Light for Oregon Fever at Summer’s End

by Todd Wood

When you reach Oregon, you have come to the end of the trail for the American West. Two hundred years ago, Lewis and Clark, commissioned by Thomas Jefferson, forged a Northwest Passage all the way to the thundering surf of the Pacific Ocean. Last week, my family partially traveled some of the route but in a comfortable 1997 Plymouth Voyager with a duct-taped carrier on top. (Jason Janz is right—I am a redneck). And at the end of our westward trip, I enjoyed standing at the base of a coastal lighthouse at Cape Meares (see photo). I thought of Christ as the light of the world (John 12:46). But abruptly there came a stinging question. “In the past 200 hundred years, how much have Christians shared with others and made a positive impact for Jesus Christ in the Northwest?” I couldn’t help but notice a certain accusatory bumper sticker on my trip: “Please Jesus, protect me from your followers.” In this latest excursion to a family reunion on the Oregon coast, I realized that though the year is 2007, Oregon territory more than ever provides a pioneer place for light to shine.

Crossing the Snake River Plain

First, we traversed the Idaho Snake River Plain, a unique desert land of lava rock and sage, carving out a huge agricultural smiley face in the width of Southern Idaho. My personal highlight happened to be the big billboards with verses from John’s Gospel situated on the interstate near the capitol of Idaho. There couldn’t be a better content made big and bold for helping Idaho deal with the present mess swirling around our U.S. Senator, Larry Craig.

Geographically, the Snake does have a few surprises along the way: a massacre among big boulders that occurred 145 years ago; deep, cliff canyons that tempted even Evil Knievel for daring jumps, and waterfalls like the Devil’s Punch Bowl at Malad Gorge for breaking in new kayaks. Certainly, we have come a long way in making the Snake River more interesting since the first Oregon Trail emigrants. During those days, what fun did the kids have besides collecting buffalo chips and breathing trail dust?

Entering Oregon—The Promised Land

Whizzing through Idaho, soon we were in Oregon, the state where both my father and mother claim for their place of birth. Our family explored the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center at Baker City and later onward and upward to the majestic Columbia River.

We zipped by The Dalles, Hood River, and Bridge of the Gods but eventually parked the minivan to enjoy the seductive beauty of Horsetail Falls and the more famous Multnomah Falls, the second highest falls in America. This area of the country is absolutely stunning. The oxygen is thick. The ferns and moss are verdant. And the trees are huge. I felt like I was experiencing a small taste of the new earth—the woods sang as the sound of nature luxuriantly harmonized to the glory of God.

The End of the Trail—Tillamook Bay

After crawling through rush-hour traffic in Portland (and regretting that I hadn’t stopped at Powells), we finally arrived at our Bay Ocean rental house on the shoreline of Tillamook Bay. Beautiful place. For three nights, we enjoyed grandma, uncles and aunts, cousins and spouses, and second cousins. We played at the beach, collected sea shells, located star fish, ate cheese and ice cream at the Tillamook Cheese Factory, traveled to Cape Meares, and hiked to the Octopus Tree.

My brother-in-law, Blue Sky Falconer, went clamming at Netarts Bay, and boy did we have a feast later. Have you ever dipped baby clams in hot, melted butter? And for the very first time, my wife was even brave enough to suck down a scrumptious oyster.

Conclusion

On the Lord’s Day in Oregon, I happened to see a local newspaper advertisement in The Tillamook County Shopper and read with great appreciation the posted words from Jeff Crippen, the reformed Baptist pastor at Christ Reformation Church in Tillamook. I reprint his words here with permission:

The Apostle Paul to the Romans (Am I Better Than That Guy?)

NKJV Romans 3:9 What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin.

The opening chapter of Paul’s letter to the Romans demonstrated that the pagan (Gentile) was under the condemnation and wrath of God. It exposed his idolatry and his refusal to acknowledge and give thanks to the God he knows full well exists and Who is the Creator. Then, in the second chapter, we saw Paul above and beyond those pagans. To such hypocrites, Paul wrote—“… you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.” It is, then, precisely as Paul writes here in chapter 3 verse 9—“… they are all under sin.”

And this is the case that the Apostle now sets out in the third chapter—that all of us enter this world under sin. Condemned. Guilty. Estranged and alienated from God. Listen to A.W. Tozer comment on this very thing—

God formed us for His pleasure, and so formed us that we, as well as He, can, in divine communion, enjoy the sweet and mysterious mingling of kindred personalities. He meant us to see Him and live with Him and draw our life from His smile. But we have been guilty of that “foul revolt” of which [the poet] Milton speaks when describing the rebellion of Satan and his hosts. We have broken with God. We have ceased to obey Him or love Him, and in guilt and fear have fled as far as possible from His presence… . So the life of man upon the earth is a life away from the Presence, wrenched loose from that “blissful center” which is our correct and proper dwelling place, our first estate which we kept not, the loss of which is the cause of our unceasing restlessness.

The whole work of God in redemption is to undo the tragic effects of that foul revolt, and to bring us back again into right and eternal relationship with Himself. This requires that our sins be disposed of satisfactorily, that a full reconciliation be effected and the way opened for us to return again into conscious communion with God and to live again in the Presence as before [A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God].

But if any of us are ever going to come to say, “I will arise and go to my Father,” then we must first come to grips with Paul’s irrefutable case here in Romans 3. It is the case against us that says, all are under sin. I am under sin. There is none righteous. No, not one. And that means ME.

So these words from The Tillamook County Shopper could be joined as intro to what my other brother-in-law, Joe Lacy, and I shared on Sunday morning. I spoke from the epistles of John where God is love and how the Father sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. And Joe capped the service by drawing the Cape Meares Lighthouse in a chalk talk for all of the children in our family reunion.

The Northwest is full of darkness, but thank God for the light that came into the world. As God filled us with light, let us dance with joy before others. It is the access to the light that makes Oregon territory a true promise land.

Todd Wood is pastor of Berean Baptist Church (Idaho Falls, ID). He received his B.A. in Missions, M.A. in Theology, and M.Div. from Bob Jones University (Greenville, SC). But more than anything he hungers for the A.I.G. degree affixed to Apelles (Rom. 16:10). He also operates a blog called Heart Issues for LDS.