Guarding the Heart!

As a father, I am convinced that God will hold me accountable if I do not help teach my daughter how to guard her heart.  According to Proverbs 4:23; Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life, our heart is the seat of our emotions and are very precious.  When it comes to my daughter’s emotional well being I am to help her understand this verse.  Also, according to Proverbs 16:1, The preparations of the heart in man and the answer of the tongue, is from the Lord, I am to teach Rebekah that God will guide her and I am to help her understand how God leads her.  I am constantly working on ways to help Rebekah open herself to God’s leading in order to allow the Lord to prepare her heart.  I did something the other evening and I pray that God will use it in order to help my daughter understand how precious her emotions are and how special it is to “fall in love”.

I believe that we live in such times that little girls and boys are promoted to be boyfriend and girlfriend before their emotions are able to handle it.  My daughter had an experience at camp this past year where a boy camper asked her if she would be his girlfriend.  She spoke with me about it and I told her I felt it was too early and that if she wanted to trade email addresses it would be ok.  He kept persisting and she told him she would be his girlfriend.  She was so excited and we did not want to place a damper on her excitement.  Gail and I had to leave early from the camp and we left Rebekah there with the rest of the group.   We found out later that this young boy told one of his buddies that he was only using her because he wanted to have a girlfriend.  It broke my daughter’s heart.  She cried and was hurt but she acted so mature.  She confronted him about this statement and he confirmed it was true.  She then told him that his treatment of her was not cool and he should have come to her and told her instead of telling others.  He later came back and apologized to her for what he did, which does say something about the young man’s character.

As a result of this adventure I decided that it was time for me to take action in order to prepare her and teach her to guard her heart.  The picture you see here is a ring that I purchased and gave to Rebekah this past Monday evening.  I had a special time with her where we went to get ice cream.   As we sat down I presented the gift to her and told her that God had bestowed on me the duty of guarding her heart.  The ring is in the shape of a heart and it represents her heart.  I told her that I was watching that ring and it was to stay on her finger until she gets married.  I told her that she was to treat that ring like she would treat her heart.  In this explanation, I told her that if I were to see her using that ring improperly or abusing it in any way I certainly would call her attention to it and even say no in some instances.  It would be the same thing if I saw her abusing her emotions or treating them without care or concern.  As long as the ring was on her finger it meant that she has not given her heart in marriage to anyone.  When she did find that special love she was to wait until her wedding night to give the ring to her husband.  It would be when she gets married that I release my duty of guarding her heart over to her husband.

I pray that God will honor this act and I pray that Rebekah will find the love that God has given me in my wife Gail.

25 feet From my Front Door

The article here describes for you the pictures in this article that show you what I saw at about 7am on Tuesday.  What you cannot see is the person in the accident is out of the picture about 65 feet from the truck to the left.  They had to airlift him to Charlotte Medical Center.  The last I heard he was talking and has spleen damage along with a puncture lung and some spinal damage.  Pray for Rusty Cathway and ask our Father to uphold him now as he is recovering.  One of the items I picked up out of my yard after they took him away was his Bible.  I do not know if he is a Believer or not, but his Bible was one of the items scattered across my yard. 

I was in my bathroom when the accident occured and put on clothes as I ran out the front door.  I was barefoot as I ran all over my front yard trying to find out if someone else was in the truck.  The bottom of my feet are cut from the glass and they are sore but they will heal.  Please do not let the date stamp on the picture fool you.  We have not set that up on our camera and did not realize it until after we took these pictures.

Needless to say it was an unusual way to begin a Tuesday morning.  But, God allowed me to get to work in time to keep an appointment.  The appointment was for one that was seeking God.  I had the awesome privilege to minister to Rusty there as an accident victim and two-hours later express to a young lady how fragile life is as I shared the plan of salvation with her.  Praise God!! It is fun being a preacher.

News From the West–Updated

It seems there is a disagreement between the current pastor of FBC Dallas and two of her ministries.  According to Dallas News Dr. Jerry Johnson has confirmed there is a serious disagreement between FBC’s current Pastor, Dr. Robert Jefress and himself concerning the future of the Criswell College.  According to the report from Dr. Johnson, the pastor is trying to sell off the assets of the college to raise money to build a new sanctuary.  The current sanctuary seats 2000.  According to their 2007 ACP they average 2450 in worship attendance in three services.  In one of those services the sanctuary is not used.  Dr. Jefress is leading the church in this direction as he believes God has called him.

Dr. Johnson has seen an influx of funds and slight increase in enrollment in the past year at Criswell College.  He strives to follow God and seek His direction in the many different areas he is called as President of the Criswell College.  The Criswell College Trustees were rejected by FBC Dallas congregation in their attempt to sell KCBI the christian radio station the church started and given oversight of to the college.  Now, it seems that KCBI is viewed as a cash cow as its assets of $20 million will produce a tremendous influx of cash for a new sanctuary.  Dr. Johnson is leading the college in the direction that he believes God is leading him.

Here we have two men of God trying to follow God.  Then we have SWBTS as the potential beneficiary of this dispute.  I only have a couple of questions concerning this situation.  If SWBTS ends up assimilating the Criswell College into her school, what does that mean for Southern Baptist?  If FBC Dallas releases the school; would SWBTS be the Mercy Ship that would provide housing and other benefits to the college?  Or, would FBC Dallas require renumeration from the SBC for this little deal?

Who knows what is going on in Texas.  I have some good friends that claim Texas as their home and I also have good friends living in Texas.  There are two things that I have learned over the years that you can tell someone from Texas.  First, you can tell a person is either living in Texas or is from Texas because they will let you know that within the first three sentences of introduction.  The second thing I have learned you can tell someone from Texas–Nothing.

I pray God will work this situation out for His Glory.

It seems that Dr. Jerry Johnson has resigned his position as President.  Read about it here.