Jim Tipton
As of last August 29th, I turned 69 years old, and according to most statistics or actuarial tables I probably have about nine to ten more years here on planet earth. And, if there is any one constant in my life it’s that I’m ‘Average’. No matter what it is, it seems that I always rank in the middle of the field. My mom had five children. Guess where I was? Yep! right in the middle. Two older sisters, two younger sisters. Growing up, I never caught a break. If I got in trouble at school, it didn’t matter how fast I ran, my sisters made sure the bad news got home first.
In my 69 years, I’ve bought just about everything I’ve wanted to buy. I’ve probably been everywhere that I really wanted to go and with a few exceptions I’ve probably seen everything that I’ve wanted to see. (Although I’d really like to see the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley one day.) I’ve had sports cars, motorcycles, boats and I even had a guitar or two at one time. Although I have to admit, the guitars were mostly ‘props’ for getting the girls to look my way.
You laugh, but It worked, I got the one I wanted. I even married her. Twice! The second time was right here in this church, five years today. It was one of the very few times that I was able to truly surprise my wife of 45 years.
That’s all good stuff isn’t it? I have been blessed. I am blessed.
What I haven’t spoken of is all the bad things I have done in my life. And despite my extraordinary good looks and my peachy keen demeanor, I have broken many of God’s commandments, some several times over. I have lied. I have cheated. I have stolen. Some things I have done were so shameful it has taken me over 40 years to even share them with Cindy. And to her credit she still stands by me. Thank you Lord for that one particular blessing! That one blessing that just keeps getting better and better.
Anyway, this is not a tabloids story so I will not expound upon those sordid and shameful details.
But just so you know, I was nowhere near being a good person, no matter how good I looked.
In 2010, my life (actually our lives) changed dramatically. I retired. We moved from Arlington, Texas (Think of Fort Worth, Tex-Mex food and the Dallas Cowboys!) to this wonderful place. God’s country; Lenoir City, Tennessee and in September of that year, we walked in the doors of Highland Park Baptist Church for the very first time. Junior Collins was at the door then, just as he is now and he welcomed us in. I think Cindy recognized immediately that we were ‘Home’ because we never went to another church. Highland Park was the only church we ever went to. That is a God story all by itself.
By the way, in case you didn’t know, Cindy is a ‘reformed’ Pentecostal. Me? I don’t know what I was. I was baptized in 1967 when I was twelve and my dog tags read that I was Southern Baptist. But I don’t believe I was really a Christian otherwise I probably wouldn’t have done the bad things I’ve done. But then, Christians still sin too . . .
Back then in 2010, Cindy would listen to Christian music in the car, and as soon as I got in, I would have to change it over to classic rock and grumble to myself on why I had to do ‘that’ at all. Cindy would drag me to Church on Sunday mornings, but I would stay home on Sunday nights and Wednesday’s. She made friends, she joined bible studies, she started participating in the Church. And she was happy.
A Post-It note soon appeared on her side of our bathroom mirror one day. On it was a list of names, and mine was one of them. This was Cindy’s prayer list as she got ready for the day. I didn’t pay a lot of attention to it at the time.
Life went on, and on Sunday mornings, we would sit in the pew where Hobert and Mary Ann Perdue sit now. I know now that I was lost. I was resentful and unbelieving of God. Tom could be leading the singing and I would be angry, fuming . . . Yelling inside my head at how ‘ridiculous’ it all was.
Have you ever thought how strange it is for someone that has no idea about what Christianity is REALLY all about, to come in and hear people happily singing about the day they get to die? How they praise the the shedding of His blood? Sacrificial blood, lambs, etc … Singing about being ‘saved’? All the while I am thinking, ‘Save me? From what?’
What a strange thing it was to see, hear and experience all of this. You see, in the Church I was first baptized in there were only two men that I can look back on now and state with certainty that they were genuine followers of Christ. Out of a Church with 300-400 people it’s a real shame that only two men were readily identifiable as Christians. Almost sixty years later I still remember their names; Grady Money and James Parrish. These two men not only talked the talk, they walked the walk and they made a lifelong impression on me.
I believe it was about this time that Cindy’s ‘Post-It’ Note prayers were starting to have some effect. I can recall several key moments when things began to change in me. Two of them were brought about by the wonderful music that we get to enjoy here in this church. Tom and Tara one Memorial Day were singing ‘I have been Blessed’ and that one song brought me to my knees at the altar. Later at a prayer vigil for Brenda Aikens, her sister sang ‘Thank you Lord for Your Blessings on Me.’ I started thinking about ‘my blessings’ and how good I really had it. God was really making a point of getting me to look at the people and the things in my life and making me ask questions!
What had I done to deserve them?
It was at this point that I started getting ‘smaller’. Like John the Baptist said in John 3:30, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” It was obvious that there needed to be a lot less of me and a lot more of ‘Him’.
The real change though began when I stopped being ‘drug’ to Church and actually started to participate in it. If you have heard me speak about getting to scramble the eggs once, you’re probably going to hear it a thousand more times before my time runs out. Hobert’s persistence in inviting me to join the Men’s Prayer Breakfast was what pushed me over the top. It was while I was scrambling eggs that I really discovered what ‘Christianity’ was really all about.
Seeing and hearing those Christian men every Saturday morning changed me and changed my direction in life. The witnessing that they did was by example, by speech, by their compassion one for another. Being of service to others and to the Church is one of the keys to having a good relationship with Christ. You have to be humble though. You have to be ‘small’ in order to truly serve others.
I can’t leave an extraordinary Sunday School teacher out of the equation either. Doug Reynold’s interactive Sunday School lessons in the ‘Young Adults in Denial’ class really opened my eyes. I was able to ask questions about things that many people just took for granted. I even once summarily stated that Jesus Christ was God’s do-over because he over-reacted in the Garden of Eden. Say what . . .? Was I laughed at? Was I the butt of some jokes? Nope! I was allowed to explain my thought, but then we were able to discuss how I got there and what it was that I didn’t understand.
So many of you have witnessed to me without ever saying a word. It was in your actions: your loving one another, your praying for one another, even perfect strangers, giving freely of your time and money. What you did spoke loudly and clearly to my heart.
My real ‘Come to Jesus’ moment though came one day while I was on Interstate 81 about to take the I-26 exit to Johnson City. I knew that I was broken. I had been stuck in the ‘middle’ for far longer than I could stand. But as I drove I cried and prayed; and I gave it all to Jesus. It was shortly after that that I got baptized again. Brother Eddie got to do a ‘unique’ baptism that day. He got to baptize a grandfather, a son and a granddaughter all at the same time and when it was over, Eddie asked me what I had to say. “God is good.” was about as much as I could blather out.
I will be honest with you. I still struggle to regularly study the Bible. And though I pray often, it is probably not the type of prayer or pattern of prayer that is the ‘norm’. Until recently, I have often wondered whether or not I really had a ‘relationship’ with Jesus, and because of that, I still struggled with believing that I was truly saved.
At the invitation one Sunday Morning, I went to Brother Eddie and asked him to lead me through the sinner’s prayer. Thinking that maybe I had missed a step somewhere. Perhaps saying that prayer with him at the altar would rid me of my doubt. But it didn’t. I continued to wonder and pour over my lack of ‘joy’ and my lack of confidence in my salvation.
You know, you can’t just ask anyone if you are saved. They don’t know. They can’t read your heart like God can. Even Brother Eddie can’t tell me whether or not I am saved. The best they can do is tell you what they have seen and heard through their own eyes and ears.
So how do you know?
Somewhere along the way, I made the connection that if you are truly saved, there will have to have been some profound change in your behavior, in your character. A definite shift. A turn away from what you were; to what you are becoming. Why? Because the Holy Spirit will begin cleaning house as soon as He is invited in. And with that house cleaning a new creation emerges. “. . . old things are passed away; all things are become new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17
So I turned and looked behind me. I looked at my past since I came to Highland Park and that ‘Come to Jesus!’ moment on I-81. I saw where I do not enjoy the ‘sinful’ things that I used to. I love coming to Church now. I tithe. I try to serve the Church whenever and wherever I am needed and I strive every day to be a better person than I was the day before.
I’ve seen things too . . .
One Sunday night I saw God lead Dwight Cusic to a Prayer Blanket for his niece’s upcoming surgery by pointing out a particular Bible verse and telling him to come show it to Cindy.
There have been other things too. But most recently, I saw God answer the prayers of a Church with the healing of my granddaughter Cheri. She was in total liver failure. The doctors were talking Liver Transplant and medications for the rest of her life. But God healed her in the time it took to get to Vanderbilt in an ambulance. Thank you God! Thank you for my praying Church!
I still struggle with some things. But, here’s the clincher, I am convicted whenever I stray off the path, for I know that I am doing wrong, and that I must repent and I must ask for His forgiveness. Being a follower of Christ can be a hard path to follow sometimes.
When I look back, is my trail spotless and arrow straight? Absolutely not! I am a Christian. I do my best to follow his ways, but I often fail. But is there evidence of that profound change I spoke of? You bet your sweet ‘bippie’ there is! By the way, if you recognized that word ‘bippie’ then you are really old too.
I am a new creation, I am saved by the blood of Jesus Christ who has washed me clean of ALL the sin that was in my life.
So I ask you today, are you sure of your salvation? Have YOU looked in that rear view mirror lately? Are you joyful? Do you look forward to coming to Church? If any of your answers to those questions are ‘no’, then you are struggling, and I urge you to get busy in the Church. When you surround yourself with good people, good things will begin to happen to you. Remember Proverbs 27:17, “Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.”
If you are struggling know this: We have to trust Him and know that our God is a faithful God that keeps his promises. In Romans 10:9 Paul tells us “if we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our hearts that God raised him from the dead, YOU WILL BE SAVED.
Will it be easy? Nope. I now understand the meaning of 1 Timothy 6:12, “Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.”
Sometimes it IS a fight to believe. We are constantly surrounded by people and things that make us want to question our faith. But we should stand firm! The greatest gift of all is already in our hands. We just need to claim it and hold it high for all to see!
I’ve put my trust in the Lord. You should too. Show your love for him by working for others. Start serving, start participating and after a while look back and see what’s behind you.
Has your path changed?
One more thing before I close. Twice now, I have been participating in some event or another at our Church and have felt in my heart that what I was witnessing was a little bit of what heaven will be like for us when we get there.
The first time was several years ago on a Saturday morning. The gathering of men that morning just felt ‘right’, like I was surrounded by the best friends I will ever have in my life. There was no mistrust, no judging, no ugliness of any kind. I felt loved. I stood up and told the group, that “If Heaven was going to be like this, it was going to be good.” A devotional that I recently read described what happened at the Last Supper that echoed the kind of love I was seeing. When Jesus stated that one of the disciples was going to betray him, not one disciple accused another. All of them asked “Is it I, Lord?” They all looked inward rather than outward. Those are the kind of friends you should want to be around!
The second time, was just a few Sundays ago. As I was watching the Worship Band practice, I again felt that I was seeing that same kind of love. Our Worship Band knows each other in an ‘intimate’ way. Their laughter, their compassion one for another, their encouragement for each other was very much like what I had felt at that Men’s Breakfast. I felt that I was again seeing what Heaven will be like for us.
You see, when we get to Heaven I don’t think that we will use our eyes as much as we are going to use our hearts. Heaven is a place that will be felt more than it will be seen. As Eddie Williams testified when he set foot in Heaven: Even for just that one moment . . . Eddie felt that he was wrapped and just held in a blanket of love. O how I long to experience that feeling one day!
So here it is folks. The moment you’ve been waiting for. The big finale.
Lord Jesus, it is You that I believe in! It is You that has given me every good thing in my life! It is You that I trust! And it is You that I love!
Oh yeah! I would say there has been a change in me. Listen to me talking about how I am looking forward to the day that I leave this earth!
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