In Honor of My Father

"Crises Happens". I think that thought should be a bumper sticker.

My dad was a person who was good in the time of crises. He was my sounding board for my first 7 years of my walk with Jesus. When I spoke to him in times of crises, his response gave me clarity. I can’t tell you how many times I went to him and said:

"Dad, I've got a problem."

Then I‘d tell him what it was and what I intended to do. When and if he gave me a harmonious response, that message, that reverberation, might encourage me to continue on the path I was thinking.. But if it were dissonant, I might know that maybe my song needed some rewriting. Separating self from Spirit. At least I should examine things more closely.

In all my composing, my living of life, I learned from him how to handle crises times. Wisdom was after all the principal thing.

He was a bit of a non-conformist. The family knew James Dean after all. That generation of my family were there and hung around,"Where cool was born". His life had vibrancy, musical harmonies, and useful dissonance and color.

I speak today of something I gained from my father, and one of his many helpful character Traits. He taught me how to stand. To sing my own Jesus song.

I grew up in a home where my parents were involved with church and God. But in the early years I saw more church then God, and I thought church to be limiting. Church can be that at times.

My only real problem in that day, was I was blind to Jesus. But God had a plan for me. New sight. So he created a crises for my parents. A kid who didn’t want Jesus could be conquered by an event totally unrelated.

I speak to you today of a time about 1977 when I was working with dad in the construction trades. He had had a life changing experience, and I knew nothing of it, but I knew he was changing, because his words changed. That experience lead to a new reality for him. It made him interesting to me. Colorful.

That experience I speak of is when he came face to face with something that would be somewhat unbelievable for most here, and avoided by most. He found God calling upon him, to deal with a young teenager who was bound by the enemy. I am not here to dwell on that today.

In that experience he and my mother experienced the Lord’s spirit in a new way. And at that time, I became interested in the God I had heard about all my life, because now I saw that God’s power, in my Father’s life.

He in that time helped a young man in crises, and would from that time be a greater help for all whom the Lord gave him, because of that experience with that young man, and the resultant courage he had gained.

I gave my life to Jesus, at 25 years of age, on Oct. 31 1978 because of the change I saw, and the new wisdom I heard in my dad’s life. And the church cheered him…right? No they ostracised him, for the very truth that made me want what he had.

He had Wisdom, which was wisdom he had gained in being used in the crises time of another’s life.

Later I saw my father in a church-crises and a business-crises. And I saw a man who had more courage than I did. He had that courage because God had promoted him in the kingdom, though a great challenge. If you have not been a crises that challenges everything you believe, and everyone you know, and makes you seek to know more of God, you are operating far below what is available.

Nobody gets up in the morning and asks for the Lord to give them more conflict. But what if that is His way for you know Him in a greater way? It is Jesus who must lead. But you will be promoted by how you trust in every day’s walk.

So, I was walking with dad and God, because Dad did not back down in the crises to the council of the religious or the intimidation of those who cry for colorless safe living. I learned from him to hate sameness, tameness and lameness when it is used for the purpose of the acceptance of men and conformity for earthly gain.

I saw a man who had experienced how evil, evil can be, and who knew God can be a whole lot more powerful than evil. And I wanted whatr he had and more.

We are not called to stop in what ever the former generation had, but to find there is even more.

In Dad- in church crises- I saw a man who tried to be reconciled with men who for the most part, did not have his good as a consideration of their hearts, but rather who wanted to keep the status quo. It takes courage to be different. But the Jesus I have come to know, requires it… if you will be one of His inner circle.

Later in business I saw dad in a crises time, take upon himself blame and loss for things I could have been equally blamed for too. Again courage.

I knew from observing my Father what it was to have courage. I knew from listening to him the source of His courage. He also did not fear facing his failures.

Each generation gains from that which goes before. If we live by faith, our children’s faith will have the proper soil to grow greater than ours.

You see, I learned from my father that crises are opportunities. A lost job may be a chance for a new ministry and life. A Lost church, a chance for a greater revelation of who God, the Lord Jesus, Jesuha Hamashia, Jesus the anointed is.

My father's ultimate success in life, depends on His children becoming a multiplication of himself.

The intention of this entry, is not condemnation, but rather a challenge to follow the path of those who believe, who like Harold, have found that there is something beyond religious conformity. Dad was like Peter. He got out of the boat.

He lived a life in the world. He was not isolated from the world or sinners, but like Jesus was their friend.

God has more. To get the "more", you need to allow Him to put you into places where you do not have enough, and in and of yourself, cannot be successful. For some of you that may means your comfort zone is in peril. I do not speak against church. I speak for The world whom Jesus gave his life for because he loved it.

All that glitters in church is not gold. Our liturgy often isolates of from true deliverance. Ours and the worlds. I am a pastor. I know it is easy to hide behind our self-painted 5x10 glossies we share with the world. What picture does God want to paint on the canvass of your life? What will fall out for the furtherance of the Gospel from your life?

In getting out of the boat, you will learn that trust in Him is everything. And when you have experienced Him as faithful, you will be the one who they come to… and they then say to you; “Dad, I got a problem.”

I am thankful for my dad, who was for the most part, a rock in the time of crises. He taught me that to be conformed to the image of a living savior, is usually to believe what others dare not.

Harold is gone.. promoted. His torch is being passed. Are you the one, who the Lord is calling to fill in that gap? Education, Knowledge and skill may be good, but not enough. Wisdom is the principal thing.

Crises happens. Wisdom is Father’s answer. What song shall your life be? What melody? What harmony? What reverberation will you bring to worship of Father?

Harold Vermilion
Died Sat. June 16, 2009