Dear Gate Keepers,

It has been a few months since the legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden passed from this world into the presence of the God that he loved and served.  Just shy of 100 years on this earth Coach Wooden was a leader that left a legacy on the basketball court. His name will remain proudly displayed on the athletic building, The Wooden Center and upon the lips of basketball fans and UCLA alumni.

His leadership was undeniable. He was the legendary coach, a husband, a father, a leader and a servant of Christ. The legacy that he created on the basketball court fades in the light of the legacy that lives on in the lives John Wooden influenced and the leaders he developed.  He passed on to us a Seven Point Creed that his father gave to him upon his graduation from grammar school:

• Be true to yourself.
• Make each day your masterpiece.
• Help others.
• Drink deeply from good books, especially the Bible.
• Make friendship a fine art.
• Build a shelter against a rainy day.
• Pray for guidance and give thanks for your blessings every day.

Good counsel as we learn to serve and manage what God has put in our hands as we lead others to Him.


David Ruleman, Vice President / General Manager
WAVA, 105.1FM & 780AM

Greetings,

After lulling his sheep to sleep, the shepherd leaned back onto his makeshift bed and looked up as the stars, right on schedule, took their assigned seats. With just his 20/20's as sponges, he soaked up the grandeur of a star-drenched heaven, sighed, and said, " The heavens declare the glory of God…He counts the stars and calls them all by name ."

But little did the psalmist know how many stars that meant, and how many names that would require.

Now, lean back in your own makeshift bed and compare that night's stargazing to our highly sophisticated knowledge of astronomy and see if the stars don't do the same to you now as they did to the psalmist then.

From a dream conceived in the 1940's, designed and built in the 70's and 80's, and finally operational in the 90's, a telescope was birthed that only now is beginning to show us the extent of the shepherd's wonder.

The Hubble Space Telescope, the most elaborate, powerful, and expensive looking glass in (or out of) the world, is celebrating its 20 th birthday aloft. And from its non-polluted vantage point 373 miles above the earth, we're able to go where no human eye has gone before.

Here are some of Hubble's findings that David spoke of in Psalm 19:

•  A new kind of star called Magnetar . This extremely heavy and dense object is no bigger than a large city but weighs more than the sun. Its highly condensed magnetic pull is a billion times stronger than the earth's, and could suck coins out of your pocket from 100,000 miles away.

•  Once only a theory, black holes are now common sightings . But one such stellar phenomenon is on a feeding frenzy, having swallowed more than one billion stars into an area no larger than our solar system.

•  New Quasars have been discovered which pour out 1,000 times more light than a 100-billion-star galaxy.

•  The Ring Nebula's spectacular blue, green and red gasses appear to be the colorful remains of a massive exploded star. The ring's diameter is 6 trillion miles across, and the formation of the debris suggests the star was spinning so fast that it actually flattened prior to blowing up. All this, even though our laws of physics say that's impossible.

•  While scientists aren't certain what causes a Gamma-Ray Burst , one such explosion in a far off region of the universe in 1999 produced the light of 10 million, billion suns. And for one-second it turned the universal night sky into daylight.

•  There's evidence of “dark energy” throughout space which causes a repulsive action against gravity. This force is shoving galaxies away from each other at ever increasing speeds.

•  The Orion Nebula houses our nearest stellar nursery —currently giving birth to 3,000 new stars.

No wonder the psalmist said, " When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have set in place, [I conclude] how majestic is Your name in all the earth !”

And yet, with all our technology, we still only see the tip of the universal iceberg. But what a tip it is!

There's a strong parallel between peeking at the heavenly wonders through a telescope and what we're able to show our people about God from our pulpits each week.

We open His word and teach about our Creator—but it's just the tip of the iceberg. We give glimpses of eternity through a straw, heaven through a keyhole. We speak of immortality from a mortal's viewpoint and offer His living word through perishing lips. We tell all we know about an omniscient God. With all our might we speak of His omnipotence. In our ever changing world we tell of His immutability. We faithfully labor through the scriptures but His truth cannot be exhausted.

And though “ we see through a glass, darkly ,” it's still a fabulous sight every time we take a look. There's so much about our God to brag about. So, point to Him with pride.

Blessings,



Ron Walters
Vice President of Church Relations
© Copyright 2010 by Ron Walters