Most Beloved Gospel Singer

In the past two weeks the world lost a man that was called, "The most beloved gospel singer," George Beverly Shea. Shea was most known for singing at the Billy Graham evangelistic crusades for over fifty years. When Dr. Graham first met Shea and asked him to be his singer at the crusades he was more popular than Billy Graham. His beautiful baritone voice was truly a catalyst for the ever growing attendance at the meetings.

The thing that strikes me most about this man was his humility. Here was a man that turned down many opportunities for fame and fortune when he was a young man in order to sing for the Saviour. Together with Dr. Graham, they saw countless numbers
of souls come to a saving knowledge of Christ. His music prepared the hearts to receive the word of God. When asked what he hoped people would remember about him he quipped, "that I sang on key."

Over the past year there have been many superstars of the entertainment world pass into eternity. The news channels all lined up to report the tremendous tragedy of the loss of this one or that one. Many of these people did not honor Christ with their lives. Some may have been believers. I do not intend to disparage the loss of these people. I am sure they will be missed. I only want to point out that the world truly lost a hero of the faith when George Beverly Shea died. While the majority of the world's population did not even hear about it, the angels of heaven are rejoicing to receive him into their presence. He should fit right in with all the praises being sung!

Good News From a Far Country

My family and I spent nearly sixteen years as missionaries to the country of Ghana, W Africa. I can still remember the first time (1994) I heard about this new thing called "email." I heard you could could send and receive letters electronically. What a great idea. I would scour the capital city of Accra looking for anyone who knew how do this thing called email, never to find them. In 1989 on my first trip to Ghana I would have to wait in line at the post office for hours upon end waiting to see if they were able to get a phone line open to America. I could wait as many as three days before I could call my wife back home. I once received a box of cheese and sausage that was sent as a Christmas present. It arrived sixteen months after it was sent. I found out it had been sitting in the corner of some rat infested office somewhere. Obviously we had to throw it away. Things are better now for missionaries than we had it. Things were better for us than they were for thousands of missionaries before us. Times are changing. Technology is changing. Communication is getting so much better worldwide.

My wife has a ministry of hand making cards. They really are a piece of art when she is finished. All of our missionary families, each one in the family (60+ cards total), receive a hand made card from our church for their birthday. Each married couple also receive an anniversary card. My wife personally makes a card for each member of our church (80+ total). The ladies of the church get together to make the cards for the missionaries. Today a group of our church ladies got together and had a brunch then spent several hours snipping and glueing and making cards. There are ways to send cards electronically over the internet. We certainly could do it much quicker and easier that way, but with each hand made card a prayer is offered up for the blessing and watchcare of God upon the recipient. Our ladies really do care for the missionaries we support and we want them to know that.

Many missionaries feel isolated. With all the technology available that should never be the case. FaceTime, Skype, chat rooms, Vonage, smart phones, texting. All this technology makes it so simple to keep in touch with friends and family living abroad. Having lived in isolation I know what it means to get connected to home. Is there someone you can bless today by simply connecting with them to say "hello" or "I was just thinking about you"? You don't have to make a hand made card or send a gift box. Just use the technology available and make an effort to bless someone.

"As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country." - Proverbs 25:25

Can't A Guy Get Any Privacy Anymore?

There is  major golfing event going on this week called The Master's. For many of you this means nothing. For the golf enthusiast (I am about a six on a scale of 1-10) this is a big deal. I love to golf, unfortunately my golfing skills are on par (pun intended) with my ukulele skills (see previous post). One of the things I admire about this sport is the tradition of honesty that accompanies the game. A player will call a penalty on himself even if no one else sees it. Its actually pretty incredible when you think about it, especially with as much money that is on the line with every stroke.

The world of golf is changing. Because of the technological world we live in we now have TV viewers calling in and reporting an infraction. For some of the more famous golfers almost every move they make is caught on air. This week Tiger Woods was forced to drop his ball after he had hit it into the lake. By rule, he should have dropped it as close as he could to the spot of his previous shot. Instead he dropped it a few feet further away from the hole. A TV viewer called someone from the tournament and questioned the legality of the play. The next day Tiger Woods was penalized two strokes for the error.

You and I do not live our lives with a TV camera following us around (did I hear a roaring AMEN?). Often we can get away from everybody and everything and enjoy some quiet solitude. Sometimes when we feel like no one is watching we even indulge ourselves with a little guilty pleasure (an extra chunk of milk chocolate, large scoop of ice cream, a little more sugar in the coffee, etc.) No one will know, why not? That is the way many Christians live their lives. No one will ever know.

The Bible teaches otherwise. We can do nothing in secret because the Lord sees it all. We cannot hide from the all seeing eye of a Holy God. The Bible says, "For nothing is secret that shall not be made manifest; neither anything hid, that shall not be known and come abroad."- Luke 8:17

Knowing that God is ever present with us will revolutionize our lives as His children. So to answer my own question, no there is no privacy.

Haley has another biography to share this week.


Helen Jorski 

We are often thankful for our young people, as they are the next generation of Christian leaders. It is a joy to watch them grow in the Lord over the years. At 20 years old, Helen is one of our accomplished pianists here at The Church At Katy. You can always count on her to cover for an accompaniment on short notice. And I do mean on short notice! But playing the piano isn't the only thing she's good at. Helen is also studying to become a Paramedic, and is currently working with the local fire departments around Houston, and in the ER at one of the hospitals nearby. As well as her love for the Lord, Helen also possesses a love for the outdoors: hiking, camping, rock climbing, canoeing, and everything in between. A very kind and gracious person, she is an ever helpful and willing servant of God. 
Helen: "My favorite thing about the church is the balance Pastor Taylor has that is reflected in the church family. He wants people to seek out God, not to fit inside a man made mold. He is solid on biblical doctrine and he's not afraid to preach difficult or unpopular things. At the same time he believes in 'purple socks.' If the Bible is unclear or doesn't say much about an issue, he doesn't try to force his personal convictions on others. I love that he would rather have someone believe something different than him and have sought out the issue before God than to blindly agree with someone else's convictions. And I love how this belief is demonstrated by many in the church family. I think it's a healthy and biblical implementation of grace." 

Farewell Brother Cliff

Cliff & Patricia Ward

Just two weeks ago I featured Brother Cliff Ward. This past Monday he suffered a fatal heart attack. He was literally two minutes from the hospital but still he did not make it. Just last Sunday at church (Resurrection Sunday) he was laughing and enjoying the worship of our Lord. He shared the Lord's Supper that morning with us and commented how much he loved to celebrate the Lord's table with the church. Cliff was considered by many to be the grandfather of the church. He always had a kind word of encouragement for anyone and everyone. He loved to have the kids from the church come to "the country" as he liked to call his place in Waller. Cliff will be severely missed, but we know that our loss is heaven's gain. His wife Patricia (Angel as he called her) I am sure welcomed him with open arms. 

"Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." - John 14:1-3

Train Up A Child

We planted a pair of fruit trees this week in our yard. It will be a few years before we see any fruit from them but we will water them, fertilize them, weed them and watch them as they grow. We will certainly tend these trees with the expectation of one day enjoying the fruit from years of invested labor. Right now they are tender and vulnerable. We will have to make sure that when the strong winds blow that we anchor them down and protect them from damage. If any insects infest them we will have to apply the proper treatment to fend them off. There will be times when we have to get the pruners out and prune them so their branches will be productive. A lot of work goes into raising a tree from a sappling to a full fledged tree bearing optimal fruit. If we leave them alone and put little or no effort into raising them they may eventually produce a small amount of fruit. But if we want to see the greatest yield from these trees we must make the effort on a regular basis to see to it that the trees are cared for.

The same can be said for raising children. Boy does it take a lot of work! If we desire to see our children grow into godly spiritually productive children, then we the parents must put in the effort to make it so. A child left to himself will most likely grow up to be spiritually unfruitful. Oh, there may be some good that comes out of their lives. They may even grow up to be pretty good people. Training children to grow up to serve God and bear spiritual fruit, however, takes effort.

“I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.” - 3 John 4

From time to time I want to feature one of our missionary families. This week I want to introduce you to the Peter Chamberland family. This family serves with the Rock of Ages Ministries.

I have known Peter and Crystal since 2004. As a missionary in Ghana our prison ministry outreach began to explode. We were preaching weekly in the prison as well as tending to nearly 200 prisoners doing bible correspondence courses. The work load was becoming too much for us to handle so we called on the Rock of Ages Prison Ministry to come to see what they could do to help. A team of five men, Peter included, came for about a week and surveyed the country's prisons. When all was said and done they had agreed to pray about taking over our ministry and expanding to the rest of the country. Over the next several years Peter led teams on short term trips to Ghana and other neighboring countries.

He continues to travel extensively overseeing the prison work in many countries. Our church started supporting Peter's family in 2008. 

March Madness Bracket Time

Its that time of year again when we get to show just how little we really know about predicting the outcome of anything. March Madness has arrived. Its that time of year when many of us sit down and put to paper our predictions for who is going to win the NCAA basketball championship. Along the way we fill out predictions for every single game throughout the tournament. That means we start with 64 teams, then down to 32, to 16, to 8, to four, then 2, and finally the championship team. A few days ago (before the games actually started) I felt real good about my picks. I was fairly certain I was going to have a higher than average winning percentage. Unfortunately they started playing the games and I once again was proven to be pretty dumb concerning college basketball. I cannot count how many times I have shouted "unbelievable" at the television.

Its really the same way in the spiritual realm. How often do we presume to tell God what we think is going to (or should) happen. We have no way of knowing the future concerning the day to day happenings of our life. Sure God has revealed some biblical prophecy. We can know the certainty of those events. But even with revealed prophecy our understanding of the details is often shrouded in mystery and shadows. God has not chosen to reveal everything to us, only what we need to know.

While we may get frustrated with the teams we pick for playing poorly or coaches making bad decisions, we need not worry about what God is doing in this world. He has it all under control, even if He has not filled you in on all the details.

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." - Isa 55:8-9

"The secret things belong unto the Lord our God..." - Deut 29:29

(By the way, I predict Louisville over Indiana in the championship, 77-72)

Here is Haley's biography of another one of our church members, Clifton Ward.

A retired Naval Master Chief, Cliff has been with us nearly six years now, and currently serves as our church's "greeter and seater" as he likes to say. A true gentleman, Cliff makes sure all of our visitors and members feel welcome; visits with them, as well as helping with seating arrangements. "I like the friendship, fellowship, and preaching. He (Pastor Taylor) is very Bible specific. He preaches with conviction, but it really comes from his heart," he said about The Church At Katy. 
Every year, when given the opportunity, Cliff likes to freshwater fish when he is visiting in Georgia. A wonderful friend, and Godly man, Mr. Cliff is one of my favorite people at The Church At Katy. He always greets me warmly with a smile and a firm handshake. I like to think of him as an adopted grandfather; he's just got a way about him that makes you smile and feel good about yourself, like all great grandfathers do. 

Too Good to be True

The weather has been tremendous here in Katy this week. Low humidity, temps in the 70's, no rain. Days like this are few here in Texas so we enjoy them while we can. Soon it will be brutally hot and humid. As I watch the weather report from across the nation I am once again reminded why we left Chicago and never moved back! The weather! By normal standards the winter was fairly mild up north. When winter finally hit, however, it hit with a vengeance. By my count three fairly heavy snowstorms hit and left some areas virtually shut down for a few days. I kept watching the weather forecasts and thinking to myself, "When is it going to hit?" Having lived there for many years I knew winter had to show its ugly head sooner or later. The mild winter had to be "Too good to be true."

So many Christians live their lives with this mindset. God blesses and things are going great. A believer in his mind thinks, "Can this good thing last?" He lives his life waiting for the bottom to fall out and for things to turn sour. Even when the sun shines and there are good days he cannot enjoy the blessing because he is waiting for the other shoe to drop.

You know it is true that life is a cycle. There are good times and there are bad times. You need to remember that the bad times never last and they are usually not as bad as we allow our sanctified imagination to make them out to be. Christian, get out of the habit of focusing on what may go wrong and enjoy what good God is doing right now in your life. He loves you and wants the very best for your life. 

"Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." - 1 Cor 2:9

Here is another biographical entry from Haley Simpson.

Marci Simpson is known for her passion for gardening. She grows two types of things: a variety of plants you grow in the ground, and 8 spiritual plants that are currently growing in her home. A wonderful woman and an excellent mother, Marci also homeschools 6 of her 8 children; her two oldest being graduated from high school. She is a genuine servant of God, and a blessing to our church. "We had been looking for a church for about a year and growing discouraged when we decided The Church At Katy was our church," she said, "What attracted me to it was the use of the KJV of the Bible, traditional hymns sang in the services, and the family integration and atmosphere. To me, church is a family event and I like having my kids sit with me during the service."