Bible teaching from our pulpit; and please pray for those of us who are called upon to deliver the message for today.

So won't you come to the table eager to enjoy hearing from God? Don't settle for a handful of vitamins or a fast-food meal; let’s together dig deep into God's Word and feast upon His truth.

Jesse Waggoner

The Crown

“They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand and knelt in front of him and mocked him. ‘Hail, king of the Jews!’” (Matt. 27:29)

What kind of perverse mind would have thought of it; yes the would-be ruler needed to be taught a lesson, but how to do it….let’s see…a king wears a crown….then a quick glance at nearby thorn-bush and the plan was hatched. The king would wear a crown of thorns, what a clever, ironic, cruel and spectacular stunt. Quickly murderous hands wove the branches in the wicked circle and it was rammed into Jesus scalp.

The mind behind the hands never realized that thorns were not always part of creation, they were a direct result of sin…(“Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee;” Gen. 3:18) and that portion of sin’s curse was wounding the single sinless one as he was dying for the sinners that was everyone else. It was not a warped sense of humor that conceived the crown of thorns it was a message delivered, that declared it was grace, love and mercy which drove our Savior to accept the curse of sin so that I could ever go free. What wonder, what a matchless gift.

Question: What fitting tribute can I offer today to express my awareness of the gift of Jesus?

Jesse Waggoner

The View from the Other Side

There is a side of ourselves that we present to the public. It is a carefully crafted image, one that is constantly refined, reviewed, tweaked and tended. We want to appear better than we really are. A recent experience reminded my of how true this is.

Last year my son Brian and I attended the WV State High School Basketball Tournament at the Charleston Civic Center. The game was carried statewide on television. While I was snapping a few pictures before the game, I got one of Tony Caridi (The Voice of the Mountaineers) and Fred Persinger getting ready to do the play-by-play. (The top picture is from the TV broadcast). I couldn’t help but notice that a wire was held to the back of Tony’s suit coat by a large and rather ugly strip of duct tape. I really don’t think Mr. Caridi normally uses duct tape as a fashion accessory. I am sure it was intended to keep the wire under control, after all what TV personality wants an out of control wire to contend with while talking to the sports-craving masses? I also noted that the duct tape was wisely placed out of the view of the TV cameras.

Don’t we also hide the ugly strips of stuff hanging on us? We are trying to protect our image for the masses who, for the most part, really don’t care. It might be better strategy to work on who we really are. The part that God sees clearly. The part that no makeup, clever phrase or insincere smile can cover. I want to seek God’s help in striving to be authentic with others and particularly with Him. By the way, could see if there is any duct tape on my back?

“Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.” (Heb 4:13)

Jesse Waggoner

Keep the Engines Running

This little picture was snapped out the window of Independence Air Fight 1577 between Charleston WV and Dulles International Airport. I don’t fully understand all the principles of physics that make an aircraft fly but I do know this, it has to have forward momentum. When a plane is going down the runway and reaches the proper speed it goes up. There is also that moment in airflight when the engines are throttled back and if feels as if your stomach is sinking faster than the rest of your body. In essence to go down you have decrease your forward speed. There is no staying put or even a moment of non-motion. (It is true that helicopters can hover –but there must be a constant and massive movement of air downward to stay in flight – or as my son Brandon –the fixed wing pilot—would say "helicopters don’t fly, they are so ugly the ground repels them.")

This is true of ones spiritual life. There is no standstill. It is either forward and upward or backward or downward. It is true there is a thing called coasting or gliding – but this is quite misleading. While one can have a controlled decent with the engines off it is inalterable a decent. It may be best described as a line from Woody of Toy Story fame – "That’s not flying – Its falling, with style." I am afraid that I spent time coasting and for those on the outside looking in – it may look good but I am still descending. The only thing that can keep me going up or staying up is to keep going forward. This leads to a sometimes-uncomfortable question. Am I leaning forward in my life with God? Are the engines of my passion for Christ at full throttle?

There is in every flight the moment of truth. The thing that flies through the air must come down. Again quoting from a clipping from Brandon, "Every takeoff is optional, every landing is mandatory." To make it to the destination the engines have to keep running, and a successful landing will verify a successful flight. I have been tying to make progress in my spiritual life for 34 years, sometime flying, sometimes coasting. I don’t know how many more miles until I land this thing called life but I do pray that I will accomplish all that God has for me.


Jesse Waggoner

Burkes Garden is Not for Sale

Just across the border from West Virginia and over East River Mountain one can take Virginia Route 623 up the side of Rich Mountain, traverse the short distance through Little Creek Valley and go through "the gap" into Burkes Garden. In July of 2005, I passed through the gap to enjoy some time in a little bit of paradise. Burkes Garden is a valley ten miles long by five miles wide that sits like an island on the top of a mountain plateau. The entire valley is ringed by mountain ridges and peaks that go up over 4000 feet. Along the southern ridge of Garden Mountain snakes the Appalachian Trail. The valley floor is home to 280 people and beautiful rolling farm land.


"First explored before 1748 by eastern Virginians while the entire region was being surveyed for James Patton, who claimed ownership, Burke’s Garden actually earned its name, and in an unusual way. James Burke, one of the survey team, left the peelings of potatoes he was cooking laying on the ground. A year later, he and other explorers returned and found a bountiful crop of fresh potatoes awaiting them." (1) As a joke the area was given the name "Burkes Garden."

Burkes Garden - Photo by AuthorOne item of history tells the beauty and value of this place. In the 1880s George Washington Vanderbilt II was looking for a place to build his lavish estate to be known as Biltmore. He was smitten with the beauty and uniqueness of Burkes Garden and with his vast financial resources thought he would have no problem acquiring the garden for himself. He found out that the land owners in Burkes Garden would not sell at any price. Jim Hoge the unofficial mayor of Burkes Garden recounts, "He tried hard to buy it. In those days to acquire land in Burke's Garden one either had to heir it or marry it and Vanderbilt had done neither. So Vanderbilt put the 255-room Biltmore in Asheville, N.C., his second choice."(2) The farmers of the Garden valued the ability to pass on the fertile soil and quiet solitude of the valley to their children as priceless. They as a group announced to Vanderbilt that Burkes Garden was not for sale!

Burkes Gardne Post Office - photo by authorIn this day when money talks, it is refreshing that in some things it doesn't even whisper. It stuck me as I drove across the valley floor how different if this place had been sold 120 years ago. I wouldn't be enjoying the sense of remoteness, the separation from the commercial. In the heart of the valley is the Burkes Garden post office. A sign over the door reads "Burkes Garden VA. God's Land." While I don't presume to know the full intent of the sign's creator - I can imagine, even after my short visit, that those who call this place home know that the land they walk is a gift from the Almighty.

I also wonder if I fully appreciate the gifts that the Lord has given me and if I ever "sell out" for cheap substitutes rather than reveling in who my God is and what my God has done and is doing. There is always the possibility of exchanging God's standards of morality for the quick payoff of self-gratifying pursuits. There is the temptation of valuing my ease and comfort rather than treasuring the blessing and contentment of doing God's work.

This struggle is one of the reasons that led me to this brief excursion into Burkes Garden. I schedule a day or two into my year to leave the office, phone and computer behind, to get out of town and reflect on my life and ministry and to spend some quality time with God. I always return refreshed and refocused and once again able to see what is of true value in light of life and eternity. The serene landscape of Burkes Garden provided the setting for my most recent escape. Perhaps it is time for you to get away and re-evaluate what is not for sale in your life.



Ariel photo of Burkes Garden by Melvin Grub
used by permission www.grubbphoto.com


Jesse Waggoner

Twenty-Six Cents

For this little visit we need a visual aid. Could I borrow twenty six cents please? Make sure it is a quarter and a penny. Once you have your visual aids take a look at the portraits on the front. Now you may be wondering why I have called your attention to Presidents Washington and Lincoln. It is true that we celebrate their birthdays this month. Washington has his 268th on the 22nd and Lincoln has his 191st on February 12. We will celebrate both on President's Day the 21th. But it is more than just their historical significance that brings them to mind, it is because both were men of deep faith. The following quotes should prove this point.

"No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency...We ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of heaven cannot be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which heaven itself has ordained." George Washington.

"It is the duty of nations, as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God and to recognize the sublime truth announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord." Abraham Lincoln.

Some would accuse Lincoln and Washington as well as most of the people of their time of being too religious. Perhaps in our day there are fewer people of faith. Are you a person of faith? Now, to be a real person of faith you must place your faith in the right person. Take a look at the words over Lincoln's head as well as under Washington's chin. It is only trust in the one true God that counts. For through faith in Him we can receive eternal life. The Apostle Paul said it this way. "For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:26).

Now look at the single word over Washington's head (under his chin if you have one of the new "state" quarters) and just behind Lincoln's right shoulder. The designers of our money no doubt had in mind our political freedom but what of your personal freedom from the most pressing bonds ever to fetter mankind, the bondage of sin. Friend, give careful consideration to your liberty through trust in God. If you need help with that step of faith feel free to contact us.

But what of us who know liberty in the truest sense of the word? Not only is trust in God to save us it is how we are to live. To quote once again from Paul; "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage" (Galatians 5:1). We are not to fall into empty ritual but live with a trust in God everyday of our life. Flip that quarter over and take a look at the eagle on the back. Isaiah said this about trusting in the Lord: "But they that wait upon (trust in) the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." (Isaiah 40:31). Soar with the eagles through faith in God. Lastly, flip the penny over. Look carefully at the words just below the picture of the Lincoln Memorial (can you also see a tiny Abe sitting between the two middle pillars?). A slight change can take these words from "one cent" to "one sent." We who are trusting in the Lord are the ones sent with the message that Jesus saves.

Well our little visit is over, but as you drop your change back into your pocket remember the lessons of your twenty six cents.

Jesse Waggoner

One Solitary Life

Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another village. He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty. Then for three years He was an itinerant preacher.

He never owned a home. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never put His foot inside a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place He was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but Himself...

While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. One of them denied Him. He was turned over to His enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed upon a cross between two thieves. While He was dying His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had on earth – His coat. When He was dead, He was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.

Nineteen long centuries have come and gone, and today He is a centerpiece of the human race and leader of the column of progress.

I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that were ever built; all the parliaments that ever sat and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that one solitary life.

This essay was adapted from a sermon by Dr James Allan Francis in “The Real Jesus and Other Sermons” © 1926 by the Judson Press of Philadelphia (pp 123-124 titled “Arise Sir Knight!”).

Sparrows

“Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.” (Matthew 10:29-31)

I had a few minutes recently to try out some of features of my digital camera. Just outside of our dining room is a thistle seed feeder, suet feeder and a humming bird feeder. I enjoy watching the comings and goings at the bird feeders while I am at mine. This seemed a likely spot to do some photography. One picture (above) was just a quick shot without much thought. As was reviewing my pictures later my mind wandered to the verses above. Even though Brian informs me that this is female purple finch and not a sparrow it still reminded me of the verse above. For those of us who tend toward worry or feelings of being devalued, then this is a comforting reality. God knows about and cares for this little feathery one, and also us who not only carry the creative design of God (how much engineering would it take to design and build something that can flies that only weighs 6 ounces?) but also carry the image of God, and hence the greater value placed on us. These verses also indicate that the omniscience of God (the numbering of the hairs on our heads) is proof positive of His ability to carry out His favorable care for us. He knows and He cares. We should know this as well. To the lovely lady perched in my picture – thanks for the reminder.

Jesse Waggoner