Got a Minute? Emily Dickinson

Hi, friends in exile, got a minute?

There is no Frigate like a Book/ To take us Lands away/ Nor any Coursers like a Page/ Of prancing Poetry –/ This Traverse may the poorest take/ Without oppress of Toll –/ How frugal is the Chariot/ That bears the Human Soul –

Emily Dickinson. I wrote a research paper on her as an undergraduate student and discovered that she had a close brush with earnest Christian faith while she was a student at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary. One prominent biographer reported that the Christian revivals of the time came to Emily’s campus. She told how she felt very inclined to profess faith in Christ during those meetings, but she held back. She spoke of this with an almost wistful regret after the fact, as though a great opportunity had been presented to her and she had failed to receive it. How did this affect her years as a recluse? Did she ever find peace with God in this life?

Hebrews, chapter 6, argues that it is possible to be brought to the very gate of glory and still turn away. May this not happen to any of us.

Smiley Mudd

Got a Minute? Billy’s Testimony

Hi, friends in exile, got a minute?

A popular Christian author told some years ago of serving as a sponsor at a junior high camp. There was a young man that year named Billy who had cerebral palsy. The junior higher kids were cruel, mimicking his speech and mannerisms behind his back. The cruelest trick was when his cabin nominated him to give their cabin devotions before the whole camp. He lumbered forward amid snickers. “It literally took him several minutes just to say seven words. … He finally stammered out, ‘Jesus … loves … me … and … I … love … Jesus.’ When he finished, the tone of the camp had changed.” Some youth were visibly weeping. Students began to get serious about their personal faith. This author said that in subsequent years he had met pastors and missionaries all over who say that put their faith in Jesus at that junior high camp.

“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things have gone; look, new things have come” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Smiley Mudd

Got a Minute? Aunt Madge

Hi, friends in exile, got a minute?

Some years ago, we received a Christmas card from my Aunt Madge. It proved to be the last correspondence we had from her before she passed from this life. In the card, she urged us as her family and friends to make certain that we had found peace with God and had assurance of what lay just beyond this life in eternity. She reminded us of the message of Jesus, that God created this world, that humanity had turned His good world into what J. Budziszewski calls “a glorious ruin.” She recalled with us God’s remedy for human sin: He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die in our place, to take the sins of the world upon Himself in His death, “the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring [us] to God” (1 Peter 3:18). She reminded us that such forgiveness is possible as we put our trust in Jesus and follow Him. Then, she mentioned the glory that lies ahead for all who have done so.

I remember thinking, Aunt Madge is a finisher. She has walked with God and is ready to meet Him. May this be true of me—and of us.

Smiley Mudd

Got a Minute? The People and the Books

Hi, friends in exile, got a minute?

I well remember a statement that Ralph Neighbour, Jr., made at a Discipleship Conference at California Baptist College (now University) while I was an undergraduate student there. He said, “You will be the same person you are today in five years except for the people you meet and the books you read.” With what people are we hanging out, and what are we reading?

Sir Isaac Newton said that God has given us two great Books: the book of nature and the book of Scripture. Both are open to the serious seeker to discover God’s plan for the human race. The book of nature has a theme, but it only goes so far: “The heavens declare the glory of God” (Psalm 19:1). The book of Scripture shows how we can have a relationship with our Creator: Paul writes to his young coworker Timothy: “From infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:15, NIV). “The people we know and the books we read ….”

Smiley Mudd

Got a Minute? The Business Luncheon

Hi, friends in exile, got a minute?

So you sit down for a business luncheon with a prospective client. You don’t think much of it when he passes on ordering food. “I have a special diet,” he assures you. You order the lunch special. The conversation is going well as your food arrives. Then, to your surprise, your prospective client reaches into his briefcase, pulls out a large baby bottle full of milk and begins to suck loudly on it. You are dumbstruck as he finishes the bottle and then even more so when his face wrinkles up and he says through a sob, “I am still hungry!” By now, the whole restaurant is observing the spectacle.

Behavior that is appropriate for a baby is not so fitting for a grownup. The writer to the Hebrews makes this point: “For everyone who lives on milk is unacquainted with the message of righteousness, for he is an infant; but solid food is for adults, for those who because of their maturity have their senses trained to discern both good and evil” (Hebrews 5:13-14, FJV). God obviously wants us to grow up in our faith.

Smiley Mudd

Got a Minute? The English Assignment

Hi, friends in exile, got a minute?

Imagine a university professor in the English department giving an assignment filled with bad grammar, spelling errors, and random capitalization. The assignment was written so poorly, the students could not really determine what the assignment really was. How confident might the students be about the course? Not very. We rightly expect more from those who teach others. We want them to be far enough ahead of their students that they can lead the students forward. This is no different for those who teach the Christian faith to others—whether pastors, Bible study leaders, or parents. Those who lead should be further down the road from those who follow.

The book of Hebrews chides the first readers for not being very grown up in their faith: “For although you ought even to be teachers because of the time, you have need for someone to teach you again the elementary principles of the beginning of the oracles of God, and you have come to have need of milk and not solid food” (Hebrews 5:12, FJV). His challenge: Grow up! Keep learning. Don’t settle for a preschool understanding of the faith.

Smiley Mudd

Got a Minute? “You Big Baby!”

Hi, friends in exile, got a minute?

Several years ago, the arrival of our first grandchild, a girl, reminded me of many things I had not thought about in a long time. One of those things is just how effective crying is for a baby. She is hungry, so she cries, and everyone scrambles to feed her. She is tired, so she cries and we either rock her to sleep or lay her down in the crib. Her diaper is wet or soiled and she cries, so we check her out (find out, indeed, it is true—wet or smelly or both), and she gets a fresh diaper and a few minutes of freedom and nudity thrown in (she liked this).

Now that she is married, I don’t think this plan works as well as it once did. The twelve-year-old does not want to be called “you big baby.” At my advanced age, I can barely whine about anything (does this sound like whining?)! The book of Hebrews says, “We must progress beyond the elementary instructions about Christ and move on to maturity” (Hebrews 6:1, NET). We must grow up in our thinking and in our behavior. We do this in Bible study, the reading of good books, and in good conversation.

Smiley Mudd

Got a Minute? A Throne of … Grace

Hi, friends in exile, got a minute?

Hebrews 4:16 says (FJV), “Let us come with confidence to the throne of grace, in order that we may receive mercy and find grace for timely help.” Note, it is “the throne of grace,” not simply the throne of power or of authority or of judgment. Grace. God does not treat us with the judgment we deserve, and He blesses us in Christ beyond what we could ever merit.

Like this: The other day, I woke up around 3 a.m. fretting about the church’s finances. The church is not in the red or behind on bills; I was just fretting. I thought of this passage. I got up and thanked God for all His blessings and committed my anxiety to Him. Later that morning, I retrieved the mail at the church office and opened a letter with a check for $5,000 in it to the church from someone who had moved to another city. The next Sunday, our treasurer showed me another check for a multiple of that—from a family who had moved away, also. Timing is everything. What a huge reminder that we can trust God for “timely help.”

Smiley Mudd

Got a Minute? A Golf Pro’s Transformation

Hi, friends in exile, got a minute?

The writer to the Hebrews says that since we have such a great high priest, Jesus Christ, who pas passed through the heavens, we should hold tightly to our faith (See Hebrews 4:14). If the story of Jesus is true, and there is compelling evidence on which to base such a claim, then we should be anything but casual about our faith.

Payne Stewart was a golf professional who won several tournaments in the 1990s. He was known in his early career as a flashy dresser with a cocky attitude. But not long before his death in a plane crash on October 25, 1999, God began to draw Payne to Himself. He worked first in his children, then in his wife, and then reached Payne himself. He came to a confident faith in Jesus that transformed his character. At his death, he was remembered as a family man who put Christ first in everything. His golf game even improved. I don’t pretend to understand God’s purposes in his death at a relatively young age, but I an encouraged by his example. We can do any honest work to the glory of God. Even golf. 😊

Smiley Mudd

Got a Minute? Who You Gonna Call?

Hi, friends in exile, got a minute?

Pastors must be careful when they speak with children. One pastor, in a little message to children, focused the children’s attention to Jesus’ praying in Gethsemane. He helped them to see how Jesus talked with God when He had a problem. The pastor then noted that when we have a problem we can talk with our parents, grandparents, friends, or the pastor. He tried to make a transition toward a more direct look at God’s role in prayer by asking, “Is there someone I haven’t named who will listen to our problems?” He was surprised when one little boy shouted, “A lawyer?”[1] I wonder what kind of family experience helped him think of that? Were his parents lawyers? Maybe he has watched TV programs about lawyers (of which there are many!).

Where do we turn when life is crushing down upon us? Is it to someone who is as frail as ourselves? Someone we have to pay to keep quiet about it? Or this: “Let us keep on coming to the throne of this grace [in Jesus Christ] with boldness, in order that we may receive mercy and we may find grace for well-timed help” (Hebrews 4:16, FJV).

Smiley Mudd

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[1] Christian Reader, September-October 1999, p. 10, from In Other Words, Fall 1999, p. 22.