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I moved to Palo Alto with my mother and grandmother in 1948. Upon graduating from Palo Alto High School, I went to southern California for college before returning to attend graduate school at Stanford. Friends had told me about PBC, and I began attending the church in 1961. It was the first time I was taught from the Scriptures in a life changing way. I met Chris, my wife, at PBC in the fall of 1962, and we were married in July 1965. We have two wonderful daughters, Amy and Anne, who also attend PBC. I retired in 1992 and have spent a good portion of my free time involved in ministry at PBC. Chris and I enjoy spending time at Lake Tahoe to hike, ski and relax while reading a good book. A few of my favorite Christian authors are Eugene Peterson, Bruce Waltke, A.W. Tozer, Philip Yancy, Ray Stedman, and Dave Roper. One of my greatest hopes is that I can die with my jogging shoes on while out for a good run.
Biblical Passage for Consideration
It is difficult for me to choose just one Scripture that has impacted me the most, but the following Scriptures have been helpful and encouraging to me. First, I love the Psalms because they help me to worship God with words which I find difficult to come up with on my own. I also appreciate them because they have taught and helped me to be totally honest with God when I am talking with Him. I never felt free to do that until I saw the psalmists do it, e.g., Psalms 44, 73, 77, 88. Second, I grew up with a father who was not a loving person and was out of my life at a very early age. As a result, I have trouble seeing and experiencing our heavenly Father as loving. However, the older I have become, I have increasingly sensed and experienced His love, desire to know it more and more and want to let it flow from my life to others. Paul's prayer in Ephesians has meant a lot to me and is one of my continuing prayers: "I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." Ephesians 3:16-19
Ministry Passion
Choosing the Best Part: Keeping Company with God If you're like me, you're finding your life much too busy (including with ministry) and/or too full of the distractions of this world. When this happens, I so easily push the Lord to the periphery of my life and pay scant attention to Him, which I do at great personal loss. First, when I don't regularly keep company with the Lord, I miss out on the sense of being loved by and cared for by Him and having life flow out of my love relationship with Him. Second, when I do talk to the Lord, it only occurs when I am in trouble or needy and go to Him demanding that He meet my needs. The Lord becomes the genie who is there to meet my needs when and how I want them met. Third, I reap the predictable results of lacking in joy, being worried, upset and frustrated with life or, even worse, becoming apathetic about my relationship with the Lord. How can I let this happen with our glorious Lord, the One who loves me so much, longs for my company and delights in me being present with Him?!!
My desire for me, and for you, is that by God's grace we spend much more time keeping company with God and spend less time with the busyness and distractions of life, which is the disease of our culture. I need to hear the Lord calling me to Him, to follow in Mary's footsteps and to avoid Martha's example (Luke 10:38-42). Jesus is not chastising Martha for being an active person in general but is reminding her that activity should first come out of relationship with Him. Even though Martha loved Jesus, at that moment she was missing the best part - keeping company with Jesus which is what He wanted the most, not a lavish meal! He has called you and me into a love relationship with Him, our Creator, Savior, Sovereign Lord and Lover of our souls. This relationship takes commitment, work and setting aside time to be together, just like a good marriage or a good friendship. It doesn't just happen. What I think I need and the body at PBC needs is much more of Mary's attitude and disposition to Jesus and less of Martha's. I see myself so clearly in her at that moment in her relationship to the Lord. I regularly (daily!) need to sit at the Lord's feet, listen for His voice, meditate on Him, consider His character and His priorities for living and then move into the day's activities. As I do this, I will find rest and peace in Him and will live a life of calling and relationship with the Lord rather than one of constantly being driven by circumstances and worldly pleasures without much sense of the Lord's presence. I will be giving Him what He desires most - fellowship with me. My dear sisters and brothers, let's keep company with God everyday, however and whenever we chose to do it, and not miss the best part of living!