Deacon's Diary

Deacon's Diary is a weekly feature that appears on the back side of the bulletin at the First Baptist Church of Avalon, Texas.

Ain't worth a nickel.

A couple of weeks ago while watching TV I stood a nickel up on its edge there on one of the end tables next to the couch. And it stayed there, standing on its edge, for about a week and a half. Then one day last week, while reaching for the remote control, I knocked it over.

I know there is nothing at all magical about a stupid nickel standing up on its edge. It's easy enough to do. Any one can duplicate that little trick. But it did get me to thinking about something much, much bigger.

Things like the fact that the rotational speed of the Earth at the equator is about 1,038 miles per hour. The actual speed of travel drops as one gets closer to the poles, so here where we are, that speed is a little slower, just a mere 800 or so miles per hour. Not only do we have that, but at the same time Earth is traveling around the sun at a whopping 67,000 miles per hour! Now that's moving folks!   Not to mention the movement of our solar system within the Milky Way. And the Galaxy's movement through space. All of us are quite the accomplished space travelers when one stops and thinks about it in that way.

All the while the surface of this planet is stable enough to allow a nickel to stand on its edge until a klutz like me comes along and knocks it over. There are some natural occurring things that could and would have made the nickel fall, I know, but for the most part, considering its movement this planet is calm. And it stays that way day in and day out. With the days being marked by the Earth's rotation, and the years being marked with each circle around the sun, while the solar system moves around the Milky Way, as the Galaxy hurls through space towards a place that God only knows, we remain stable.

There are some among us who believe that this planet came about all by random chance. Some of them devise all sorts of theories to explain how it all just happened simply by accident. If you ask me some of their theories ain't worth a nickel.

Deacon's Diary is a weekly feature that appears on the back side of the bulletin at the First Baptist Church of Avalon, Texas.

Scripted in the Scriptures.

I fell asleep on the couch again. As I have gotten older it happens a little more frequently than I would like. And I've noticed, or better yet, my wife Kay has noticed, than it is getting harder and harder to wake me up now.

This last time I woke up at two in the morning with the TV on. There was a movie playing on the set. It was that classic sports movie titled, "The Natural". Like me, most of you have probably seen it. It's the one about that aging baseball star with a troubled past getting another chance, perhaps the last chance, to make it big in the major leagues. I've seen it before, more than once.

Even though I knew exactly how it would end, I watched it again any way. I knew that in the bottom of ninth he was going to hit the ball up into the lights to win the game. I knew he was going to circle the bases with the sparks from lights falling down around him. And with the crowd going wild, I knew that he would get a heroes welcome from his team mates at home plate. I still watched. And I still got chills when it happened.

The fact that I knew what was coming didn't seem to take a single thing away from the enjoyment of the film at all. As a matter of fact, in a way it kind of even added to it. The thought that he might strike out at the plate in the ninth inning never crossed my mind. I knew better.  Without one doubt, I knew there was going to be a glorious ending to this story.

In much the same way, the ending to the life of the saved is already known. Just like that movie was written to have a particular ending, the fate of those who put their trust in Jesus Christ is scripted in the scriptures. In the end, there will be glory for those that belong to Him.

Just like me and that old movie, knowing how it all ends doesn't take a thing away from our lives. In fact, it adds a lot to them. Though the end is scripted, I still get chills just thinking about it.

Deacon's Diary is a weekly feature that appears on the back side of the bulletin at the First Baptist Church of Avalon, Texas.

Eternal software.

The computer crashed on Thursday. It crashed hard too. All was lost. Everything in the computers memory was now locked in the hard drive and there was no way to get any of it out. Pictures. Songs on the I-pods. Favorite web sites. Even the template I use for the church bulletin was now gone. Me and Kay now had to start over from scratch.

There is an old saying that all of us have heard at one time on another that goes something like, "you never really miss something so much 'til its gone." That saying rings true in this situation. All the stuff on the computer that we use on a daily basis, or at least on a weekly basis, is not there any more. A lot of it we will miss immediately. Other things will not be missed until later on. When we need it. When we, ourselves remember that it used to be there.

On the bright side, now we have a new computer. This new one is faster. A lot faster. Better than the one we had before. It has a lot more capacity. And, for now any way, it is not weighed down with a lot of programs and/or information that might slow it down. It is quick and clear. It's brand new. It is loaded with new and better software that is easier to use. It is not bogged down and sluggish like the old one had become right before it broke down and crashed.

Thinking about this computer situation got me to thinking about my salvation. How before I was saved I had become something not unlike that old computer. Bogged down, sluggish, and tired of carrying around a life time of sin and anguish. Then, like that old computer, I crashed. Lucky for me I crashed in a good place. When I realized that God had forgiven me of my sins it turned me into something not unlike the new one. Loaded up with eternal software.

Deacon's Diary is a weekly feature that appears on the back side of the bulletin at the FIrst Baptist Church of Avalon, Texas.

National theme park.

This past Friday we celebrated the 232nd birthday of our Nation. As I watched the fireworks bursting across the horizon on Friday, I couldn't help but wonder what our founding fathers might think of this nation today. What would the men that put the whole thing in motion think?

If they read one of the newspapers today it would not take long for them to find out that the nation still faces many challenges.  The economy is strained by rising oil prices and the falling value of our dollar. It would be clear to them that we have enemies, in the form of terrorist, that are bent on seeing much harm come to us and to our way of life. They could also not help but notice that our two political parties have very different views on how to tackle these problems and that the the vitriol between the two parties is as robust as it ever was.

It would take a certain amount of arrogance for me, or for any one else, to say that they know without any doubt how any of our founding fathers would feel about any one particular issue. They themselves had plenty of disagreements among them. When one reads some of their quotes this is more than obvious. However, I did notice one thing in their quotes, one theme, that appears to be evident to them all.

For example, when John Adams said, "July 4th ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty.*  Thomas Jefferson said, *The doctrines of Jesus are simple, and tend to all the happiness of man.* And Benjamin Franklin asked the question,  *God governs in the affairs of man. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? " This theme continued to show itself when Patrick Henry included this quote in his last will and testament. "This is all the inheritance I can give my dear family. The religion of Christ can give them one which will make them rich indeed.*

Quotes like these can be seen throughout the founding documents of this great nation. So while our founding fathers may have squabbled over policy decisions, it appears to me that most of them, if not all of them, put their faith in God. They consistently gave all glory to God. And, when faced with the task of making difficult decisions, it would appear that they put all such matters to prayer. I find myself iin total aggreement with them on that.

Deacon's Diary is a weekly feature that appears on the back side of the bulletin at the First Baptist Church of Avalon, Texas.

A dash of light.

Vacation was good, but it's always good to get back home too. When a person gets accustomed to things around them a daily basis, it's hard to leave all those things behind for long periods of time. The dogs. The household projects. Even work. And in my case, my church and all the people in it. And so, to all of the members of my church family, let me say that it's good to be back.

While we were on vacation we listened to a pitch man for one of the resort companies try to sell us a time share program. Maybe some of have had the same experience. In part of the pitch man's presentation he used that analogy about 'the dash'. Maybe you've heard it too. He explained that all of us will have a birth date, and then a date on which we will have died carved on our tombstones. And, of course, there will always be a dash between the two dates. Those two dates don't really matter much. It's only memories in the dash that will matter in the end.

I've heard it before, so it was nothing new to me. I already knew the truth contained in that little analogy about the dash. But later on during our vacation, while looking up at all the stars in the night sky from an island on a lake in Arkansas, something else occurred to me that I think needs to be considered when thinking about that dash in our lives.

The stars that we see shining at night are just an illusion in a way. Since they are so far away, light years away, what we see is not what is there now, but rather what was there a long time ago. Legacies of light if you will. If a star burned itself out today, it would still be visible for the rest of my life. My kid's lives. And my Grandkids. And so on.

You see, that pitch man used the dash thing in an attempt to help people to realize that it is the memories they share that is really important. And he was right. But those stars reminded me that the dash is also the time that a person determines his or her own legacy. While we strive to leave lasting memories with our families, and that's a very good thing, let us also strive to leave a legacy of light behind.

That light I'm talking about is none other than the true Light of the world, Jesus Christ. There's no other light that shines brighter than His. There's no work that we do more important that the work we do at our churches. There's nothing that we can leave on this earth more important than sharing with others the life changing message of our beloved Savior.

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