Looking Back

Have you ever been looking through boxes of old stuff and discovered a collection of pictures causing you to instantly think back to some memorable time in your life?

That recently happened to me. The discovery was a bunch of old 35 mm slides of a mission trip I made to the Philippines in 1982. It was an awesome experience where I personally saw the power of our Sovereign God work. The Lord took three American believers consisting of a preaching from Goodwill, Oklahoma (far right), a retired printer from Dallas (second from left), and a police officer from Dallas (me, third from right) to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ in a Church located inside the main federal prison outside of Manila. [The other three men in the photograph included the pastor of the church (far left), a guard assigned to the prison (third from left), and a prisoner who was my main translator (second from right).] For ten days we traveled from our hotel in downtown Manila riding public transportation to the prison. We would spend all day proclaiming the Gospel in the three sections of the prison, and then each evening we would conduct a revival meeting at the little church for the villages that were scattered throughout the countryside within the prison compound itself. The revival meetings would last for hours. There was no quick thirty minute sermon with three points and a poem along with a few songs. They sang for what seemed like an hours just worship God. It was amazing to see God working in the lives of people who had nothing in comparison. Through it all, we saw over three thousand souls saved. There was a mighty moving of the Holy Spirit in that place.

I long to see that happen today. I long to once again experience a fresh moving of God's Spirit in my life. I believe the biggest obstacles facing my life today includes things like a busy life (no time for God, no time to read His Word, no time to pray, a day planners full of good things, but no time for what is best), an unwillingness or lack of necessity to seek God or to acknowledge His sovereignty over my life, and an attitude of self-sufficiency.

Lord Jesus, fill me fresh with your Spirit and help me to walk in Your ways. Amen!!!

Happy 36th Birthday

Today is my son's birthday. Yesterday we had the opportunity to celebrate Stephen's birthday with the extended family in Granbury. As you can see from the photograph it was not a traditional birthday cake. My son's favorite dessert is Key Lime Pie (bottom of picture). I think the cup cakes were for the kids.

As a father, I am very proud of my son. He is a very special blessing from God. It is fun as a parent to see your children grow up into healthy adults. We have been blessed with two very special children who love the Lord and our raising their children in godly homes. Each of our children have two children each. Too often the focus is on the grandkids -- like many I've been guilty saying, "If I would have known that grandkids were this much fun, I would have had them first." Now, I know that's impossible. But, if you're a grandparent you fully understand what I mean.

My son is a very special young man. My constant prayer is that he will love the Lord Jesus wholeheartedly and lead his family to have hearts that seek God. I am proud to say -- he does.

Happy birthday, Son, I love you!!! -- dad

Bops, we got a problem!!!

A couple of days ago as I was carrying a hot meal in a box lid out to the car using both hands to carefully balance the contents so that nothing would spill when my granddaughter Aby, who was in the spare bedroom where the grandkid's toys are stored, exclaimed in a frustrated voice, "Bops, we got a problem!!!

I glanced at her as I continued walking towards the garage. She had both her hands on her hips with a facial expression of total distress. Her head was cocked to one side and her eyes had this pitiful look beckoning me to stop immediately and fix the problem. There was not safe place for me to set down the hot meal so I told her I'd be right back. I was already a little behind schedule to deliver the meal to a family in our church who just had a baby. After loading the meal safely in the car, I returned to investigate the pending problem. The picture (top left) is an attempt to recreate the crisis moment. The "problem" that created all the stress was that the batteries in a toy fire truck were dead. The fire truck is a very popular toys with my grandkids because it has flashing red lights, a siren, and it plays music. For a 3 year old, it was a real crisis moment from her perspective and she knew that she could count on her "BOPS" to fix it (and I did fix it, but the meal had to be delivered first).

Hopefully you can see the red lights on the fire truck shinning in the picture (above center) as Aby proudly holds it up. Problem solved.

Have you ever faced a crisis moment in your life?
Who did you call upon for help?

For Aby, her problem on Monday was bigger than life and totally beyond her ability to resolve so she called upon the closest person to her at the moment for help. She knew from past experience that she could call upon her "BOPS" for help, and that I would do everything in my power and ability to meet her every need. Now, I ought to mention that when I returned from delivering the meal, Aby's focus had shifted from the fire truck to eating dinner and the earlier crisis was no longer an issue. I did replace the batteries today (Saturday; six days after the original event).

Life is filled with crisis situations that are much bigger than dead batteries. As Christians we have never been promised that we will not experience the hardships of life. BUT, we have a great priest in our Lord Jesus Christ to whom we can call upon and know that He loves us and is always faithful. I am reminded of the passage from Hebrews 4 which describes His greatness. "Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus Christ the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are -- yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need" (Hebrews 4:14-16).

There is so much about the Christian life that I don't understand, but I know this about God - He is faithful.

In His sovereignty He always accomplishes HIS purpose.

I don't know about you but one of my biggest pitfalls in this journey called life is self-reliance.

When a "crisis" moment occurs, what is the first thing you do?

Three most common practices come to mind: 1) turn to God immediately; 2) blame God for not preventing the crisis from occurring; and 3) shift into fix-it mode to tackle the problem in my strength.

I know the the first reaction ought to be my immediate response, but the latter is most true about me. I am learning that those moments in life that most often seem to be a "crisis" from my perspective are really opportunities for my awesome God to demonstrate His glory. He has never failed me and never will. He is worthy of my complete trust even when life's experiences don't make sense.

The Newest Arrival in the Rockway Family

On Thursday, July 31, 2008, Sierra Alana Maddoux made her entrance. She is the daughter of Steve and Rose Maddoux who are apart of the Rockway Church family. She weighed 7 pounds 12 ounces and was 19 1/2 inches long. She is a cutty.