The Berean Call

Bend Oregon, what a beautiful part of the country.

After returning from Georgia last week I had two days in town.  Tuesday night we didn't have our small group so my wife and I just took it easy.

Wednesday, even though that's my official day off, I went into the office and worked my talks.  I had to attend a speaker's meeting as well so it all worked out.  In addition I did two radio programs that day.  One for an hour and the other for 15 minutes.  The shorter program was with a man who didn't agree with us.  He gave me a fair shake though.  He asked good questions, but let me respond and didn't cut me off or attack.  That's all you can ask for.

Myself and Tom at The Berean Call headquarters.

Thursday I took some vacation time and took my wife with me to  Bend, Oregon.  I had the privilege of doing a speaking meeting with Tom McMahon about 2 years ago.  Tom is the president of the ministry, The Berean Call.  At the meeting we struck up a friendship.  I respect what he's doing a lot.  He's a former screen writer for Hollywood so he's got a very good perspective on issues such as the media which I think is so important.  I read his book, "Showtime for the Sheep" after meeting him and really appreciated the critical thinking approach he took to the movie, "The Passion of the Christ."

Anyway, he invited me out to Bend to speak at their conference and I accepted.  Tom and the rest of the staff are really sweet people.  They were so kind to Masami and myself.  The conference was good for me as well because I wasn't the only speaker.  I got to listen to other godly men and gleen information.  That is such a huge help. 

Bill Gallatin's, (he's from Calvary Chapel Fingerlakes), message on Jonah really struck a chord with me.  He challenged us to get involved in sharing the Gospel.  Steve Herzig is from Friends of Israel and he did a good job of spelling out what's going on in the Middle East.  Scary to be honest.  Everyone did a great job. 

Tom is an avid fisherman, not like novice me.  He carries a fishing pole with him wherever he goes.  We were meeting at 6:30 am one morning so he could show us around Bend before the conference started.  We come out at 6:20 am and he's in the river by the hotel fishing!

At least he didn't catch anything because that would have really embarrassed me after my last fishing exhibition in Georgia. 

The meetings went well, lots of great people.  I had one man that came up to me two days in a row though that really frustrated me.  I've got to be honest and say that I struggled with this man.  He accused me of intentionally misleading children astray because I was teaching  a "young earth" perspective.  That got under my skin in a major way for some reason and I started to argue with him.  I blew my own rule to never argue!  I've never seen anyone changed for the better as a result of an argument.  People dig in even deeper regardless of who's right or wrong.  When I argue I find myself speaking at people trying to make my point, and not listening to them and reasoning with them. 

This man constantly referred to John Lennox, Hugh Ross, this teacher, that teacher, etc. to defend his point.  I kept asking him to defend his position using Scripture.  He never would, he always quoted another man as his authority.  It's at this point I've got to just let go and let God.  If someone who calls themselves a Christian is not willing to use the Word of God to defend their position it's a pretty clear indicator that there's no hope in continuing the conversation.  I had to apologize for arguing and apologizing is no fun.  Especially when I'M RIGHT!  Ooops!  There's that flesh thing coming out again.

Sunday morning Masami and I got up early to fly back home.  We got to the airport at 5:30 am for our 6:30 am flight.  As we check in the tell us the flight has been changed to 6:00 am and we've got to run to the gate!  Fortunately we made it.  The connections went well and we got home to have our very pregnant daughter in law pick us up.  Her due date is today!!!

Today's Monday and I'm in the office working on talks, blogs, etc.  I've got a doctors appointment at noon to follow up on an appointment from two weeks ago.  A dear friend just walked into my office as I was typing the sentence above to tell me he'd just left the doctors because they had to do a scan of his lungs.  They found a spot on his lungs and need to look at it more closely.  His father died of cancer.  Pray for my dear brother Steve.  He's a dear, godly man.  We had the chance to pray together.

Anyway, that's my life up till Monday at 10:35 am.  Off we go, share the love of Christ with someone today.  Stay bold!

Carl Kerby