STRICTLY PERSONAL: THE LAP OF LUXURY
Bible Believers' Bulletin, December 1991, Page 2...............
Solomon warned the young man that the "evil" years would
eventually show up (Ecc. 12:1) and he would "have no pleasure in
them" (Ecc. 12:1). On his journey to his "long home" (Ecc. 12:5)
the teeth would eventually come out, the hair would eventually
turn gray and then white, the eyes would become dim, he would
become "hard of hearing" and so forth (Ecc. 12:2-6). Old age is
usually also accompanied by liver trouble, kidney trouble,
prostrate trouble, gall bladder trouble, arthritis, bursitis,
siatica, and so forth.
These years are still ahead of me at 69, but I know they are
coming, if the Lord tarries. The gray head, the dullness of
vision, the "hard of hearing" and the panting and puffing after
doing eight hundred with a jump rope, tell me "the old gray mare
ain't what she used to be, many long years ago" (American, circa
1920). Eventually Medicare and "Blue Cross" will catch up with
us all.
So now I want to go on record (before I am bedridden or "on
the shelf") as saying that since I was saved (March 14, 1949), I
have considered much of what other Christians take for granted,
as "luxuries." I want especially for many of my Christian
friends to know that I have noticed their poor health and their
pain and handicaps when God dealt them that "hand" in life, so
not once have I ever taken for granted the good health that I
have enjoyed since the day of my birth (Nov. 19, 1921). I have
two dozen, close, personal friends who suffer pain constantly and
many of them are not as old as I am. Personal friends who
certainly are just as spiritual as the outstanding Christian
"celebrities" in America, and these friends are on crutches or in
wheelchairs. None of them are sixty years old yet or even near
it. So I am writing this with them in mind and I want them to
know that if no one on this earth appreciates the really simple
blessings of life--which ninety-five percent of all Americans
take for granted, and then holler for more!--old, "junk yard dog,
Ruckman" does. I have known what it is to live luxuriously in
the "lap of luxury" for over half a century.
I want Tim Lee and Mike Hauenstein to know that every time I
even WALK in an airplane terminal, I think about them. I think
about Roy Clipper and Narvalee Cabaniss every time I jog down a
highway at night. I want them to know that their handicap and
suffering produces praise to God. I never thought of Bro. Cimino
or Pappy Reveal without thanking God again and again and again
for my ability to simply RUN, even if I wasn't a football or
basketball player. I still remember Don Baker and Jon Hall, who
lived in wheelchairs all of their adult life. I will never
forget Ina Bell Salter, who spent thirty-two years flat on her
back in a hospital vbed. And there are many, many others. They
were all saved, they believed the Book, and they loved the Lord
as much as I do, or more. God just gave them a bitter pill to
swallow (Rom. 8:28) and they had to swallow it.
My own exemption, I consider to be a luxury. I have never
taken it to be something I deserved or even something I needed.
I consider the ability to eat, digest, work, reproduce, walk,
stand, read, speak, hear, run, and even breathe to be undeserved
luxuries that are denied to hundreds and thousands of sinners
just like myself. I have been blessed all my life with unearned,
undeserved, unneeded luxuries, and that is what am going to talk
about at this point.
1. One of life's greatest luxuries is going out in your
back yard in the morning and cutting fresh vegetables out of your
own garden to eat during the day; cucumbers, tomatoes, okra,
corn, peppers, cabbage, and so forth. Millions of people have no
garden at all, and many more millions don't even have their own
"back yard." This is a luxury.
2. One of life's greatest luxuries is getting up in the
morning and walking around in your own back yard drinking a cup
of Vienna coffee, completely shielded from the view of all your
neighbors by trees and bushes. Privacy is a luxury. It was
denied Reagan, Bush, Howard Hughes, and Ted Turner.
3. One of life's greatest luxuries is to be able to wade
around in the ocean and the bays in the moonlight (or dark
nights) with a mullet net and feel the hand-line bounce and tug
when the cast net goes over a school of mullet, spots, croakers,
or sheephead. It was denied to A.T. Robertson, J.G. Machen, Bob
Jones Jr., and Philip Schaff.
4. Another great luxury in life is to be able to "knock it
off"
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STRICTLY PERSONAL: THE LAP OF LUXURY
Bible Believers' Bulletin, December 1991, Page 8................
(Continued from Page 2)
every afternoon between 2 and 4 and lie down on a carpeted floor,
put your feet up on a couch, and take a nap listening to Mozart,
Brahms, or Schubert. There are millions of people who cannot
take a nap anywhere, let alone on a carpeted floor.
5. A great luxury is to have a Christian wife who prepares
a big hot meal every day, which often includes fried chicken,
nachos, rice, black-eyed peas, broccoli, steaks, home made bread,
green beans, fried okra, potatoes, spinach, or sausage. There
are literally millions of people on this earth who don't get one
meal in a month that I get every day. Luxurious: "sumptuous
living." I am a rich man.
6. It is a luxury beyond description to be able to lie down
at night and get a minimum of six hours sleep every night, and
often eight full hours of sleep. This is a great luxury, at
least in my book. Elvis Presley and Ted Kennedy were denied that
luxury.
7. It is a great luxury to have your own sauna in your own
home; that certainly is not part of Philippians 4:19. I even
have my own "polar dip" in the back yard where I can go "dunking"
after the sauna.
8. It is a great undeserved, unearned luxury to be given
ten children and eleven grandchildren who are all saved and in
good health. This is something denied to more than ninety
percent of the world's population. Johnny Carson and John Paul
Getty were denied that luxury.
9. Finally, it is a luxury to be SAVED and have a chance to
serve God. Neither luxury was earned, nor was it deserved. It
was something special given by grace above and beyond mankind's
basic need for "food and raiment" (1 Tim. 6:8). You may as well
face it; Ruckman has lived in the "lap of luxury" since 1949.
Whatever his sins and shortcomings may be, God has dealt him a
luxurious hand in
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STRICTLY SPEAKING: THE LAP OF LUXURY
Bible Believers' Bulletin, December 1991, Page 14...............
(Continued from Page 8)
life's poker game; most of the time it has been royal flushes or
"full houses" and the rest of the time it has been "four of a
kind."
I have nothing to say except "Thank God for His mercy and
grace." And when I say it my heart goes out to my brothers and
sisters in Christ who were not given these things.
I know some dark days are coming for me, if the Lord
tarries; no man should have it so good as I have had it. There
has to be pain and suffering and incapacity somewhere. All of us
must "pay the price," as John Wesley said a few hours before he
died. But up till now I have lived in the "lap of luxury": truly
and literally. I still can enjoy a full course Japanese or
Chinese meal, a Mexican or German dinner, and I still can dive
fifteen feet deep into the water under the bridge to untangle a
mullet net. As of today (Nov. 1991), I can still jog three
miles, turn out 1800 with a jump rope, and play four hours of
hockey a week in eighty-five to ninety degree weather.
Luxurious. There is no other word for it.
