Reflections on death and dying 11 years after my last post...

 I've had a dream for a very long time of writing a book, I started over the winter last year and got an outline completed and have a chapter and a half completely written.  It is a book on death and dying and the working title is "If I Should Wake Before I Die".  At this point, I'd just like to finish the book before I die.  That may or may not happen at this point!

sleeping angel

sleeping angel, a photo by jwlohr on Flickr.

Untitled, a photo by jwlohr on Flickr.

Installment one on "Gun Control"

Part 1:   Toward an Ethic that Honors Life:

I just finished some fairly in-depth research into what information is out there on the internet regarding a Christian position on gun control.  Frankly, I can’t find anything that I think is 100% faithful to scripture.  Allow me to make a few disclaimers before I continue with another keystroke:

1)     I am a gun owner and plan to continue to own guns.

2)     I am unapologetically conservative and reformed in matters of theology and doctrine.

3)     I CERTAINLY do not equate “Conservative” with “Republican” and do not think for a moment that ANY party has a sole claim to truth.

4)     I believe that Jesus Christ transcends political affiliation.  The claims of both major parties (and most of the other parties) in the United States that they somehow represent the Christian world view are completely flawed!

Those disclaimers being stated, let me continue with my thinking on this matter.

Certainly the loss of human life at any time is tragic.  It concerns me that there are Christians in all of our churches who seem to place a higher priority on matters of politics than they do on matters of allegiance to Christ.  It disturbs me when believers in Jesus Christ take a stance on matters of constitutional law and make it appear that there is only one acceptable “Christian” response to the issue.  Allow me to clarify what I am speaking of here for a moment.

I believe that this is actually a matter of our society’s understanding of, and appreciation of human life.  With a fair amount of consistency, the Christians I know of who support “Gun Rights” are also pro-life with regard to abortion.  When the definition of pro-life is extended to the issue of capital punishment the waters get a little murkier and when potential gun control legislation is brought into the discussion, the waters look like the Illinois river following a torrential downpour.

From my perspective, it seems that there are several issues at play here.  Paramount among these issues is how we view human life.  Certainly, I cannot find any Christian who would publicly state that life is not a gift of God.  So our starting point is there.  Life is a gift of God.  At least we have some common ground.  Now the question comes: When does human life begin and end?  I happen to believe that life begins the moment of conception and ceases the moment our final heartbeat occurs regardless of the cause of death.

Whenever we bring political discussions in church, we tend to confuse whose law is supreme.  I believe that Scripture as represented in the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments is the divinely inspired word of God and is sufficient for all matters of faith and practice.  Scripture was God-breathed and written by the hands of men who were led directly by the Holy Spirit in this exercise.  I further believe that the Constitution of the United States, while a wonderful document, was not God-breathed.  The Constitution is Good, even great, even amazing, even worthy of putting our life in the line for to some degree, but it was still crated by fallen men and has been amended and ratified by similarly fallen men and women across the past two centuries.

I remember well the words that my grandfather used when first teaching me to shoot at the age of seven or eight.  As if it were only yesterday, I can hear grandpa say: “Son, you can’t point this thing at anything that you don’t want to be dead when you pull it down”.  And so goes my thinking on the issue.  I am a hunter and when I raise my gun to shoot, I fully intend for the animal I am aiming at to be dead when the end of my barrel drops.  I don’t have a problem with this at all.  The problem for me arises when it comes to human life. 

As I stated earlier, I believe that human life ceases when we draw our final breath.  With bare-bones simplicity the problem arises when we allow ANYONE other than God to determine when another human being should draw their final breath.  I am strongly opposed to abortion and I am just as strongly opposed to capital punishment since I believe both of these practices take God completely out of the equation.  If we kill the unborn, who have no voice, we prevent them from realizing their fullest potential as image bearers of the God who created them.  And, here is where many of my fellow conservatives would differ with me: If we kill those whom we feel have committed crimes to heinous for redemption, we remove God from the equation and put ourselves in HIS place.  We as a society, in that moment, have determined that “this one is beyond the reach of redemption”.  Something, I am certainly glad that God did not do in my case!

A Plan for 2013

I haven’t blogged in ages as I have come to rely mostly on facebook as my place to document reflections and musings.  However, I am going to try to do more blogging during 2013 simply as an exercise in journaling.

I am increasingly excited about the evangelistic efforts we are going to undertake at Bethel during 2013.  The church, in the larger sense, has fallen basically flat in terms of evangelism and it is time to change that.  If we are not at least as excited about sharing our faith in Jesus Christ as we are about telling folks about the latest sales at the store or the last great movie we saw or concert we attended, then we are falling FAR short of the call that Christ has placed on our lives.  While sales and concerts and movies may enrich our lives for a time, Jesus Christ enriches our lives eternally and that is of paramount importance as we seek to carry out our mission as disciples of Jesus who himself came to “seek and save the lost” (Luke 19:10).

I have been reading the latest material and blog posts from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, especially with regard to the “My Hope with Billy Graham” project.  I am increasingly convinced that this simple yet effective formula is the very answer to the questions I have been asking for my entire ministry relative to doing effective evangelism.  It is so incredibly simple, yet has proven to be extremely effective throughout the world.  As the project comes to the United States during 2013, I am excited to have been trained already to lead this effort in my own church and to share it with other churches as well. 

I am dreaming today about what it might look like if the 100 or so active members of the Bethel Baptist Church truly began to live their lives and make their decisions based upon asking themselves the question: “What can I do to maximize my impact for the kingdom of God in THIS very moment?”  I think the resulting impact on our local community and on the larger area would be noteworthy if we could begin to truly live that way.  In fact, I cannot hold the people of my church to that standard unless I am willing to commit to that standard myself, so beginning TODAY, I make that commitment to Christ, to my family, to my church and to my world! 

Exciting things are on the horizon for our church.  I believe that the addition to our building will take place smoothly beginning in May of 2013 and lives will be impacted as we use that facility to minister to those outside of the church as well as those inside the church.  I believe that more people will commit to reaching out to their unsaved friends, neighbors and family members and the kingdom will expand.  I believe that our corner of the world will be a better place at the end of the next 12 months than it is today as a result of what God will do in our church in the coming days.

Laus Deo! (May God be Praised)!

Some random Christmas reflections:

Now that all of the Christmas services at church are over, the presents have been opened, the kids have had their day of fun and the post-Christmas realities are setting in, I am in a more reflective mood than I have frankly had time for up until now.

My reflections are these:

First, I am a VERY blessed man! I have a relationship with the creator and sustainer of the universe who chose to humble himself and become a man. Born into the brokenness of this world to show me how to live and how to give of himself for the sake of others who would neither fully appreciate, or respond appropriately to that sacrifice. I am also blessed by the fact that I have a wonderful wife, Jenny, by my side in life and in ministry who shares so much of herself for my sake and for the sake of three of the most amazing children who have ever lived. They, too, add so much to my life that I cannot begin to express my love for them. I am often overwhelmed by the treasure that God has shared with me in these three little lives that are entrusted to our care. My life is all about God, Jenny and these three precious souls Joey, Ian and Will. That is enough to fill my heart to overflowing.

Add to those blessings the fact that I am privileged to serve alongside some of the most amazing Christ followers I have ever known in the Bethel Baptist Church. Additionally, the past year has brought another team of amazing coworkers into my life through Blessing Hospice. I appreciate being allowed to serve on a team that shows such love and compassion shining some light into what might otherwise be a VERY dark and lonely hour for the patients and families that we serve. Yes, my life is very rich!

I have been given a heritage of faith that I will treasure until I draw my dying breath, and beyond. I am so thankful that like Timothy, in scripture, I had a mother who had great faith in Jesus Christ and her mother before her who not only sent me to church, but TOOK me there to learn the truths of Christ’s great love for me. A virtual host of dear saints of God took me under their wings at various times and in various settings to keep me on the path of faith that has led me to this point in my life. I miss those relationships as not a day goes by that I do not think of my mom and so many other people who have preceded me into the presence of Christ.

Our house is dark and silent as I write these words. The only lights on are the lights of the Christmas tree and the glow of my computer screen. I always get more philosophical in times like this. Yeah, one of the primary thoughts on my mind right now in addition to my recognition of how blessed I am is that I also really miss my mom right now. Christmas was truly special to her and she always became a bit more childlike this time of year, this is a trait she passed on to me and I am passing on to my own children. Mom is celebrating her 7th Christmas in the presence of Jesus this year. I cannot imagine the joy she is feeling as a result of that. But, I also think of what I have not been able to share with her in those 7 years. Joey was 11 months old when mom died and Ian and Will were not even on the horizon yet. I have worked hard to make sure my kids know about my mom and her name is not avoided in my conversations with them. My children are very blessed to have Jenny’s parents living nearby this year and they are a significant part of their lives. (and I am blessed by the best in-laws any man could ever ask for as well). Even so, I always think of my mom and shed tears over what has been lost in my life this time of year. But, one day, we will get to celebrate the birth of Jesus together in his very presence and that celebration will be unending!

So, for now, I sit and I ponder these things, I ask lots of questions to which there are no real answers, I revel in my blessedness, I recognize just how very broken this world is and I yearn for that day when Christ returns to set all things right. In the meantime, I recognize that which I seek to communicate to all who will listen. What we have now, is only a dim reflection of that which is to come. 2000 years ago, in a little country town, in the darkest hour of the night,

“… people living in darkness [saw] a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light [had] dawned.” (Matthew 4:16 NIV)

One day again, we will see the light dawn in a new and more powerful way in our world. Until then, I reflect, I reminisce, and I yearn for that day when Christ will come again into this world! I (as we all are) am a product of my past, and my present and I hunger for that future!

Merry Christmas, My Friends!

On Becoming Family

I have been thinking about this matter for a long time as a pastor who is involved a great deal on boards and committees in the larger American Baptist family as well as some ecumenical work. I realize, most certainly, that people will not always get along and there will be differences of opinion. That is the nature of the fallen world in which we live. However, I do believe that the culture of mistrust that permeates so much of our society has contributed a great deal to the ineffectiveness of the church in reaching the lost for Christ today.

Perhaps we have lost something in the past 2000 years that we would do well to recapture. The book of Acts (the story of the early church) we constantly see words like “together”, “In one accord”, “all things in common”, “fellowship” etc. And as a result of this the early church experienced explosive growth. Nowhere in the gospels do I read about particular worship styles, concerns over what is “in my best interest” or anyone being interested in strong-arming fellow believers to do things that they felt were out of sync with the will of God as revealed through the Holy Spirit. Looking at some of the groups I have been involved with in the past as well as currently, I see things coming into play that I would have to say are counter-spiritual and frankly do more harm to the cause of Christ than anything outside of the church. I have heard individual believers doing and saying things that clearly communicate “I don’t care if you are a follower of Christ, I will not trust you, therefore I will jeopardize ministry to protect my self-interests”. Or some seem to be saying “I really don’t care about you personally, I really want to just look out for number one. If that means wasted energy for you or that the Gospel is hindered by my actions, then so be it”. Do people really say those things? Yes, most certainly, by their actions, they do and the result is that we give justification to those outside the family of God to persist in their cynicism thinking that the church is no different than the world around us and in some ways is even worse, because we can’t even get along with those in our own household.

So, what is the answer? Well, I will be the first to admit that I don’t have all of the answers, but I do believe that it starts when we return to the values that were paramount to the success of the early church. When we give equal credibility to the ideas and dream of others as we do to our own, we honor the Holy Spirit and bring a smile to God’s face. Those first century followers of Christ trusted one another with their very lives, their fortunes and everything that they held dear. When we follow suit, the purposes of Christ are raised to higher levels of success. I believe when we put everything that we have and everything that we are on the line for Christ, we will find the unity that is woefully lacking in our world and we will see successes that have been previously unimagined. We need to adopt the attitude that says: “I may not even know you, but because we both bear the name of Christ, I will trust you and work with you for the sake of those outside of our family to graft them into the vine”.

Is this risky? Yes! Is this uncomfortable? Absolutely! Can we be hurt by those who abuse the family relationship? Yes, sadly, it happens all too often. But, until we can put aside pettiness and quarreling aside, we will probably continue to stagnate and as a result, those for whom we exist, will continue to drift and many will die without knowing Jesus. That fact alone, my friends makes all of these things risks that are, for me, well worth taking!

All of this being said, I want to say this: In my current church at Bethel, I have come to know a group of people who do not always agree with one another on every single issue. However, at the end of the day, the fact that we are family keeps us moving on together, side by side. As this is happening at Bethel, I believe it can happen anywhere, anywhere that people are willing to take the risk and “Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35 NIV)

Why the Almighty isn't doing so well...

An interesting artcile with some very valid points. Well worth reading.

Dennis Prager

Things I am thankful for"

In the country again
Originally uploaded by jwlohr

We moved to Jerseyville nearly a month ago and it has felt like home very quickly. I jumped into the ministry of the church fairly quickly after our arrival here, so there are still some boxes yet to be unpacked, but life has been so very good, it is simply hard to describe.




The church has welcomed us in amazing ways and With today being "thanksgiving sunday" it seemed appropriate that I would express my thanks in this forum. I am thankful for so many things this year that there simply isn't room here to list them all, but I will hit some highlights (in no particular order):

I am thankful for a home in the country where I can walk out in the yard and see the stars so clearly pretty much any night and sunsets nearly every evning like the one in this picture.

I am thankful for a church family that appreciates and responds so well to my feeble attempts at ministry in their midst.

I am thankful that my children have adjusted so well to our new setting and seem to be thriving.

I am thankful that my wife has been such a trooper in adjusting to new surroundings in her ongoing effort to keep me happy and fulfilled.

I am thankful for all of the locations offered to me for deer hunting (we will have venison to eat this winter).

I am thankful for neighbors who are there for us whenever we need anything and for neighbors who I hope will be willing to call on us for the same.

More than anything, I am thankful for the grace of God which continues to amaze me day by day.

Bethel Baptist here we come

IMG_6366
Originally uploaded by jwlohr

Starting November 1, 2010 the "Country Parson" will actually be a COUNTRY parson again... We are moving to the Bethel Baptist Church in rural Jerseyville, Illinois. In the brief time we have spent with the folks at Bethel we have simply felt drawn to them. I have most definitely layed out the fleece on this whole matter and God has consistently shown us his will and how clearly it has unfolded. We've been blessed by the Bethel family already and are very much looking forward to getting better acquainted with our new church family.

Of course, it is bittersweet as we leave some good friends in Wood River and the surrounding area. But, when God is clearly involved, the call is irresistable. Such is the case for us in this move to Bethel. The new chapter begins in our lives in just over one month and I for one can hardly wait!

Another slide show

The Keys to Life, Love and Happiness!

Church camp 2010
Originally uploaded by jwlohr

After a layoff from directing or counseling at camp for nearly a decade, I decided it was time to say yes to the invitation to direct a camp. Something about finally having a child of camping age made that decision a bit easier. Joey went to camp where I went as a child and she seemed to have a really good time. I find myself thinking and sometimes saying things that I never thought I would say like "When I was a kid..." Well, when I was a kid, the cabins were grafiti-laden, non-air conditioned, hot, leaky, primitive places to sleep at night... times have certainly changed from those days!

The camp has improved a lot from those days with the addition of lots of modern amenities and attractions including the zip line Joey is riding on in this picture. I simply LOVE this picture, because the smile on her face is so huge. I cannot believe how much my baby girl has grown. As Will is just now starting to walk, I remember when Joey was that age and how amazed we were at her development even then. It seems each new stage brings more and more Joy in watching our children develop and grow. Of course there are challenges in parenting and in many ways, we would like to keep all three of the kids small forever so we could protect them from the inevitable hurts that they will face in life. But, it is also a great joy to see the joy and the zest that they posses as they live their lives. How much better would this world be if we could all retain just a bit of that child-like enthusiasm and unadultrated joy in our daily pursuits?

What a blessing our children are and how very much they enrich our lives. It seems I am more in love with the three of them with each passing day. God has blessed me richly with them and with a wife who brings nothing but blessing to my own life. While I may not have much in terms of money or power, I am an immeasurably wealthy man in terms of the love I am shown each day by the four most important people in the world to me! They teach me again and again what life is really about and how to be a happy man at the core. Even when the world around me brings challenges (several times a day it seems) my family reminds me again and again what is needed to possess a joy that carries me through the present struggles and to keep things in proper perspective. Thank you Jenny, Joey, Ian and Will! I love you all more than I can ever say!

Daddy Daughter Date

I had to run a few errands today including a stop at the mall. So, I took Joey with me as a chance to spend some one-on-one time with her. WOW! It was a blast. We didn't do anything terribly exciting (although the cookie factory was pretty pleasant for both of us). As we were walking back to the car through Macy's she was unable to hold my hand due to needing both hands to eat the candy I bought her at the Hallmark store. Anyway, I looked down at her and was just amazed at how much she's grown and what a totally cool kid she has become. At 4 1/2 years of age, she can be downright silly most of the time. But, she has these moments when I look at her and see the glimpses of the incredible young lady she will become. In many ways I dread her growing up and facing the inevitable pain that she will face in her life. But, at the same time, it is an amazing gift to see this young flower unfolding right before our eyes.

Of course, that was a brief glimpse of who Joey is and who she is becoming and it does give me great pleasure and hope to witness it. But then again, as I was reading her a bedtime story tonight and she was insistent that she was a jaguar and not a human and spent most of the story time licking her "Paws" and growling, I see that we are still a long way off from full maturity. Still a joy none-the-less and it is moments like all of these that make fatherhood such a gift!

Another Goodbye

My father was buried this past week... In 43 years of life, I cannot remember a time that he ever told me that he loved me, or that he was proud of me. But, I heard other people tell me what a great person he was at the funeral. I hope and pray that my children do not have to hear from other people at my death how "good" I am.

I will not allow my children to go to bed at night without telling them that I love them, nor will I miss an opportunity to remind them how wonderful they are and how proud I am of them. My sadness is not so much for my own loss (you cannot lose what you never really had). My sadness is that my father never chose to have a relationship with me other than sharing a roof and a dinner table when I was growing up. My mother told me several years before she died that my father never loved anyone but himself. I actually doubt if he even loved himself. I cannot think of another reason why someone would be so totally focused on the accumulation of “things” and have so little regard for the people in his life.

We learn from our parents to be sure... either what TO DO or what NOT to do. I am thankful that I also had role models who taught me to love the Lord above all else and to share that love with others. The absence of a Godly father in my life has more than been compensated and I do my best to live up to a far higher standard for my own life. I fall short of that goal daily if not several times each day, but it does not excuse me from keeping up the attempts to do it right!

just for fun...

I am constantly laughing at things the kids say and keep telling myself how I should write things down as they say them to document it. Yesterday we had a really nice family day after church. We went to the "Apple Festival" at Eckerts in Grafton and enjoyed the cooler temperatures and the sunshine. On the way home, we didn't want to end the relaxing day, so we stopped past a park in Godfrey to let the kids play for a while. We didn't tell the kids were we were going (in case the park was too crowded or closeed). Anyway, we went past the Godfrey McDonalds and Joey said, "Hey, that McDonalds has a playground, are you guys hungry"... It is sometimes hard to keep the lauighter in when she does that sort of thing (which by the way is several times a day). One of the hardest things I face as a father is disciplining my children. Joey has a GREAT sense of humor and Ian is fast developing one as well. They seem to know pretty well how to manipulate me by employing humor at just the right moment. I think it is something about having me wrapped pretty securely around their little fingers. Yeah, they do get frustrating at times with testing the limits, but for the most part, we realize how very blessed we are with our children.

Another playground episode that made me pretty proud was Joey making friends with another little girl named "Layla". After a few minutes of friendship with Layla, a little boy named David took one of Layla's shoes and took off running. Joey knew this wasn't right and chased David down and got the shoe away from him and took it back to Layla. I watched this from a distance initially thinking that Joey was in on the shoe stealing, but was very proud when she took it back to Layla. She does know injustice when she sees it and seems to choose the right path from time to time. We must be doing something right... YEAH!

Where is God?

Just last night, I found a YouTube video by Kevin Gerald that sparked me thinking and I am not finished thinking about it yet. But, Kevin said something in that video that resonated with me a bit. One of the most common questions I get as a pastor from people who are hurting or facing grief, brokenness, illness, divorce, etc. is "Where is God?"... Kevin said something that at first made me cringe and later got me thinking further that there is some truth in it. Kevin said... "The truth is God is not everywhere". I don't think he was talking about God being less than omnipresent, but rather that God is not in our stupid actions, or in our lack of faith, or in our doubt, or in our confusion, or in anything that is out of sync with his best for us. Rather, God is ever-present in the wise choices we make and in the loving things we do and in the peaceful and justice filled approaches we take towards people, even towards those we disagree with. God is always there, but not everything that happens in our lives is caused by God. In fact, for me, it really is as simple as the fact that we live in a world that is in general woefully out of sync with God's best intentions for creation. (Something about the fall in the garden of Eden...) and until Christ returns and sets things right, people will deal with pain and brokenness and loneliness and disease and distress and all manner of things. God may not be in the poor choices that we humans make, but he is certainly never far enough away from those moments that we can't fall into his arms and be lifted up by them! I'm still working on t his, but that is where it is for now... More later.

The trifecta

The trifecta
Originally uploaded by jwlohr

Yeah, it's a blurry Blackberry picture taken the first time that Joey and Ian met Will. But it made me really proud to see all three of my children together and to realize how VERY blessed we are. God has been far better to us than we deserve!

Then there were five

IMG_2337
Originally uploaded by jwlohr

I won't make this post a long one, but it has been a long time since I posted anything at all. It just feels great to have a baby in the house again. I thought Ian was a little guy until we brought Will home from the hospital. Amazing how a baby changes your perspective on everything again. We are thankful for all of our blessings and really doing well with the baby home. Jenny is a GREAT mommy and the kids are all tolerating our new "normal" quite well. Thank God as well for a suportive and encouraging family. We are blessed in more ways than we can count! And here we go with number 3!

ultrasound pictures

ultrasound pictures
Originally uploaded by jwlohr

Today we "met" the baby for the first time via ultrasound pictures. The sonographer was really nice and took plenty of time to explain what we were seeing. Not that the sonographers for the other two kids were bad, but this woman just took lots of time to explain everything she was doing and seeing. She saw no problems with the baby and it looks like we are on track for a July 14th delivery just as we had been told all along. Pretty exciting days again for thelohr family! God has blessed us in amazing ways and we are looking very forward to meting the baby face to face ina few short months. What a miracle this whole thing is... just amazes us every time.

Christmas Play

Joey Christmas Play 002
Originally uploaded by jwlohr

Last weekend, we had the christmas program at our church. Joey sang with the other kids in the pageant and Jenny's dad shot this video of it... thought I would post it here as well. Man, she is growing up way too fast!