Reflections

By Dr. Phillip McClendon

If you've been around as long as I have, you probably remember the songs of singer-songwriter Jim Croce. He grew up in South Philly, watching performances of Fats Domino and the Coasters on TV's American Bandstand. He looked like a tough guy, but everyone who knew him said he has a big, warm fun-loving heart.

Jim Croce spent the first decade of his adult life toiling in a series of day jobs: teaching emotionally disturbed children, working in a hospital, driving trucks, operating a jackhammer at construction sites. At night, he would sing and play guitar in coffeehouses. He wasn't waiting for his big break- he was hustling for it. When he was twenty-nine, Jim Croce finally landed his first recording contract. His first album, You Don't Mess Around With Jim, was completed quickly, many of the songs being recorded in just one or two takes.

Once the album was released, Croce's music, an acoustic blend of folk and rock, caught on fast. The first two singles released from that album quickly became number one hits on AM radio, and Jim Croce became a star. His long- delayed dream had finally come true. His  first two hits were upbeat roack ballads. His record company decided to release a third song from the album-a soft plaintive song called "Time in a Bottle".

It was about how precious each moment of life is and how quickly those moments pass, never to come again. The song wistfully recounted the things Croce would do if only he could keep time in a bottle and pour out extra hours whenever he needed them. Before "Time in a Bottle" could be released, Jim Croce proved that the words of that song were truer than he realized.
On September 20, 1973, after performing in a concert at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Lousiana, Croce boarded a small chartered plane along with a flight crew and members of his band. The heavily loaded plane clipped a tree as it took off. Like Croce's career, the plane had barely gotten off the ground before it crashed. Jim croce was dead at age thirty.

We can't save time in a bottle, and we never know how much time we have left. We tend to think about the rest of our lives in terms of years and decades. The truth is the rest of our lives might be measured in hours or even minutes. So we need to make the most of each moment we have.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 6, 2021
• ISBN: 9781543498028

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Copyright © 2021 by Dr. Phillip McClendon.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the Holy Bible, King James Version (Authorized Version). First published in 1611. Quoted from the KJV Classic Reference Bible, Copyright © 1983 by The Zondervan Corporation.

Rev. date: 10/04/2021

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CONTENTS

A Mother’s Influence

A Love Beyond Understanding

God Is Not Limited by Our Limitations

Happy Birthday, America

Thought You Would Like to Know

Do You Need a Spiritual Face-Lift?

Vote Your Values

You’ve Got Mail!

Will Christ Be the Center of Your Christmas?

Our time on this earth is limited

How to Improve Your Marriage

God Has Given You a Powerful Gift!

Teach Me about the Peanut

Sovereign in the Creation of Life

Imparting Values for Your Children

The Fingerprints of God

Thanksgiving Can Change Your Life

Be Motivated Everyday

Walk a Little Closer, Daddy

What Teachers Make

Integrity

Choose Today to Say, Lord, I Want to Be a Bondslave.

He Didn’t Throw the Clay Away

What Has God Done for America?

Look at What You’ve Been Given in Jesus Christ!

Generation Y

Raising Godly Children

November Notes

The Best Christmas Gift: God’s Gift

God Has Given Every One of Us a Personal Call

Marriage

Make This Season of Your Life Work for You

He’s My King!

Ruth, the Woman Who Made a New Start

The Winning Attitude

When Does God Judge a Nation?

No Time in a Bottle

Hey, Rob! You Look Like One of Us! You Belong Here!

What We Can Learn from Geese

Thanksgiving

A Gift beyond Description

A Mindful Person

The Greatest Power Ever Known

Empty Cross, Full Life

Looking for the Truth? Try Jesus

Subject: Jay Leno on President Bush (Surprising)

How Can We Keep Money Matters from Separating Us?

Old Glory

Spiritual Action Plan

Life’s Lessons

He Will Find You

In a Supermarket a Few Years Ago

What Do You See Now?

Never Forsaken

A Life Filled with Hope

That Audience of One

Somebody Said

Treasure Your Marriage

Respect the Flag

Hope that Only a Teacher Can Give

Rules for Life

An Old Farmer’s Advice

Gratitude—A Necessary Attitude

Faith

Whose Boy Are You?

He Has Never Left Me Alone

The Stone Is Rolled Away!

John Wayne

The Roman Road

Dedicated to our grandchildren. Camille, Samuel, Lily,

Annabelle, Savannah, Bleu, Lucy and Laken, have

taught me some of life’s most important lessons and

they give me joy that takes my breath away.

These devotions came from years of preaching, reading and

research. Therefore, I give credit to those who have assisted me in

my endeavors though sharing their experiences and sermons.

Each chapter can be appreciated on its own and applied to

your life on a daily basis. So feel free to skip around.

A Mother’s Influence

As with many of you, I have visited the memorial where Abraham Lincoln is buried in Springfield, Illinois—one of the most impressive monuments on the earth—and read there the words of Secretary of War Stanton when Lincoln died, Now he belongs to the ages. Then as many of you, I have visited the tremendous Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC and the congressional parliaments.

In Hodgenville, Kentucky, there is a beautiful monument built over the tiny log cabin in which he was born. The monument faces the south, and inscribed across it is With malice toward none, with charity for all. And on the inside is a sentence forever from Abraham Lincoln, All I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel mother. And as I stood there reading that tribute to his angel and sainted mother, I thought of Abraham Lincoln as a nine-year-old boy with his father, digging the grave and burying her there in the soil of Kentucky.

Also shaping the history of the world was Constantine, the first Christian in the emperorship of the Roman Empire, won to God by Helena, his mother.

I thought of Augustine, the infidel and finally the great theologian, won to the Lord by Monica, his mother. And I thought of Vladimir, the tremendously powerful and gifted commander and emperor of the vast nation of Russia, won to the Lord by his mother, Olga, shaping the history of the world and identified with the faith.

A Love Beyond Understanding

When God became incarnate, He came incarnate in a mother’s womb. And the first beatitude in the New Testament is to her, Blessed art thou among women and blessed the fruit of thy womb. And as you have heard, she was present at the first miracle of our Lord. And as you heard, she was in that last moment when He was seen by the world, standing by the cross and the prophecy of Simeon coming to pass, And a sword shall pierce thy soul also.

I would’ve thought she had been in Galilee—she is a Galilean; she has the accent of Galilee. She was down in Jerusalem. And as I look at her, plainly a peasant woman of poverty—her clothing announces it. With me, look at her standing there by the cross. To us we would say,

A provincial illiterate, untaught, a Galilean. And she is old. She’s toward sixty years of age. And according to the life you see, the lines of age are in her face.

You know, one of the strangest things in Christian art and literature is the doctrine of the perpetual virginity and girlhood youth of the Virgin Mary. If you’ve been to Saint Peter’s in the Vatican, when you walk into the main door, to your right is that incomparable marble creation of Michelangelo, with Mary holding in her lap the crucified Lord Jesus.

She’s a girl. She looks to be seventeen years of age. Her son is thirty-three. That’s so strange to me. Why do people think that youth is a glorious time of life, but old age is to be avoided and despaired of?

Do you remember Robert Browning’s poem Rabbi Ben Ezra?

Come, grow old along with me!

The best is yet to be.

The last of life, for which the first was made.

Our times are in His hand

Who saith, "A whole I planned;

Youth shows but half. Trust God: see all nor be afraid!"

So Mary standing there is old; and the experiences in her life have been varied and sweet, following the incarnate God, the Lord Jesus. In chapter 1 of Luke, she bursts forth in a song, the Magnificat. And in the first chapter of Acts, she is there praying with the disciples at Pentecost. And throughout her life, God’s book says she pondered these things in her heart. So Mary stands at the cross. To the Romans, those three malefactors were put to death. They were executed. That’s the Roman way, universal then, of seeking to deter the work and activity of a criminal. And there are three of them, three malefactors to the Romans: one on either side and one in the middle. But to Mary standing there at the cross, it was her beloved Son.

And to the Lord Jesus looking down from His crucified throne, He said to John, John, behold your mother, and to His dear mother, Mother, behold your son. What an astonishing thing! In the midst of His dying for the sins of the world, he said, John, take care of my mother. And, Mother, you go live with your son John, for her children did not believe in Him. (John 19:26-27)

Society asks, What are his lineage and his ancestry? Business asks, What are his attainments and his worth? And law asks, What are his records and his virtue? And politics asks, What are his influence and his election power? And the school asks, What are his degrees and his education? But the mother asks, What can I do to help and to remember and to love?

So the angel was sent to bring back to heaven from earth the sweetest, most beautiful things he could find. And when the angel returned, he had brought back a fleecy cloud, a beautiful flower, a baby’s smile, and a mother’s love.

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God Is Not Limited by

Our Limitations

Several years ago, I read a true story of an incident in the life of the great French conqueror Napoleon. Napoleon and his soldiers overcame an island in the Mediterranean Sea. They had fought for many days to take the island and finally succeeded. After the capture of the island at the price of many lives, Napoleon and his generals gathered for a celebration. As they were sitting around a great table talking about the victory, they were interrupted by a young officer.

Napoleon looked at him and said, What do you want?

The young man looked at Napoleon and said, Give me this island!

The generals began to laugh. They could not believe he was forward enough to ask Napoleon for the island that they had fought so hard to win.

They thought among themselves, Who does he think he is? Anyone with the audacity to make such a request of Napoleon was certainly putting his own life at risk.

But then Napoleon turned to one of his aides and asked for a pen and paper. He wrote out a deed to the island, signed it, and gave it to the young man, leaving his generals stunned and amazed.

How could you do it? one of the generals asked Napoleon. What made him worthy to receive this great island?

I gave him this island, Napoleon replied, because he honored me by the magnitude of his request.

We too need to honor God by the magnitude of our requests. He does not expect us to live a life of defeat, which is far below the standard He had set for us. Neither does He expect us to be satisfied with asking for the crumbs from the table of life. I am convinced that God has made great provisions for us, and He expects us to make great requests so that we might experience great joy when He answers our prayers.

The Bible promises, And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him (1 John 5:14-15).

Each one of us