April 3

RESULTS CAN BE COSTLY, WHEN THE CAPTAIN IS NOT AT HIS POST

(This article was published in the Coolidge Examiner on March 30, 2011)
A few years ago, in the state of Alaska, a ship ran aground. Remember? It was the tanker Exxon Valdez, and this took place in Alaska’s Prince William Sound. The result was, an oil spill that continued for days, and caused incalculable damage to the local area, to the fishing industry, and played havoc with the wildlife in this extremely beautiful piece of America. The head of the government agency in that area said of this passage that it “Was so wide, that a child could have piloted a tanker through there.” So, what went wrong? Well, this could only be explained by having an unlicensed third-mate at the helm that day, piloting the ship. This unlicensed mate was where the captain should have been, on the bridge of his ship. Where was the captain? He was down below! This disaster happened because the man who should have been directing the ship’s operation was not where he should have been; on the bridge! In the Bible, in the Word of God, in Genesis 16:1, we see what happens when the captain of a family is not in the pilothouse and at the helm. God promised the captain of this family, Abram, he and his wife Sarai were going to miraculously have a son, even after they were beyond childbearing age. God had promised that a nation would come form this son. They had been waiting for this son for awhile. Here in Genesis 16:1 we read, “Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar; so she said to Abram, ‘The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her.’ Abram agreed to what Sarai said.” So, we see here that the captain of this family abandoned the helm of responsibility for his family and allowed his wife to call the shots. And, with this, Ishmael was conceived and born – and from him, came the Arabic people of the world today. It was thirteen years later, elderly Sarai is now miraculously pregnant (just as God had predicted) with a son, Isaac, the true child of promise, in God’s own time—the child from whom the Jewish people came, was born. The result of Abram’s forfeiture of leadership in his home was: bitter wars springing up in his own family, that have continued throughout the centuries and into our world today.

We can see a Biblical principle underscored in this negative example from scripture, and this principle is; the buck stops for the family with the man. When we look in Ephesians 5, we see the husband being portrayed for us as the Christ-figure in the family, who leads his family with a self-sacrificing love. You can see this also with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, when God held Adam responsible for the sin of Eve his wife, even though it was Eve who initiated the sin. This can also be seen, when Sarah laughs at God’s promise of a son in her old age, and God comes asking Abram why his wife reacted in unbelief.

When each of us stand before the Lord, and we all will, you can be sure who the Lord will ask about what happened in our families – it will be the husband, the father, the captain. We don’t have to look very far, and surly not very wide today to see a lot of families who have been set adrift because the captain is down below, abdicating, the leadership God insists he is responsible for.

I am taking this opportunity to ask that each man, each husband, each dad, reading this, take stock: Are you taking the lead in keeping your family focused on the Lord Jesus? Are you leading your family in making good decisions, or are you avoiding the tough choices? Are you facing the fact that many of the things that may be frustrating you in your wife and children may be because of needs you’re not meeting? In family finances, in decision-making, in spiritual things, in keeping communication going –God says the husband, the Dad, is the captain.

When the captain is not piloting the ship--when the man abrogates his responsibilities, families go aground, and the results are very costly. Dr. William Perry is Pastor of the Community Christian Church

Putting up the Christian Flag over our home at Ho Ho Kam RV Resort.
Note the cactus flowers and the palm tree in front of the house

The flags are up and we take time for a little R&R in the pool

A visit from our daughter, Jennifer and her husband, Ronnie, from Colorado with their daughter, Kiley.  We gave them the three day tour of southern Arizona with a visit to Old Tucson.

Biosphere II

Apache Lake with a picnic and very hospital weather.

A visit to Tombstone where they had a Rose Festival Parade “just for us” 
Ha, ha, ha!

We had a chance to meet some Cowboys for Christ.

Also, a trip to Wilcox where we had dinner in a train dinning car and an opportunity to introduce the family to Rex Allen.  “Well, only his statue, but it was nice.”

Church services on Sunday were great.  There were approximately 25 in attendance at the chapel service at Ho Ho Kam.  We are surely blessed. 

On Monday morning the family will be headed back to Colorado.  With a tear in our eye, yet with joy in our hearts we bid farewell FOR NOW!!

To hear this week's CC church message click here and the Ho Ho Kam Chapel service here.
Continue to pray for us as we seek to serve the Lord here in the desert.
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