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for June, 2009.
By pastorbillwalden
“… what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour. ‘Father, glorify Your name’ ” (John 12:27–28). 
As a saint of God, my attitude toward sorrow and difficulty should not be to ask that they be prevented, but to ask that God protect me so that I may remain what He created me to be, in spite of all my fires of sorrow. Our Lord received Himself, accepting His position and realizing His purpose, in the midst of the fire of sorrow. He was saved not from the hour, but out of the hour.
We say that there ought to be no sorrow, but there is sorrow, and we have to accept and receive ourselves in its fires. If we try to evade sorrow, refusing to deal with it, we are foolish. Sorrow is one of the biggest facts in life, and there is no use in saying it should not be. Sin, sorrow, and suffering are, and it is not for us to say that God has made a mistake in allowing them.
Sorrow removes a great deal of a person’s shallowness, but it does not always make that person better. Suffering either gives me to myself or it destroys me. You cannot find or receive yourself through success, because you lose your head over pride. And you cannot receive yourself through the monotony of your daily life, because you give in to complaining. The only way to find yourself is in the fires of sorrow. Why it should be this way is immaterial. The fact is that it is true in the Scriptures and in human experience. You can always recognize who has been through the fires of sorrow and received himself, and you know that you can go to him in your moment of trouble and find that he has plenty of time for you. But if a person has not been through the fires of sorrow, he is apt to be contemptuous, having no respect or time for you, only turning you away. If you will receive yourself in the fires of sorrow, God will make you nourishment for other people.
Oswald Chambers
By pastorbillwalden
As a kid, I wasn’t much interested in my dad’s war stories. 
I was more interested in being a pretend soldier than actually talking with a real veteran.
As a teenager and a young adult man, I was hopelessly self focused, and had little interest of things that didn’t directly pertain to me “right now”.
As the years pass, one can gain perspective, if they are fortunate and blessed by God. I have been blessed by God in this area, and I have finally come to appreciate the fact that I stand on the shoulders of many great men. Some are dead, and others, like my dad, are still alive.
My dad served in the Navy, and was on the U.S.S. Pennsylvania, a battleship. You can read the history of the “Pennsie” here. He served in the South Pacific, and his ship was instrumental in the defeating of the Japanese forces. His ship was in every critical battle fought in the South Pacific.
I have grown to appreciate the efforts of the generation older than me. They have experience and wisdom that I would do well to listen to.
I won’t take a lot of time here to tell dad’s war stories. Maybe I will some day. Today I will simply say “thanks” to my dad for fighting to make my world a better place. Thanks to all the men and women who served our country.
May we who never fought, appreciate the sacrifice and commitment that others have made, and from which we have benefited.
Thanks Dad…
By pastorbillwalden
I just returned from a 2 1/2 day preaching practicum, which, a few years ago, is not something I would have imagined attending. I was more than pleasantly surprised.
The practicum was led by Art Azurdia, who is a professor at Western Seminary in Portland, Oregon. The practicum consisted of Art teaching on preaching, sermon preparation, and hermeneutics, which is the “theory and methodology of interpreting the Bible”. That was Day One.
Art spoke on sermon preparation in great depth. We studied diagramming verses, parsing verbs, looking for flow, preparing a “telos”, and much more. Art also encouraged us to see the entire Bible as the story of redemption through Jesus Christ. The differing portions of the Bible are all knit together in one great story, which is the story of God redeeming man.
In addition, Art spoke on the idea of Christocentric preaching, which means seeing the entire Bible in its relationship to the Gospel, and understanding how a passage aligns itself with the work of redemption.
Seven Calvary Chapel pastors attended the practicum, and we were each assigned a portion of the Book of Ruth to preach on (Days 2 & 3). We were then critiqued by our peers and by Art. Each guy preached for 30 minutes, and we were then critiqued for 45 minutes. It might sound scary, but it wasn’t, and I found it to be very beneficial. I look forward to implementing some of the steps to sermon preparation that Art suggested we pursue. I am sure that Cornerstone will become a mega church in a matter of months as a result of my new found skills. 
On another note…I didn’t want to go. I struggled to go. I was fighting internally about going. “Why”, you ask? Glad you asked. I’ll tell you why…
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By pastorbillwalden
Joe Christian: “Pastor Bill, I can’t believe these things are happening to me. What did I do to deserve all this?” 
Me: “Joe, in your case, I don’t think you did anything to deserve all this.” (I know Joe’s case) “Joe, you remember that Jesus said, ‘In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.?’ (John 16:33) “Jesus told us that we would have hard times in life, sometimes for no apparent reason. Remember Joe, we live in a world full of sin, and it’s not the world that God designed. It’s a fallen world.”
Joe: “But I thought that God wouldn’t give me more than I could handle. It feels like too much”.
Me: “Joe, God never said He wouldn’t give you more than you could handle. We have confused the meaning of 1 Corinthians 10:13. He allows many things to come into our lives that we can’t handle. That’s why we need Him.”
“Joe, that verse says, ‘No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.’”
“Joe, let’s break it down…”
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By pastorbillwalden
I spoke with a dear saint of God recently who is going through a very difficult time in life. This person has been very much wronged as of late, and negative things seem to be piling up one after another. 
In the course of our conversation, this person said a couple of things that I often hear.
“I don’t know how much more I can take”. “I’m not handling this well”.
How we view the “handling” of our problems is very interesting to me, and I think we (Christians) get it wrong a lot.
I think we often feel that we aren’t handling things well for the following reasons:
1. We are very emotional, experiencing feelings of anger, resentment, revenge, sadness, despair.
2. We resent that we feel such emotions.
3. On occasions, we say or do things that we regret.
4. We find ourselves complaining to God or to others.
5. We are not ourselves. We are easily distracted, struggle to read our Bibles, and can’t concentrate in prayer. We say things like, “I don’t know what’s wrong with me”.
6. We are tempted to stay away from church or fellowship, because our emotions are depleted, and we can’t stand to talk to one more person.
7. Overall, as Christians, we expect that we ought to be much more in control of our emotions, and not feeling so out of control.
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