Tool Shed Christians

Tool Shed Christians
by Larry d. Wright

I remember hearing an African-American preacher named Fred Samson share a personal story from his past about the summer days he experienced as a boy. His grandparents lived on a farm in the country and he would flee from city life to a very different world. His granddad would wake him about 4:00 AM and with the dim light of a lantern they would walk a familiar path to the barn. Upon arriving they milked several cows, fed the livestock, slopped the hogs, broadcast feed for the chickens and gathered eggs. They delivered their fresh produce to the kitchen then returned to the woodpile where they chopped and stacked firewood until the bell rank. They washed their hands and faces then promptly found a seat at the kitchen table where a hearty country breakfast awaited them. Eggs. Grits. Fresh milk. Cathead biscuits. Molasses. Smoked bacon. Red-eye gravy. It was a feast!

After breakfast Fred would fall back into bed full and exhausted only to be shaken by his grandfather once again. “Get up boy! It’s time to go to work.” Fred protested, “Work! We have been working all morning.” It was then he learned a lesson from his granddad he never forgot. “Son, everything you do in the house, around the house and for the house are chores. The work is in the fields.”

I am afraid that much we call “the work of the Lord” is nothing more than chores. Chores are important but when they keep us from working in the fields where the real harvest awaits, then something is wrong. Paul W. Powell, in his book The Complete Disciple, agrees.
"Many churches today remind me of a laboring crew trying to gather in a harvest while they sit in the tool shed. They go to the tool shed every Sunday and they study bigger and better methods of agriculture, sharpen their hoes, grease their tractors, and then get up and go home. Then they come back that night, study bigger and better methods of agriculture, sharpen their hoes, grease their tractors, and go home again. They comeback Wednesday night, and again study bigger and better methods of agriculture, sharpen their hoes, grease their tractors, and get up and go home. They do this week in and week out, year in and year out, and nobody ever goes out into the fields to gather in the harvest.”

Certainly no one denies the fact that chores are essential. Sharpening tools and improving skills are mandatory. However, these vital tasks should never keep us from working in the fields where the harvest awaits our presence. Our Lord knew the difference between chores and work in the field. He knew when to withdraw and when to engage. Someone calculated that the gospel writers record 132 contacts that Jesus had with people. Six were in the Temple, four in the synagogue and 122 were with people in the mainstream of life. Perhaps that is why Jesus said “to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field." (Matthew 9:37-38)

Lieutenant Clebe McLeary lost his arms, an eye, an ear and half his face in Vietnam. Twenty-four surgeries later his face was rebuilt. The men under his command gave him a plaque inscribed with these words: “In this world of give and take, there are so few who are willing to give what it takes.”Are you among the willing? In a world of give and take, the Lord of the harvest is still looking for those who are willing to give what it takes.

LeadersBuildingLeaders

My New Web Page Is Up and Running!

I am pleased to announce that My New Web Page Is Up and Running!

LeadersBuildingLeaders is online and running. Well, actually it is more like baby steps but as hikers are fond of saying: "a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." Please visit www.leadersbuildingleaders.com to see those tiny steps. New resources and tools will be added almost daily so please visit often.

The purpose of LeadersBuildingLeaders is threefold:

1. To provide RESOURCES for those in ministry to help them fulfill their calling.
2. To provide ENCOURAGMENT & INSPIRATION for servant leaders who are leading congregations.
3. To provide a SPACE for dots to connect so that mentor-protege relationships can develop; connections that will help eliminate isolation and eventual ministry failures.

Please invite others to check out the page and let me know what you thing.

Recommendation from a Hiker

Recommendation from a Hiker
By Larry d. Wright

Whenever and wherever hikers meet their conversation soon centers around the coolest gear on the market and personal recommendations that can make the hike safe and enjoyable. As a hiker who enjoys the beauty of the outdoors, I am interested in any new gadget that will keep me from getting lost. I need someone to guide me on the trail.

That’s what I like about Jesus! Personally, I have made the decision to follow Him because He is the perfect guide for life. In fact, I am so satisfied that I have no hesitation in recommending Him to everyone as the guide to follow in life and eternity. One of His most outstanding claims was “I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father except by me.”

Jesus is the perfect guide because He knows where He is going and how to safely guide His followers to their earthly and eternal destiny. What are His qualifications? Jesus walked on earth and offered His life as a sacrifice to become a personal GPS for everyone who has lost their way.

Jesus said, “I am the way” because He offers the way out. Life can be messy and as confusing as a maze. Our sin and selfishness causes us to walk in circles and encounter dead ends. We need a way out of the mess and maze of life. Jesus is that way. Sin did not defeat or frustrate Him so He knows the way out of the mess.

I recommend Jesus as the guide for your life because He also offers the way in. In fact, He is the only person who offers a way to be rightly related to God and enjoy rightness in life. The real purpose and pleasure of life is to know God and enjoy Him forever. He said, “No man can come to the Father except by me.” You cannot get to the heavenly Father by your own efforts. You need a guide and Jesus is the only guide who knows the way.

Jesus is the perfect guide because He knows the way up or should I say, “the way home.” He said, “In my Fathers house are many dwelling places…I go to prepare a place for you.” This life is temporary and the wise person makes preparation for eternity. I recommend Jesus!

Why I Am A Political Conserative

Why I Am A Political Conservative
By Larry d. Wright

Radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh seems determined to make the beliefs and ideas of Ronald Reagan the litmus test to define conservatism but I have a better idea. I highly respect the person and politics of Ronald Regan and clearly wish we had another such statesman on the political arena today! Professional politicians weary me! However, the roots of conservatism go back beyond the days of the late President Reagan. So, why stop at Reagan to find the political roots of conservatism?

The great Abraham Lincoln had ten guidelines by which he lived his life and governed a troubled nation. These beliefs had a profound affect upon his life to the day he died and these principles influenced America in a positive way. These 10 guidelines capture the heart of why I am a political conservative and the exact opposite of these ten points define liberalism.

You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot help small men by tearing down big men.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot lift the wage earned by pulling down the wage payer.
You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich.
You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income.
You cannot further the brotherhood of men by inciting class hatred.
You cannot establish security on borrowed money.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away man’s initiative and independence.
You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.

(Source: Glenn Bland, Legend of the Golden Scrolls, p. 112.)

Cycle of Life

The Cycle of Life
By Larry d. Wright

The writer of Ecclesiastes poetically states, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.”

On Monday morning while traveling to Gatlinburg I learned that the youngest son of radio comedian Rick Burgess of the “Rick and Bubba Show” sadly died in a tragic accident. You can view the video of Ricks message at his sons funeral by clicking on the links to the right. Start at the top and view all three parts. On Thursday morning I listened to the co-host of the show Bubba Bussey explain how his youngest son prayed to receive Jesus Christ into his life. One son temporarily lost, another son gained as a brother. Such is the cycle of life.

I arrived in the foothills of the beautiful Smoky Mountains to find them dressed in their bleak winter attire. The last time Debby and I retreated to the mountains it was spring and the hills were alive with life and outfitted in a lush color of green, the hills dotted with beautiful mountain flowers. Such is the cycle of life.

In my years serving as a pastor I have conducted a funeral and officiated a wedding on the same day. I have walked into one hospital room to comfort a family loosing a member to cancer then moments later walked into another room to experience the joy of a couple who welcomed a new life into their family. Such is the cycle of life.

Actually, while writing this article I was interrupted. I discovered that our family pet cat had died and between these two paragraphs I buried a faithful and funny friend who brought many laughs, joys and moments of happiness into our lives. Today he brought tears. Such is the cycle of life.

So Solomon wrote, “There is…a time to be born and a time to die….a time to mourn and a time to dance…” Obviously, what he did not warn us about is the realistic truth: sometimes the distance between the two is very small. That is what makes life so painful. Sometimes the distance between birth and death, mourning and dancing is excruciatingly short. Such is the cycle of life.

Solomon offers some practical wisdom about coping with the cycle of life: “He [God] has made everything beautiful in its time. He has placed eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from the beginning.” I am to find beauty and purpose in God’s creations. I am to realize that I am a pilgrim on this planet for a temporary sojourn and my real home is elsewhere. I must accept God’s bigness, the mysteries of life and refuse to play the “What if…” game. Only then will I value the cycle of life.

A Tribute to a Soldier

Boys To Men
by Larry d. Wright

Tommy was soldier.

He graduated from high school during a time when boys have to become men because that is what war does to a boy. He came home from Vietnam a wounded man with three purple hearts on his chest, enemy shrapnel in his body and a metal plate in his head. And those were the wounds you could see and treat.

There were other wounds buried deep beneath the surface that were invisible to the eye and almost impossible to mend. These were the wounds that ultimately killed him. It was Albert Schweitzer who once observed, “The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man while he lives.”

Men are almost always embarrassed and ashamed of their woundedness, especially when a soldier returns home to a wounded country. So they do what they are trained to do. Wounded warriors tend to ignore their wounds and treat their pain. After all, it is the pain that yells the loudest. And like many warriors do, the way he treated his pain created more pain. Addictions. Broken relationships. A cycle of pain producing more pain.

However, the way of neglected wounds is this, they always win.

I’m not sure what memories and horrow Tommy brought home from the war. All I know for sure is that he brought home himself but for most soldiers that is not enough. Most men loose something in war that requires a lifetime struggle and few recover what they loose. Although he left the land of Vietnam far in the distance, he came home to fight another war and to the very end he was a fighter. The words of Paul Simeon from “The Boxer” (1968) say it all:

“In the clearing stands a boxer
And a fighter by his trade
And he carries the reminders
Of every glove that laid him down
And cut him till he cried out
In his anger and in his shame
“I am leaving, I am leaving”
But the fighter still remains.”

In the land of Vietnam where life seemed cheap until death made its menacing claim, there was a phrase that became popular among the grunts. When faced with impossible orders, the death of a fellow soldier, the atrocities of yet another firefight or the insanity of fighting an unpopular war, they would say: “It don’t mean nothing!” With that phrase uttered they would bury their pain, turn their back and walk away. Burying pain beneath years of an “it don’t mean nothing” attitude has a way of becoming uncovered back in the real world where life isn’t cheap and things do matter.

I hadn’t seen or talked to Tommy in thirty years until his mother died. We talked at her graveside. Several months later I called him on his birthday and in the process I said, “Tommy, the real reason I called was to say Thank you for the sacrifices you made for your country and for people like me. I know when you came home our country didn’t seem very grateful and I’m sorry for that. And, just in case no one has ever told you: Welcome Home”. There was a deafening silence on the other end. I understood. Then he spoke, “Someone did tell me that but it’s been awhile, so Thank you.” That was our last conversation.

At his memorial service we remembered the deeds of a soldier. We pledged our allegiance to the American flag that draped his coffin and still laid claim to his life. I promised myself that I would be more grateful for men like Tommy who risk their lives to afford me mine. I promised myself to be grateful for boys who go to war and become men.