Yah! (Yes!)

(Jesus said) "Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life." (Revelation 2:10)

A good many years ago, I was in Alaska for a Reformation Day rally.

Totally by accident, a tour which was being hosted by my brilliant Lutheran Hour predecessor and octogenarian, Dr. Oswald Hoffmann, happened to be in Anchorage at the same time. Hearing that Ossie was going to be making a presentation in the afternoon, Pam and I decided to attend.

Before Ossie took center stage, another fellow was there talking about the Reformation.

During the course of the man's rather dry remarks, I thought Ossie had fallen asleep. I was wrong. When the speaker asked, "Does anyone know what Luther's last words were?" without opening his eyes, Ossie said, "Yah." Ignoring Dr. Hoffmann, the speaker asked again, "Does anyone know what Luther's last words were?" A second time, Ossie responded, "Yah."

Appearing somewhat put out by what he considered to be an interruption, the speaker turned to Ossie and asked, "Okay, Dr. Hoffmann, just what were Luther's last words?"

For the first time Ossie opened his eyes and said, "Luther's last word was "Ja"-"Yes."

I looked it up and found Dr. Hoffmann was right. Martin Luther, the great reformer, was born in the small German town of Eisleben. Sixty-three years later, Luther returned to that town to preach. While he was there he was struck down by an illness. In great pain he called out, "O God, how I suffer!" Then he lapsed into semi-consciousness. While Luther was in that condition, a friend came to him and whispered, "Reverend Father, do you still hold to Christ and the doctrine you have preached?"

With great effort, Luther responded, "Yes!" After that, Luther went home to be with God.

In the course of his life, Luther had written more than 60,000 pages. In those pages, he had, once again, placed the Bible into the hands of the people; he had reemphasized the scriptural truth that we are saved by God's grace rather than by our actions, and he had let the world know that our just God had done everything necessary so lost souls could be saved through the sacrifice of His Son.

Today, much of Christianity celebrates the 500th anniversary of the Reformation which began the day Luther nailed his 95 debating points on the church door in Wittenberg. We give thanks to the Lord for using the writings of a humble German friar to bless us.

But as we do, we also must say that of all of his words in all the books, pamphlets, sermons, and letters Luther said and wrote, no word was more important than his last, simple, "Yah."

With that single word, Luther declined to recant that which he had so powerfully preached and proclaimed. With that word, Luther showed that when everything else is gone and there are no more tomorrows, we are saved by God-given faith in the crucified and risen Redeemer.

Is this something you also believe? I pray that you, like Luther, can say, "Yah!"

THE PRAYER: Dear Lord, we give thanks for the heroes of faith whom You have raised up. We rejoice that You took sinners and used them to accomplish Your purposes. Today I ask that the Holy Spirit touch lost hearts and let them join with Luther in his last confession of faith: "Yah. I am saved by faith alone, as shown in Scripture alone, by God's grace alone." In Jesus' Name. Amen.

On this Reformation Day, a half-millennium distant from Luther and his bold action in Wittenberg, what does this moment in history mean to you? You can share your thoughts by clicking here!

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"Build Me a Son, O Lord"

Life is often described as a long walk. To reach your ultimate goal, you need to stay on the main path. But all along the road there are enticing little trails that lead off to the wilds, and we get curious where they go. Before you know it, you can waste days, weeks, months, years -- even decades of your life -- in a winding, dead-end trail. The last thing we want to do is get to the end of our lives and realize all our work, our efforts, our life have been in vain.

During World War II, General Douglas MacArthur was Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in the Southwest Pacific. Early in the war, the Japanese crippled the American Navy in their daring attack on Pearl Harbor. That enabled the Japanese to run freely through the Pacific. The American military was overrun, and MacArthur was driven from the Philippines. As he left, he made his famous promise: "I will return."

But before he could keep that momentous promise, he had to relocate his headquarters in Australia and wait for America to rebuild its Pacific Navy. That is where he wrote the following prayer for his only son, Arthur.

"Build me a son, O Lord, who will be strong enough to know when he is weak and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid; one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat, and humble and gentle in victory.

"Build me a son whose wishes will not take the place of deeds; a son who will know Thee -- and that to know himself is the foundation stone of knowledge.

"Lead him, I pray, not in the path of ease and comfort, but under the stress and spur of difficulties and challenge. Here let him learn to stand up in the storm; here let him learn compassion for those who fail.

"Build me a son whose heart will be clear, whose goal will be high; a son who will master himself before he seeks to master other men; one who will reach into the future, yet never forget the past.

"And after all these things are his, add, I pray, enough of a sense of humor, so that he may always be serious, yet never take himself too seriously. Give him humility, so that he may always remember the simplicity of true greatness, the open mind of true wisdom, and the weakness of true strength.

"Then I, his father will dare to whisper, 'I have not lived in vain.'"

This last line really stopped me dead in my tracks. General MacArthur is famous for keeping his promise, for leading the Marines to victory in the Philippines and across the Pacific Theater. But look at his priorities: for him raising a mature, godly son was more important than making a name for himself by his military exploits.

How do MacArthur's words ring?

Guiding and caring for another human being is a colossal task. Steering a son or daughter in ways that are good and healthy and beneficial is a full-time job with plenty of overtime. With our children, we can sometimes find -- even when we think we're being proactive in their lives -- that time just gets away from us, leaving us to feel helpless as our kids grow up right before our eyes.

We all have regrets. At the end of the day, what core idea, philosophy, belief, etc. would you like to impart to your son or daughter as they live their lives as adults?

You can share your thoughts by clicking here!

Eyes on the Prize

It was the bottom half of a seven-inning game with the score tied at 14. In steps the number-four clean-up hitter, with the bases empty and one out. Standing at 6'4" and weighing near 250 pounds, he was tops in the league in homeruns this year, with one already in this game. But we could play in a clutch, too, when necessary. In fact, we had miraculously just scored eight runs in the top half of the inning to tie the game.

This was game two in the best of five series for the Texas-based Seagoville Federal Prison softball championship. We had won all three regular season games against this opponent. But they had taken game one, 10-9, in dramatic fashion. With a loss in this game, our backs would surely be up against the wall with a do-or-die game three.

I was playing deep in left field where this power-hitter loved to pull the ball. I was a few steps away from the warning track. He was not known to hit little bloopers over the shortstop or third baseman's head, so playing him deep was a safe bet.

Pitch one was a ball. Pitch two was a perfectly lobbed ball over the center of the plate. The behemoth of a batter swung mightily. At first crack, I thought to myself, game over, a walk-off homerun. Then I saw the ball launching high in the air, and I knew it was not going to be a homerun, not even close. I needed to start running, and not just running, but sprinting, as I was playing him extremely deep, and the ball was going to land in no man's land between the shortstop and me. So I took off after the ball. My first thought was there is no way I'm going to get there. But the ball was hit so high, and I kept getting closer and closer to the ball with each stride. My shortstop was sprinting right at me, and I at him. If someone doesn't call it, I thought to myself, there could be a nasty collision. With me having the right of way, I decided to call him off, not yet knowing if I could even get to the ball.

The ball hung up, and I realized I was going to get there. I took one last glance at my shortstop to see if he had heard me calling him off, to see if he was slowing up. With that one glance, I made a critical error: I took my eyes off the ball. I needed to trust my shortstop that he would get out of the way, but I didn't. And with that split-second hesitation, the ball came barreling down on me too fast, hit the top of my glove, and bounced to the ground. Error E-7! I was humiliated and embarrassed. I don't remember the last time I missed a fly ball, especially in a championship game. There was no excuse. I had failed myself and my team.

As the story goes, the batter reached second base on the error. The next batter went for it and was forced out at second by the following batter. Two outs. Then there was another walk to load the bases, which was followed by a game-winning single. Game over. We lost 15-14 and were down two games to zero.

Unfortunately, we lost a nail-biter game three as well; we finished in second place for the season.

How many of you have ever had an experience like mine or had a child experience something like that? How many of you have ever seen professional athletes commit errors by taking their eyes off the ball? If you are a St. Louis Cardinals fan like me, you've witnessed a lot of errors this year, including missed pop flies. But it happens. No one is perfect. Committing an error does add excitement and drama to the game, however, especially in later innings. Keeping their eyes on the ball is important to both batter and fielder. It can make the difference sometimes in getting an out, making a hit, or winning or losing a game.

But there's a larger lesson here, a much larger lesson.

Keeping your eyes on Jesus is critical. He is the Author and Perfecter of our faith. To live effectively we must keep our eyes on Him. Look away from Him and we will stumble. Keep our eyes off Him for too long, and there's no telling what might happen. We should be running for Christ, not ourselves, and we must always keep Him in sight. When we face hardship and discouragement, it's easy to lose sight of the big picture. But we're not alone. There is help. Many have already made it through life, enduring far more difficult circumstances than we have experienced. Suffering is the training ground for Christian maturity, and it has a way of developing patience for ourselves and with others.

By keeping our eyes on Jesus, it makes our final victory sweet!

How's your line of sight to Jesus been lately? Anything getting in the way? What you're dealing with might be a help to others. You can share your thoughts by clicking here and dropping us a line.

Thanks to Craig Perino for sharing his thoughts.

You can find Craig's blog by clicking here.