Proverbs 15:22
Without counsel purposes are disappointed: but in the multitude of counselors they are established.

A person doesn’t get too far along in life without realizing that disappointments are a part of life. Life is not one big fairy tale, is it?

Just up the road a mile or so from our house is the winter home of the great inventor Thomas Edison. His laboratory is still there as well. I’ve been through both of those facilities several times and it was always encouraging. I have heard, although I cannot attest to its being a fact that Edison made over a thousand experiments before he got an electric light to work. One thing is sure: he didn’t succeed on the first attempt. We baseball fans remember with joy the great “Sultan of Swat” Babe Ruth, who for years held the major league home run record of over 700 round-trippers. (My father actually saw him hit one of those homers.) But what we don’t remember about Babe Ruth is that for every home run he smacked, he struck out twice! In my own life, there have been some resounding victories; but I must tell you I have also struck out any number of times. Bitter losses! Dim paths ending in the swamp lands of life.

A person has to make a decision. Am I going to allow disappointments to earmark my life? Or will I make these “failures” nothing more than iron sharpening iron? See, everyone will have disappointments. They are quite frankly inevitable. But it is how we react to those disappointments that mark us as failures or winners. The champions will make bitter seeds yield fragrant flowers later on even while others will allow those unfortunate days to negatively mark their lives forever. We each make our own call.
I am not a counselor; but I believe some of the best advice I could give a “valley-walker” is this: Get over it! Get on with life. As long as there is still breath in your body, the fight is still on!

Prayer: O God, as I read Your Word, I am struck by the number of times Your great heroes of faith had bitter disappointments. But they overcame those obstacles to win life’s battles for You. Help me in my down times to keep my eyes upon You and continue striving for the prize of my high calling in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Matthew 28:19
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

On January 20, 1937, Franklin Delano Roosevelt gave his second inaugural speech as President of the United States. John Garner was his vice-president. On the very next day, my mother gave birth – to me! Boy, was it ever a different world from today! The nations were gearing for the global maelstrom fomented by Hitler, Mussolini and Tojo. Sixty million people would die because of war-related causes within the next eight years. The average annual American income in 1937 was $1,788. A new car could be purchased for $750. A new home could be bought for around $4,000. At the grocery store you’d find a loaf of bread for nine cents and a gallon of milk would set you back fifty cents. A gallon of gas? A dime. Remember, America was just emerging from the Great Depression. Life expectancy in the United States was a mere 59 years. The shifting of social sands have almost blotted out remembered yesteryears.

Now we come to this day and time. This is the era of space travel, of computers in every home, of iPods, of criss-crossing interstate highways, of cars that sell for tens of thousands of dollars and homes that cost at least fifty times more than they did when I was born. It’s a different world, my friend! Face it! Yet many churches still operate as if we were still in the 30s or 40s.

It has been observed by social scientists that the typical church shows change in methodology every half century while the average business changes every three to five years. I do not refer here to tinkering with the timeless message of the Gospel; I speak of the antiquated delivery systems still employed by far too many churches. “This is the way we’ve always done it,” comes their cry. Small wonder the percentage of Americans attending church regularly is in decline. We’re in mule-train methodology in a space-station society.

Prayer: O God, as I grow older, don’t allow me to grasp tenaciously to things of the past that are no longer relevant. I will enjoy their memory even as I go from victory to victory through the power of the Holy Spirit, grateful that You have allowed me to live to see this very day – and to be a participant of it. Amen.

Jeremiah 29:11
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

You never know how quickly your life can be changed. In 1967, my wife and I walked into an arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. We had come to hear the well-known Evangelist Dr. Ford Philpot for an evening service of the Christian and Missionary Alliance General Conference. I found myself captivated by the gravel-voiced preacher, his clear-cut message and his Kentucky twang. Also, his sense of humor was refreshing. I never heard any preacher ever give stronger altar calls – especially for men to receive Christ.

A couple of years later, while pastoring in Sandusky, Ohio, the evangelical churches had an area-wide crusade for Christ, the first in their history. Dr. Philpot and his team were invited to lead us in the 8-day effort. The Lord had been dealing with me that a change was coming in my ministry, but I had no idea what it would be. When the crusade was over, Dr. Philpot asked me spend a few days with him. During that time he said, “Dan, I want you to pray about coming to our home city of Lexington, Kentucky, and serving as my Associate Evangelist. I want you to write and produce our syndicated television show, The Story, edit our magazine, The Storyteller, and preach in crusades that I cannot get to.” Three months later my family and I found ourselves moving to the blue grass state. For the next three years, I was with that wonderful minister in crusades all over the world. One night in Kinshasa, Zaire, over 100,000 attended a night meeting and thousands came to Christ.

My friend, if you are feeling in your heart that God is about to do something with you, be open to His leading. He knows what is best for your life and His kingdom. It could be this very day that the new path is opened to you.

Prayer: O God, may my heart and mind always be tuned in to hear your voice. I don’t want to miss any door that you have opened. You have created me for a special reason, and I pray that my life will truly and accurately reflect that reason. Amen.

Psalm 91:5 6
Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.

While on business in Honolulu, Hawaii, not long ago, I caught a cab from my downtown hotel and was taken to Pearl Harbor. There on December 7, 1941, a Sunday morning by the way ( 8 o’clock ), the Japanese Air Force pulled a surprise and very successful attack on our U.S. Navy. If you have ever visited this site, which I passionately suggest, you are aware of the exposure and vulnerability of our ships there that morning. You are perhaps also aware that about eight months earlier, two senior officers, one Army and the other Navy, drew attention to the possible danger to which the base was exposed from a carrier-borne aircraft attack. The warning, for some reason still not fully understood, was disregarded.

Japanese Vice-Admiral Nagumo was given a task force of 321 planes, two fast battleships, three cruisers, nine destroyers, three submarines and eight tankers to refuel his ships at sea. On that fateful morning, the U.S. had 70 warships and 24 auxiliaries in the harbor. No one apparently suspected what awaited them. Pearl Harbor was still asleep in the morning mist. It was calm and serene inside the harbor. In fact, vital U.S. naval vessels of the Pacific Fleet were strung out and anchored, two ships side by side, in an orderly manner. The initial Japanese concentration was on the seven U.S. battleships moored alongside Ford Island. Within 2 hours, most of our ships were sunk or severely damaged and about 2400 of our valiant men had died. Why did U.S. leaders neglect the warning of the previous months? Who was asleep at the switch? All these decades later, we still have no satisfactory answers.

But then how many times have you heard about eternity? How many times have you been told of the coming of Christ and the judgment to follow? I can only pray that you are prepared spiritually for that which is to come. Otherwise you are in for a spiritual Pearl Harbor of a dimension you can’t even begin to imagine.

Prayer: O God, may we not neglect our souls in these days before Your Son returns.
May we learn spiritual lessons about adequate preparation from historic tragedies. May we hear the prodding in our souls from Your Holy Spirit today. Amen.