IN REMEMBRANCE OF A GOOD MAN

"Tony Snow Brought the Aroma of Christ to Washington" according to Pastor Tony Beam, Professor, Talk Show Host, and Columnist.

Robert Anthony (Tony) Snow was born in Berea, Kentucky, June 1, 1955, and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio. He died July 12, 2006, in Georgetown University Hospital at about 2 a.m.

Mr. Snow was a television news anchor, political commentator, syndicated columnist, radio host, and the third White House Press Secretary under President George W. Bush. He was also a multi-talented and avid musician. He was ready to play his flute wherever and whenever his friends in the band, "Beats Workin" was featured, even on the street. He also played the trombone, piccolo, accordion, saxophone and guitar.

We remember Mr. Snow as one whom we always looked forward to hearing speak, whether at a Presidential News Conference, or on a television news panel, or on his radio talk show. He had a delightful and easy manner, but was firm with the press when needed, and always was prepared with accurate facts. He could deliver bad news reports and still make us feel okay about everything.

Mr. Snow was one of those individuals admired and loved by everybody with whom he came in contact. He openly showed his love for the Lord and had a good report from those in business, religion, and politics, 1Timothy 3:7.

He was the kind of man others would be glad to emulate, in that, nothing but good could be said about him. He was a beloved family man and leaves his wife, Jill, their son and two daughters, ages 10 to 15.

LIFEBOAT JUDGMENT CALLS, There is one lawgiver, who is able to save . . . James 4:12.

The year was 1945 and the war in Europe was raging to an end. Hostilities in Asia were on-going at a great loss of American lives. I was 17 and in training by the Coast Guard to be a merchant seaman in the US Maritime Service at Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn, NY.

There were 10,000 trainees with me at the largest training facility of the military services. Training was about seamanship, but it was also about survival; how to man the guns aboard ship with the Navy Armed Guard, how to survive in a flaming ocean after taking a torpedo hit, and how to jump into a sea filled with wreckage from the ship.

Then, we learned about the rules of the life boat. (172 ships were sunk off the Atlantic Coast of the U.S.A. Some residents in Florida reported seeing the smoke of a torpedoed ship).

Our instructor of lifeboat procedure was a crusty old Chief Petty Officer with frosty white hair and a weathered face and a trace of a Scottish accent. He was neat as a pin and his dark blue wrinkle-free CPO uniform was host to many medals of war zones. Even his silence demanded our attention, but when he spoke it was as if he was talking in a raging storm.

"WHAT'S THE FIRST RULE OF THE LIFEBOAT?" he bellowed. We had no answer, so he yelled out "DISCIPLINE!" And again, "I said; WHAT'S THE FIRST RULE OF THE LIFEBOAT?" We gargled out an answer, "D-d-d-iscipline?"

"LOUDER . . . USE THAT VOICE, SEAMAN or DIE – you won’t be heard if you fall overboard. I said ((( DISCIPLINE )))." He sounded like a klaxon.

Many times I have remembered that CPO instructor: but it occurred to me since having accepted Christ as my savior, and becoming acquainted with the discipling of new Christians, how closely related the terms "disciple" and "discipline" are - Hello!

Lifeboat discipline demanded that only the highest rank of the occupants is the official captain of that boat. It made no difference if the highest rank was that of a deck officer, an engineer, the chief steward or ship’s baker. His word is like the law of the “Medes and the Persians.”

Let's assume that our ship is sinking and we are adrift in a lifeboat. Our qualified “captain” is the Purser, a Naval Reserve Lieutenant Junior Grade, an amiable and decent man with experience in buying supplies for the ship and handling the payroll.

He also is an agnostic, completely indifferent to religion, but goes to church when at home when it is expedient and is a Christian in name only. He believes in Maritime Law and unbending in regard to the general rule of law. But recognizing the enormous responsibility facing him could soften his heart. It’s hard to believe that there are atheists or agnostics in a lifeboat.

OR – the same man could be a born-again believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. He shares his faith when he has opportunity, but does not wear it on his sleeve. He would not try to form a “Church of the Lifeboat.” He had a daily spiritual walk with the Lord, centered on the word of God, the Bible. His hard decisions were dependent upon “What saith the Lord?” or “What does the Bible say?”

"The angel of the LORD encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them." Psalm 34:7.

Let's suppose further that an older couple is in the boat and the man suffers from COPD. Other occupants are an expectant mother with her little girl, three Able Bodied Seamen (their rank), and the rest are able passengers. If the sea gets slightly rougher, the boat will sink or capsize. The sea anchor, containing oil to smooth troubled waters, has little effect on an overloaded boat. Regardless of life jackets, they were all in danger of dying at sea.

I would recognize the designated captain and accept his judgment regardless of being agnostic or a believer. He would have to be smart enough to know that a completely lop-sided judgment call could lead to anarchy of a big crowd in a small boat.

“Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God,” Roman 13:1.

Either of the two would advise us of our situation and clarify his position in assuming command of the boat. He would explain the only option open to him, as they all could see, was to order one person to leave. But the believer would also tell us that he had another option. He had faith in a God of miracles and before he chose what seems to men to be the only option, he would want to pray for a miracle.

“That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:" 1Peter 1:7.

What kind of miracle would God perform? There is only one kind of miracle with God: one that saves. God is not restricted by our imaginations, he has many options. Read your Bible and make a word study of "miracles." Experience your personal miracle of re-birth - spiritually, John 3:3-8.

WHICH OF THE “CAPTAINS” WOULD YOU HOPE TO LEAD YOUR LIFEBOAT? Would you prefer the one who only has trust in man’s ability, or the one who has “the mind of Christ,” 1Corinthians 2:16, and seeks to know "What does the Bible say?"

Isn’t that what we want from every “captain” who makes life or death decisions which affect us? Man without the Lord, being left to his own devices, is adrift in uncertain waters.

RISING UP BEYOND ANGER by Pastor Bulldog

Have you ever been so angry that you felt the veins in your neck throbbing like a bongo beat? Have you ever seen someone whose words "blasted" from their mouth and whose face was an unhealthy magenta. Summer in the city can be hot and cause us to "lose it."

The news can make you hot under the collar and cause stress. But stress can be a good thing if it is a temporary warning that gives you a chance to do something about it. Yet, stress can be silent and unnoticed. If you try to hold it in it can kill you. But stress in any form can be the most life-threatening cause that the Devil uses to turn soldiers of the cross into ineffective non-combatants.

Last Fall the "Border Wars" between two outstanding football teams played here in Kansas City's Arrowhead Stadium before a vast ESPN crowd of partisan fans. Kansas University, in Lawrence, was 11 and O; the University of Missouri, in Columbia was 10 and 1. Both were ranked in the top five in the nation.

The historical significance goes back before and during the Civil War, when Kansas anti-slavery Jayhawkers made murderous raids into Missouri, across the border, and Col. Quantrel's Rebel Bushwackers rode into Lawrence, Kansas, and massacred over 163 men indiscriminately, contributing to the term, “Bleeding Kansas”. Many of the bloodiest and most fiercely fought North/South battles occurred in eastern Kansas (Union anti-slavery) and western Missouri (Sourthern sympathizers) on the very land where we live.

Our home in Mission, Kansas, is only a mile from the border in the metro Kansas City area, about half-way between the two schools. As a loyal Kansan I watched the game with Helen. As Missouri began to run over KU, I could feel the pressure building in my head and down my neck and shoulders. Helen was tensing up also. But then, KU brilliantly fought back and almost tied the score with a last 5 second chance to win – but they lost.

Here's the silly thing: Helen and I became terribly worked up at the loss to Missouri – and K.U. wasn't even our school – Helen is a Virginia girl and we both went to college in Virginia. So - why did we get so worked up? We immediately had to set our affections on other things to rid ourselves of tension.

"If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory" (Colossians 3:1-4).

Anxiety that turns into angst, sadness that turns into depression, and disappointments that turn into bitterness and anger are things a Christian does not have to have and it can be managed - immediately.



This is a world full of “babies” who cannot find ways to get along unless it is by "sex, lies, and video tapes" and murders. This is not all about interpersonal relationships entirely. It is about a world gone mad ever since the recorded incident in the third chapter of Genesis.

When all the world seems to be "going to hell in a hand basket", if you are a true "born again" believer with Christ IN you and you IN Christ why do you worry about anything. You don't belong here. Your life is in the heavenlies. You are left here on earth to be conformed into the image of the Lord Jesus Christ and to reproduce other "true" Spirit-led believers.

Abraham "looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God" (Hebrews 11:10). And he taught his "children of promise," Isaac, and Jacob, to regard their time on earth as a pilgrimage. We are strangers in the earth, having been set free from the curse of sin. We do not need to sin or to be angry, we have the power to overcome and to obey God.

We are the only people who live in two places; enduring our pilgrimage on earth while having peace from God in the heavenles. If things get bad, we can be transported aloft and look down with pity on this sad state of mankind and their toys.

Remember the plea of a man taken into custody who said, "Can't we all just get along"? The answer is "No." Well, maybe for a while, but how long has any peace ever lasted? The greatest argument for universal sin is man himself, especially the arrogant enemies of God who think that they will usher in the Millennium by the inventions of their own superior intellects.

Actually, man is a poor steward of the earth and cannot take care of himself - and cannot find a way to live forever, except in monuments and dedicated buildings, and they all crumble in time. Cynical? No, realistic, actually.

There are millions on the face of the earth who know in their hearts that there is a God who created all things and He is love - but He is also holy and righteous; He is just and no iniquity can come into His presence, yet He is rich in grace and His mercy endures forever. He is not a God who exacts human blood for atonement of sin. It was God's blood shed for our redemption and sin was judged on the body of His only begotten Son.

And to those of us Christians who look agape at the brutality, corruption, double standards, and the no-standards of a corrupt world system, God gives an answer to us and provides a way to keep our perspective in a daily spiritual walk.

"Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth [Reckon them dead with the old man you once were; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them" (Colossians 3:5-7).

When you feel yourself turning beet red, obey the warning and leap into the heavenlies to the throne of grace where Christ sits on the right hand of God the Father and receive grace and peace. In other words, rise up and simmer down.

(Angry man image by permission, Tulio Silva)
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