Two New eBooks at Amazon Kindle!
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Today is our 40th Anniversary. Hard to believe Sarah and I have been married for forty years, but here we are.
We’ve been blessed beyond measure, first in the Lord bringing us together in college (We met Freshman year, started dating Sophomore year, broke up Junior year, and got engaged Senior year—a pretty typical sequence for a couple figuring out what “getting serious” means), and second for the years of love, caring, great relationship, and much more.
Like most good marriages involving human beings our “wedded bliss” hasn’t always been blissful, but it’s always been characterized by love, commitment, and respect. In my book, this translates to bliss no matter how the word is defined.
Through this marriage God gave us four children, a daughter and three sons. Now we add a good, hard-working, and committed son-in-law, two wonderful and gracious daughters-in-law, and four noisy grandsons. Add to this in the last two years: two teenage boys from China, adopted first by our friends and then by us as grandsons. Lots of boys and as yet no little girls, but we’ll see what the future holds.
Sarah is Proverbs 31 come to life. As a person and as a wife she is everything a man and specifically I could ever want, need, or imagine. She is kind, caring and compassionate, clearly possesses the gift of hospitality, and would help anyone anywhere anytime if she could. She has been and is an amazing Mother and Grandmother.
For all this I am grateful to her and I praise the Lord. I’d marry her all over again. In fact, I’d marry her every day.
Thank you, Sarah. I love you. I look forward to every minute the Lord gives us past 40 years.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2014
*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact Rex or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com.
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Money. Now I have your attention, right?
Some of us like to think about money. Some of us like to find ways to earn more of it. Most of us wish we had more of it.
Money. It’s not exactly what makes the world go round, despite songs, poems, and sayings claiming money is the end-all, be-all.
I’ve always loved the joke, “I’m not a Prophet. I’m not the Son of a Prophet. In fact, I’ve rarely made a profit.”
Maybe I’ve loved this joke because it seemed to fit me. I’m not a numbers guy, not a money guy really. I’m a word guy. But even I need money to do my thing in the world.
Whatever you think of money, God talked rather much about money in the Scripture because money matters.
Here’s a look at smart money:
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2014
*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact Rex or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com.
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Littering is something I’ve never been able to understand. Does it make any sense to pollute the environment, much less your own property? Yet people do this everyday.
In my view littering is little more than laziness. It’s the unwillingness to expend enough energy to walk to a trash can, to stuff trash into your pocket until you find a waste receptacle, to place trash or garbage on the floor of your vehicle until you stop where disposal can be cared for properly. And so it goes.
It always amazes and incenses me to see people pitch bags of food trash or beer/soda cans out their vehicle window or to drive behind someone as he or she blithely tosses cigarette butts onto the road.
Littering is damaging, destructive, and sometimes dangerous. Litterers are irresponsible, immature, and lazy.
No matter how you cut it, littering is wrong:
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2014
*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact Rex or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com.
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Every four years—or what increasingly is every two years, fast moving toward every year—candidates vying for the office of President of the United States proclaim their religious affiliations and affirmations to the voting public. It’s a US phenomenon and not a bad one, really.
A would-be-President’s religious convictions are interesting to know. As free-society voters we probably ought to know what a candidate believes about religious matters because in some way, small or large, these beliefs help define his or her character, personality, and possibly approach to leadership.
Then again, if history is any guide, we might be forgiven for asking whether a duly elected President’s religious views mean much to everyday governance.
Let’s take a look:
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2014
*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact Rex or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com.
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Everyone walks a path in life, one that features many forks. Some directions could lead us to better things, others to serious difficulties. Sometimes we can ascertain the possibilities before we make a decision about which fork to take; sometimes we cannot.
Importantly, at times the Lord provides us with clues if not outright clarity about the direction we should take. These clues or clarity come in the form of friends who speak into our lives.
In the Old Testament, Balaam rode his donkey down a path leading the wrong way. The donkey balked, Balaam beat him, and then God did an amazing thing: he gave the donkey speech. The donkey clearly warned Balaam away from destruction, but Balaam did not listen to the donkey in his life.
Question is: Do we listen to the donkeys in our lives? Here's more:
© Rex M. Rogers - All Rights Reserved, 2014
*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact Rex or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com.
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Aside from my father and two grandfathers no man influenced my life more, and more positively, than C. John Miller.
John was my friend, mentor, and confidant, sometimes amazingly even my fan, and certainly always my most faithful prayer supporter.
Last week, this twenty-plus year hero in my life went to be with the Lord. He was 82 and as the Scripture said of King David, “He died at a good old age, having enjoyed long life, wealth and honor” (1 Chron. 29:28).
I think John also fit God’s description of David as “a man after my own heart” (Acts 13:22).
I met John in 1991 when he was Chairman of the Board at Grand Rapids Baptist College and Seminary (later Cornerstone University) and I was a young and untested candidate for the institution’s presidency. He and others gave me a chance to run that race and run we did. It was a good run and I enjoyed every minute of it, in part because John was running with me.
I’ve been privileged to work with many trustees and supporters in several nonprofit organizations, including three in which I was charged with a leadership role. John ranks as the best trustee I’ve ever witnessed. He’s the best because of the total package he brought to the task:
- faithful—he always showed up
- optimistic and positive—he was always “up”
- proactive—he was not only open to new ideas, he looked for initiatives and helped cast vision for what could be
- spiritual and ethical—he was a Christian who wanted to live and act in a godly manner, personally, professionally, organizationally
- generous—he gave with an eye toward the good his gifts could do for others.
John was a quintessential leader. He led with respect and love for others. He really never tried to stand out, but he always stepped up and stepped out, and when he did, because of his character and example, others invariably followed.
John liked to say he was “just a kid from Kentucky,” but his affable personality, talent, work ethic, and genuine Bible-based spirituality helped engage his fellow board members and others in a desire to increase the academic quality and spiritual effectiveness of the institution, see it through a tipping point name change, and support the idea that a small school could dare to be more in a transition to university status.
John’s leadership helped reposition the “little school on the East Beltline that wanted to be left alone” into a truly Christian institution of higher learning capable of excellence. Why? For John it was always so students could learn to love and live for the Lord. John’s positive influence upon Cornerstone University lies deep yet today in the university’s DNA and it will for years to come.
John blessed more than the university. His family, friends, and those he touched can tell stories without end about John’s generosity with his time, talent, and treasure. I always believed God entrusted John with much because John was trustworthy. He was a faithful steward who didn’t wait for needs to appear at his door. He went looking for them, without need or desire for recognition. I know of seminary students, missionaries, pastors’ families, Christian educators, family and friends, business associates, and more who benefited from John’s helping heart and hand.
I know people, including me, who visited John primarily so they could unload their cares. He would listen, sometimes at great length, then talk about what could be done and, more importantly, what the Lord was doing or might do. He trusted the Lord and he helped me trust him. John was upbeat in the face of trials and he helped strengthen my resolve. John told stories of drilling several dry oil wells in a row and what God taught him during this stress, and then he helped me learn the same lessons. So it went, John sharing godly insight in a way that fit the situation at hand.
God gave John a sense of humor, a leadership talent he coupled with impeccable timing to disarm potentially volatile or paralyzing discussions. We’d be sitting in a board meeting getting stuck on an issue and John would say something about backing ourselves into a corner where “We had to vote on whether to mow the grass.” Or to put in perspective a group of churchmen’s rather egregious behavior toward the university John wryly observed, “Those guys couldn’t run a two-car funeral.” He laughed easily not because he was always happy but because he was always joyful.
John achieved both vocational and avocational success and received many accolades from a variety of business, political, civic, and religious sources. But he never forgot that “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father” (James 1:17). I remember John telling me more than once about driving by himself along an interstate, thinking about his life, and suddenly it would hit him anew how much God had blessed him. Then he’d tell me about welling up in tears and praying and praising God for this unmerited favor called grace. If anything, John’s humility became even stronger with age and accomplishment.
John was a good, forever friend. As Board Chairman, the first thing John ever said to me was “I want to be your partner in this.” He never wavered in this commitment.
Years later in the midst of a trial John said something I’ll never forget: “I’m walking right beside you.” I cannot put into words what this meant to me other than to say it was one of the most moving moments of my life. I cannot repay him for this, but I’ve tried to pay it forward by writing or calling others in the midst of their trials.
During what turned out to be our final discussion, the last thing John said to me was “How can I help you?”
This was C. John Miller. He was quite simply the finest man I have ever known.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2014
*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact Rex or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com or follow him at www.twitter.com/RexMRogers.