October 5, 2021 – Click here to listen
My Bible study partner and I are totally transparent with each other and invariably discuss our own shortcomings, weaknesses, frustrations, strong points, highs, and lows, etc. as we write each other seven days per week analyzing each chapter of the Bible. It is amazing how the Bible details these same problems and offers advice on these subjects.
We have both lived very interesting lives and have seen and done far more than the average person can imagine. One problem I’ve discussed with him is trying to converse with my friends. Most are average people living ordinary modest lives and as the conversation develops, I might bring up something germane to our conversation that I have seen or done that they have not been afforded the opportunity to experience.
This makes me feel bad because I don’t want to dominate conversations or come off like I’m trying to boast to my friends or talk incessantly. One of my closest friends, Jack – Murf the Surf- Murphy – died last year. He was one of the most interesting people I have ever met. He experienced life as few before him, going from extreme highs to extreme lows, and his energy was exhausting. He was very intelligent and had a high IQ and could not only remember names but all pertinent information about many hundreds, if not thousands of people.
His life was incredible and at one time or another he was a tennis pro, dance instructor, accomplished artist, violinist who as a teenager played in the Pittsburg Symphony, surfer who made the surfing hall of fame, legendary lifeguard who still holds records in Miami Beach, he was a world-renowned criminal of the worst kind and an evangelist of the best kind. He knew rich and famous powerful people galore, wrote an evangelistic book of his life that was distributed to over one million inmates in the gulags and prisons of Russia, and they made a movie of his criminal life and Ron Howard is currently working on a documentary which shares Christ. Through the time of this writing, no one has ever ministered in more prisons in the world and talked to more inmates about Jesus than Murf.
Murf could talk all night and it was fascinating. Some made fun of this and criticized him for it, but it was not that he was arrogant, or wanted to hog conversations, or that he was boasting, or full of pride, but every subject anyone brought up reminded him of someone or something he had experienced that was utterly fascinating and he would interject. I do the same.
My Bible partner said he wondered sometimes if his sharing of his many experiences was due to pride, and he suggested that pride could be a factor in some instances. I told him that was not the case with me. It may shock some of you to learn that I’ve had low self-esteem since I was a small child and still do.
My wife told me the other day that it was uncanny how I always related everything that occurs in my life to the Bible. In fact, that is why I started writing Words for the Day. I wanted people who were experiencing many of the same things I was experiencing to relate it to God’s word and see what He had to say about the situation that was being experienced.
It might shock many of my detractors to know that I am not arrogant but humble. I take no credit for any accomplishments in life from family, career, whatever. I owe everything to Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, I let Him down nearly every day and it breaks my heart because the blessings He has heaped upon me and my family are totally undeserved. I want to represent Him in the best way I know how, but sometimes I let my temper get the best of me or whatever and I act like the world for a moment. I ask Him to forgive me and He does but it is still disappointing to me.
I can only take credit for working hard and trying to do my part of my life’s verse. “I” can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I have to persevere and work hard but even that is an attribute that God gave me. He loves me so much and has done so much for me when I deserved nothing but eternity in hell, I feel the least I can do is to give Him credit for everything.
I went through hell, but Jesus brought me out of that pit and on to wonderful things, and now I tell others of those experiences and try to encourage them to do as I have done. Jack Murphy did the same and we both put all our faith and trust in Jesus and lived life to its fullest. I pray that others will talk to anyone they know telling of the wonderful things God has done in their lives. Even the bad times are made bearable through Christ, and we should rejoice in Him every day of our lives.
Psalms 126:3
The Lord has done great things for us; we are glad.