“I will give power to my two witnesses…” Revelation 11:3…
Read moreApril 6, 2023 | North Korea and Undercover Missionaries
In 2002, I spent four days in North Korea. I presume the CIA has been watching me ever since. How I got there is still a small mystery…
Read moreMarch 18, 2023 | Happy Birthday from the 15th Tee
Arnold Palmer in the 1960s
Today (March 18) is my 72nd Birthday. If life was a metaphorical round of golf, and if the life actuarial tables are accurate, I am now standing on the 15th Tee…
Read moreMarch 8, 2023 | Asbury Revival (Part Three)
“Who has believed our message? To whom will the Lord reveal his saving power?” (Isaiah 53:1 NLT)…
Read moreMarch 3, 2023 | Asbury Revival (Part Two)
“For these rules were only shadows of the real thing, which is Christ himself.” Colossians 2:17 NLT…
Read moreFebruary 27, 2023 | Asbury Revival (Part One)
“The least of you will become a thousand, the smallest a mighty nation.” Isaiah 60:22…
Read moreJanuary 31, 2023 | 100 Holes of Heaven
It was 44 degrees when I teed off in Loxley, Alabama to play 100 holes of real golf (putt out, keep score, etc.) in one day, all for a good cause, The Second Tee…
Read moreJanuary 19, 2023 | The Nonsense of Stephen Hawking: "Higher Than the Heavens"
“For your unfailing love is higher than the heavens…Be exalted, O God, above the highest heavens. May your glory shine over all the earth.” (Psalm 108:4-5, words from King David written approximately 3,000 years ago).
Go to the internet or the history books (if there is such a thing in 2023), and you will find the name of Stephen Hawking. He was widely considered the greatest scientist of his generation. There is much to admire…
Read moreJanuary 12, 2023 | Chattanooga Choo-Choo
In 1999, I was speaking to a CBMC crowd in St Louis…
Read moreDecember 31, 2022 | Can a Man be Pregnant?
No Christmas or New Year’s letter was planned for 2022, but I just have to share a present we received on Christmas Day…
Read moreDecember 28, 2022 | John Philpot and 1555: "Who is that man?"
QUEEN BLOODY MARY BURNED HUNDREDS AT THE STAKE IN THE 1500’s
In about 2002, my mother Virginia’s 88-year-old mind was moving toward dementia…
Read moreDecember 20, 2022 | Jim and Andy- "What would happen if I just decided to be Jesus?
JIM CARREY AND ANDY KAUFMANN
Most of my stories are about people I actually know. But like all of us, some stories from media are just too good to ignore. Such was the case with a recent Netflix documentary about actor/comedian Jim Carrey…
Read moreDecember 4, 2022 | "Your friend, in Christ, Marcus."
March 18, 2006 was my 55th birthday. I celebrated at Sonny’s BBQ with a male prostitute…
Read moreNovember 25, 2022 | Mr. Wisdom
Today's story is from the Thanjam Old Age Home for Men in South India…
Read moreNovember 7, 2022 | Ernest T. Bass - "I just wanted me a uniform."
Every great sermon should include a good story from the Andy Griffith Show…
Read moreOctober 25, 2022 | Night and Day - The Ben Decker Story
This picture is not an award-winning photo…
Read moreOctober 18, 2022 | Moonwalker, Methodist, Muslim
Without a doubt, Charlie Duke is the absolute Number One most impressive man I have ever met…
Read moreDEAD AUTHORS
“But where shall wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding? Man does not know the way to it and it is not found in the land of the living.” (Job 28:12-13 RSV)
With no PGA golf on a September Sunday, I found myself on You Tube, flipping between Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf and a small dose of LIV Golf. The contrast was stark, and reminded me of the above verse from the ancient sage Job about wisdom,
“Wisdom … it is not found in the land of the living.”
I love the 1960’s YouTube versions of Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf. They are so much better than LIV Golf. (Imbed here?)
Maybe it is just my old age and sentimental personality but there is nothing more entertaining than Gene Sarazen commentating over Harry Bradshaw beating 32-year-old Billy Casper in 1963 at Portmarnock near Dublin, Ireland.
The portly fifty-year-old Harry’s swing looked more like a thirteen-handicap at your club than a golf champion who was a ten-time winner of the Irish PGA. Google Harry to discover he once lost the 1949 British Open to Bobby Locke because his ball rolled into a bottle. Way more interesting than how many millions the LIV guys made as they claim to ‘grow the game’.
And outside golf, I agree with Job who tells us plainly that wisdom "cannot be found in the land of the living". (Job 28:13). Wisdom seems extinct among the living in 2022.
So, then, where is wisdom found? Instead of the ‘living’, I mostly read dead authors. The search for wisdom comes from ancient sources like John Bunyan (1628-1688) who wrote Pilgrim’s Progress in 1678.
I feast on E. Stanley Jones (1884-1973), Lettie Cowman (1870-1960), and Oswald Chambers (1874-1917). Other dead authors who have greatly influenced me are of G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936), C.S. Lewis (1898-1963), A.W. Tozer (1897-1963), Dennis Kinlaw (1922-2017) and more. My father Ford Philpot's voice (1917-1992) is ringing in my ears on some days.
And of course, even more obvious, the real old-timers-- Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, Peter, and more. Not to mention the Old Testament scribes.
So, why do I read ancient words from dead authors like E. Stanley Jones?
I think I have figured it out.
One, they have finished the race without tripping on the way to the finish line. My choice of reading is based more on respect for life-long character than the brilliance or popularity of the words. Sorry to say, but moral failures and high salaries of so many mega-pastor type authors has made me cynical.
Second, many 21st century writers are enamored with the “news”. It doesn’t take long to figure out whether the author loves Trump or hates him, watches Fox or CNN, is Protestant or Catholic, or like me, loves LIV Golf or not. I for one am tired of the ‘news’. Indeed, the word itself- 'news'- means the information is about Today! It is the latest from the 'land of the living'.
I love the way Jeremiah says it:
"Stop at the crossroads and look around, Ask for the old, godly way, and walk in it. Travel its path, and you will find rest for your souls. But you reply, 'No, that's not the road we want!’" (Jer. 6:16).
So, I agree with Job. And Jeremiah.
Give me Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf. And the 1866 hymn from Kate Hankey who says she loves to tell “the old, old story, of Jesus and His love”.
October 04, 2022 | Raji and John
Many of my life changing moments have come in India, a nation which breeds spiritual forces, both good and bad…
Read moreSeptember 13, 2022 | LIV or LIVE?
You will need to be a golfer to understand everything I am about to say…
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