14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts. ~ Romans 13:14 (NKJV)

By Bro. John L. Cash, “Country Preacher Dad”

When the month of May arrives at our country church, that means one thing: Christian Service Camp is just around the corner. Right now I’m making my preparations for being the dean of a week of Bible camp for 3^rd and 4^th graders. One of my annual jobs in that capacity is making sure all the little boys change their clothes and get a shower each day. Over the years, I’ve learned a lot of things about making sure that gets done.

The boys dorm of our Bible Camp has four showers. After campfire each night, there are four lines of little boys waiting for their turn in a shower. As soon as a camper is bathed, he steps out of the shower and changes into his pajamas behind a privacy curtain. Then the next little boy inherits that shower and the process begins again. Usually, we can get 25 little boys showered in about 20 minutes.

Many years ago at a week of  camp, a little boy came to me at shower-time on Wednesday night to share a valuable piece of information. “Vinnie hasn’t taken a shower all week,” he said. “When it’s his turn to take a shower, he just runs the water and pretends to get in. He pours a paper cup of water on his head. Then he puts on different clothes.”

Well, to tell you the truth, this made a lot of sense and tied up a lot of loose ends. It didn’t take Vinnie very long to “take a shower.” And he did seem to be getting kind of crusty. I told the little boy to send Vinnie to have a talk with me.

When Vinnie came to my bunk, I didn’t yell at him or scold him. I handed him a wash cloth. Then I poured about two tablespoons from my bottle of  “Dr. Bronner’s  Organic Magic Soaps: 18-in-1 (Peppermint) Pure Castille Soap Liquid” on top of his head.

(This is the most wonderful stuff on the planet. I bring this to camp every year to clean the urinals with. The bottle says that it’s organic, that it’s highly concentrated, that it is so pure that you can drink it, and that it’s safe to use to wash your car, your dog, and small children.)

I told Vinnie, “Go get in the shower and scrub this soap off with the wash cloth. Try not to get it in your eye. And scrub the rest of your body while you’re at it.”

Five minutes later, a much cleaner Vinnie emerged wearing a fresh pair of pajamas. “Brother John,” he exclaimed. “That stuff makes you feel really CLEAN !” (I have found that this is the typical reaction to one’s first bath with the peppermint-oil-infused-Bronner’s-soap. It makes your whole body feel like a Hall’s Metho-Lyptis Cough Drop.) After that, Vinnie requested to take all his showers using the peppermint soap. He became the cleanest little camper we had.

Now, I think there’s an important spiritual principle we can all learn here. Did you notice how easy it was for me to get Vinnie to take a shower? In reality, I didn’t even give him an option. After I poured the soap on his head, he had to wash it off. The boy decided to do the right thing because the right thing was the easiest thing to do.

We all need to put this principle to work in our spiritual lives. I believe all of us who are striving to follow Jesus want to do what is right. And we are more apt to do what is right if we make doing right the easiest option.

So on Saturday night announce to the whole family that everybody is going to go to church the next morning. Lay out everyone’s Sunday best, and set out a box of doughnuts for an easy breakfast on the Lord’s Day. Call the preacher’s wife and tell her you’ll help with children’s worship. Then, when you wake up on Sunday, taking your family to church will be the easiest thing to do — or else you’ll have a lot of explaining to do. You’ll never be sorry when you make it easy to do what is right.

Dr. John L. Cash is the “Country Preacher Dad.” He was raised in Stuttgart, Arkansas, and has spent the last 26 years being a country preacher in the piney woods five miles south of the little town of Hickory, Mississippi. (On week days has a desk-job at a public school and teaches Latin on closed-circuit-television.)  He and his lovely wife, Susan, and his sons, Spencer (age 21) and Seth (age 17) live in the parsonage next door to the Antioch Christian Church (where when Seth Cash was 5-years-old he once shouted from the bathtub, “Everybody ought to bathe with this stuff!”) He would love to hear from you in an email sent to countrypreacherdad@gaggle.net.

 1 ¶ Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.

 2 “Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with promise:

 3 “that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.” ~ Ephesians 6:1-3 (NKJV)

By Bro. John L. Cash, “Country Preacher Dad”

I’ve been doing a little reading about the origins of Mother’s Day this week in preparation for this week’s sermon at the country church. I discovered that the first Mother’s Day proclamation was made by Julia Ward Howe after the Civil War. (She’s the lady that wrote “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.”) Mrs. Howe’s idea was to have a “Mother’s Day of Peace” on which mothers would gather together to pray for their children, to pray for the end of wars, and to ask that God would bless the land with peace.

Now  we have to admit  that Mrs. Howe’s goals were pretty far-reaching and lofty. But in my way of thinking, the prayers of a mother have more peace-bringing-power than anything ever thought up by the United Nations. This oft-told sermon illustration pretty much sums up my point of view:

One night a father was trying to read his newspaper. His little daughter was bored and kept bothering her father with her whining and complaining. Finally the man had had enough. He tore a map of the world from the back of his newspaper, and used a pair of scissors to quickly cut the map into all the various countries of the world. He gave the homemade jigsaw puzzle to his daughter, hoping that assembling it would entertain her long enough for him to finish reading the news.

Imagine his surprise when a few minutes later the little girl interrupted her father’s reading to show him that she’d correctly reassembled the world map! He had but one question for his daughter: “How were you able to to put together the map so quickly?”

Quietly, she gave her reply. “I didn’t know where all the countries went because the map of the world was too hard. But I turned the pieces over, and on the back side of the map was a picture of a family. I figured that if I put the family together right, the world would be right, too.”

Happy Mother’s Day. Keep up the good work. If you do your job well, with the strength that Christ gives, the whole world is going to get better and better.

Dr. John L. Cash is the “Country Preacher Dad.” He was raised in Stuttgart, Arkansas, and has spent the last 26 years being a country preacher in the piney woods five miles south of the little town of Hickory, Mississippi. (On week days has a desk-job at a public school and teaches Latin on closed-circuit-television.)  He and his lovely wife, Susan, and his sons, Spencer (age 21) and Seth (age 17) live in the parsonage next door to the Antioch Christian Church (where the kindergarten kids sang “Let There Peace On Earth And Let it Begin With Me” at their K-5 graduation.)  He would love to hear from you in an email sent to countrypreacherdad@gaggle.net.

 12 Then He also said to him who invited Him, “When you give a dinner or a supper, do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor rich neighbors, lest they also invite you back, and you be repaid.

 13 “But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind.

 14 “And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”  Luke 14:12-14 (NKJV)

By Bro. John L. Cash, “Country Preacher Dad”

[Editor’s note:  In 1987, Bro. John L. Cash was a 25-year-old country preacher who was in the midst of his 2^nd year of located ministry. He experienced his first dose of real discouragement in his work in the pastorate — especially in dealing with people who were impatient with others and intolerant of other Christians. He wrote a letter to an older minister, seeking advice. This was the excellent letter he received in return. The writer had typed the letter using a manual typewriter, front and back on half a sheet of paper. Bro. John has consulted this scrap of paper hundreds of times, and the advice has stood the test of time. He hopes it will comfort and strengthen you, also.]

28 February 1987

Dear John,

Sometimes it helps for us to realize that the problem that’s bugging us is a common one. That may not ease the trauma of the problem, but it helps us to see that if others along the way have either worked their way through the problem or have found grace to bear it, then we, too, can handle it.

You have something important going for you in that you know how to count your blessings in spite of your problem. You have your wife, friends, and above all the Lord on your side. And therein will be part of the answer to your problem: think positively about life, keep your blessings before you, and don’t allow yourself to become sour or bitter.

It also helps to realize that there are no jobs without problems — not even in the White House! There is probably no job that does not have some frustration.

But once all that is said, the fact remains that you have a frustrating ministry and you’re looking for an answer. One answer is that there is no answer, for as long as you are dealing with people and especially church folk you will have frustrations galore. Jesus himself had your problem, especially Jesus, for He was stymied at every turn in his efforts to make people whole. He found his answer in losing himself in His Father’s will — and by completely being absorbed with “not my will but Thine be done.” And when it comes down to it, that’s the only answer there is.

You can say with full assurance that the Lord knows all about it, and you can lay it all before Him. You are, after all, His bond-servant, so in one sense the problem is not yours but His.

Take the days one by one and do not be too concerned about what may lie down the road. Make every day a thing of joy, learn to appreciate the little things, take time for children and the aged, give attention to those that others ignore, take people into your confidence and share with them the joys of simple living. It may help to think of Jesus being at your side in all these things, for He is indeed with you and in you.

Resist worry and downheartedness as you would resist Satan himself. Keep saying “yes” to life and to your job. You will find that you have no problem that cannot be transcended by your own resolve to do God’s will, let come what may. Victory comes to those that hang tough amidst tough times.

As for dealing with those who have a sectarian spirit, which can be so depressing if we allow it to be, we can take heart that Jesus had the same problem, and He faced it by praying, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” In the end, this is your answer and mine.

To liberate our people from sectarianism, we have to be there with them amidst their sectarianism, and seek to understand it and to respond to it with forbearing love. Nothing is gained by running from it.

Finally, you will find your answer in the house of prayer, as you move from room to room, praising God, thanking Him, praying for those who are not yet liberated, calling by name those who would abuse you. There can be no defeat for one who lingers in the house of prayer.

As ever,

Dr. Leroy Garrett

Dr. John L. Cash is the “Country Preacher Dad.” He was raised in Stuttgart, Arkansas, and has spent the last 26 years being a country preacher in the piney woods five miles south of the little town of Hickory, Mississippi. (On week days he has a desk-job at a public school and teaches Latin on closed-circuit-television.) He and his lovely wife, Susan, and his sons, Spencer (age 21) and Seth (age 17) live in the parsonage next door to the Antioch Christian Church (where the Preacher is mighty glad he did not leave this church all those years ago.) He would love to hear from you in an email sent to countrypreacherdad@gaggle.net.

12 That is, that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.  ~  Romans 1:12 (NKJV)

By Bro. John L. Cash, “Country Preacher Dad”

Sometimes when I give older folks an invitation to a church service they say, “I get my church on the television.” I don’t tell them this, but I don’t think “getting your church  on television” is possible. Certainly you can hear a good sermon on television. You can probably hear a much better sermon than the sermons I preach. But hearing a sermon is only one of the reasons we go to the Lord’s House on the Lord’s Day. We also go to church to encourage the faith of others.

Over a dozen years ago, my father, whom I adored, was dying of cancer. My family was watching him die by inches as the doctors gave no hope and he got worse each day. It was the most horrible thing I’d ever been through up to that point in my life. I’m ashamed to admit it,  but at that time in my life I was furious at God and doubted everything I had ever believed about Him. Some people would say “my faith was failing me.” But that wasn’t it at all. I was failing my faith.

One morning I left the ICU where my Dad was spending his final days. I went down to the chapel at the cancer hospital to try to pray and hid in the back corner of the room in the shadows where no one entering the sanctuary could see me. I looked at the cross and the stained-glassed window at the front of the room and tried to frame a petition to God. But there was no faith in my heart to form the words, and there was no prayer in my heart to be prayed.

I sat there — not praying — for a long time. Then someone slipped quietly into the chapel. I could see her, but she couldn’t see me. It was an older woman who mopped the floors in the hospital, pushing a bucket of water. She knelt down behind the second pew and began to pray aloud as she looked at the stained-glassed picture of Jesus. I felt a little guilty eavesdropping on her prayer. But I was drawn in because she spoke to Him like she knew Him and He knew her.

And at that moment, I experienced a sort of miracle. I thought to myself, “You know, if the cleaning woman can believe in Jesus, well, a preacher ought to be able to do that, too.”  And although at that time I was faithless, her words of faith rekindled the faith that was dying in me. You see, the cleaning lady didn’t just come to church that morning for her. The cleaning lady came to church for me.

Make sure to go to the Lord’s House this week. You know you need to. And somebody else probably needs you there, too.

Dr. John L. Cash is the “Country Preacher Dad.” He was raised in Stuttgart, Arkansas, and has spent the last 26 years being a country preacher in the piney woods five miles south of the little town of Hickory, Mississippi. (On week days has a desk-job at a public school and teaches Latin on closed-circuit-television.)  He and his lovely wife, Susan, and his sons, Spencer (age 21) and Seth (age 17) live in the parsonage next door to the Antioch Christian Church (where the folks are mutually encouraged by one another’s faith.)  He would love to hear from you in an email sent to countrypreacherdad@gaggle.net.

32 And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ forgave you. Ephesians 4:32  (NKJV)

By Bro. John L. Cash, “Country Preacher Dad”

I try not to give unsolicited suggestions about how other people should raise their children. But today I’m going to make an exception. Here’s my advice: “Teach your kids to be kind to everyone — but especially to other kids.”

Lately, every time I pick up a newspaper I read accounts of the aftermath of the unkindness of young people. Elementary school students are being treated for depression because of  the aggression they’ve faced from classmates. Teens have taken their own lives because of the way that they’ve been treated at school and online.

The media tends to put other names on the problem — labels like “bullying” or “cyber-bullying”—but in the long run it all boils down to a lack of Christian kindness. We all need to be kind to everybody because everyone is fighting a hard battle.

Whenever there’s a school shooting, there’s always someone on the news saying that these things never would happen if we still had prayer in the schools. I’m not sure I agree with that. First of all, as long as there is algebra (and final exams) there will always be prayer in the schools. There’s nothing in the world that can stop any of us from praying to God at any time because He knows our hearts and our minds. 

It’s true that a disaffected student who is well-on-his-way to becoming a “school shooter” might have a change of heart if he saw a group of  students having a public prayer meeting. But, truth be told, there’s an effective tactic that’s less dramatic and controversial.  What if some students went to the boy who’s all alone in the lunchroom and said, “Hey, why don’t you come to our table? No pressure, but we’d love to have you. And if you don’t want to today, well, the offer still stands….”

I’m not sure how we actually go about teaching our children to be kind to others. We probably need to talk about it with them a lot; I’m sure a lot of unkindness is really just thoughtlessness — we just didn’t stop to think about the feelings of others. (It doesn’t help that we spend so much of our time “inside our heads,” using tech devices rather than talking face-to-face with real people.)

But I suspect our most effective lessons will come from what we model in the way we live. Did you hear about all the Easter egg hunts that were canceled this year because of the parents who were pushing and shoving as they snatched up the eggs? Children may not always believe what we say, but they never doubt our actions — whether they be good or evil.

Also, we need to pray that our loving Heavenly Father will work in us (and them) to help us be more kind. Kindness isn’t something we can perfect on our own — but God can change us and perfect us by His grace.

Dr. John L. Cash is the “Country Preacher Dad.” He was raised in Stuttgart, Arkansas, and has spent the last 26 years being a country preacher in the piney woods five miles south of the little town of Hickory, Mississippi. (On week days he has a desk-job at a public school and teaches Latin on closed-circuit-television.) He and his lovely wife, Susan, and his sons, Spencer (age 21) and Seth (age 17) live in the parsonage next door to the Antioch Christian Church (where the children still hunt Easter eggs, without being tackled by any exuberant parents.) He would love to hear from you in an email sent to countrypreacherdad@gaggle.net.