The Bus (continued)

     Jimmy's story:   "I used to lay in bed at night to think about ways to torment you.  It might seem strange that a nine- year- old boy would do that.  You didn't know what I was going through, or maybe you did?  My mom and dad were getting a divorce, and I was confused; was I the cause? they always argued about money; did I cost too much?  No one paid any attention to me, or my actions except you.  I needed someone who cared, someone who would take the time to acknowledge me even if I was bad.  Someone to show me that something about me was normal."  " You told me thing's weren't right at home, but I didn't know what was the matter,"   I commented.  Jimmy continued: "Mom and I moved back to her home town, and Grandpa took over where you left off;  he was tough but I knew he cared.  I finished high school, and went to college,  now I'm working on my masters in Engineering. I knew you worked at Wal-Mart, but didn't expect to see you today.  I saw you, and remembered the tough times that we had,  and the memories came back as if it happened yesterday.  I'm so glad I had the opportunity to thank you for caring."  "It's good to hear things are going well for you,  Jim."  "Oh by the way I'm getting married in the spring!"
     We said goodbye and I told him I had to get back to work.  As I turned to walk away,  the lump in my throat was growing, and I couldn't see where I was going as tears filled my eyes.  I had no idea why Jimmy was so hard, but God knew what Jimmy needed, someone to care.
     I never expected that Jimmy would ever change, but the Biblical principal of respect your elders wasn't going to slip through the cracks on my bus.  At that time in his life, the elders in charge gave him no hope, and because hope was lost, respect went with it.
     Earning respect isn't always easy, sometimes things get tough along that road, but the rewards are great.  I have friends all over this city, because I drive a school bus.
    Just so you know those children that gave me such a hard time when I started, are doing well and they are my friends.  There are some  that still have problems,but they are also my friends.  I can't ever forget even though they are older, and struggling,  they're still precious little souls that need someone to care.                 

The Bus (continued)

    As a bus driver there are things I can do, and things I can't.  How can I influence children, and not cross that line?
     I love a good story, and a true one even better.  We have a friend that lived in California.  One morning she had errands too run, and was really having a hectic day.  After the work was done she decided to stop and see her husband, and tell him all she had accomplished. He was very pleased with his new bride, and asked, "Have you looked in the mirror today?"  She thought to herself he even thinks I'm beautiful after I worked so hard.  She arrived at home, and decided to look in the mirror to see the beauty her husband saw.  Going into the bathroom she left the light of, and closed her eyes.  Then she turned the light on, and opened her eyes.  Oh no she realized that the chap-stick she so generously applied around her lips, was her bright red lipstick.
    As children grow they look into the mirrors that are around them, and time has created it's own worst  nightmare.
    When I was a child the mirrors were still somewhat pure, as I grew older things started to change.  When I went to school there was a certain length of hair, and dress was a concern of every parent.  Today just about anything goes.  There isn't much I can do about that.  But I can still make a difference.
    If I woke up in the morning with my bus sermon, and took the microphone, and preached the sermon of the day, my driving career would be over.  But if I apply Biblical principles that are practical safety, they work, and teach at the same time.  I've always seen myself as a educator, not just a bus driver.  Sometimes the students don't like what I make them do for safety, but appreciate it when it keeps them safe.  I always make this announcement in the beginning of the year.  "My bus is a safe place to ride, if someone is doing something that is inappropriate to you let me know, and I'll get it changed.  If you do something that makes our ride unsafe for us, I'll change that also.  Lets have a good safe year."  These precious little souls that are in my care, from the beginning of the school day, and at the end of the school day, are the future of America.   I didn't realize how big my responsibility was until I met one of these precious little souls as a adult.
  One day working at Wal-Mart a young man came walking up to me; "Remember me?" he asked.  I was a little hesitant  to acknowledge him, he was much bigger now, and a student that gave me a hard time as a child.  I sort of wondered if the day for getting even had come!  I said, "Yes,  you're Jimmy, aren't you?"  "Yes I am" "Well how's it going?"
                    

The Bus.

    In all the writing that I have done, I haven't talked about my job.  I'm a bus driver.  For 18 years, I have started and ended the day with my "bussies", as I lovingly refer to my riders.   We can go anywhere in our city, and I always find a friend, (someone who rode my bus).
    I remember when it all started; I had been in the transportation industry for about 25 years.  For a period of time I was self-employed, but then the property that our business was located on was sold. We had a month to move,  nowhere to go, and no job.  I told Pat "God will make a way!"
    Time was slipping away; we were down to a week, and no place to go.  Then the phone rang one morning.  It was a friend who told us someone had renters that moved out unexpectedly, so we had a place to live.  After we moved, the phone rang again, and I was offered a job working for the world's largest retailer.  Prior to that time I told Pat,  "I think I'll drive school bus!"  Later she confessed,  "I never thought you would do that." She has found out that the man she married has done many things she didn't believe he could do.
    I had started to drive school bus as a substitute.  One day at work I got a call from the school, and they had a route open unexpectedly.  I went to my store manager and explained the situation.  She said, since it's a service to the community, she would arrange my schedule so that I could drive bus.  And for thirteen years, they allowed me to drive bus and work for them.  Unlike some others, I was always grateful for the wonderful company that Wal-Mart was to me, and my family.
  The first route that I drove had it's problems, and I was the problem solver!  The previous driver didn't have control over the passengers.  The new driver (me) was a black- and- white kind of guy. The experience I had, dealing with truck drivers for 25 years, was put to good use when I became a bus driver.  Truck drivers are the modern-day equivalent of cowboys.  They like their independence, and some can get pretty hard to deal with, but it was excellent training for these little rustlers.
    The first day, I (Matt Dillon),  and Chester,( a dad who rode along to maintain order) met at the bus barn.  Chester was the deputy, but I was the sheriff.  When the riders got rowdy,  I pulled the bus to the side of the road, and explained how the ride was going to go.  It didn't have an immediate effect,
but after enough interrupted rides, sitting on the side of the road, waiting to go home,  they started to understand.
     At the end of the year, Pat rode along on the last day to help me when I took the kids to the Dairy Queen.  She sat by a 1st grade boy named Mark, who let her read the book he wrote at school about his big brother.  It was titled, "The Bad Boy."  We really had to chuckle, reading about this "Bad" brother, but it also served to made me realize how a young child is affected by the actions of someone older.
    As their bus driver, I was the first adult they would see outside of their home each day, and quite possibly the last each day.  I had no idea what kind of home situation they came from in the morning, and went home to at night.  Was there some way I could make a difference in their lives?
    Read more tomorrow...

Grace.

  I was going to the state wrestling matches today, but my daughter needed a ride to a appointment.  Little did I know that I had an appointment with God.  What was it all about?

  As I was driving down the road to help out the one I love, the one who loves me was talking through  one whom I have come to love, brother Larson.  He made a comment that I have heard a thousand times, but paid little attention to.  "But for the grace of God there go I!"

  I want to start this blog with the meaning of that statement.  "But for the Grace of God there go I!"
  The Grace of God has been read about for a long time, and I have read about it too, but I never understood it for what it is.  We will sin, and God will forgive that sin.  But after a period of time it, (the sin) becomes repulsive to us.  We don't want to sin, but the sin (sin nature) rises to the surface, and we just don't understand why.  We are saved yet we sin.
  When Jesus died on the Cross, He paid for all sin, and obtained for us Grace, and Mercy.  We are saved because we believe that He is the Son of God.  We fail because we haven't applied His Grace for which he paid the price, to our lives.
  How far will The Lord let us go until we see that His Grace is sufficient for us?
  The Scripture says:  Moreover the Law entered that the offense might abound.  But where sin abounded, Grace did much more abound: Romans 5:20 (KJV)  In II Corinthians 12: 5 it says My Grace is sufficient for you.
  Too often we find ourselves in this position, the same as the Apostle Paul.  O wretched man that I am!  who shall deliver me from the body of death?  I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.  What did Jesus do for us on His Cross?  He paid for all of our sin past, present, and future, and He made it possible for Grace, and Mercy.  If His death wouldn't acquire for us Grace and Mercy, we would still be under the law;  we would have to earn our salvation, and victory over sin.  It's impossible!  Only His shed blood could do that for us.  We understand Grace as it applies to our salvation, but do we understand how it applies to our walk with The Lord?
  As I was listening to the teaching, a new point was being made I had never thought about.  "Ask God to apply His Grace to our members.  By members, that means our minds, hands, feet, tongues, mouth, sexual organs.  So often we have said His Grace is sufficient for me, but have we understood how much He wants us to be Holy?  In our own power that's impossible, but in Him we can do all things.  I'm going to start a new Prayer life, and ask God to apply His Grace to my members, because I want His Grace to do what I can't do within myself.  "Will you join me?"  I had never heard teaching asking for God's Grace being applied to our members.  Which ever member is a problem ask God For His Grace to overcome that member.

He's Planning Your Victory

     There's a song I like to listen to, and this is what it says: "He is watching over me, and even when I cannot see, he's already planning my victory!"
      We have alluded in our blog to some trials our family has been going through.  Some have been going on so long that we have just become accustomed to them, as though they could never change.  In fact, the Holy Spirit has convicted me of praying for something that I didn't really want.  If that sounds a little weird, let me explain.  I started out, some years back, of praying for this dire situation, which, as time went on, only continued to get worse.  For a long time, my heart was broken.  Then my heart began to harden, to a certain extent.  I came to expect and accept that the situation was bad and there wasn't much I could do about it.  And it wasn't as though I was just letting it go and giving it to The Lord;  it was like I just didn't care anymore!
     But I continued to pray, sort of.
     Then came a new challenge to our faith.  A seemingly sudden crisis came into our lives.  My heart was stirred to pray for this new situation, but I continued to pray for the other, but in sort of a ho-hum, "oh, and by the way..."  sort of way.  That's when I heard the Holy Spirit say, "You don't want it to change.  You are only pretending when you tell me you do."  Whoa!  He really can see our hearts, even when we don't see it ourselves!  "If you say, we knew it not;  does not He who ponders the heart consider it?  and He who keeps your soul, does not He know it?"  Prov. 24:12  " Search me, O God, and know my heart:  try me and know my thoughts:  And see if there be any wicked ways in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." Ps. 139:23-24
      It took several weeks for us to see change in that new situation, but we knew that God was on the job, or as He said to me in my spirit, "I've got it all under control."  It has taken several years to see changes in that old situation, but He also has that "under control."
     I want to encourage you that whatever your situation, keep trusting Him, with a pure heart!  He is indeed, "planning your victory!"

My Valentine.

  It was a cool night in November 1944;  just another Saturday night in Freeman, South Dakota.  A young man named Gideon, and a young lady named Mabel Alice met, and it was love at first sight.  Her red hair and freckles caught his eye, but that gold tooth took him over the hill.
  I love the story of Mom's gold tooth, not so much how she broke it, but when she had it fixed.  It was at the dentist's office that my grandmothers met:  Grandma Tschetter, and Grandma Bertsch.  I don't believe Grandma Bertsch said anything, but she had this thought she shared later, "That pretty red headed girl would make a good wife for my Gideon."  She never knew she was a prophet!.
  My dad always knew what he wanted, and once he did his shopping,  the next thing to do was the buying.  He met mom in November, and by February they were Mr. and Mrs Gideon Bertsch, and 9 months and 11 days later they were mom and dad.
     Let me tell you about their wedding day:
 February 2nd, 1945 was a special day.  The fatted calf had been butchered, and the cooks were selected, for that evening the wedding supper would be served.  But first the wedding!  There were three pastors who took part in the ceremony: Pastor Koren, Pastor Platte, and Rev. D.W.Tschetter,  who was also the father of the bride!   I often wondered why there were three pastors. I guess they wanted to tie a tight knot. The knot was tight they were married for 57 years, and 9 months.   They had 4 children, 10 grandchildren, and many great, and great-great grandchildren.  (Mom passed away Oct. 30, 2002.)
  The wedding supper was braised beef, sauerkraut, and potatoes.  That's all I was told (I wasn't there), but I would suppose there were fresh buns, and wedding cake.  The cooks were two women, both named Mary.  It was a grand time with family and friends, and  I think there were approximately one hundred and twenty five guests.
  My Dad's dad had a rule that he wouldn't sign a wedding license for a son.   They had to be twenty one.  Well he did break the rule with dad!  Dad would turn 21 in May, and Mom in August.  
  My dad always said that the 2nd of February was always nice weather, and he was right again.  But because it was so nice on their wedding day, they spent their honeymoon scraping mud off the floors at Grandpa Tschetter's house.
    My dad started celebrating Valentine's Day in 1945, and hasn't stopped yet!  I'm thankful that God gave me Mabel and Gideon for my mom and dad.  They have been a blessing to me.
    I love you, Dad!

My Funny Valentines

     I'm taking a little break from the serious stuff today to tell you about my Valentines!  Actually, I guess I am very serious when I say that I have been blessed with a lot of love and ones to love, and be loved by!
     If you follow our blog, you know my husband of,  let me see...nearly 37 years.  I met him at a scary time in my life, when I really needed a friend (and so did he).  Somehow The Lord turned that friendship into a marriage that has endured many tests, and has experienced many joys!  Del,  our disagreements have been rare, and even after all these years, you are  still a very kind, loving and romantic husband!  Oh, and I love your  sense of humor!  Happy Valentine's Day, sweetheart!
     If I were sending out Valentines, I would send one to  my sister,  and my brother.  Barb,  you have been an example to me--someone I have always admired.  I love you!  Mike, you were the one who got me through my childhood and teens.  You are still my smart, funny big brother!
     And, oh how I have been blessed by my three beautiful daughters!  I love you all, Kerry, Daina, Rachel--all so different.  Kerry, you have a love and faithfulness, and strength of character that has and will carry you through whatever you face.  Daina, although you have had many problems the last few years, you still have never lost the kindness and sense of humor that makes us love you.  Rachel,  you are still our "Lamb", but you have the strength of a lioness!  Don't ever doubt that!
    Paul, and Preston,  I wasn't your birth mother, but my life wouldn't be complete without you; as much as your Dad has been a part of my life, so are you.   Happy Valentine's Day to you and your wives, Maria and Jen, and to our wonderful grandchildren:  Chantel, Morgan, Marissa, Taylor, Candace, Ali, Jacob, and Jeni along with our 3 great-children, Tanner, Hailey, and Aubriana!!     
     My dad is my hero!  Happy Valentine's day to the first man in my life.  I will love you always, Daddy!
      My grandchildren, what can I say?  Kaylee, you are beautiful and kind--so proud of you!
Macy, you are your own person--sweet and funny!  Emma, you are a little zany, and very loving!
Carson, I love your humor, and your kind heart!  Gracie, you always make me smile!  Kelsey, we might not share any blood, but I love you just the same!
     My heart is so full!  God bless all of my precious Valentines!
     

Why?

    When we become believers something happens, that is hard to explain to those who aren't believers, and it always seems to them that we as Christians are pushy. The joy of The Lord overflows from our soul, and Satan likes to make it seem like a conflict of interest.  Should we share our new life whatever the cost?
    In this old world that we live in there are many forms of faith, but all are faith in the wrong object, except Christianity where our faith is in Jesus, and what He accomplished  through His death, burial, and resurrection.  Some believe we die, and that's it, go to the hole in the ground.  Others believe leave as a human, come back as a cow, rat, cricket, or whatever our karma dictates. Some believe you may get into heaven, but it depends on how Allah (a moon god) is feeling today.  The lists, and results of strange religions are endless, but Christianity is the only one that promises eternal life. Are all souls eternal?
    In Genesis it says "And God breathed Life into the Soul".  When God brought the soul of man from nothing to Life, it happened for every person who ever was born.  The soul is an eternal being, if the person becomes a believer, eternal life, a un-believer eternal death, but both are eternal.  Some would say I don't believe that!  You can believe what you want, but it doesn't change the truth, it's not about you, it's the Word of God!  The Word says that every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus is The Lord.  Do all men become believers?
   When we read the story of Lazarus and the rich man, it's quiet apparent the rich man became a believer in Hell.  The Word says to be absent from the body is to be present with The Lord.  I also believe the instant, a non-believer dies, they become believers, but too late, and the sad part, they made the choice, they become their own judge.  I once heard a lawyer say,  "We don't try people; we  try the crime."  It's the same for Christians: we don't hate the people we hate sin.  Satan is the one who convinces some we don't love them, because we tell the truth.
    The question as stated in the title of this blog; "Why"?   Why do people reject the truth, and accept the lies of Satan?  The acceptance of Jesus is the only life or death decision we make in this lifetime.   The Word says, "Only a fool would say there is no God"!  The Lord has made it so simple, man has made it a hard thing.  They that cry out to God shall be saved.  I want to share something about Pat in closing.
  Pat was coming back from picking up the girls at daycare, the road was icy, the car started to spin, she cried out to The Lord,  "Jesus, help us!"   And He always does.  If you find yourself in that place of un-believer, remember that simple prayer, and  if you come to a sudden place of decision, it will change your position with God.  We will all acknowledge Him,  so don't be the fool who loses  his  eternal life.           

Thy Will Be Done.

    This past summer we took a vacation to the mountains.  We have been to the mountains many times, and now I understand my mother better.  We went to the mountains with my parents, and mom said, "I like the flat country better".  So do I!  Can we do something so much, that we overlook what we have?
    The highlight of our trips anymore, are the audio books that Pat picks from the library.  This last trip we had  The Walk To Grace.  It was an excellent listen.  Just a short synopsis:  After the subject had lost his wife, and business, he started to walk from Seattle to Key West.  Along his journey he met, and spent time with different people, joining them on their walk to grace.  What is grace?
    Isaiah 9:6 says  "and the government shall be upon His shoulder."  Until Jesus went to the Cross, the government of Israel ( the church then) ; was the Law, but when He died on the Cross, and fulfilled the law, then Grace became the government of the church.  How do we learn about Grace?
    If you have noticed  I haven't been writing as much as I have in the past.  I've been on a walk to grace.  Have I arrived?  No, it's a journey, and we all are on it.  Knowing grace can only be experienced, when I am struggling with sin!
    Yesterday morning the song in my heart was "At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light, and the burdens of my heart rolled away."  Hmm... and the burdens of my heart rolled away?  If the burdens of my heart rolled away, why such a struggle with a sin I had victory over for many years of my life. I asked The Lord why.  "You were living in law, not grace.  Remember my yoke is easy".
    We hear songs and sermons, titled It's all about you Jesus, and the majority of us pull our boots up to our thighs, and get ready to "GO TO WORK FOR JESUS"!  God only knows He can't possibly do it on his own!  It's exactly where I found myself, and the harder I tried, the worse the sin became.  When it gets so bad the we cry out "HELP", only then, will He help.  Just like Paul, we also have to go through a Romans 7 experience:  "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Romans 7:24 (KJV)  The instant he cries "Who" he is calling upon the person, Jesus, and is seeking His help for his situation, and doing it in faith.  For The Word says how can you cry to God, if you don't believe there is a God.
    Just like going to the mountains, so is our journey of Grace, all of the ups and downs, all of the hard work we think He wants us to do, but the solution is still the same "Faith"!
    So next time you feel like a comedian and you want to  "Get-r-done"!  it would be better to take off your spiritual boots and rest in Jesus, He already "Did it all";  because when we get-r-done, in a matter of time, it will become undone.

Love, Part 2

     I ended my last sermon (blog) with a question:  "Will God bless us, if we live by works?"   My loving wife and editor took out that question, but I want to build this blog (sermon) on that question.  If it weren't for Pat editing, no one would be able to read our blogs and understand what The Lord has said to me.
     The Law was given to us by God for one reason, so we could know how sinful we are.  His Word says that if we break one Law, we have broken all of the law.  The law is good;  it's the moral fiber of life, but we can't live the law.  The only one who could was The Lord Jesus.  When He said on His Cross;  "It is finished"  He was declaring the end of the law, and the beginning of Grace.
    I feel led of the Spirit to tell the story of Moses about the rod, and his leprosy.   In the fourth chapter of Exodus, is the account of Moses, when The Lord told him to lay down his rod, and it became a serpent.  Pick up the serpent, and it became the rod.  Put your hand into your bosom, and it was cured of leprosy.  Take it out, and leprosy returned.  Two point's the rod, and leprosy.
    In the Old Testament the tree was referred to as a curse.  When the children of Israel defeated a King, he was hung on a tree, but had to be removed before sundown.  Moses' rod was a symbol of the Cross (what Jesus did there not the altar).  The serpent was a symbol of Satan, who would be defeated  by Christ on the Cross.  Leprosy was a symbol of sin, Moses's bosom a symbol of Jesus blood, and how it overcomes sin.  I want to add to this thought.  When Zipporah, Moses wife circumcised their firstborn son, she threw his foreskin at Moses feet, and said; "You have a bloody religion!"  If she wouldn't have done (circumcised)what The Lord told Moses must be done, that son would have been killed along with the first born of Egypt.  Why Circumcision?  To remind Israel that innocent blood would be shed for them when their Messiah came. God's plan for Salvation, Sanctification, and Glorification, has always been the shedding of blood of a innocent victim.  When we add to, or take away from God's plan we are in spiritual adultery sin.
    I want to go back to Moses' leprosy.  What God wanted Moses to understand about himself, that anything he was called to do was The Lord, not Moses.  If Moses ever would feel that he was doing a great thing for Israel, it would be the sin of self-righteousness.  Moses was shown that he was a servant of God, not God.
    We always have to remember, we are servants of God.  When I feel that I have victory over sin because of what I have done, it's not righteous, but self-righteous.  In Isaiah it says that the best we can do are like filthy rags in Gods sight. This doesn't sound good to our ear, but it should, because Jesus is our righteousness.  He became our righteousness because He went to His Cross, and took our filthy rags, and made them white as snow by His shed blood.  As Zipporah said,  it's a bloody religion, "But it's Gods way!"  His way was determined in eternity (not a time, it's a place) that includes time as we understand it, but what we see dimly now, we shall behold it in all of His Glory.  Even though it is a bloody experience it's the only way to have God's blessing in the fulness that He intended for us.                                     

Love.

     It's early in the morning, and The Lord has made something so clear: if I won't write about this, I don't love you.
     I am no different than anyone else.  The Word of God was written for reproof, correction, and edification.  When correction happens I react, and after a short time I respond, the sin nature takes over when I react, then the war within begins, and my faith gets tested.
    There is a war within ourselves, and only we can determine who will win.  In Ephesians 6:16 (KJV) The Scripture says "Above all, taking the shield of Faith".  When I see the word Faith, it speaks Christ, and His finished work on the Cross.  Believing that He defeated every work of Satan, when He said "It Is Finished";  He accomplished what He came to do: to take away the sin of the world.
   The words faith, and truth are used many times in Scripture, and it also speaks about having a hard heart towards The Lord.  When we get involved in something that we shouldn't, because we are created with a free will, The Lord will not make us stop what we are doing, but He will allow our hearts to become hard.  Can we be saved and have a hard heart against The Lord?  Why do we develop a hard heart?
    I have known The Lord for over 57 years, in that period of time I have experienced times of being hard of heart.  I sometimes asked God where are you; when I should have asked Del where are you going.  God's Word says, "I will never leave you or forsake you."
     I will try to make this easy to understand.  If we have a confrontation with a friend, and choose not to forgive, we are starting to develop a hard heart towards that friend.  On day one it's a little hard, after 2 weeks it's harder, after two years it's harder yet, after twenty years we hate to hear their name or anything about them.  It's a progressive sin that turns to envy, jealousy, and finally the death of the friendship.
    Our relationship with The Lord is one of love, and He loves us so much that He will never force us to do anything!  Now Satan, that's a different story! He wants to control every part of our lives, and take away our free will, and cause bondage.  If you find yourself in bondage, the only answer I have found to this problem is what Jesus did on His Cross.  He defeated all sin!  And if we believe that he did, or place our Faith in His finished Work; it will free us from becoming hard-hearted.  It doesn't depend on what we do, it depends on what He did, and where we place our faith.  He loves us so much, that He took all of our sin, and gave us all of His Grace.  When someone wants to cause a breach in a relationship, just remember, if I choose to enter into that breach,  I will become  "Hard Hearted towards God!"  Or if gambling were the problem?  The next time you drive by a casino, remember hardening of heart. No matter what the sin, it will always hardens the heart towards God!  I want to be a slave of God's, not of His enemy Satan! "With God, free will." "With Satan, no will."  Your heart cannot be open to see and receive God's blessings when you let it become hard toward him!