The Shepherd Staff

In loving memory of my father, Henry Martin Puryear, Jr., an honorable man

Who taught you how to drive?

My father taught me how to drive.  And I learned on a country road.  My father was of the opinion that if my sister and I could drive a straight shift then we could drive an automatic.  So, we both learned how to drive using our family Volkswagen.

Over the course of time, I learned how to coordinate the use of the accelerator and brake pedal with my right foot, the clutch with my left foot, the gear shift with my right hand, and the steering wheel with my left hand.

“This is a piece of cake,” the 15-year-old said to his father as I put on my sunglasses, turned on the radio, hung my elbow out the window and settled back in the bucket seat to get comfortable.  (That was a mistake.)

Next, Dad decided that it was time for me to learn how to slow the car down using the gears, instead of the brake, to do so.  I was coming up to a stop sign, and he wanted me to shift from 4^th gear to 3^rd gear, and then from 3^rd gear to 2^nd gear.  For some dumb reason, I did not feel like learning how to downshift that day; so I told him “Not today.”  (That was another mistake.)

He said to me, “Yes, today,” and I said back, “I don’t want to learn how to downshift today.”  (As I write this, I cannot believe I said that.)  He looked over at me and said with all the gentleness and tender care of a drill sergeant (you know what I mean), “YES, TODAY!”

Well, in the heat of the moment, Dad failed to tell me that when you are going 45 miles per hour, and you shift from 4^th gear to 3^rd gear, you are supposed to eassssssse the clutch out slowly.  So, I shifted from 4^th gear to 3^rd gear … and then I “popped the clutch.”  (That was my third mistake.)

As the VW’s four-cylinder engine shrieked with a shrill-like scream, the driver and his passenger lunged forward.

My father was one of those people who loved to drink coffee.  Every time you saw him, he would have a piping hot cup of coffee in his hand … which is what he had in his hand when he said to me, “Yes, today!”  He was already hot (i.e., red in the face) before I popped the clutch.  After I popped the clutch he was hotter.  And wet.

Well, thanks to my father I got my driver’s license.  And thanks to me, my father got gray hair.  But that is what it took for him to ensure that his son could drive a straight shift.

On the day I got my license and was about to get in the car for my first solo spin, he said to me, “Son, if I ever hear from someone around town …” (and he had a lot of friends around our small town) … “If I ever hear that you are driving recklessly, you can wave ‘Good-bye’ to that license for about a month.”  And that is what it took for him to ensure that his son become a safe driver.  My father wanted me to remain alive to write this story.  My wellbeing (as well as that of other motorists) was at stake.

But that was not the only reason he told me that.  His name was at stake.  My father’s reputation was important to him, and he did not want me messing up the honor associated with it.

There is another Father Whose Name is important to Him.  And He wants His children to represent that Name well.  Indeed, those born into the family of God will eventually come to realize that their Father in heaven is dead serious about protecting His honor.  So much so that He uses “all things” in the routine of life to cause His children to reflect His character:  all its wonderful delights … all its bitter trials … and everything in between.  Even the most mundane of days He will not waste.  As gently as possible but as firmly as necessary, our sovereign God

causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.  For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son.  (Romans 8:28-29)

The Father wants His children to become like The Son.  And He will spend the rest of their lives working toward that goal.  The reason He will do so is because there is a great deal at stake:

• In the first place, a changed life presents proof to a despairing world that Jesus Christ can – and does – redeem ruined sinners.  It gives hope to those who have no hope.

• Furthermore, a purified life presents proof of that believer’s faithfulness when he bows before the Judgment Seat of Christ.  Eternal rewards await “the good and faithful slave.”

All of this is true.  But there is something else at stake that far surpasses these reasons:

• A transformed life highly exalts the Name of the one, true God far above every other name, in heaven and on earth.

Truly, the Father has transformed His children into brand new creations … raised in Christ to walk in newness of life.  And He did so to prove to all creation that He – and He alone

“… is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords … eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, to Him be honor and glory forever and ever.”  (1^st Timothy 6:15, 1:17)

In the Bible God is known by several Hebrew names.  One of them is Yahweh Meqaddishkem.  He is “the LORD Who sanctifies” (His people).  How He does this is the subject of The God of Our Lives, chapter 3:  “Our God is Holy.”

Click here to view this course:  THE GOD OF OUR LIVES

Click here to view our website:  STEWARD OF TRUTH PUBLICATIONS

Click here to read the 1^ST chapter of The God of Our Lives:  YAHWEH, OUR GOD IS OUR CREATOR

To the readers within the believing community:  I would greatly appreciate your prayers, that the Master-Teacher would be the Author of these writings.