I heard a story about a father’s abuse of his family. The result has been a downhill ride for the son. One of the things the father used to do when he was drunk was grab his son and give him a buzz haircut.

The reason I mention this is I have been struggling with a comment my daughter Brooke made to me while we were visiting family in New York. She said she has never seen anyone have a salvation experience like I had.

I had to take time and think about what she said, for it seems to me also that people who get saved today seem to take a long time to experience the deliverance and power that should follow a salvation experience. I included this thought in a recent sermon: What I Learned on My Summer Vacation.

I wonder if this has to do with the father’s giving up their roles as heads of household in their families, and still more common, just not taking responsibility for their children. Maybe, it is part of the spiritual price our nation is paying for allowing millions of children to be aborted before their lives can unfold.

The buzz haircut comment brought back memories of my own father. I proudly wore a Marine haircut all my life until the seventh grade. The year was 1968 when we moved and in a new school with changes in the air I realized that I was self-conscious about my Marine hair style because of the girls. I talked to my Dad and started to grow my hair out with his permission. It would be four years later when my Dad was getting ready to leave for his second tour of duty in Viet Nam that on my own I went and got a Marine hair cut to honor his sacrifice.

I am trying to bring this all together to relate to how we perceive God our father. Two identical haircuts, one leading to shame and rejection, the other leading to pride and honor. Two lives come to God. The call is to lay down our lives to bring honor to God the father. I can see the difficulties to overcome because of a father’s sin.

Life was not going well and it was another bad piece of news. Yes, just a little more help and they can make it through the day’s struggle. I was just finishing making a car rental reservation when this new reality came to the house. I stopped what I was doing and we talked, made some calls and I gave up a little cash. My friend left and I returned to my computer to finish the task of renting the car. Everything was set for the final click but the page had timed out. So I started the process fresh only to discover that following the same directions this time gave me a substantially lower price than what I was just previously about to pay.

Prov 19:17 He who has pity on the poor lends to the LORD, And He will pay back what he has given.

My reading of a book on the Revolutionary War covered the Indian attacks by the Iroquois, the 5 and then 6 tribe confederation that included the Mohawks. The Indian and European rules of conduct in war would lead to misunderstandings that would paint the Indians as savages. The Indians believed that captives were kept and assimilated into the tribe in order to replace the fallen warriors involved in the raid. Needless, to say this does not jive with the idea of taking prisoners of war and exchanging them.

George Washington had ordered General John Sullivan to attack the villages of the Iroquois and take captives to use for exchange. He failed to take captives and was actually engaged in very little combat. What he did to is destroy the towns completely. He destroyed their wood homes and their crops. What he did also, something the Indians had never done to the colonists, was to destroy their mature fruit orchards. This act drove the Indians north to the British and when the war ended most of them followed their leaders to resettle in Canada under British rule.

I am tying this into a sermon about our fruitfulness: Tree of Life or Tree of Death.

This led to a discussion between Joan and I about the small pox blankets myth. Here is an article that documents the letters where the idea was discussed. Just in case you want to know.