Heartlight Articles - Just for Men

A Dad Who Gets It

rshelly@rc.edu (Rubel Shelly) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0500

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, "Abba! Father!" (Romans 8:14-15 NRS)

There have been some awful stories in the news of late. Serena Williams' foul tirade, Joe Wilson's catcall during a presidential address, a husband-wife team of kidnappers and sexual sadists -- the litany of human behaviors ranging from insufferably rude to downright evil just goes on and on. There will be more.

But last week there was a truly wonderful story in the news for a couple of days that deserves one more telling. It is proof that some fathers understand what really matters. They aren't insensitive slobs who ignore or abuse kids. They don't stomp on hearts. They are good guys who love their families and do right.

It's the story of the young Monforto family -- Steve and Kathleen, with daughters Emily and Cecilia. They live in Laurel Springs, New Jersey, and like baseball. On a recent Tuesday night, they were in the first row of an upper deck along the third-base side of the field for a Phillies home game against the Nationals.

With Phillies outfielder Jayson Werth at the plate, Steve saw a foul ball headed his way. He leaned over, extended his hands, and made a good catch. It was his first-ever foul ball at a game! He smiled, exchanged fist bumps with people in his section, and put the newfound treasure in the hands of three-year-old Emily. Dressed in her pink shirt and Phillies cap, she promptly tossed it over the railing to the fans below! Daddy Steve's arms went up and his jaw dropped.

At the same instant, Emily turned toward Dad -- and sensed she may have done something wrong. Maybe it was the groans of all the fans nearby. Maybe it was the look on Dad's face. Then Steve reacted. He smiled at her, took his little girl into his arms, and kissed her. His immediate concern was to reassure her.

"When she threw it over, I kind of gasped and was like, 'Oh, no! There it goes.' But then the look on her face was that she may have done something wrong," he said, "so I wanted her to know that she didn't do anything bad."
The episode was caught by the camera crew broadcasting the game that night. It was played immediately on the stadium screen -- and the crowd cheered. It has been played countless times since on Internet video.*

EMBED-Little Girl Tosses Back Foul Ball - Watch more free videos

It was really encouraging to have something positive to see, feel good about, and celebrate. Steve Monforto did the consummate right thing to put his love for his daughter above his disappointment over a lost souvenir.

It's a good way for you to visualize your own Heavenly Father. He isn't in the business of chiding and punishing. His concern is to reassure his daughters and sons that each of us can be all he created us to be. That's good news.

As for Emily, her Dad jokes that she is getting offers to pitch.

*If you receive this by email, you can see the video with the article by going to http://tinyurl.com/hl20091012

Rubel Shelly preached for the Woodmont Hills Churchin Nashville for thirty years. He is the author of more than 20 books. He has accepted the position of President of Rochester College. For more details, click here or here to email.

Website: RubelShelly.com

Mother's Day in Retrospect

rlawson@mfth.net (Russ Lawson) — Sat, 09 May 2009 00:00:00 -0500

They say -- whoever "they" are -- that confession is good for the soul, so maybe it's time for me to reveal that I have not always been the wonderful, considerate husband that I now am! (Don't laugh too hard!)

As I look back on past Mother's Day weekends, I realize that I really blew it sometimes. The first years of our marriage, Mother's Day rolled around and I reasoned that Melody was my wife -- not my mother -- so I didn't get her anything to recognize the day as special.

The next year, however, I had learned my lesson. I had discovered the hard way, that my wife was indeed a mother, and that I needed to recognize that fact. I thought about it for awhile, and came home with the perfect gift (I thought), a rubber tree plant. Melody was not impressed! Kirk (9 months old) liked it better than she did. He proceeded to pull all of the leaves off of it in the following weeks.

I still didn't understand why Melody wasn't impressed with my thoughtfulness, but eventually, somewhere along the past 41 years, I figured it out. I don't make those foolish mistakes as often now. Now, when I suggest doing something special to celebrate Mother's Day she says, "It's not necessary. Our boys will make it special for me!" I've wondered if it could be she just doesn't want to take a chance on another rubber tree plant!

Guys, just in case you need some help, jewelry, perfume, clothing, thoughtful cards, a nice meal, or a visit to some place special to her are appreciated by the mothers in your life -- whether they are your mother or the mother of your children! Rubber tree plants, tools, and oil changes are not usually seen as something very personal or appreciative for one who carried you for 9 months in her body and gave you life!

The apostle Paul, writing to the church in Ephesus, penned these words:

Children, obey your parents because you belong to the Lord, for this is the right thing to do. 'Honor your father and mother.' This is the first of the Ten Commandments that ends with a promise (Ephesians 6:1-2 NLT).

Mother's Day is a national holiday, not a religious one. But, this is one special day that I am in favor of celebrating. It's a small way to honor our mothers and recognize all they have given us in our lives. I realize that not everyone has "the perfect mother," but if the opportunity presents itself, bless yourself by doing something good and positive for your mother anyway.

While some of you moms might be thrilled to get even a rubber tree plant, I pray that you all will get what you really need in the way of love and recognition for the role in which God has placed you!

Russ Lawson is a former missionary to Africa and minister in Ohio. He now works with World Christian Literature Outreach and writes a weekly email devotional, Messages from the Heart. For more information about Russ, click here.

Website: Messages from the Heart

I Think I Am ...

tomnorvell@mac.com (Tom Norvell) — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0500

Confession: I like shoes. There, I've said it. I'm a shoe person.

Several years ago I found a pair of shoes that I loved. The way they fit is the way a pair of shoes ought to fit. The way they look on my feet is the way I want a pair of shoes to look. After wearing them for a while I discovered that they aged the way a pair of shoes ought to age. After wearing them for a while longer I began to look at other styles made by the same company. They are too expensive for me to pay full price so I began to watch for sales. Really good sales!

Eventually I purchased a second pair that I enjoyed just as much as the first. About that time I decided that I would know I was rich when I could have a pair of that brand of shoe in each color that I wear regularly. Dark brown, black, tan, etc. Recently, during a prayer (another confession: my eyes were open), I noticed my shoes and realized that I'm rich. Some have been re-soled and re-heeled a number of times. They still wear very well.

So, I think I'm rich.

That's quite a realization in this day of limited budgets, benefit cutbacks, layoffs, and reduced retirement funds. I don't know where the money we'll need to retire will come from. I don't have the money to write a check to pay my daughter's college tuition. I cannot afford tickets to the Final Four in the NCAA Basketball tournament, or the Masters, or the NBA Championship. But, I think I'm rich.

My feet are covered with very fine leather products. My body is clothed with clean, comfortable, and high quality clothes. My refrigerator is full of healthy and not so healthy food. My car has good tires, gets routine maintenance, and I can afford to put fuel in it whenever needed. Though I cannot afford to attend the sporting events mentioned above, I am able to watch them on a very nice television while sitting in a very comfortable chair. I guess I'm rich.

With those thoughts and confessions I often find myself praying this prayer:

Two things I ask of you, O Lord;
do not refuse me before I die:
Keep falsehood and lies far from me;
give me neither poverty nor riches,
but give me only my daily bread.

Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you
and say, 'Who is the Lord?'
Or I may become poor and steal,
and so dishonor the name of my God.
(Proverbs 30:7-9 NIV)

Father, thank you for blessing me so richly.

Tom Norvell is the author of "A Norvell Note." He ministers at the Hermitage Church of Christ in Hermitage, Tennessee.

Website: A Norvell Note

Remembering Valentine's Day

steve.brumfield@gmail.com (Steve Brumfield) — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0600

Okay, guys, stay with me here. I understand and am well aware that nobody wants advice, but would like to offer up some thoughts about my favorite holiday ... Valentines Day. I know, this is dangerous territory for guys, since many consider Valentine's Day to be a holiday created for women and by women. But my experience is a little different, but it really is my favorite holiday.

For a number of years, I would get my wife candy and flowers. Sue liked the candy. However, she did not like the cut roses. After all, they were cut -- they were just dead flowers to her, plus they charge twice as much for the "dead ones" as they do for live ones. So about ten years prior to her death, I started doing silly things ... small things.

For about ten years, I had gotten Sue a stuffed singing something -- most of these were simple stuffed animals that "sang" a classic song of some kind. One year it was a mouse dressed up in an evening gown with a little wig and microphone singing "Fever." Another year it was a Gorilla that sang "WILD THING." And on and on I had selected a new stuffed animal for each. It was challenging to come up with a new one each year, but fun at the same time. (Hint: I got most of these from Walgreen's.)

Sue liked some better than others; however, we saved them all. In February of 2007, I went to a Michael's crafts store in Cool Springs and got a bunch of stuff to decorate our mantle. I got all the singing stuffed things out from previous years and put them on the mantle -- I was sneaking around the house to do this at 2 or 3 in the morning. Then, I put the latest addition, a dog that sang "I Can't Stop Loving You" beside the coffee pot and a note telling her to go in and play cut six on the CD, a John Denver song, "For You." I also got a white shoe polish pencil so I could write things on the mirror in the bathroom and over the window above the kitchen sink.

Perhaps you have a routine, perhaps not. My experience suggests that women appreciate thoughtfulness more than big gifts ... at least this was true in my case. So on Valentine's Day of 2008, I thought back with fondness on my precious wife and our life together, realizing that if I had known Valentine's Day 2007 would have been our last one, I don't know what more I would have done.

Guys, let's not take for granted the preciousness of the ones we love and remember them in simple ways that say, "I love you!"

Better than the Super Bowl

rshelly@rc.edu (Rubel Shelly) — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0600

Last Sunday's football game between the Arizona Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Steelers was billed as the Super Bowl. It deserves the title. It is the game toward which everything in the NFL seasons points. The team that wins gets bragging rights as best of the best for the year. So hats off to Pittsburgh for its 27-23 win.

But you'll have to pardon me for thinking a much bigger game was played last November 7 in Grapevine, Texas. It was high school kids. Faith Christian School, sporting a strong 7-2 record, went up against Gainesville State School. Gainesville was 0-8 coming in and had scored a total of two touchdowns all year. Yet it was a "super" game -- the brainchild of Faith's head coach, Kris Hogan.

Gainesville State is a maximum-security correctional facility that houses adolescents who have had few breaks and lots of run-ins with the law. They have convictions for robbery, assault, and drugs. Many have no family members who keep in touch with them -- and have nowhere to go when their sentences end.

Here was Coach Hogan's idea: Let's play the kids from Gainesville State, show them the love of Christ, let them know they are just as valuable as anybody else on Planet Earth, and pray it will help them see life a bit differently.

Some of his own players were struggling to get it. "Imagine if you didn't have a home life," he explained. "Imagine if everybody has pretty much given up on you. Now imagine what it would mean for hundreds of people to suddenly believe in you." He thought it might make a difference -- in both teams.

For that wonderful night in Texas, half of Faith's students, parents, and fans sat on the opponent's side to cheer for them. Those 200-plus souls cheered, shouted encouragement to the Gainesville players by name, and otherwise did everything possible to make them feel special.

Wearing their seven-year-old shoulder pads and outdated helmets, the boys on the field sensed something special. Accustomed to being feared and avoided, they were being supported. "I never in my life thought I'd hear people cheering for us to hit their kids," said Isaiah, Gainesville's quarterback.

When the game ended -- with Faith Christian winning 33-14 -- the teams gathered in the middle of the field. It was Isaiah's turn to surprise everybody by asking to lead a prayer. "Lord, I don't know how this happened, so I don't know how to say Thank You," he said, "but I never would've known there was so many people in the world that cared about us." The kids were taken to their team bus in handcuffs to go back to jail. Each was handed a bag from a Faith player -- a bag that had a burger, some fries, a soft drink, a Bible, and a personal note.

Now that was a super football game. A super night. A super way for some young men to meet Jesus in a most unusual way.

Website: RubelShelly.com

Marcus Welby, Jesus Christ Superstar, & Bill Parcels

dannysims@altamesa.org (Danny Sims) — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0600

Marcus Welby, Jesus Christ Superstar, Bill Parcells and the Dallas Cowboys ... I promise, I'm gonna get around to all of them in this one article!

Some of you may remember the old TV commercial when Robert Young (previously the star of "Marcus Welby, M.D.") famously said, "I'm not a doctor, but I play one on television." I think he was selling aspirin or something.

I got to thinking about that line when I ran across Ted Neely's story. Since the 1970s, Ted Neeley has been playing the part of Jesus in the musical "Jesus Christ Superstar."

He's 64 years old, roughly 30 years older than Jesus was when He went to the cross. But no matter his age, Neely keeps playing Jesus to large audiences. Neeley recently said this:

I'm only playing Jesus. He got it right the first time. I'm still working on it, you see. The key word there is 'playing.' I'm a performer. I'm pretending to be something which I am not.

If this quote were applied to our faith, there is something I can relate to as a follower of Jesus. But, there is also something here that bothers me.

In the "relate to" category, disciples are surely not Jesus. And I like the humility of saying "I'm still working on it." That's good stuff.

As for what troubles me, genuine disciples are not "pretending to be" anything. We understand faith is not a role to be performed. Faith is a life transformed. Heroes of faith are not great actors on stage. They are ordinary men and women who have taken the words of Jesus seriously when He says "lay your life down" (John 15:13) or "take up your cross" (Luke 9:23).

This is what you might call "Bill Parcels theology." You know how he is fond of saying, "You are what you are." That applies.

I was thinking about this recently, watching the Dallas Cowboys get blasted by the Philadelphia Eagles and lose out on the playoffs. "You are what you are ..." Well, they are not so good. Which brings me full circle, back to Marcus Welby and that aspirin ...

Danny Sims is the preaching minister at the Altamesa Church of Christ in Fort Worth, Texas, and a longtime Heartlight supporter and friend.

Website: Altamesa Church of Christ

Revival Fire

mbarres@dnet.net (Mike Barres) — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0600

It was Christmas morning, and I got up earlier than everyone else. I went outside and walked around and prayed. Our Christmas outreach, banquet and candlelight service had all gone really well, and I was thankful. I decided to start a fire in our little fire pit. It had been raining, so some of the wood was a bit wet. I got the fire going but some of the new branches that I put on the fire took a while to get burning.

I noticed something coming out of the ends of the branches that I had broken and cut. It was like the heat of the fire was driving out the moisture, so that they could burn well.

Looking at a fire always makes me think of the "fire" of genuine revival. When I try to light a fire with lighter fluid, I notice that it flares up quickly but soon dies out. That's what happens to many individuals seeking spiritual revival -- a quick flash of intense flame, but then the fire dies out. At other times, however, I have seen white, hot, coals fueling a pulsating fire deep in the middle of the flame. That's what I want revival to be like in my heart -- deep, hot, pulsating, and sustaining fire.

Many of us desire revival fire because it excites us and "fires us up" spiritually. But, the fire in the pit that day was doing something else as it heated up the wet wood. The fire was getting rid of things that were hindering the branch from burning -- it was actually forcing the moisture out of the wood. That's what more of us need: not just the excitement of the moment, but real "revival fire" to burn within our hearts and lead us to repent of what is wrong in our hearts and our behaviors. If the fire of God's Holy Spirit forces out the junk, we will burn brighter and longer with genuine revival so we can live for Him.

Jesus came to the earth, not to momentarily excite us, but to save us and to change us. Let's let the purifying work of His Holy Spirit do its work of genuine revival, so that we can burn bright for Him.

[John the baptizer said] "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He [Jesus] who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire" (Matthew 3:11 NKJV).

Mike is a pastor and writer for a number of online publications.