Pop Pop Epistle #120 – About Sunset Beach 2020

Posted on by Shay Reyner

Dear Grandkids,

Well we didn’t get chased away from the beach by a hurricane this year. And actually we had very good weather. Maybe a few more flies and mosquitos than we would have liked. But still a great week. A loud, wild and crazy, crowded week – but a great week and it was awesome.

It was really interesting for me to see each of your personalities over the course of a week and to see the Lord’s unique handiwork on display. You are each a masterpiece of creation, being fashioned and formed into His likeness. Even the picture above gives a bit of a glance into each of your uniquenesses.

A year ago I wrote an epistle  rehearsing some of the memories from when your  parents were kids. Now we are creating a whole new generation of memories. Here are some that I suspect we will be talking about in year’s to come:

  • Crab Island
  • Jumping waves
  • The awesome holes that were dug on the beach
  • Game nights
  • Ryan and his “speedo”
  • Audrey’s elephant junk
  • Home made ice cream
  • The candy store
  • The 1000’s of bluefish that turned up dead on shore
  • Nacho table night

Here is a video that Christy put together to help us remember the week:

Here are a few verses to ponder as we think about our family:

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. (Hebrews 10:23-25)

May we always remember the Lord’s faithfulness to our family and hold fast to the hope that we have. May we indeed spur one another on and encourage each other to treasure Christ and to seek to do good toward one another and those around us.

Never forget that you are very loved!

Pop Pop

Brick #58 – Matthew 14:22-36

Posted on by Shay Reyner
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This passage is not an unfamiliar passage to most people as it details a well known incident in the life of Jesus: when He walked on the water and subsequently when Peter famously attempted to walk on the water as well.

But most people overlook the emotional context of these verses. Jesus had been trying to find some quiet space all day. This is why Jesus had sent his disciples to the other side of the lake without Him. He had just finished an exhausting day of taking care of other people’s needs – feeding 5000+ people and healing lots of folks in the crowd – crowds that would not leave Him alone.

But even before all that happened He was looking for “a desolate place” where He could be alone. He greatly desired some time to Himself. Why? Because that morning He had gotten the devastating news that His cousin and good friend and fellow preacher John the Baptist had been put to death at the hand of Herod the tetrarch. He wanted some alone time so that He could grieve and spend time in prayer with His Father.

Sometimes the demands of life do not allow us to do what we would like to do. Jesus could easily have begged off for the day – and given the circumstances people would have probably understood. But He knew that He was needed so He plodded along even though He was physically and emotionally weary.

And I am grateful that He did. Two of the greatest miracles recorded in the New Testament happened because He plodded along, doing what needed to be done even when He would have preferred to just be alone.

As someone who greatly values alone time I know how hard it is to keep plodding and to keep being available to people when I don’t feel like it. But I also know the value of trusting God to use me and to strengthen me and to fuel me for what He wants to do through me. Sometimes God will do His greatest works in our lives when we don’t feel like doing anything.

So just keep plodding! Easier said than done sometimes. Here are three succinct thoughts that might help you proficiently plod.

  • Keep looking forward. When you look down or look back you will lose sight of the goal and are more likely to give up.
  • Never forget that His grace is sufficient for you and that His power is made perfect in our weakness.
  • There is nothing wrong with being a lifelong plodder. This is how the turtle beat the hare.

So just keep plodding!

May the Lord use this brick in your life to remind you that His greatest miracles might just happen when you least expect it as you just keep plodding.

Quotes Worth Pondering – Charles Colson

Posted on by Shay Reyner

QuotesWorthPondering

“For most of us, life is messy and confusing, filled with paradoxes. We wake up in the night, worrying about our jobs, our kids, or the best laid plans, which suddenly unravel due to the pressures of living in our high-tech, fast-moving world. One day we seem to have things under control; the next day we get steamrollered by events. If you haven’t experienced this, please write me; you would be the first person I know to have life all together.”
Charles W. Colson, The Good Life
We have a tendency to put on a good front when in reality most of our lives are “messy and confusing, filled with paradoxes.” This is a good reminder that all of us are dealing with the messiness of life and that NOBODY has their entire act together. Some of us just do a better job of hiding our messiness than others.

Pop Pop Epistle #119 – About My High School Yearbook

Posted on by Shay Reyner
Pop Pop Epistles (Main)

Dear Grandkids,

I took a walk down memory lane yesterday. I pulled out my high school yearbook from my senior year (1976) and looked through all the pictures and read most of the things that were written to me. Here are a few of the things things that I discovered:

  • Evidently I didn’t make a great first impression on people – several people didn’t like me at first, but then when they got to know me they loved me.
  • My eyes and my smile must have been 2 of my good features.
  • I was thought of as a good athlete and a good student.
  • Several people that signed my yearbook I have absolutely no recollection of
  • In my mind, all of the people in that book still look the way that they did 44 years ago. As do I.

As I looked at the pictures of all the people I graduated with, I began wondering about their stories – and what tales they would tell about the almost last half century. What did they do with their lives? Here is a short list of just some of the people I know about – there are lots of people that I don’t know about. Our graduating class included:

A Navy Seal, a college professor, a college administrator, a college football player, a Business Development Director for DisneyWorld, doctors, dentists, lawyers, sales executives. pastors, entrepreneurs, a novelist, a sports management consultant, teachers, a high school principal, the first African American woman to graduate from the Naval Academy, an Airline pilot, stay-at-home-moms, an interior decorator, career military, accountants, bankers, etc.

We were an accomplished bunch. And as impressed as I am, if they were telling me their stories what I would really want to know would be questions like these:

Did they experience joy in their lives?

Do they even now live with contentment and satisfaction?

Did their jobs help them do what God created them to do?

Are they leaving a legacy that makes their heart glad?

As they look back on their life do they smile?

So many faces stared back at me as I flipped the pages of my yearbook. So many stories I would love to hear. But what I am looking forward to is watching your stories unfold and being a part of helping to write them. Now is a good time to begin asking the right questions so that 44 years from now you can re-read the story of your life… and smile.

Can you pick me out in this picture?

Never forget that you are very loved!

Pop Pop

 

Brick #57 – 1 John 5:11-15

Posted on by Shay Reyner
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There is much that can be pondered from this passage but I will focus on verse 13:

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.

Jesus defines eternal life back in John 17:3 like this: “And this is eternal life, that they may know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”

So another way to say 1 John 5:13 might be like this: “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you know God and His Son Jesus.”

Know that you know. It is important that we know that we know. That we have confidence and assurance that we are children of the King. So let me explore this word “know” a bit.

 The word “know” can be pretty nuanced. I can think of at least three different ways this is true in relation to God…

1) It is possible to know about God and not really know God. It is even possible to express love for God and not really know Him. For example, when I was growing up my first favorite musical artist was Jim Croce. I did not know Jim Croce. But I did know a lot about Jim Croce and even had most of his songs memorized. It would not have been unusual for me to say, “I love Jim Croce.” Now of course what I meant was that I loved his music. In the same way, it is  possible to know a lot about God and even have a lot of His Word memorized but to not really know Him at all.

2) It is possible to know God personally but to not know Him intimately. In other words, it is possible to have a relationship with God and that that relationship is only superficial. And it is superficial because that is the way that we choose it to be not the way that God chooses it to be. The Prodigal Son is an example of this. The father yearned for a close relationship with his son but the son kept him at arm’s length for much of his early life. Much like we do with our Heavenly Father. We know Him and have a relationship with Him but we don’t have the kind of relationship that the Father longs for.

3) It is possible to know God both personally and intimately. The Hebrew word for “know” in the Old Testament is an interesting word. It is transliterated “yada.” ( Some of you will remember the yada yada yada Seinfield episode from the 1990’s.) Genesis 4:1 says “And Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain.” There was an intimacy in that kind knowing that husbands and wives (hopefully) experience when they make love. As believers we are the bride of Christ and designed to know Him not just personally but also intimately. The Lord longs for a closeness with us as a father does with his children. He doesn’t want to be kept at arm’s length.

May the Lord use this brick to help you discern the level of “knowing” that you have with the Father and to take the next step to know Him better.

Quotes Worth Pondering – Dane Ortlund

Posted on by Shay Reyner

QuotesWorthPondering

“Do not minimize your sin or excuse it away. Raise no defense. Simply take it to the one who is already at the right hand of the Father, advocating for you on the basis of His own wounds. Let your own unrighteousness, in all your darkness and despair, drive you to Jesus Christ, the righteous, in all His brightness and sufficiency.”
(Dane Ortlund – Gentle and Lowly)
We tend to forget that our Savior is our great Defender and Advocate – so that whenever the evil one would seek to condemn us for our continuing sinfulness, Jesus is right there with His nail scarred hands showing the Father that the penalty for our sin has been paid in full and that Satan has no argument that can convince the Lord otherwise.

Pop Pop Epistle #118 – About Math

Posted on by Shay Reyner
Pop Pop Epistles (Main)

Dear Grandkids,

Solve: 9+8×7-6+5-4×3÷2-1

It’s a pretty simple math problem – as long as you know what to do. For some reason math always came easy to me. It still does. Now I am talking about simple math. Not differential equations and certainly not geometry but your basic addition and multiplication kind of stuff. Math is the reason I majored in engineering in college. Math is the reason I know how long I’ve been married to Nona. Math is the reason I know how many of you grandkids there are.

Math is something that you need to know because it is useful in almost everything. Just in the last 24 hours I have used math to shop and bank and cook and play golf and do my 100 push ups and even to write this epistle. But did you know that it helps to know math if you want to read the Bible well? I could give you lots of examples but here are just a few:

Peter needed to know math to understand a lesson on forgiveness: Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.” (Matthew 18:22). He also needed it in his fishing business: So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them. And although there were so many, the net was not torn. (John 21:11)

John needed to know math to understand The Revelation: The number of mounted troops was twice ten thousand times ten thousand; I heard their number. (Revelation 9:16)

And there was a time when I needed math to get the full impact of this verse from Matthew – though not so much these days: But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. (Matthew 10:30)

Right now I’m counting down the days until we get to hang out at the beach together – that takes math. 

Tell you what – give me a call and tell me the correct answer to the math problem up above and I will give you a Chick-fil-A gift card. I’ll just need to figure out how much that will cost me – which will take math.

Never forget that you are very loved!

Pop Pop

 

Brick #56 – 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

Posted on by Shay Reyner
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7 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

The context of this passage is really interesting. 14 years earlier Paul had an out of body experience that left him awed, overwhelmed, and speechless. It was the kind of experience that he could have boasted about; that he could have written a book about; that could have led to a lucrative speaking tour. But the Lord, in His sovereign care, made sure this did not happen. And Paul didn’t really understand why God did it the way that He did it.

Most of us have what we might call a “thorn in the flesh.” It might be a chronic physical ailment. It might be a person. It might be a  “proneness” – some habit or inclination that we just can’t shake. It might be a financial or other life situation that makes life difficult. And no matter how many times we ask God to take the thorn away it seems that we are stuck with it – much to our dismay.

We don’t know what Paul’s thorn in the flesh was but we do know that it was something that weighed heavily on him. I have written elsewhere what I suspect it was but we will never know for sure. So two questions come to mind:

What purpose might our thorn in the flesh serve? Paul is able to recognize God’s larger purpose which is always helpful. He knows that God is using his thorn to refine his character and transform him more and more into the likeness of Christ. And this is what God wants to do with us as well. So if we can get past the whining and grumbling stage and get to the gratitude and worship stage then the Lord will use whatever thorn we might have to do a good work in and through us.

How do we get to the gratitude and worship stage? 1) Remind yourself daily that God is enough! This is what the Lord means when He says “My grace is sufficient for you.” No matter what we find ourselves going through, God is enough to see us through it and to satisfy our soul while we endure.  And make no mistake, sometimes it is a matter of enduring. Taking one day at a time. Putting one foot in front of another. And with each step we say a prayer to God, “Thank you Lord for letting me take another step. Do in my life what You want to do and use me to honor and magnify Your name.”

May the Lord use this brick to help you deal with the thorns in your life and to understand God’s greater purpose when the answer to your oft prayed prayer is “NO.”

Quotes Worth Pondering – C.S.Lewis

Posted on by Shay Reyner

QuotesWorthPondering

 

“Do not be deceived, Wormwood. Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our Enemy’s will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.”
(C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters)

We live in a time when it might look like “every trace of Him seems to have vanished.” And yet, the triumphant cry of believers is that God is STILL on His throne and STILL working all things together for our good and for His glory – therefore we joyfully obey!

Pop Pop Epistle #117 – About the Womb

Posted on by Shay Reyner
Pop Pop Epistles (Main)

Dear Grandkids,

Just curious… do any of you remember your time in your mommy’s womb? Most of you hung out in there for about 9 months. Keller only wanted to stay for 7½. A few of you would have been quite content to stay for 10. But my guess is that you don’t remember much about that time.

But in the fulness of time you made your grand entrance into this world and the first thing that you did was to cry. Yeah, me too. It was as if you knew that you had traded a place of health and happiness for a place of hurt and hunger; a place where you would constantly have to work to have all your appetites satisfied; a place that you quickly realized was anything but safe and secure; a place where you were reliant on the whims of others to have your needs met.

Here’s the good news: Just like the womb was a short term incubator to get you ready for this world, this world is a short term incubator to get you ready for the next world. Now I know that sometimes our time here does not feel like short term but compared to how long eternity is it is just a dot on an unending line.

Check out this awesome Scripture in Romans 8. It is worth spending some pondering time on:

18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. 

Right before you were born your mommy started having “birth pains.” These were an indication that it was about time for you to leave the comfort of the womb and make your grand entrance into this world. It was not an easy time for your mommy and I suspect that even you were kind of weirded out by what was going on. I can kind of imagine you thinking something like this: “Wait, what! You mean this isn’t what life is all about. You’re telling me that I have to leave the comfort of this place and go to a place that has so many unknowns and where everyday there will be some kind of trouble to deal with. No thanks, I’ll just stay right here.”

But of course you can’t do that.

Here is my promise to you. If you can keep things in perspective you will be OK as you navigate your way through this world. Remember that this is NOT the world that you were created for. This world is just getting you ready for the world to come. Every hurt and every hardship is just an opportunity to grow. Lean into them. Learn from them. Let the Lord use them to transform you and prepare you for the life that is truly LIFE. And while you are on this crazy oft times frustrating journey…

Never forget that you are very loved!

Pop Pop

P.S. – Turns out that 2 of ya’ll have a dad that exited the womb on this day 30 years ago. Happy Birthday Tucker.