Sunday, December 28, 2008

DAD'S LIFE

Here is a page I wrote about my father, hope you enjoy reading it:

James E. Mutchler was born August 11th, 1928.  He was the smallest baby born in Michigan that survived for the next two years.  He stayed in an incubator for over a year.  His father would carry him around in his overcoat pocket as a baby.  He was small for his age until almost a teenager.  The great depression wiped his father out financially and he turned to alcohol.  His dad had an accident and had to have his arm amputated to save his life from gangrene.  His family went to middle class to poverty in short order.  His father's drinking led to a divorce between his father and mother.  Now a single mother was raising several children by herself. Dad was a survivor.  He survived the great depression by walking miles along the railroad tracks picking up coal that had spilled out to warm their house, and gathering corn cobs in burlap bags to sell for a nickel to start the fires in people's heaters.  He spoke of poor man's soup with potato skins, water, salt and pepper.  He remembered getting a spanking for peeling a potato and not just taking off the skin.  He told me of seeing truck loads of potatoes being buried by bulldozers and running in between them to grab as many as he could. The first ten years of his life were lived through this great depression.  He was a child forced by life to live as a man.  He helped his family survive as a child and as a young teen had his first job. 

Five days before his 16th birthday, he joined the army.  His goal was to go to Europe and punish the Germans for his brother's death in the battle of the bulge.  For two dollars, he had a forged ID made up in Detroit, and with his mother's signature, was able to get in the military. Dad traveled the world in the military.  So many army bases it was hard to keep track of them all.  You could almost name the base and he had been there.  While in basic training, his mother changed her mind and sent the Red Cross to bring the sixteen year old home.  His commander told him of what was happening and asked him if he wanted to stay in the army.  He said yes!  The only way was to transfer to a new group training to parachute out of planes behind enemy lines.  At sixteen years of age, he was jumping out of planes fighting the Japanese on Islands all over the Pacific.  When he first enlisted, they did not have a uniform pants skinny enough to stay up on his thin waist.  He survived many battles in WWII and later the Korean War.  He made many jumps and was involved in many battles.  During these days, he received three purple hearts and two bronze stars.  His commander wanted to put him up to receive a silver star after one of his men went crazy because of the stress of battle and walked into the commanders tent to kill him.  Dad walked up to him and took the gun away and then knocked the man out.  He wouldn't have anything to do with a silver star because he said it was one of his own men who went mad, not the enemy.  His life was spared more than once.  One time he had a concussion grenade go off and blow him up in the air and cover him with dirt.  He busted his ear drum on this occasion and the men were gathering up the dead bodies when they noticed he still had a pulse.  He bore shrapnel the rest of his life from this grenade.  He had his kneecap shot off and had a plastic knee cap the rest of his life.  He had almost every bone broken landing on trees during parachute drops and one time had to walk five miles with his rifle strapped to his broken leg.  To many he may have seemed hard in life, but soft men did not survive war.  He was a leader of men.  He commanded respect and always led the way.  I have talked with him many hours about the war and could talk the rest of the day telling stories he told me. 

My father was saved as a child attending a good Baptist Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  While in the army, he was not influenced to live for the Lord.  He rededicated his life to Christ before we moved to Germany to live for three and a half years.  Paul Sitton prayed with him as he rededicated his life to Christ on the front lawn of the country church my mother grew up attending in 1958.  When we moved back from Germany, Paul Sitton became our Pastor and now our whole family life changed.  Dad grew so much in the Lord under the ministry of Pastor Paul Sitton.  He jumped in with both feet and that is all he ever knew till his health failed. 

Dad was an ordained deacon, and later a preacher.  I preached his ordination message and Phil read the charge and presented him a Bible.  He gave it everything he had to give in four pastorates and God blessed with souls being saved and the churches all grew under his leadership.  He went soul-winning many times a week and influenced many people for Christ.  As fearless as he was in battle, he was in witnessing and leading men for Christ.  His boldness is still an inspiration to me today. 

Dad was a hard man.  He didn't see any gray, things were black and white.  He was made that way as he struggled to survive the great depression, World War II, the Korean War, and then four pastorates of struggling churches.  He loved his wife, his children, all of his grandchildren, and great grand children.  I didn't always agree with Dad, but I understood him.  I knew where he was coming from, and I loved him dearly.  We all did!


JAMES, I, II PETER,I, II, & III JOHN, JUDE

I'm just a day or two away from finishing the New Testament.  What a great day we had at Church.  It was so good to be at church having had such bad weather for a few weeks.  It was like a breath of fresh air or a drink of cold water.  I loved it and enjoyed so much getting to be with the people that I love. 
This morning I am leaving the house at 4:00am to go to the airport and fly to Memphis, TN for my father's funeral.  He is in heaven now and I'm looking forward to meeting him and so many others soon enough.  Let me share a few thoughts with you from God's Holy Word:

1) PRAYER OF FAITH- James 5:15 says: "And the prayer of faith shall save the sick..."  Now I have prayed for many sick people throughout the years, including myself.  But I have not always had the "faith" that they would be healed.  I would like to say about this verse, that it is not talking about how great a "faith" a Christian has, for the Lord would like us to have at least the amount of a mustard seed and then really great things could be accomplished.  But it is about a person of faith who prays.  It is not our faith in prayer that gets the answer, but our being in faith and praying.  We are not a strong Christian praying a strong prayer; rather we are a weak Christian praying in faith to a strong God!!  In faith we know what God can do.... we do not always know what God will do.  So we pray in faith knowing that God can do whatever He desires and we are just sharing with Him our desires on the matter.... He will do what is best!!  Don't worry about your amount of faith... just pray!
2) REMEMBER- II Peter 1:12 says "to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them."  and vs. 13 says: "to stir you up by putting you in remembrance;"  We don't need new truth, but only to be reminded of the same ole truth of God's Word.  Be leary of anyone who is always pointing out new truth.  Chances are he is reading between the lines what no one else can read, and that is a sure fire way to heresy!  Rejoice when the preacher gives you the "same ole truth".  He is simply being used of God to "stir you up by putting you in remembrance". 
3) WALK AS HE WALKED- I John 2:6 says: "He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked."  Walk as He walked!  This is our mission, our goal in life as a believer.  Lord, help me to think how You walked among us and let me walk the same walk.  I am so weak Lord, and I need your help.  My steps are stammering, my walk is unsteady, I need to lean on you Lord even to stand.  By your grace and strength, I can walk that walk.  Not in my own strength, for in that alone, I would surly fall flat on my face as I have so many times.  Lord, take my hand.... I'm reaching out to you.  Hold me straight, help me to take the steps your feet have trod.  Help me walk your walk, and let a lost world see the difference it produces.  Thank you Lord, I love you!  Amen.

Well, tomorrow I will be writing from Tennessee!  Thanks for your prayers concerning the passing of my father, and your outpouring of love.  You are greatly appreciated and loved as well.  May God richly bless you for your kindness!!  Pastor Mike Mutchler

TITUS, PHILEMON, HEBREWS, AND JAMES

It's Sunday morning!  Praise God for Sundays!  I'm so looking forward to being with God's people this morning.  It has been so strange to have bad weather keep us from meeting and we are almost starved for church.  I cannot wait to see all of God's people this morning.  I hope you feel the same way.

I'm finishing up the New Testament and I read in Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, James this morning.  I enjoyed it so much!  What a blessing to be able to read the Word of God.  Here are just a few things that jumped out at me this morning as I read:

1)  SOUND DOCTRINE IS PRACTICAL DOCTRINE TOO! - In Titus 2:1 it says: "But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine:"  And then the rest of the chapter address instructions for five groups of people and how they ought to live in light of their Salvation.  The five groups are: aged men, aged women, young women, young men, and servants.  You see "sound doctrine" was simply instructing them how they should live life as a follower of Jesus Christ.  It told them how to behave in this world as God's representatives to a lost world.  It tells them how they are to respond to each others as well.  It is very practical Christian living, but that is also what sound doctrine is!

2) JESUS IS GOD!- Hebrews 1 is one of the strongest passages in the Bible to teach us of the fact that Jesus is God!  Here are the phrases that point this out: (vs.1) "by whom also he made the worlds" (creator); vs. 3- "express image of his person" (reflects the image of God the Father); vs. 3- "upholding all things by the world of his power" (sustains all things); vs. 5- "Thou art my Son" (God speaks to Christ); vs. 6- "And let all the angels of God worship him." (only God receives worship); vs. 8- "But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom."  (God the Father calls Jesus the Son, God!); and vs. 10- "And, Thou, LORD, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands;"  (again, Creator of all things!)  Jesus is God!  To deny this is to lose out on Salvation.  Jesus said: "If you believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins."  Only Jesus as God could pay for our sins!!

3) ONCE- What Jesus did for us, He did once for all.  In Hebrews 9:12; 9:27; 9:28; 10:10; we see that all that Jesus did, He did "once" for all time! It is finished, takes on an all new meaning when we see that it was all finished by Christ with His birth, life, death, and resurrection!  Now that the work is done, He stands to receive us and one day come for us!  Once.... precious thought!!

Well, I have so much more to say, but my time is gone, gone!  See you tomorrow sometime.  I fly out very early so it will be posted in the afternoon I'm guessing!

Pastor Mike Mutchler

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