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"

(Continued on Page 8)

..............................................................

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

(Continued on Page 14)

..............................................................

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.


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