The horrifying carnage in the aftermath of the terrorist’s hijacking of four airliners and the subsequent devastation of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon is almost beyond description. It was truly an attack on America. Terror, grief, anger, disbelief, and fear were common emotions that many experienced in trying to cope with such a tragedy.

Some people were so traumatized that it will take awhile for them to move on. Others are paralyzed or gripped with fear. Some refuse to fly again or enter a skyscraper. One experienced firefighter was so overcome by all the devastation that he had a fatal heart attack.

Having a farm background, I know how important it is to mend fences. It is sometimes a tedious and tiring job, but to neglect it can result in tragedy and loss. When we lived in South Dakota, a rancher friend had several sheep. When a sheep would find a hole in the fence and go through it, the whole flock would usually follow. Occasionally one would get stuck and die struggling to get out. It is imperative to be ever vigilant in mending fences.

Multitudes of marriages and human relationships have been damaged and destroyed because of the neglect of mending fences. We must constantly work at mending relationship fences in marriage, family, church, and the work place. Let us consider seven steps to healing of marriage and human relationships.

Perhaps you heard about the man who went to a rancher to buy a horse. He was informed that he had the perfect horse for him. There was one problem with this particular horse. It seems that a Christian trained it. To get the horse to go you had to yell “Praise the Lord!” To get the horse to stop you had to yell “Amen!” The man bought the horse and sure enough, when he yelled, “Praise the Lord” – the horse took off like a rocket. Suddenly the man saw a cliff looming ahead. He became so excited that he forgot the word that stopped the horse. Just in the nick of time he remembered the word and yelled “Amen!” The horse skidded to a stop within inches of the precipice. The man wiped the sweat from his brow and declared – “Praise the Lord!”

If the devil can derail or damage our marriage, he has put a damper on our ministry. Your marriage is your ministry! On Labor Day we celebrate the blessings and the necessity of work. I realize that a good marriage must be constantly worked at, tended to, and nurtured. It must be a ministry priority.

The great comedian and American icon Bob Hope lived to be over 100 years old. No doubt he took his own medicine – “A merry heart doeth good like medicine” (Proverbs 17:22). The amazing thing to many people was that he was married to his wife Dolores for over 69 years.

The world has been blessed by many great men and women throughout history. These great men and women, while passing through this world, have left it a better place. On November 11th our nation has set aside Veteran’s Day to remember and honor those who selflessly served our country in the armed forces. They helped maintain the liberty we enjoy in the United States of America and around the world. Many of them are unsung heroes and patriots. Our hats go off to them! We say, “Thank you for the sacrifices you have made for our freedom.”

What would you consider to be man’s greatest breakthrough? Perhaps you would say that it some new breakthrough in science or technology. Whatever it might be, it pales in comparison of the most earth-shattering event in the history of mankind. Even the great illusionist, David Copperfield, could not duplicate it. Man’s greatest breakthrough was the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. After dying on the cross for the sins of the world and being laid in a tomb that was sealed with a stone and Roman soldiers standing guard – Jesus Christ arose victorious over death, hell, and the grave. He broke the power of death which is sin (I Corinthians 15:56).

The headlines on the front page of the Centralia Sentinel shocked me and made me sick in the pit of my stomach. “Divorce Rate In Marion County Is Exceeding High, Says Judge.” It quoted circuit court Judge Sauer, who issued a release of the number of divorces in Marion County that showed an 83% divorce rate. The national rate is appalling enough at 50%. The article also touched on some possible contributing factors.

Families and marriages are in terrible turmoil. Is there hope for the institution of marriage? Yes, for the One who instituted marriage in the beginning not only gives hope, but also gives us the greatest marriage manual in the world – the Bible. Your marriage can make it. This article is for those who want their marriage to work and succeed. It is not for those who are unwilling to work at it or those who are unwilling to change and grow.

The Columbia River gorge in Oregon is breathtakingly beautiful. Multnomah Falls is a popular destination for many hikers and tourists. The legend of the falls tells of a beautiful Indian maiden, the daughter of the chief of the Multnomah tribe. The princess was the only child left to her aging father. The chief loved his daughter dearly and picked out a husband for her, a young warrior who was a prince of the Clatsop tribe, whom she loved. The two tribes came together to celebrate the days of the wedding feast. Just before the feast began, a terrible sickness fell on the men of the tribes killing many of them.

Being lost can be frightening. It can cause a person to become disoriented and desperate. One night as a teenager, my cousin and I had to admit that we were indeed lost. I was a bit miffed that Tom, being an avid coonhunter and woodsmen, could get us lost while only hunting a short time. It had become so cloudy that there were no stars visible to guide us back to our truck. So, after much wondering around for a while, we decided to stay put and wait for daybreak. After daybreak, we quickly found our way out.

There is a popular television series entitled “Lost”. Although I’ve never seen it, I have been told that it is a very suspenseful and well produced television series. The program began two years ago with the crash of Oceanic Flight 815 that was flying from Sydney, Australia to Los Angels, CA. For some unknown reason the plane breaks apart and crashes onto a remote island. The passengers, through story lines shown in flash backs, bring to the island their baggage of lost faith and being lost in life. The story shows how faith and purpose in life are rediscovered and sometimes lost again.

It is an awful feeling being lost. Were you ever been lost in a crowd as a child? Many people have nightmares about being lost.

Have you ever had your back against the wall with seemingly no way out? Have you ever felt that you were drowning in despair? We all face what we perceive to be impossibilities. Life has it’s cul-de-sac of problems and perplexities when we think we are at a dead end. Difficult people and awesome opportunities confront us all. Many times, we face life’s challenges and say, “why, that’s impossible.” Instead we should listen to God’s angel who told a young virgin girl, “With God, nothing is impossible” (Luke 1:37). She believed the Lord of the impossible.

Every time my wife or I return home there is a joyful celebration. Miki, our golden retriever, greets us with gleeful abandon. Brewser, our little dorky which is half miniature dachshund and half Yorkshire terrier, whom we have recently inherited, stands on her hind legs and twirls around in joy to welcome us home. They enjoy our presence.

What about your relationship with God? Do you exuberantly celebrate His presence and goodness? Judeo-Christian worship has been marked by joyful celebration. Christian doctrine and experience is joy even in the midst of suffering and trials.

A businessman shared that he felt guilty if he took time off from work for fun and recreation. I somewhat identify with him. Early in my pastoral ministry, some people tried to put a guilt trip on me if I spent time with my family or having fun. The values of our western culture would have us to believe that the busy, publicly active, nose to the grindstone person in business, work, or ministry is the most successful or spiritual person.

In our culture there are multitudes of people who live stress-filled lives that end in burn out, disease, or their world coming apart at the seams.

I could feel and see the tension on the faces of many of the men in our prison Bible study. I had told them that Jesus taught us to relate to God in prayer as our Heavenly Father. (Matthew 6:9) I knew what they were thinking. For many of these men the image of “father” had a negative connotation. Today in America many children have a father who is abusive, distant, or absent. It is heart breaking to know that many children do not know the love and positive influence of a father.

Constantine the Great, emperor of Rome, saw it blazing high in the sky and it changed his life and the course of the Roman Empire. According to Eusebius, while Constantine was fighting his rival Maxentius in 312 he saw in the sky a fiery cross and the words “By this sign conquer.” He adopted the cross as his symbol, killed Maxentius, and issued an edict that Christianity would be tolerated throughout the Roman Empire. Constantine promoted humanitarian reforms and in 321 made Sunday a holiday. He was later baptized on his deathbed. When Constantine lifted high the cross he conquered.

Working in the emergency room of a hospital can be extremely hectic and demanding. Recently my cousin’s wife started a second career as an EMT in the ER. She could tell you how stressful it is at times and yet rewarding.

Perhaps, like me, you feel that you have been in life’s ER for most of your life. Life in the ER is a daily encounter with trauma, tragedy, and tears, but there are also times of joyous triumph. Job was one of the most severely tested men in the Bible. He experienced life in the ER – life full of trauma, tragedy, and tears.

Sometimes I think that I’ve spent most of my life in the emergency room. If not for myself and my family, it seems that supporting others in the emergency room of life has been our life’s ministry. We live in a fallen, imperfect, fragile world. Job spent much time in the emergency room. He concluded, “Man is born into trouble as the sparks fly upward” (Job 5:7). But thank God for the emergency room. It is in the emergency room where help is sought and found. Unfortunately, only an emergency room will motivate some people to seek help, both physically and spiritually.

Dear friend,

Over the years, we have conversed about the existence of God. We have discussed creation and the unlikely theory that this vast, varied, and complex universe could have just come into existence by accident or have evolved over a trillion years. We have considered the Apostle Paul’s argument that from the creation of the world people have seen the earth and the sky and all that God made. They can clearly see his invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature. So they are without excuse whatsoever for not knowing God. (See Romans 1:19-20.)

I found it in the ragbag! In our house some articles of clothing too worn out to wear or give away are thrown into a ragbag. They might be utilized later in other assorted ways. I could hardly believe my eyes at what I found in the ragbag – my favorite shirt – my high school football jersey – the one that I’d wear almost everyday, except to church, of course. Now how in the world did it get in the ragbag? You’re right – my wife.

After rescuing my shirt from the ragbag, I marched upstairs to my wife and demanded to know what my football jersey was doing in the ragbag.

They swarmed around us. I initially thought they were flies of some sort, that is until my four-year-old grandson started screaming and my son dropped to his knees in pain. My son had consented to help me move some cement blocks away from a fence. We had inadvertently disturbed a bee’s nest. My grandson was stung four times and my son nine times before they could get away.

As painful as that experience was, we can learn some valuable lessons from the bees. We’ve all heard about “the birds and the bees,” but let’s consider some other of the numerous lessons we can learn from the bees.

Someone in my family thought I am prone to losing my keys. One of the gifts that I received for Christmas was an electronic key finder. It works somewhat but sometimes it works too good. The instructions say to whistle in it then when you lose your keys all you have to do is whistle and the key finder will emit a loud alarm. The trouble is that I whistle a lot. When I’m driving, working, or want our golden retriever to come I whistle. It gets annoying when you whistle a tune and have to contend with the ear-splitting key-finder. Setting the alarm to go off when I clap my hands doesn’t work either. It just so happens that people clap a lot at our church which for some reason can set off my key-finder. I thought about setting the alarm to go off when my wife snores – but our dog snores too.

Halloween is a season when many people love to decorate and dress up in costumes and masks of ghosts and goblins. Many view the day as just good fun and as a spoof on spooks. But some people are plugged into the dark side of evil. For them casting spells, Satan, and works of darkness are very real. In some cultures people live in fear of evil spirits. Some people believe that ghosts are real and haunt certain places.

We could say that evil comes from two sources. One is the evil within man. The Word of God teaches that all mankind inherited a sin nature from Adam.

Jake was a junkyard dog. A bull-terrier mix, Jake was massive, muscular, and mean. During the day Jake was chained up to an old dilapidated dog house that had his name painted haphazardly on the front with white paint. Mostly brown in color, Jake sported scars and scrapes of numerous fights. A couple of hubcaps served as food and water dishes and collected rainwater for him to drink.

At night Mr. T, the junkyard owner, would turn Jake loose to guard the inside of the yard. Sometimes my friends and I would ride bicycles past the side of the junkyard where the corrugated tin covering the fence was missing.

“Jumpin’ Jehoshaphat!” exclaimed Frank as he waved his arms up and down like a goose ready for flight. Frank was an old retired carpenter who worked with us on the farm when I was a teenager. It tickled me to hear him use his favorite expression. One summer day I was on a tractor mowing weeds. I accidentally got into an overgrown weed patch that happened to be the garden of the man who was the milker at the dairy barn. Bob lived in a trailer nearby. When Frank saw where I was mowing, he ran toward me waving his arms and shouting, “Jumpin’ Jehoshaphat! Jumpin’ Jehoshaphat!” Unfortunately he was too late and most of the overgrown garden was a goner. Jumpin’ Jehoshaphat!

How you greet life many times reveals what is in your heart. I once greeted someone with the expression, “Good day.” He replied, “What’s good about it?” When another gentleman is asked, “How are you?” he always responds, “Marvelous!”

Many people do not feel their life is so wonderful. They feel cheated, disillusioned, and disappointed in life. This Christmas season I’ll probably once again watch the movie, “It’s A Wonderful Life.” It’s the story of a young man who was disappointed in the way his life turned out. George Bailey was a dreamer.