03/26/01: Ring Boy, Father's Lessons

Hi,

It was sad to see UCLA lose to Duke in basketball. However, Duke is one of
my favorite teams, so I hope they win the championship. They looked
awesome. I also watched the Academy Awards. I'm glad that Crouching Tiger
won best foreign picture and some of the other awards. It was good to see
many of the Asians in the film business recognized for their work.

Phil Lin was visiting LA with his adorable daughter Charissa. Steve,
Winnie, Charles, Genevieve and I had dinner with them. I'll post the
digital pictures I took to the BCEC alumni club on Yahoo tomorrow, so
please take a look. Charissa is extremely bright and curious. She even
took a few pictures on my camera, and used the calculator function on my
Visor (she can count).

Last week's puzzle is: "We have a bottle of wine approximately
three-fourths full. We want to leave an amount of wine in the bottle equal
to exactly half of the total capacity of the bottle. How can we do it
without using anything to help us?" Phil Lin is the only person to send in
an answer, which was correct. The book answer is: "Place the bottle
horizontally and let the wine gradually pour out until the horizontal
surface of the wine is at the middle of the bottle, as shown in the
illustration."

This week's puzzle is: "A man was sleeping in a hotel. In the middle of
the night, he woke up and could not go back to sleep. He picked up the
phone and called someone. As soon as he hung up, he fell sound asleep. He
did not know the person he was calling. Why did he call that person?

This week's thought provoking question is: "If you could have a romance
with any fictional character, who would it be?"

Anna Man forwarded the humor piece. The inspirational piece comes from
John Piper's book, "A Godward Life", which I am currently reading. It's
pretty good.

Enjoy!

-Josh.
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Ring Boy

A little boy was in a relative's wedding. As he was coming down the aisle
he would take two steps, stop and turn to the crowd (alternating between
bride's side and groom's side).

While facing the crowd, he would put his hands up like claws and roar. So
it went, step, step, "ROAR," step, step, "ROAR," all the way down the
aisle. As you can imagine, the crowd was near tears from laughing so hard
by the time he reached the pulpit.

The little boy, however, was getting more and more distressed from all the
laughing, and was also near tears by the time he reached the pulpit.

When asked what he was doing, the child sniffed and said, "I was being the
Ring Bear."
_________________________________

Ten Lessons I Learned From My Father
>From John Piper's book, "A Godward Life"

Honoring My Father in His Eightieth Year

When my father invited me to speak at his nonretirement "retirement"
banquet at age eighty, I did not have to pray about it. There was no
question about the Lord's will. A son will say yes and honor his father.
I told the guests that these are the things I would say at my father's
funeral, but now it is a high honor and joy to say them in his hearing.
And now I get to publish them for others to read, even while he lives and
ministers. May his honor spread. God has been good to me.

1. When things don't go the way they should, God always makes them turn for
good.

Romans 8:28 was a prominent as John 3:16 in our home. I learned it from
the lips of my father: God works all things together for good for those who
love him and are called according to his purpose. This laid the foundation
for my life. This is the way God is. Life is hard. God is sovereign.
God is good.

2. God can be trusted.

My father never murmured at the providence of God, not even when God took
my mother at age fifty-six. The loss was immense. The crying was long.
But God was never doubted. "In God I have put my trust, I shall not be
afraid. What can man do to me?" (Psalm 56:11)

3. People are lost and need to be saved through faith in Jesus.

My father was an evangelist. His traveling absence from two-thirds of my
life carried one main message to me: Hell is real and terrible, and Jesus
is a great Savior. Mother never hinted that the absence of my father was
anything but a glorious privilege for us to support. It never entered my
mind to resent it. Nor does it today.

4. Life is precarious, and life is precious. Don't presume that you will
have it tomorrow, and don't waste it today.

"It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment"
(Hebrews 9:27 KJV). I heard my father say these words many times while
preaching. They were frightening words to me, and good for me. "Do not
boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth"
(Proverbs 27:1). He knew - and therefore, I knew - too many stories of
young people killed before they were ready to meet God. It was a serious
world to grow up in.

5. A merry heart does good like a medicine, and Christ is the
heart-satisfier.

My father was and is the happiest man I have ever known. In a sermon
called "Saved, Safe and Satisfied," he said, "He is God. When you fully
trust Him you have all that God is and all that God has. You cannot be
otherwise than satisfied with the perfect fullness of Christ." For all the
passion of heaven and hell, it was the happiest home I have ever known.

6. A Christian is a great doer and not a great don'ter.

We were fundamentalists - without the attitude. We had our lists of
things. But that wasn't the main thing. God was the main thing. And God
was worth everything.

7. The Christian life is supernatural.

Christian living is not possible without the Holy Spirit, and he comes in
answer to prayer. There is not a night in my memory that my family did not
pray together when I was growing up.

8. Bible doctrine is important, but don't beat people up with it.

He groaned over schools and grandmothers who split what the Bible holds
together: Speak "the truth in love" (Ephesians 4:15). Truth and love. A
good marriage. Keep it together, son.

9. Respect your mother.

If you want to see Daddy angry, let me sass my mother. "Honor her" is what
God commands. And Daddy knew the price she paid to let him go away. Woe
to the son who spoke a demeaning word to this great woman.

10. Be who God made you to be and not somebody else.

If you are short, form a ball team called "Little Potatoes but Hard to
Peel". He never pressured me to be a pastor. Seek the will of God above
all, son. And be what God made you to be.

I write with deepest affection. Thank you, Daddy.