Life 35+ years later

After celebrating God’s healing touch in my life as a child, I thought I would write a follow-up blog reflecting on my life an adult today.

From the outset, let me unequivocally declare that I am so grateful for the gift of life.  I am thankful for it because of that defining moment in my life on 4/24 all those years ago; also because of many other significant events that taught me to treasure life.  I’m well aware that every time I wake up to face another day, it is a gift from the hand of God.  He is the One who sustained me.  He kept my heart beating.  He protected me (Psalm 4:8).  Someone said it this way: “Today is a gift that’s why it’s called the present.”

Conversely, I have to admit to you that life can be tough.  Jonny Diaz paints a good picture of the normal rigors of a day; in his song “Breathe” he states, “Ninety miles an hour, going as fast as I can; trying to push a little harder, trying to get the upper hand. So much to do in so little time; it’s a crazy life.  It’s ready, set, go; it’s another wild day…my stress is on the rise.”  This describes my life so well.

Furthermore, the storms of life seem relentless.  Many years ago, I was in a church service where a guest preacher spoke; he made a statement that I resonate with today.  He said, “Just when you think you are confident in God, comes the next trial around the corner, comes the next daunting challenge.”  I couldn’t have put it better.  That’s where I often find myself these days.  The preacher went on to say, “When God’s will crosses my will, I am presented with this idea: [God says to me] ‘My ways aren’t your ways, but you can trust me, because I am good.’”  It’s not often put quite that way: since God is good, we can trust Him.

To conclude, in a memorable episode of the TV show “Lois and Clark” a despondent man attempts to commit suicide, but Superman stops him.  He tells the man, “Life is a very precious gift.  Every day we are alive is another chance to be the best we can be.”  The man doesn’t get Superman’s point at first.  But after he briefly obtains some of Superman’s powers, and has the opportunity to live the life of a superhero, he eventually does understand.  At the end of the episode, with everything back to normal, the man declares, “If there’s one thing I’ve learned from all this, it’s that life really is worth living for as long as you get to.  Because you never know what’s going to happen next.”  Life is an incredible adventure.  I want to relish every day, because I don’t know what is going to happen next.

Kevin

"The memory of a miracle"

A defining moment is “a decision, an event, or an experience that indelibly marks you and changes the course of your life forever” (this quote is from Bill Oudemolen in his sermon entitled “For Such a Time as This” examining Esther’s pivotal moment in Esther chapter 4).  I have had several defining moments in my life.  I’ve been forthright about them in this blog.  Today I’m celebrating the developments on April 24, 1982.  Even though I was less than a year old at that time, it was my first defining moment.

I have a special memento from a church newsletter (there's a relic from the past for you) that describes this defining moment.  It’s called “The Memory of a Miracle”; it was written by the man who was my pastor at the time – Pastor Gerald.  Here is what he wrote in that newsletter a few years after the event:

“Approximately three years ago I met for the very first time a child with a brain disorder, or disease, called Infantile Spasms.  Infantile Spasms is an incurable, mysterious and little known disease which either ruthlessly takes the life of its victims or leaves them hopelessly impaired for the entirety of an abbreviated lifetime.

That child, later to become a very special little friend of mine, was Kevin Eugene Bauer.  Kevin had visited our Sunday morning worship service along with his parents, Jerry and Rose Mary.  That Sunday was also the Sunday they became a very real part of our church family.  The very next Sunday, April 25, 1982, as I greeted the people, Rose Mary whispered that God had healed Kevin…Weeks later bewildered and puzzled medical specialists confirmed Rose Mary’s whispered dream.  Kevin was indeed healed!

It’s almost beyond comprehension to view the hopelessness of a wonderful couple as they watched in helplessness, the child of their dreams held beyond cure in the violent clutches of this tormenting disease…But wait a minute! Neither the doctor nor the disease has the final diagnosis.  Behold the beauty of such a transformation as God reaches down to a sorrow-torn family, lifts them in His arms and wipes away the tears.  Oh, the beauty as God takes away the disease, clothes little Kevin in good health, [and] hands him a future and hope…Thank you, God, for the reality and memory of a beautiful miracle.”

I’m going to conclude by giving my heartfelt praise to God, through an old hymn written by Fanny Crosby, back in the 1800's, entitled “To God be the Glory”: “To God be the glory, great things He hath done…Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, let the Earth hear His voice.  Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, let the people rejoice.  Oh, come to the Father, through Jesus the Son, and give Him the glory, great things He hath done!”

Kevin

A thorny subject matter

Next week – on April the 24th – I will be celebrating another year of being cured from a terrible disease that I had as a baby.  I have a special blog in mind for that day, so stay tuned.  But for today, I thought I would bring up a thorny subject matter: the topic of healing.  More specifically, the idea that it is sometimes not God’s will to heal.  Once again, I annually celebrate God providentially healing me from a destructive malady all those decades ago.  But also keep in mind that in 2015 my father suffered from his own malady, and he was not healed from it (at least not in this dimension; he is healed in every way in Heaven).  Why does God choose to heal some people, but not others?  Many people have been perplexed by this.  Perhaps you are wrestling with this in your life journey today.

Got questions.org has a helpful and thought-provoking article on this.  We read, “Often, Christians have an over-simplified idea of healing.  They think that, if they are sick, they have only to ask God to heal them and, because God loves them, He will heal them straightaway.  Healing is seen as proof of a person’s faith and of God’s love.  This idea persists in some circles in spite of the truth that every mother knows: a parent does not give her child everything he asks for every time, no matter how much she loves him. 

Joni Eareckson Tada struggled with this issue for a long time.  As she recounts in her book Joni, she sought physical healing of her quadriplegia.  She prayed and fully believed that God would heal her.  In her words, “I certainly believed.  I was calling up my girlfriends saying, ‘Next time you see me I’m going to be running up your sidewalk. God’s going to heal me.’” (quoted in an interview with Marvin Olasky, www.worldmag.com/2013/01/joni_eareckson_tada_on_faith_healing_and_marriage, January 17, 2013).  Yet Joni is still in a wheelchair today.  Forty-five years after the accident that left her paralyzed, God has still not healed her.  Her perspective is one of great faith: “God may remove your suffering, and that will be great cause for praise.  But if not, He will use it, He will use anything and everything that stands in the way of His fellowship with you.  So let God mold you and make you, transform you from glory to glory.  That’s the deeper healing” (quoted on www.gty.org/resources/sermons/TM13-2/a-deeper-healing-joni-eareckson-tada, October 16, 2013).  Some feel that God will never heal anyone miraculously today.  Others feel that God will always heal a person if he or she has enough faith.  But God will not be put into either box.” (Source: https://www.gotquestions.org/God-heal-everyone.html)

As I stated earlier, someone may be perplexed at the lack of healing in your life or the life of someone you love.  If that’s you, please understand that my heart hurts for you.  I’m not ignorant of the deep heartache, sorrow, and pain that can come in and disrupt a world.  Therefore, with compassion and love, let me conclude with where I have landed on this subject matter.  More and more I’m learning that God thinks thoughts that are infinitely higher than mine (see Isaiah 55:8-9).  There are things that I’m just not going to get until I go to Heaven one day.  Therefore, I defer to the Lord’s wisdom and understanding (Proverbs 3:5).  Charles Spurgeon once put it this way: “God is too good to be unkind and too wise to be mistaken.  And when we cannot trace His hand, we must trust His heart.” (https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1403154-god-is-too-good-to-be-unkind-and-he-is)  

Kevin

Happy 4:13 day!

For several years now, the radio station K-love has dubbed March 16th as “3:16 day” in recognition of John 3:16.  I missed blogging about it this year, but I have done so in past years.  This concept got me thinking.  You might say that today could be “4:13 day” in honor of Philippians 4:13; this is a famous verse that reads, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (NKJV).

Right off that bat, I have to state that this verse can be twisted to suggest that anything and everything will be done for the person, simply because God is going to back you up in the endeavor.  No matter how selfish it may be.  That’s not what this verse means at all.  Pastor Bill Oudemolen once gave two good examples of this in a sermon.  He said, when he was young, he wanted to slam dunk a basketball.  He would quote Philippians 4:13, then he would subsequently jump and not even come anywhere close to dunking it.  Secondly, he said he always wanted to play a musical instrument.  So, do you think, without any lessons, he just picked up an instrument and magically could play it perfectly?  No, because that’s not what Philippians 4:13 is teaching.

I would paraphrase the verse this way: “Whatever situation God has called me to do I can meet it with confidence, not because of my own innate power, but because the Lord will give me His supernatural strength to face it.”  Let me list some examples.  You’ve been hurt deeply by someone.  Your blood boils just at the mere thought of what they said or did.  You want to hold on to the anger, and harbor a secret desire for revenge, but you also know that God says the only way to experience freedom is to forgive the one who hurt you.  The problem is you don’t think you can do it.  The reality is you’re right.  But according to Philippians 4:13, Christ will give you the supernatural power to do it.

Or maybe your best friend in the entire world, that special person you can’t imagine living life without, passes on to the after-life.  Knowing this makes the thought of facing another day excruciating.  You wonder how you can even go on.  According to Philippians 4:13, Christ will empower you to face this new reality.  It might be that you are facing a health crisis that has gripped your world and filled you with fear and uncertainty.  Or perhaps you suddenly find yourself unemployed.  All I’m trying to say is that life has a way of knocking the wind out of us.  But Philippians 4:13 presents an amazing promise: no matter what it is, God will help His children to face the next seemingly insurmountable mountain.

Happy 4:13 day!

Kevin

My Easter Monday blog

The truth of Easter – that Jesus’ tomb is empty – is powerful.  And the implications of this fact are numerous.  Yet some are indifferent to Easter’s message.  Astonishingly enough, for some reason even believers can be unmoved by it; as the Christian singer Carman once put it in a song: “The fact that He is risen no longer stirs our soul.”  The resurrection of Jesus Christ shouldn’t evoke a “so what?” reaction.  Why?  Let me actually answer that with a description of a plot from the TV show “Smallville”:

In an episode from the fifth season of “Smallville”, something happened that probably shocked the viewer: in an attempt to protect countless lives, Clark Kent passed away.  He wasn’t temporarily unconscious or in a coma.  No, he died.  But because of an amazing contingency plan that Jor-El, his father, had in place (Jor-El was brilliant, by the way), Clark’s life was returned to him.  Clark went on to do what he does best: save the day and rescue countless lives from impending danger.  In the aftermath, Lana Lang, Clark’s first love, and Lex Luthor discuss the incredible events of the day.  At one point in their conversation, Lex makes this statement: “A normal person doesn’t rise from the dead.”

Centuries ago, a man was sentenced to die a criminal death, even though He didn’t do anything wrong.  He died the most brutal, horrific, violent, painful death that maybe anyone in history ever has.  But then, days later, this man – Jesus – walked out of that tomb, very much alive!  This isn’t something that just happens every day.  “A normal person doesn’t rise from the dead,” said Lex Luthor.  The resurrection of Christ, at the very least, is an invitation for you to examine this Man.  One should investigate not only what He did, but also the amazing claims that He made.

In conclusion, I have one last piece of advice for you: be cautious of where you get your information about Jesus.  Because He is such a polarizing figure, there is a lot of material out there that paints an inaccurate picture of Jesus.  An excellent article from got questions.org (which I have as a link to peruse below) is right on when it states, “In an attempt to explain away the words of Jesus, modern “scholars” claim that “the true historical Jesus” did not say many of the things the Bible attributes to Him.  Who are we to argue with God’s Word concerning what Jesus did or did not say?  How can a “scholar” two thousand years removed from Jesus have better insight into what Jesus did or did not say than those who lived with, served with, and were taught by Jesus Himself?”

  

Kevin

https://www.gotquestions.org/who-is-Jesus.html

Resurrection Sunday - He is risen!

I want to wish everyone a blessed “Resurrection Sunday”.  Just to be clear, I celebrate this day for one reason and one reason only: Jesus Christ has risen from the dead!

I’ve been contemplating a marvelous passage in 1 Corinthians 15.  In verse 3, we read, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures.”  This is, of course, Jesus’ atoning sacrifice for us on Good Friday.  Verse 4: “That He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.”  There is that phrase “in accordance with the Scriptures” again.  What does that mean?  The events of Good Friday, Jesus being buried in a rich man’s tomb (see Isaiah 53:9 and Matthew 27:57-58), and that glorious Easter morning, it was all in perfect harmony with what God, in His word, said what going to happen.

The text in 1 Corinthians 15 then shifts to the people that Jesus appeared to post-resurrection.  Verse 5, speaks of how He appeared to Peter, and all the disciples (verse 5).  In verse 7 he speaks of how Jesus appeared to James, the apostles, and then in verse 8, Paul speaks of how Jesus appeared to him as well.

My mind has been riveted on 1 Corinthians 15:6; it reads, “Then He appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.”  C.H. Dodd (1884-1973) once commented, “There can hardly be any purpose in mentioning the fact that most of the five hundred are still alive, unless Paul is saying in effect, ‘The witnesses are there to be questioned.’” (As cited by Hank Hannegraph in his work “The Bible Answer Book”).

This idea of questioning this large group of people has captured my imagination.  I’ve envisioned a courtroom scene where the lawyer calls one witness and asks him if he saw Jesus alive and well after His crucifixion.  The witness answers, “Yes, I saw Him with my own eyes.”  Then the lawyer calls the next witness; who also affirms that he saw Jesus, very much alive, after He was dead.  Witness after witness takes the stand and affirm the certainty of the resurrection of Jesus.  This is very compelling evidence.

Let me conclude with this: Jesus’ physical, bodily resurrection is such a vital event that it has been questioned and debated from the early days after Christ’s crucifixion to this very day.  If you are not yet convinced of the truth of Jesus’ resurrection, by all means, study more about the subject.  But, as Reverend J. John once said in an Easter sermon, there are many examples of people who initially opposed the resurrection of Christ, yet when they began researching the subject, their minds were changed and they began proclaiming that Jesus’ resurrection is, in reality, a matter of historical fact.  We Christians don’t worship a dead Savior; we worship a Savior who conquered death itself.

Kevin