You know that I have gone back and forth about how long to write this blog, and I feel quite strongly that there should be at least 1000 posts on the TBTB site. Since I am in the early 900’s now, I decided to count ahead and figure out what date post number 1000 will occur on. Ironically, assuming that I stay on the same schedule of writing five nights a week, I will post number 1000 on Monday evening, December 15th of this year.
That will be the 10th anniversary of the date that I received my first doctorate – a Doctor of Ministry with an emphasis in Career Transition and how families deal with job loss. Of course, thinking about that day and my oral defense of my dissertation brought back great memories and it’s difficult to believe that it has already been a decade since that event occurred. What a day it was, surrounded by all those great men of the faith who interrogated me for more than 3 hours about my findings, my thoughts and how I would do things differently in the future.
But tonight, my thoughts went to the classes that I took with Dr. Duane King. He was a wonderful pastor who struggled with colon cancer while I was in seminary. He was a great man and loved the Lord with all his heart. He beat the colon cancer and I was privileged to sit under his teaching for several classes including Church Administration, Church Polity and several other foundational pastoral prerequisites. Dr. King had a heart of gold and was one of the men who sat in on my oral defense that day almost 10 years ago.
No matter what he was doing, he always had time to talk and was an ambassador to help increase enrollment at the school. I can’t tell you how many times I received emails from him or letters that he wrote to encourage potential students to come and check out the seminary.
He eventually stepped down from his role as roving ambassador due to the early onset of Alzheimer’s. Last time I was with him, it hadn’t progressed too far but that’s been several years now. The thing that I remember most about Dr. King is that he always signed his letters with a re-statement of a Bible verse. You see, Dr. King was passionate about the return of Christ and he wanted that to happen as soon as possible. I can’t help but think that he would have counted down the days if he could. He always remarked that the return of the Lord was closer than when we first believed.
Come to think of it – that’s very true. Every day that we age, we are one day closer to the return of the Lord. Paul said it best in his letter to the Romans when he admonished them to “wake up” from their slumber as the day of the Lord was getting closer. That verse, from Romans 13:11, is our verse for the evening. We are told, in Rom. 13:11, “And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.” Back in the day it was quite some time before I realized that this was the verse that Dr. King always thought of.
My encouragement this evening is that we must continue to prepare for the return of the Lord and part of that preparation is to make sure that we aren’t idle and just hanging around waiting for Him. We have been chosen to do everything we can to advance the kingdom and my prayer this evening is that that will be as dedicated at Dr. King when it comes to helping others prepare for the return of God. Have a great day in the Lord, grace and peace…