FRONT-PORCH GOSPEL: God bless you!

Good day to all. Welcome to the “front porch” – and God bless!

The amazin’ blonde and I are in the oldest city in America, discovered by the great Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon.

The occasion is the marriage of our good friend from Washington, Oklahoma – Montana Wells – to a lovely Floridian named Anna Marie.

Actually, they had already been married in a private ceremony but chose this moment for all their friends and loved ones to share in a great ceremony, held at the elegant Lightner Museum here in St. Augustine.

It was beautiful, and we were honored to be able to stand before them and offer them a special blessing.

So, today’s piece – “God bless you” – is dedicated to our good young married friends, Montana and Anna Marie.

Several years ago, I came home from one of my trips to find on my desk a package that had arrived in the mail.

I could tell it was a book, but – while I order books regularly – I knew I had not ordered anything recently.

When I opened the package, I found a thick, hardback, red book called, “For Such A Time As This”, with a subtitle of “And Other Essays from the Back Page.”

I immediately knew the book was one recently published by an old preacher friend of mine, Carl Johnson.

In addition to the thrill of receiving the book, I was equally proud of the note he had written in the front that said that he wanted me to have his new book as a token of his appreciation for my encouragement to him during the years he wrote “The Back Page,” an article he wrote monthly for 15 years that appeared on the back of the long-running “Old Paths Advocate” periodical.

I always told Carl that the “Back Page” was the best part of the paper.

Why, sometimes I would not even have to open up the paper to enjoy that month’s publication. I would just flip it over to read the back.

Brother Carl, to me, has always been a giant of a man and a preacher.

Eight years’ age difference makes a big difference when you meet someone when you’re about 12 and then know him your entire life.

Hailing from Ada, Oklahoma, Carl starting preaching the gospel right out of college and has held meetings all over the country – from early spring through late fall – for almost half a century.

He is one of the few preachers who makes his living primarily traveling and preaching, holding 25 or more meetings each year.

As a preacher, Carl is good speaker.

Saying a “good speaker” may sound unflattering, but it is just the opposite.

He is the epitome of a good speaker. He is not as dynamic as his fellow-preacher and friend Joe Hisle who attends the same congregation in Ada and also travels the country preaching the gospel.

He and Carl as different as, say, John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart.

Both great, but different.

Now, I hesitate to put our good brother up on a pedestal so much as to embarrass him – and, I can tell you, he is already humbled by this tribute. That’s the gentleman he is.

But I cannot describe my friend without mentioning that his best quality may be a certain grace that he carries with him, both in the pulpit and out.

He has that unique ability to be genuinely gracious and engaging to others when he greets them, always sharing a big, heartfelt Oklahoma smile and a sincere “Good to see you!” every time you meet.

You know how you look at people and try to borrow just a little bit of some quality they have.

The quality from Carl that I have always sought – or, more accurately, “wished for” – is that rare grace.

He is a big man physically, but I have always considered him a bigger man in graciousness.

So, you can understand why I was thrilled to receive a personal, autographed copy of his book.

When I got it, I immediately looked for one particular article I had read some years ago, one that had long stuck with me, called, “God Bless You.”

Sure enough, I found it on page 309 of his new book.

Carl used a sermon with that title to close out a meeting he held for us in Lexington, Oklahoma several years ago, referencing several key scriptures that contain blessings.

I never forgot the sermon nor the article.

One blessing he references is that well-known benediction in Numbers 6: 24-26 where the Lord commands Moses to tell Aaron to bless children of Israel.

Bless them this way, says the Lord: “The Lord bless thee, and keep thee. The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.”

It is an amazing thing when a friend or loved one offers you a blessing, as Aaron does for God’s people.

Near the end of his article, Carl brings the beauty of offering a blessing to life, in these words: “When you pronounce a blessing thoughtfully and sincerely upon another person… it can be a profoundly powerful act.

“Stop for a moment and think about saying to someone, ‘God bless you and keep you.’ Imagine looking them in the eyes when you say it. Emphasize ‘you.’

“The pronouncement needs to be very personal. ‘God bless you and keep you. God make His face to shine upon you,’ and he bold-faces each ‘you’ for emphasis.

“Such an approach is very intimate and can be disarming,” he concludes. “I have seen tears well up in people’s eyes because the earnest, heartfelt blessing touched their needy hearts so deeply.”

I have been changed in a very good way, I believe, by this simple lesson from my good brother. You see, now, whenever I say, “God bless you,” or – as I am more apt to say – just “God bless,” I try to make sure I mean it sincerely. If God allows us to bestow a blessing on another, we want to try to offer it in a way that the Lord will answer the plea with a true blessing.

Carl had no way of knowing this lesson has stuck with me for such a long time, that it would be the first one for which I would look when I took his new book in my hand.

And he certainly has no idea the impact the latter part of his handwritten note would have, as he concludes, graciously, with this benediction: “God bless and keep you. Carl M. Johnson”

P.S.: Montana and Anna Maire – Blessings for your two with many, many decades of marriage. May the Lord’s face shine upon you, and may He give you peace. God bless you.