Sunday, February 24, 2008
Larry Norman
Larry Norman passed from this world and into heaven early this Sunday morning.
If you are not nearly as old as I am, that might not mean much to you - or might not mean much to you as you realize, but were it not for Larry Norman and others like him, we might have all been singing hymns in church today, instead the wonderful praise and worship music most of us were singing.
Larry Norman was a pioneer in contemporary Christian music. Larry, along with others like Phil Keaggy, Randy Stonehill, Randy Matthews, in the midst of the Jesus Movement of the early 1970s began to put Christian lyrics to rock/pop music. They endured a lot of criticism from many mainstream Christian leaders for the songs they wrote and preformed, but through that music, they reached a generation of young people with the saving message of Jesus Christ - and in the process changed Christian music forever.
Larry asked the question in one of his songs "Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music?" and he and his contemporaries set out to change that - and did they ever!
I had met Randy Matthews at Ozark Bible (now Christian) College in Joplin, Missouri in the late 1960's. Randy was in a gospel quartet, but it would not be long before he began writing Christian lyrics to rock music. I lost track of Randy for a couple of years, but heard that he was doing a concert in maybe 1971 or 1972 in Tulsa, Oklahoma with a guy named Larry Norman. What an experience that was! Randy had let his hair grow pretty long, but Larry Norman had long blond hair well past his shoulders. Both of them were doing their own songs and they were like nothing I or any one else had ever heard before. One of the songs Larry did that night was "I Wish We'd All Been Ready." Now, if you are more my daughter's age, then you may think that is a DC Talk song, but the truth is that if I had not been for the courage of Larry Norman and Randy Matthews and others like them, there might not be a DC Talk or a Steven Curtis Chapman or any of the other great Christian contemporary artists of today and we might still be singing hymns to organ accompaniment.
So on this day, even if you have never heard of Larry Norman, you ought to say a little prayer of thanks to God for Larry Norman and for the amazing way God used him in his short time here on this planet. And, when you're in church singing the wonderful contemporary songs that have taken us from just singing songs to truly praising and worshiping God with our music, every once in a while, think about Larry Norman and Randy Matthews and the other brave servants who had the vision and the courage that would launch a new era in Christian music.
See you in heaven, Larry!
(He'll be the guy with the long blond hair!)
Love in Christ Jesus,
Jim
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
2008 - Your Best Year Ever!
Are you hoping that 2008 is a better year for you than was 2007?
It can be, if you'll just to a few things differently.
1. Spend at least 15 minutes talking and listening to God each day.
I read that the average Christian in America spends less than 10 minutes in prayer each day, so if you spend 15 minutes, you'll be well above average. Divide the time 5 - 5 - 5. Spend the first 5 minutes praising God and thanking Him for the many ways He continually blesses your life. Spend the next 5 minutes confessing sins, seeking God's wisdom, grace and mercy. Spend the last 5 minutes being quiet, just listening for God to speak to you.
2 Spend at least 15 minutes reading God's Word each day.
If you'll spend just 15 minutes reading your Bible each day, you'll read about 3 to 4 chapters a day and you'll read through the whole Bible, the entirety of God's written word, in less than a year.
3. Get involved in a ministry.
Each one of us has been not just called to ministry, but gifted for ministry. If you're not sure what your ministry area is, then try a few different things till you find it - or take one of the "gift evaluations". For the Church to function properly, each person needs to be contributing by using their gift - their calling. You'll also find yourself being more focused on spiritual matters as you beginning laying up treasure in heaven.
4. Tithe
If you don't consistently tithe (giving 10% of your gross income to the church or in support of ministry), then you need to start. God promises that if you will bring the first 10% and the full 10% to Him (the work of the Kingdom), then He will open the windows of heaven and pour out more blessing into your life than you can imagine. But, as with all of God's promises, if you refuse to do your part (the first and full 10% of everything you make) then God cannot bless your life.
5. Live a Holy Life.
You need to decide today that in 2008, you are going to live as holy a life as it is possible for a sinner to live. If you've let some little sin creep into your life, confess it, repent of it and get rid of it today! The Bible says you cannot serve two masters. You cannot cling to those little "pet" sins that we so easily justify as not hurting anyone and expect God to bless you and use you. If you want to live up to your potential, live fully and completely for God. If you want to be the person God created you to be, then honor God in all you say and all you do, all you watch, what you wear, what you listen to, the effort you give to your job, etc. Do all as if doing it for Jesus!
Want to make 2008 your very best year ever?
So does God!
All you need to do is these few small things and God will pour blessings into your life beyond anything you can imagine!
Happy New Year!
Love in Christ Jesus,
Jim
It can be, if you'll just to a few things differently.
1. Spend at least 15 minutes talking and listening to God each day.
I read that the average Christian in America spends less than 10 minutes in prayer each day, so if you spend 15 minutes, you'll be well above average. Divide the time 5 - 5 - 5. Spend the first 5 minutes praising God and thanking Him for the many ways He continually blesses your life. Spend the next 5 minutes confessing sins, seeking God's wisdom, grace and mercy. Spend the last 5 minutes being quiet, just listening for God to speak to you.
2 Spend at least 15 minutes reading God's Word each day.
If you'll spend just 15 minutes reading your Bible each day, you'll read about 3 to 4 chapters a day and you'll read through the whole Bible, the entirety of God's written word, in less than a year.
3. Get involved in a ministry.
Each one of us has been not just called to ministry, but gifted for ministry. If you're not sure what your ministry area is, then try a few different things till you find it - or take one of the "gift evaluations". For the Church to function properly, each person needs to be contributing by using their gift - their calling. You'll also find yourself being more focused on spiritual matters as you beginning laying up treasure in heaven.
4. Tithe
If you don't consistently tithe (giving 10% of your gross income to the church or in support of ministry), then you need to start. God promises that if you will bring the first 10% and the full 10% to Him (the work of the Kingdom), then He will open the windows of heaven and pour out more blessing into your life than you can imagine. But, as with all of God's promises, if you refuse to do your part (the first and full 10% of everything you make) then God cannot bless your life.
5. Live a Holy Life.
You need to decide today that in 2008, you are going to live as holy a life as it is possible for a sinner to live. If you've let some little sin creep into your life, confess it, repent of it and get rid of it today! The Bible says you cannot serve two masters. You cannot cling to those little "pet" sins that we so easily justify as not hurting anyone and expect God to bless you and use you. If you want to live up to your potential, live fully and completely for God. If you want to be the person God created you to be, then honor God in all you say and all you do, all you watch, what you wear, what you listen to, the effort you give to your job, etc. Do all as if doing it for Jesus!
Want to make 2008 your very best year ever?
So does God!
All you need to do is these few small things and God will pour blessings into your life beyond anything you can imagine!
Happy New Year!
Love in Christ Jesus,
Jim
Monday, December 31, 2007
Please Don't Pray for Me!
As you may have seen on the news (or experienced in person), Tulsa suffered a major ice storm a few weeks ago. At the height of the storm, almost 90% of the city was without electricity.
We were very fortunate to only have our electricity out for about 36 hours, but many people were without electricity for a week or more.
We (our family and Sheila's mom and dad) have a total of 5 houses, several outbuildings, more cars than we can drive and a bus on about 8.5 beautiful acres with lots of trees - all of which suffered at least some damage. Literally hundreds of tree limbs, many of them very large, broke and fell during the ice storm. We were very blessed in that we did not suffer any major damage to any of our structures or anything of value, although limbs fell all around everything.
I guess another blessing is that we (by sometime this summer when we are finished cutting up all the downed limbs and taking out the trees that were too damaged to survive) will soon have a lifetime supply of firewood!
Many people were not so fortunate.
Sheila and I both work in the legal field. Sheila is the Administrator (financial and HR manager) of a law firm and I manage our business which is a placement agency for legal professionals.
One of the great tragedies of the ice storm was that a couple, both well known and respected Tulsa attorneys, had their house catch on fire in the middle of the night as they tried to use their fireplace for heat. Both of them died of smoke inhalation. He was dead by the time the firefighters found him and she passed away about a week later, never having regained consciousness.
I did not attend the funeral, but heard that at his service, the minister reported that the prognosis for the wife was very bleak and she was not expected to live, and he asked that people pray for her passing.
Now, while I think I understand what he was asking, it also really bothered me.
You see, when I read my Bible, I see a God who could heal any disease, who could perform any miracle, who could even raise the dead.
My Bible also tells me that my God is the same yesterday and today and tomorrow - that He does not change.
My Bible tells me that I should pray for anyone who is sick and that God will raise them up, that the fervent prayers of a righteous man avails much, that whatever I ask in Jesus Name will be done and that if I command, in faith, a mountain to move that it will move.
Now, I am realistic enough to know that God does not always answer prayers exactly the way I pray them. Everyone I've prayed for to be healed, has not been healed exactly like I've prayed it. God has not granted me everything I've asked in prayer and not everything I have prayed for has come to pass.
I understand that God will not heal everyone, because my Bible also says that it is appointed to man once to die and so there will come a time for all of us that we will not be physically healed and will die. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, but Lazarus is not still alive. Each of us will die sometime.
BUT - I have also prayed when God has been gracious and has provided the healing for which I and other were praying.
Last year, I prayed for a young man named Tommy whom I had never even met (and still have not) who had been diagnosed with Schizophrenia.
His mother said that about 4 years previous, he had gone from being a happy, normal teenager to being unable to function on his own, his life destroyed by this affliction and that he had to be heavily medicated just to be managed. I began to pray that God would deliver him and after a week or so of fervent prayer, I felt a real peace about the situation. About 6 weeks later, I received an email from his mother telling me that he was so much better, that it was like he had been healed. I emailed back that maybe it seemed like her son had been healed, because God had healed him.
Several years ago, our sister-in-law, fell into a coma following knee replacement surgery. Doctor's told us that MRIs, CT scans and brain scans showed severe brain damage. They said that there was a 92% chance that she would never come out of the coma and that if she did (an 8% chance of that), she would remain in a vegetative state, unable to communicate or care for herself in any way. There were a lot of us who refused to believe that and we began to pray. Every time I visited her, I would whisper in her ear, over and over again, "In the name of Jesus, wake up and be well." About 6 weeks later, she woke up and was immediately able to to understand us and to talk to us. It has been a long haul, more than 100 days in the hospital and much therapy, but today, other than some short term memory issues, she is fully healed.
I could list several other instances when prayers have been miraculously answered.
And, I could also tell you of times when they have not.
I don't think that any of us will fully understand in this life, why God answers some prayers just as we pray them and other time it seems in our limited view that He does not. I don't know why sometime God still does the miraculous and some times He does not.
But, I think that we must, in faith, continue to pray for and continue to expect the miraculous. I think we must never sell God short, never limit Him with our prayers.
On those occasions when God is gracious and sends the miracle, then we praise Him and give Him all the glory!
On those occasions when God, in His great purpose and wisdom, does not send the miracle (at least not as we've prayed it), then we praise Him and give Him all the glory!
So - back to the title of this post. If I am ever diagnosed with a life threatening disease, if I ever suffered severe brain damage, please do not pray for my passing, but leave that part up to God. In fact, if you are not willing to pray, in faith, for my complete and miraculous healing, please do not pray for me!
If God decides to heal me, then we can praise Him together! But, if God decides instead that it is my time to be called home, then throw me a going home celebration filled with praise and worship and great joy and tell everyone you know how good God was to Jim Rutherford!
BTW - if you ever ask me to pray for you, please know that I'll be praying and expecting a miraculous healing from God on your behalf!
Love in Christ Jesus,
Jim
We were very fortunate to only have our electricity out for about 36 hours, but many people were without electricity for a week or more.
We (our family and Sheila's mom and dad) have a total of 5 houses, several outbuildings, more cars than we can drive and a bus on about 8.5 beautiful acres with lots of trees - all of which suffered at least some damage. Literally hundreds of tree limbs, many of them very large, broke and fell during the ice storm. We were very blessed in that we did not suffer any major damage to any of our structures or anything of value, although limbs fell all around everything.
I guess another blessing is that we (by sometime this summer when we are finished cutting up all the downed limbs and taking out the trees that were too damaged to survive) will soon have a lifetime supply of firewood!
Many people were not so fortunate.
Sheila and I both work in the legal field. Sheila is the Administrator (financial and HR manager) of a law firm and I manage our business which is a placement agency for legal professionals.
One of the great tragedies of the ice storm was that a couple, both well known and respected Tulsa attorneys, had their house catch on fire in the middle of the night as they tried to use their fireplace for heat. Both of them died of smoke inhalation. He was dead by the time the firefighters found him and she passed away about a week later, never having regained consciousness.
I did not attend the funeral, but heard that at his service, the minister reported that the prognosis for the wife was very bleak and she was not expected to live, and he asked that people pray for her passing.
Now, while I think I understand what he was asking, it also really bothered me.
You see, when I read my Bible, I see a God who could heal any disease, who could perform any miracle, who could even raise the dead.
My Bible also tells me that my God is the same yesterday and today and tomorrow - that He does not change.
My Bible tells me that I should pray for anyone who is sick and that God will raise them up, that the fervent prayers of a righteous man avails much, that whatever I ask in Jesus Name will be done and that if I command, in faith, a mountain to move that it will move.
Now, I am realistic enough to know that God does not always answer prayers exactly the way I pray them. Everyone I've prayed for to be healed, has not been healed exactly like I've prayed it. God has not granted me everything I've asked in prayer and not everything I have prayed for has come to pass.
I understand that God will not heal everyone, because my Bible also says that it is appointed to man once to die and so there will come a time for all of us that we will not be physically healed and will die. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, but Lazarus is not still alive. Each of us will die sometime.
BUT - I have also prayed when God has been gracious and has provided the healing for which I and other were praying.
Last year, I prayed for a young man named Tommy whom I had never even met (and still have not) who had been diagnosed with Schizophrenia.
His mother said that about 4 years previous, he had gone from being a happy, normal teenager to being unable to function on his own, his life destroyed by this affliction and that he had to be heavily medicated just to be managed. I began to pray that God would deliver him and after a week or so of fervent prayer, I felt a real peace about the situation. About 6 weeks later, I received an email from his mother telling me that he was so much better, that it was like he had been healed. I emailed back that maybe it seemed like her son had been healed, because God had healed him.
Several years ago, our sister-in-law, fell into a coma following knee replacement surgery. Doctor's told us that MRIs, CT scans and brain scans showed severe brain damage. They said that there was a 92% chance that she would never come out of the coma and that if she did (an 8% chance of that), she would remain in a vegetative state, unable to communicate or care for herself in any way. There were a lot of us who refused to believe that and we began to pray. Every time I visited her, I would whisper in her ear, over and over again, "In the name of Jesus, wake up and be well." About 6 weeks later, she woke up and was immediately able to to understand us and to talk to us. It has been a long haul, more than 100 days in the hospital and much therapy, but today, other than some short term memory issues, she is fully healed.
I could list several other instances when prayers have been miraculously answered.
And, I could also tell you of times when they have not.
I don't think that any of us will fully understand in this life, why God answers some prayers just as we pray them and other time it seems in our limited view that He does not. I don't know why sometime God still does the miraculous and some times He does not.
But, I think that we must, in faith, continue to pray for and continue to expect the miraculous. I think we must never sell God short, never limit Him with our prayers.
On those occasions when God is gracious and sends the miracle, then we praise Him and give Him all the glory!
On those occasions when God, in His great purpose and wisdom, does not send the miracle (at least not as we've prayed it), then we praise Him and give Him all the glory!
So - back to the title of this post. If I am ever diagnosed with a life threatening disease, if I ever suffered severe brain damage, please do not pray for my passing, but leave that part up to God. In fact, if you are not willing to pray, in faith, for my complete and miraculous healing, please do not pray for me!
If God decides to heal me, then we can praise Him together! But, if God decides instead that it is my time to be called home, then throw me a going home celebration filled with praise and worship and great joy and tell everyone you know how good God was to Jim Rutherford!
BTW - if you ever ask me to pray for you, please know that I'll be praying and expecting a miraculous healing from God on your behalf!
Love in Christ Jesus,
Jim
Friday, December 21, 2007
A Great Christmas Gift
There is a guy named Stuart Shepard who does a kind of Op Ed series called Stoplight for Focus on the Family. Usually these pieces are pretty humorous and kind of a "you need to really stop and think about this." And, some of them can be pretty hard hitting - again, in a humorous way. You ought to check out his archived videos, you'll really enjoy them.
He recently took a different approach in a video editorial he called "A Christmas Story" and I think you'll both really enjoy it - but I also hope you'll act on it. Just click on the link below and then click on the red light.
A Christmas Story by Stuart Shepard
Hope you and yours have the most blessed Christmas ever - and make it extra special by being a blessing in some way to someone who really needs to be blessed!
Love in Christ Jesus,
Jim
He recently took a different approach in a video editorial he called "A Christmas Story" and I think you'll both really enjoy it - but I also hope you'll act on it. Just click on the link below and then click on the red light.
A Christmas Story by Stuart Shepard
Hope you and yours have the most blessed Christmas ever - and make it extra special by being a blessing in some way to someone who really needs to be blessed!
Love in Christ Jesus,
Jim
Monday, November 26, 2007
A Side of My Wife You've Probably Never Seen!
http://www.southheightschurch.com/Podcasts/Pods/KissingThePig.html
You have got to click on the link above and watch this video!
My beautiful, fantastic, incredible wife, Sheila, (in addition to being my partner in ministry) is the worship leader at South Heights Assembly in Sapulpa, Oklahoma.
She joined the staff there about a year ago, just prior to their annual pie auction which is the primary fund raiser for the Missionettes (the elementary girl's program). Since she had only been on staff for about 3 weeks prior to last year's pie auction, she was given a pass when it came to the part of the auction when the opportunity to throw a pie in the face of a staff member is auctioned off.
However, faced with taking a pie in the face this year, Sheila, who is somewhat claustrophobic and cannot stand to have anything in her face, even water from a shower, especially covering her nose, mentioned at a little after-church gathering several months ago the she'd rather kiss a pig than take a pie in the face.
Well ... guess what! Click the link above and see what happened!
I also am attaching another video below (not very good quality, but you'll get the idea) of a United Way fund raising event at the law firm at which Sheila is the Administrator, in which, try as she might, she could not avoid taking a pie in the face, but as you'll see, I have a very creative wife. Get a load of that outfit!
Love in Christ Jesus,
Jim
You have got to click on the link above and watch this video!
My beautiful, fantastic, incredible wife, Sheila, (in addition to being my partner in ministry) is the worship leader at South Heights Assembly in Sapulpa, Oklahoma.
She joined the staff there about a year ago, just prior to their annual pie auction which is the primary fund raiser for the Missionettes (the elementary girl's program). Since she had only been on staff for about 3 weeks prior to last year's pie auction, she was given a pass when it came to the part of the auction when the opportunity to throw a pie in the face of a staff member is auctioned off.
However, faced with taking a pie in the face this year, Sheila, who is somewhat claustrophobic and cannot stand to have anything in her face, even water from a shower, especially covering her nose, mentioned at a little after-church gathering several months ago the she'd rather kiss a pig than take a pie in the face.
Well ... guess what! Click the link above and see what happened!
I also am attaching another video below (not very good quality, but you'll get the idea) of a United Way fund raising event at the law firm at which Sheila is the Administrator, in which, try as she might, she could not avoid taking a pie in the face, but as you'll see, I have a very creative wife. Get a load of that outfit!
Love in Christ Jesus,
Jim
It's Called Christmas with a Capital "C"
Pretty cool video by an group called "Go Fish".
One of my preacher buddies, Mike Sublett, Hi-Land Christian Church in Pampa, TX sent it to me.
I've not been very good about updating this blog - but I'm making an early New Year's Resolution to do much better, so check back often over the next few weeks and hold me accountable.
There will be some fun stuff, some serious stuff, some more Christmas stuff and who knows what else.
But - right now - let me be the first to say - Merry Christmas with a Capital C !
Love in Christ Jesus!
Jim
Monday, November 5, 2007
Are Your Ready?
What a powerful video!
And what a reminder that Jesus may come again at any time!
Certainly, if you read God's Word regarding what the world will be like when Jesus returns, it is apparent that those times are upon us. It may be 10 years or 20 years from now, but as this video portrays, it might be in just a few minutes.
Let me ask you this - if you knew Jesus were coming in 30 days, is there anything about your life that you'd change?
Is there something that you'd stop doing and for which you'd seek repentance, because you'd be afraid it would keep you from heaven?
Is there something that you should be doing that you'd start doing? Maybe you've been intending to talk to a loved one or a friend or a co-worker about Jesus and trying to lead them to salvation, but just keep putting it off because you are afraid you'd offend them? Maybe you keep telling yourself there will be a better time?
It is so easy for us to think that we have plenty of time, that we can change later or we can talk to that person about their soul some other time, but the fact is that Jesus could come at any moment - and, as Christians, we ought to be living our life with that realization - with that kind of urgency - no only in regard to assuring our own salvation, but is reaching the lost around us.
The fact is - THERE IS NOT PLENTY OF TIME!
THE TIME TO MAKE THINGS RIGHT IS NOW!!!
It may be that Jesus doesn't return for another 20 or 30 years, but you might not have more than today - more than these next few hours.
Last week, an 18 year old girl who had graduated last year from the same Christian school two of our kids attend(ed) was driving home from church and another car clipped her car causing her to spin into another lane of traffic where her car was hit and she died from her injuries. She was a wonderful Christian young lady. She'd made straight "A"s, was a star athlete, a beautiful and sweet girl and I am sure that death was far from her mind and that anyone who knew her would have thought that she had many wonderful years ahead of her. Yet, her young life ended in a moment.
The Bible tells us that, at best, our life is like a mist which appears for a moment and then is gone.
Let me ask you that question again - Are you ready?
If not, you need to get ready - TODAY!
Love in Christ Jesus,
Jim
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