I write this for your benefit, and for your family, even though I don’t like the subject very much. Pay attention, please!

We recently lost to death a dear member of our church family, which always gets our attention. In addition to the grief we share, there are some practical “shepherding issues” that I’d like you to pay attention to.

Do you have a current will?
Do you have a current trust?
Do you have a current POLST? (Physician orders for life-sustaining treatment)

Do you know what these are, what their limitations are, and why you should have them or not have them?

Do you have any preparations at all for your possible demise or untimely prolonged illness?

Do you want your family to suffer not only your possible sickness or death, but also the potential legal hassles of probate? Do you know what probate is? Do you know why you don’t want it, and how to not have to have it?

The Nov 2012 issue of Money magazine has a terrific article on the dangers of abuse among the funeral-home industry, and how bereaved families spend so much money on questionable services. Do you have an arrangement with a funeral home locally? Do you have a funeral plot? Have you decided about burial vs. cremation? Have you ever heard of “green burial”?

Do you have a family attorney?
Do you have a financial advisor, other than a neighbor, or a child, or in-law, or someone who wants your stuff!!!????

While this looks daunting, it really comes together quickly and quite orderly once you put your mind to do it! There are wonderful professional people available to help in every area, and having a complete set of instructions and plans will put you at ease and save your family from potentially disastrous broken relationships.

Someone recently said to me that they didn’t care about this stuff because they would be dead, meaning in Glory with Jesus, and wouldn’t be worried about anything any longer. “Heaven is a wonderful place” the song goes. But for those left behind, dealing with what YOU should have dealt with, well, earth isn’t so wonderful this way.

As your pastor, I rejoice at the thought of doing your memorial service, knowing that you would be with our Lord. But I don’t want to have to face the family issues that might come up because you didn’t do some simple planning. Ok? Ok. And now that I’ve exhorted YOU this way, I know I have to get my own house back in order, and update a bunch of documents. Let’s get it done!!!

Ok, I’m compelled to respond to yesterday’s ruling, partly because people are asking, and partly because the discussion needs it.

The Court has responded to a National issue from a purely legal position, and people with moral values are very upset, when, in fact, it is moral values that are in conflict. Let me explain:

The controversy contains multiple issues; marriage, rights, rule of law, Christian doctrines, and money. Probably more, but these are the big ones. Examined carefully, I think it’s the last one that is driving this thing, and here’s why. Why do gay people want the “right” to marry? Money. Why is money this problem? Because they have to pay more than married people, so it becomes a “rights” issue.

Americans believe in equal rights, so I think the Court may have gotten this one correct, in that people living together not married are financially disadvantaged, so they are discriminated against, and we’re opposed to discrimination as well. The issue isn’t really “marriage” as much as it is equality, and by this word they mean money! The Court is trying to achieve equality, a Constitutional protection.

This ruling will prove very expensive for the government, as it will cost billions of $$$ to provide all the benefits to gay couples that the married ones get. Money benefits, that is.

The solution is very simple, and will SAVE billions. Even better, it will GENERATE billions, if not trillions, to the budget, which is desperately needed. Instead of giving MORE benefits to MORE people, the government should remove the benefits now given to marrieds. Equality doesn’t have to mean more benefits from the treasury, it just means equal benefits. This probably wont happen, but it is a solution.

So, if we resolve the money issue, the rights issue, and the rule of law issue, that leaves “marriage” and Christian doctrine as the stumbling blocks. So, what should Christians think and do? Just because we have a faith in Christ doesn’t mean we get to define what marriage is for non-believers. We can’t resolve moral issues with laws, which we’ve proven throughout history. Christians should be proclaiming Christ, and following Him, and living out their faith regardless of what non-Christians think and do. STOP:

It is right here that Christians lose the conversation. Right now your mind is whirling with all kinds of “answers” to my points. Right now your are drawn to an argument, and this isn’t Christ!!!

Let the government do what it does. And let the Christians do what they are supposed to do — Love. And pray. And follow Christ. You cannot follow Christ for another person, only for yourself, so, like me, you have a full-time job that should keep you busy!

You might want to take out a piece of paper and write down all the things you think “following Christ” includes, and then try to match those against the marriage issue, as well as your own walk with Him. Personal evaluation is always a good thing.

I woke up today (3/14/13), mind filling with all sorts of thoughts about the day and what I must do. Something didn’t seem right, so I determined to pray- to enter my prayer closet- to orient my mind to God instead of the world. And God spoke to me, about Communion. About the Sacramental nature of this Holy time we share.

I found myself almost immediately repenting. Apologizing, if you will, to God, for being so worldly minded and so consumed with all that is temporary. I told Him I was weak, and easily distracted from Him, and that I was truly sorry, and that I needed His strength to even keep this conversation going.

I rebuked the devil, and commanded his spirits and influences to leave me, using Jesus’ Name as my authority, with a strong Amen to end. Immediately I was praying in the Spirit, and found that my whole system relaxed and became at peace. I love to pray in tongues because it is so freeing.

Free from the games the mind plays, where we try to determine an outcome by our own will, rather than allowing God’s Will to be done. Free from concerns about how “right” the prayer might be, or how my thoughts might conform to correct doctrine. Free from external pressures of time and place, and free from all the other voices that compete for our attention, whether human or spirit.

And then, almost interrupting my prayer, came another voice, as it were, but such that it wasn’t offending but rather so important that I just naturally stopped to listen because I knew, somehow, that it was important now to listen. Whether this was totally new information, or an actual interpretation of the tongue I had been praying I don’t know. I’m ok with it being either, and not bound by some regulation that says my conversation with God Almighty has to conform to anything I even think I understand. It’s just wonderful, that’s all, so I stopped praying and began listening, with no struggle.

As I listened, I heard familiar words; words that I knew somehow. And I began to whisper, along with the Voice, in unison. As I did so I began to realize “we” were praying together the Apostle’s Creed, which I had learned as a child. As this sort of tapered off I was impressed again, not so much by a voice as by a thought, about Communion. And the words “Remember Me” were prominent, almost as if I was being instructed to focus upon them.

It was as if The Wonderful Lord Himself was showing us how to keep remembering Him; by repeating the creed. This is not now a time when we institute a new element of liturgy, but rather visit an old one, time tested, proven, even given to us by God Himself. The purpose of reciting a creed is that it helps us focus on what we believe, and brings us together in worship, unifying all our backgrounds and doctrinal preferences into a … Communion, as we fulfill the instruction to “Remember Me.”