Mere Devotion

A Different Appetite

2010-09-04T18:52:00.006-10:00

Why are vegetables so good for digestion? Simply because the body cannot digest them.

Long ago a the team of engineers was entrusted with keeping the land of Atlantis safe. One day a visitor came and noted that the smallest grain of sand could destroy the grandest of systems in the world. Some of the engineers talked about the greatness of the machinery. Some of the engineers laughed, but in a single day the island was destroyed.

but just as it is written,
THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEARD,
AND which HAVE NOT ENTERED THE HEART OF MAN,
ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM."
1 Corinthians 2:9

Picture from:

http://www.chinatownconnection.com/eating-healthy.htm

Idolatry And Books

2010-07-06T20:55:00.005-10:00

Many also of those who had believed kept coming, confessing and disclosing their practices.

And many of those who practiced magic brought their books together and began burning them in the sight of everyone; and they counted up the price of them and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver.

So the word of the Lord was growing mightily and prevailing.

Acts 19:18-20

This passage simply amazes me.

How would the newspapers describe such an event today?

I'm sure most of them would be beside themselves with glee, as if they had just been given the power to create an uprising against Christianity.

The headlines would say things like, "Religious Fanatics Burn Books" And "Analysis: Christians Tend To Be Anti-Intellectuals" And "Christians Bring Civilization To The Brink".

Of course, some reporters would be scornful. "Perhaps the book burnings go to show that human beings fear what they do not understand, and these Christians do not understand the power knowledge gives to the educated."

Others would frame their disgust in socio-economic terms: "To most experts it is clear the Christians are attempting to keep people uneducated so it can collect more in the offering plate."

Needless to say there would be a lot of theater going on, and -make no mistake- theater is all the world has going on.

Of course, nearly all reporters let on like there are deep, inner concerns brewing inside their articles, but this is a lie. If anything is going on under the surface at all, it is the secret envy the world has against those who devote their lives to Christ. This is a secret they feel they must hide from all eyes -even their own.

To the world, radical-sounding headlines are necessary to distract from the actions of the Church which -unlike the actions of the world- are actually radical.

Better to enter life without your books,
Than to be thrown into hell with all your books.

The believers understood the power of knowledge. That's why they were throwing their books away! They saw their books as part of their well manicured facade that only served to fill their hearts with more emptiness.

In a sense, the believers were not burning their books as much as they were burning their facades.

They were giving up their well-positioned appearances to say, "My life had no meaning to me! Do not follow my old ways, because I have found life!"

Before these people found Jesus, their accomplishments and victories were built on the underlying power of their self-loathing and disgust with their own lives. They were trying to build the success of their lives upon a foundation which they fundamentally viewed as a failure. They were trying to make something worthwhile by hiding something totally worthless.

When these people found Jesus they found new meaning. They found that their lives were hidden in Christ. They felt something empty was transformed into something that was full.

Inwardly speaking these people had passed from death to life, and the word of the Lord was growing mightily and prevailing.

As encouraging and uplifting as this passage may be, I shudder to consider the way the people who claim to be Christians would respond to such a book burning in these days.

"Christianity is based on the truth, so we should welcome knowledge." I can hear people saying. "The books were bad because they were magic books, whereas our books today are based on science, math, economics, political science, comedy, celebrity gossip ..."

But, of course, many people display all these books as if they had magically given their lives meaning while the dark truth lurks under the surface.

And -just like the magic books of the Bible times- people display their learning to be seen by others so they can lord it over them.

Jesus praised the Father because he had hidden his best things from the wise and learned and revealed them to infants. However unhappy an infant may seem at times -even though the child may cry and sometimes scream- the infant is far happier than the buffoons who make a big show of their learning to impress other people.

My friends, I am not challenging you to burn your books. I am not asking you to avoid education. I am simply asking you to examine your heart and flee from idolatry.

Just as God revealed the fullness of joy through his word in the earliest days of the church, he is ready to reveal his joy today through his word.

These days it is not hard to find a person who has had a little education. It is not even hard to find people who can read and write. What is uncommon is finding a person with ears to hear, and a heart to receive.

May the Lord write all the laws of his new covenant on the hearts of those who trust in him. May they grow in the joy of knowing him. May they find rest in their company of a Shepherd who will never leave them.

A Different Spirit

2010-06-27T19:21:00.004-10:00

But My servant Caleb, because he has had a different spirit and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land which he entered, and his descendants shall take possession of it.
Numbers 14:24

Question: what is the relationship between choices and circumstances?

Should our circumstances dictate our choices? Or should our choices dictate our circumstances?

In the book of Numbers we are told about twelve spies who entered the land promised to Israel. Two of the spies went in with their minds already made up about who the land would belong to and ten of the spies were not so sure.

Joshua and Caleb had decided the promised land would fall into the hands of Israel. The other spies claimed the military power of the occupants would never allow them to take the land -that they had no choice but to leave.

Joshua and Caleb did not let their eyes make their decisions for them. Instead, they controlled their eyes to look for ways to seize the land. The ten spies allowed their eyes to make their decisions for them, and they never entered the promised land.

So we return to the question: should our surroundings make our decisions, or should our decisions make our surroundings?

The Bible has a firm and unwavering answer to this question: our choices should determine our actions. With faith all things are possible.

Caleb was a man who was set apart because his choice about entering the land was one thing. His plan was simple: enter the land, conquer it, drink the milk, and eat the honey. The plan of the ten spies was more complex: they liked the fruit of the land, but they did not believe it could be theirs.

And God called Caleb a man with a "different spirit" because Caleb followed the Lord "fully".

The hearts of the ten men were not different. They did not follow the Lord fully. They wanted to notice the rewards of the land as gifts promised by God, but they did not want act in a way so as to have these rewards.

Despite all the battles that took place, the largest battles -the battles with the biggest outcomes- were the battles that took place in their hearts of the Israelites.

Consider your own life. Do you want your heart to fully belong to the Lord? Do you want to taste the good things the Lord has promised His children? Do you have the faith to believe He is ready to give these things to you? Do you have the faith to confront the obstacles you see before you?

Consider your choices carefully. Make sure you examine all your ways, because the pagans in the land had an appearance of happiness before they were destroyed by the host of Israel. The doubting spies, on the other hand, died in the wilderness. In the same way it is better to be frozen cold than to be luke warm.

If the answer on your lips, if the desire of your heart, if your hunger and thirst is to fully obey the Lord, then obey Him fully and do not doubt. The milk was refreshing, and the honey tasted sweet, but the ingredient that made their victory so delicious was there before Joshua and Caleb set foot on the battlefield.

In the same way, do not let the circumstances of this world make your choices for you.

Study And Research

2010-05-07T20:01:00.003-10:00

Earlier Episodes:
Episodes 1, 2, 3
Episodes 4, 5, 6
Episodes 7, 8, 9
Episodes 10, 11, 12
Episodes 13, 14, 15
Episode 16
Episode 17
Episode 18

This blog has moved

2010-04-30T20:43:00.001-10:00

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Final Considerations

2010-04-04T11:47:00.005-10:00

Then he told me, "Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, because the time is near. Let him who does wrong continue to do wrong; let him who is vile continue to be vile; let him who does right continue to do right; and let him who is holy continue to be holy."

Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.

Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

"I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star."

Revelation 22:12-16

John details to us in the final portion of his revelation some promises and warnings from Jesus. These are not only some of the final words from John's book but also from the New Testament and the Bible itself.

Although all of Scripture is inspired by God, perhaps we should read these words as a closing statement -like something John wants to leave us with.

Suppose you had read the entire Bible and at the end you found this passage written on a sticky. Perhaps you could read the note (with whatever questions or uncertainty you had about it) as a bottom line.

Human beings travel many avenues of deception. One of the more common paths by which people go astray is through doubt concerning the payoff or the cost of a decision.

If the payoff of a decision is in question, the decision will be much harder to make. If a person believes a choice has absolutely nothing for him, he will not make that choice.

Jesus promises the right to eat at the tree of life and the possibility of entering in through the gates and going into the city. He describes the payoff he is carrying as being with him. The reward is very real to Jesus, but everyone who hears the gospel must ask themselves how real that reward is to them. Do they believe the rewards Jesus has to hand out are real? Real enough to change the way we live?

Costs affect a decision just like payoffs do. If a person wants to buy something and discovers it may cost more than he wanted to pay, the decision to purchase is brought into question.

Jesus reminds his disciples that following him will cost them something. They will have to give up their magic arts, their sexual immorality, their murder, idolatry, and their love and practice of falsehood.

Many people live as though the gospel does not require any change in the way they live. In some churches this false non-requirement is the gospel! Jesus wants you to understand that any real following of him will mean giving up certain ways of living.

Salvation is not a matter of personal achievement (it was purchased with the blood of Jesus), but we are told by Christ that some people who do certain things will not see the same reward as those who wash their robes.

As decision makers, we should remember the reward Christ has promised to those who believe and follow him. We must also remember to count the cost and remove all the evil practices from our lives that are involved in.

Christ is coming soon! Just as he left the earth, he will return to it.

May his chosen ones prepare their hearts, their souls, their minds, and their strength for his return.

Amen.

Now Is The Time

2010-03-28T12:20:00.003-10:00

The young woman looked down at her ruby red shoes trying to understand what might have happened. "I could have gone home at any moment. I only needed the time to click my heels together!"

Therefore His brothers said to Him, "Leave here and go into Judea, so that Your disciples also may see Your works which You are doing. "For no one does anything in secret when he himself seeks to be known publicly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world."
For not even His brothers were believing in Him.
So Jesus said to them, "My time is not yet here, but your time is always opportune."
John 7:3-6

The day came when hostile aliens landed on earth and began to subdue all the humans. Most people panicked, but a computer engineer became very excited. "Think of all the information systems these aliens have developed totally independent of our own technologies! Do they have some version of the internet? What do their communications layers look like? How fast do their processors go?" One of the aliens found out about this engineer and agreed to answer all his questions if he would surrender himself, and he agreed. The engineer learned the aliens had something like the internet, some of the communications layers were combined and some protocols were totally absent. While the alien was still explaining the details the engineer thought to himself, "I suppose I could have guessed most of this would be true. To be honest I don't really care about any of this." In his final moments he regretted surrendering to the alien.

Washing Hands

2010-02-28T19:37:00.003-10:00

"Why do Your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread."
Matthew 15:2

The pharisees added many laws onto the Law of God.

I find that so easy to identify with.

People tend to hold the pharisees at arm's length and say, "They were too insistent on their little Jewish traditions and their own made up rules that did not come from God."

Have you ever locked yourself into your own traditions and made-up rules?

How fervent are you about washing your hands?

Consider the young mothers who work tirelessly to sanitize their homes. Many of these mothers end up changing a diaper or two during the night ... and in the dark. In some cases the parent who wishes to keep his or her house clean comes to the troubling conclusion that human waste may have been spread around into unknown places.

What would a guest or outsider say if he or she noticed it?

Some parents respond to this realization by checking out of life. They continue to live in such a house and tend to their children, but they are simply robots caring out their tasks with expectation for little more than watching some comedy show at the end of their day.

They have ceased to live their own life.

How rarely we ask ourselves who has set these heavy conditions on us. Did God require us to sterilze and santize everything, or is that something we have decided to do on our own?

Technically speaking, sterization is a process of killing life. Most human beings in the modern world live sterile lives ... sure other people might be convinced they will not be infected, but -truth be told- the modern world is dead.

The most neurotic aspects of a man's life revolve around the laws and traditions he holds himself to.

Some teenagers refuse to leave the house until they have researched and found the exact clothes their friends will approve of. Some husbands spend their entire marriages doing nothing but finding ways to advance their careers and achieve greater salaries. Some women refuse to allow guests over until they have vacuumed and dusted their entire house.

I am rarely able to tear myself away from my car or house unless I have locked it (at least once).

The laws we hold ourselves to are far more complex and exhaustive than the laws of any government. Is it so hard to see how we are confined to a prison of our own making?

What I find to be even more disturbing is the way we justify our psychotic behavior (for that is exactly what it is) in the name of Jesus. We tell ourselves that chasing our tails and panicking while teaching Sunday school is worrying and despairing for God.

In other words, we are doing in God's name the very thing He has commanded us not to do! Is there any wonder how people make disciples who are twice as much sons of hell as they are?

Jesus responded to the pharisees by contrasting the suffocating complexity of their laws with the simple and liberating Law of God. Jesus emphasized the simple command the pharisees had forgotten: honor your father and mother.

When Martha told Jesus to rebuke Mary because she was not cleaning the house (and instead spending time at the feet of Jesus), the Lord told Martha that God only requires one thing of us.

Only one thing!

Think of all the rules and laws we set aside for ourselves ... saving money for our children's college, staying fit and healthy, doing our taxes, keeping a budget, staying paid up on five kinds of insurance ... and to say only one thing is required? How strange and yet how wonderful.

Jesus did not teach people to stop washing their hands and cleaning their houses, but he did want people to be righteous in the righteousness of God ... and not in the superficial certification of following human rules.

As we go about our day, may we rely on Christ to teach us about the true obedience he desires. May we become disciples of God's Way, and not the prisoners of human misdoings and empty striving.

The Divided Priests Before The Crowd

2010-02-15T19:26:00.003-10:00

When He entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to Him while He was teaching, and said, "By what authority are You doing these things, and who gave You this authority?"

Jesus said to them, "I will also ask you one thing, which if you tell Me, I will also tell you by what authority I do these things.
"The baptism of John was from what source, from heaven or from men?" And they began reasoning among themselves, saying, "If we say, `From heaven,' He will say to us, `Then why did you not believe him?'

"But if we say, `From men,' we fear the people; for they all regard John as a prophet."

And answering Jesus, they said, "We do not know." He also said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.

Matthew 21:23-27

Jesus often spoke to his listeners indirectly, and he rebuked them indirectly.

As readers of this passage we may be tempted to set the passage aside and say, "Ah! What a clever way to respond ..." Or to dwell on the comic aspect of the passage -the way the priests were exposed as buffoons.

The true followers of Christ on the other hand must be watchful so they are not mislead by the shallow interests of the crowd. Jesus showed himself to be wise, but in the very wisdom the wise overlook.

His questions compelled the teachers of Israel to admit they did not know, but not because Jesus made a drawn out display of how many things he knew.

The standing of the priests were brought into question, yes, but it was not Jesus tearing them down -he merely exposed the way the priests had defeated themselves.

As Kierkegaard noted, many people claim to "admire" the lives of great men, but Christ has called his followers to imitate him. In what regard does the serious follower of Christ learn how to imitate Christ from reading this passage?

Jesus asked one question from his audience. He was not trying to make a historical assertion about John the Baptist ... he was bringing into question why the priests did not have the seriousness to believe the message of John the Baptist.

This was a question the priests were not able to answer precisely because of their disobedience.

The man or woman who follows Christ must always be able to bring into question how serious people are in their claims ... even if they appear to be very pious people. A truly committed person will be able to answer such questions simply and in earnest.

The unrighteous are divided by such questions.

I sometimes hear people make assertions about how loose living and dark deeds will give them something in life. Every believer will also struggle with their own thoughts and feelings saying exactly the same thing.

Such a person should be called into question about how closely they will hold these views in the hour of hardship when these pursuits have brought them suffering and bitterness. How deeply can they hold such views in one moment if they wish to discard them the next moment?

The pharisees were ready to discard their own views before they had even given them to Jesus.

And their attention to the eyes of the crowd prevented them from giving a solid answer to Jesus.

Jesus would have fully presented the will of the Father with his question regardless of how many people were watching him. His question about the authority of John would have had exactly the same intent if he was alone with the chief priests.

The priests would never have asked the question if they were alone with Jesus. In fact, Jesus tells us that everything they did was to be seen by men.

Their attention to the crowd (and how to please the crowd) prevented them from speaking their mind. Their refusal to answer Christ's question reflected the division in their hearts. Christ's intent was of one thing, even when it meant dying on the cross.

In the same way we must ask ourselves if our devotion to Christ is one thing in the church building and another thing in the moment weakness and temptation.

The believers who would seek to imitate Christ must learn how to ask others (and more importantly, themselves) how seriously they hold to their views, and they must be able to overlook the eyes and ears of the crowd.

As surely as God clothes the lilies of the field to be more beautiful than the robes of Solomon, God displays the legitimacy of His children to the world as they become more like His Son.

May we seek first to become like God's Son and the other things will be given to us as well.

After The Plans

2010-02-07T19:47:00.002-10:00

Every neurosis is a symptom of despair.

A little boy spent a week saving up money to buy his favorite comic book. As he was heading to the comic book store another boy stopped him and offered him a candy bar for the money he had with him to buy the comic book. "And I also have these," He said, pointing to some beans. "These are magic beans. If you throw them in a bath tub full of water they will turn into mice." The boy took his offer. When he got home he immediately tossed the beans into the bath, and waited for some time. After his mom explained to him that he had been duped, he examined the beans and said to himself, "I was ready to buy my favorite comic book, but all I have are these watery beans."

The mind of man plans his way,
But the LORD directs his steps.
Proverbs 16:9

When you wake up wake up!
The Sound of Music

Who Told You?

2010-01-31T12:21:00.006-10:00

Then the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, "Where are you?" He said, "I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself." And He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?"
Genesis 3:9-11

Who told Adam he was naked?

Vain and ungodly commentators have suggested God really did not know how Adam learned this. They speculate that the Hebrews had not "evolved" their concept of God to the point where their idea of God knew everything.

This depiction of God is pragmatic for such commentators who do not wish for any story of God to be told where He knows the darkness going on inside their hearts.

Many devout commentators have suggested this question had a particular motive. They claim God graciously wanted to give Adam a chance to confess his sin. I can only imagine how that would have turned out, but the Bible tells us Adam only used this as an opportunity to address the wrongs of other people.

Perhaps there is another element in this question.

Who told you that you were naked?

God's question to Adam implies this was something Adam could only know if he was told. Are there some things people do not need to be told? Let me give an example.

I like milkshakes. How much do I like milkshakes? I like milkshakes SO MUCH that no one has to tell me I like milkshakes.

I like spending time with my wife. How much do I like spending time with my wife? I can at least say no one has to let me know about this favorite activity of mine.

Many things can be speculated about Adam's nakedness ... but most readers are already very clear that Adam was oblivious about his nakedness and then found out about it at some point because something external revealed it to him.

Which is another way of saying he was not very fond of knowing he was naked. This is why he was embarrassed.

If someone "had" to tell me I like watching science fiction movies, you could understand that as a way of speaking between the lines that my affection for science fiction movies was in question.

Adam was afraid because of his nakedness.

Just as Adam made a claim to God about nakedness, Jesus heard a number of claims from other people.

Jesus answered, "Are you saying this on your own initiative, or did others tell you about Me?"
John 18:34

There is a big difference between the information in phone books and our knowledge of the things we love.

When a person knows something through love, they take a leap into it. Their knowledge has an aspect of ownership to it, because they have chosen it.

When God asks people how they know things, it's not because He is too tired to go browsing an encyclopedia. He wants to find out what is really in us, and how serious we are in the things we claim to hold dear.

This is why Christ asked Peter if he loved him. This is why Christ asked the disciples who they said he was. This is why Jesus asked people what they wanted him to do for them.

These are all questions Christ asks of us. How seriously do we love him? Who do we say he is to us? What do we want Jesus to do for us? Do we want to make him our Messiah?

We might not get asked these questions in words or out loud. The challenges we face in life ask these things of us every day. Jesus does not answer for us, and no one else can tell us how to respond. How will you respond to these questions in your life today?

Written In Your Heart

2009-08-31T18:52:00.004-10:00

Let love and faithfulness never leave you;
bind them around your neck,
write them on the tablet of your heart.
Proverbs 3:3

What is love? Or how does one love?

Solomon does not explain to us in this verse what love is -or at least he does not spell it out for us. There is no obvious boundary to show us what is love and what is not love.

Suppose there was a child who had questions about what love is or what faithfulness is. Suppose he was not able to find much of an education and was left without any clear understanding of love or faithfulness.

How could such a child be told to write these words on his heart? How could he be told to bind them around his neck? If he were writing about physics or biology he might have some difficulty. And if you identify with something you know nothing about, is it just an empty symbol?

Solomon's intent is to emphasize the way a person chooses to love and the extent to which they choose to be faithful.

His command is to never let love and faithfulness leave you. His command is that you bind them around your neck, and write them in the most concealed place of your heart.

Solomon's command draws attention to the fact that as human beings we tend to pursue love and faithfulness one day (or at least the appearance of it) and then we ignore or avoid love and faithfulness the next day.

How rare it is to find a person whose love is one thing. How rare it is to find a person whose faithfulness is always faithfulness.

In this way, Solomon refuses to define in words what love is and what faithfulness is. In refusing to define love and faithfulness, Solomon defines love and faithfulness exactly.

The love Solomon calls love is not something you wear at parties and put on the shelf when you get home. The faithfulness Solomon calls faithfulness is always with you.

And this explains perfectly what love and faithfulness are.

Let us return to our example of the child with little education who wonders how to follow the command, who wishes to write love and faithfulness in the tablet of his heart.

The truth is children are not at a disadvantage when it comes to love and faithfulness. The uneducated are at no disadvantage either. Jesus tells us very directly that God has hidden His good things from the wise and learned and revealed them to infants. This was always God's plan.

However long a person spends in school, his education is not powerful enough to write love in the tablet of his heart. However old a person grows, his understanding is not enough to give him faithfulness.

Love and faithfulness are two things people decide to write in the hidden places of their hearts. If a person does not make this choice (or the person chooses not to choose to make this choice), they will simply have no understanding of love or faithfulness.

If love and faithfulness are two things that must be chosen, if they are two things that do not depend on one's position, worldly events, fortune or history, then there is simply obstacle God has not removed. This is the moment for choosing something that needn't depend on any external condition.

So do not delay, dear reader, in binding yourself to the behavior God has directed you to practice. Write it in the inmost places of heart. Do not let it escape.

A Quieted Soul

2009-08-02T08:50:00.006-10:00

Psalm 131
A Song of Ascents, of David.

O LORD, my heart is not proud, nor my eyes haughty;
Nor do I involve myself in great matters,
Or in things too difficult for me.
Surely I have composed and quieted my soul;
Like a weaned child rests against his mother,
My soul is like a weaned child within me.
O Israel, hope in the LORD
From this time forth and forever.

David associates a proud heart and haughty eyes with getting involved in great matters or things "too difficult for me". Knowledge of "great matters" puffs up the brain -as the apostle warns- but love builds up. David addresses God saying, 'Lord, this is not the facade I carry around to show others, this is who I am inside.'

How often we are tempted as Christians to try and understand everything, particularly politics. David was himself the King of his nation, a head of state. It must have been highly tempting for him to try and find assurance in policy arrangements, alliances, and involving himself in great matters and things too difficult for him.

World conflict can seem so great that a person can overlook the conflict within his own heart. And this is not difficult to do.

The quieted and composed soul of David is like the quiet and composed child who rests against his mother. Such a child has learned to understand that although the food does not come from his or her mother directly, their mother has prepared it in her love and such a child can rest in peace with their mother.

How easy it is to foster an unweaned soul, to think that unless God intervenes in a dramatically obvious way that He has little care or concern for His children.

David closes his Psalm calling on Israel to trust in the Lord in the most immediate moment and to trust in the Lord eternally without interruption. The ways of those who think upon great matters or things too difficult arrive at conclusions once they have tried to take all things into account, but no human being understands all things ... and the requirement to understand "all things" comes with a terrible delay. When such a person pretends he has arrived at such a conclusion he always looks back with unsteady thoughts -asking if he thought it through correctly. At the first sign of trouble he abandons everything.

The trust of the weaned child is immediate, and it does not protest at the first sign of conflict. It is deep, it is continuous, and it is full of peace. How excellent to have the soul of a weaned child.

O Israel, hope in the LORD
From this time forth and forever.

Antitaurina

2009-07-12T08:38:00.006-10:00

If human beings have complete freedom in regard to the extent that they value their own lives, why is it so many people view their lives to be worthless?

A group of activists assembled to protest a bull fight. They chanted and booed and waved signs, but many thought to themselves, 'Ah! If only I were to lay my life down like the brave matador!' The matador saw the protestors, and even though he flourished his estoque and waved his cape vigorously, he thought, 'If only I had the principles to stand for something like these protestors.'
The lowest attenders, the crowd, praised the matador while at the same time feeling smugly superior to the cruel animal killer.

Greatness is the ability to dig beneath the many layers of superficiality and pull out treasures buried deep below.

The curse of every top-down system is the way little blessings get overlooked.

If you want to succeed in entertainment, you have to be ready to make a fool of yourself. If you want to succeed in Christianity, you have to be ready to be cursed, despised, and killed.

In the nation where people eat abstract food everyone starves to death.

The two young men found themselves suddenly in a dimly lit cookout, surrounded by young men and women in their early twenties. Everyone was laughing, some haughtily, some nervously, and others almost seemed to laugh like they were in a tremendous amount of suffering.
The two men saw a bright light in the distance and began walking toward it. As they approached it, they noticed the light was coming from a gate that appeared to be open. Their bodies almost appeared to change slowly: as if they were becoming younger. As they were just about to peer into the gate they looked at each other and noticed they looked as if they were about to turn six years old.
"I can't be seen this way." Said the one young man.
"Me neither. Let's go back to the party."

Inwardness

2009-06-28T13:22:00.002-10:00

Click on the picture for the full image.

Sorry for the lack of posts lately.

I just got a new computer, and it's had some kinks.

Hopefully I'll have another one next week.

Take It Personally!

2009-05-31T08:06:00.005-10:00

I do a lot of apologizing.

Those who apologize have little right to criticize the person they apologize to. And they have little ground to accuse the person they have wronged of insulting them.

There are exceptions to this.

Sometimes when I apologize to people, I hear them say, "Oh, it's okay. I didn't take it personally."

You didn't? Did you take my apology personally?

Really, it's the same thing as if they had said, "Oh, it's okay. I didn't take your actions seriously."

Does God to our actions personally? Does God take our actions seriously?

But it happened that as I was on my way, approaching Damascus about noontime, a very bright light suddenly flashed from heaven all around me, and I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, `Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?'

And I answered, `Who are You, Lord?' And He said to me, `I am Jesus the Nazarene, whom you are persecuting.'
Acts 22:6-8

Perhaps in Saul's mind he saw a difference between opposing and harming this new sect of believers and opposing and harming God's work on earth.

But whatever Saul was or was not thinking, God took the opposition against His work personally. Very personally indeed.

Not only is it easy to pretend as though our actions have no personal importance to us, it is sometimes considered to be the highest virtue.

"Don't take it personally."

But God takes our words, our thoughts, and our actions very seriously.

Just to name a few examples, Christ said that whatever we do unto the poor we are doing unto Christ himself. The Bible says that those who lend to the poor lend to God. When Annanias and Saphira kept a portion of the money after they sold their house and left another portion at the feet of Peter, he rebuked them saying, "You have not lied to men but to God."

And Christ himself has said that there will be many who will cry out to him, "Lord, Lord" -some of whom have performed miracles in Christ's name and cast out demons- who Christ will tell, "I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness."

And just as God warns us that he takes our actions personally, he also promises to personally recognize us for the things we have done.

And whoever in the name of a disciple gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water to drink, truly I say to you, he shall not lose his reward.
Matthew 10:42

In God's economy, there is not a separation between the way we treat the least of people and the way we are treating God.

So we should remember to take our actions seriously, and personally, because God takes our wrongdoings and sins personally. And we should remember also that he takes personally the good things we do to our neighbor and to the least.

Going Beyond

2009-05-24T08:30:00.003-10:00

Watch yourselves, that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward. Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son.
2 John 1:8-9

They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us.
1 John 2:29

Johns letters warn believers about the dangers of going "beyond" the teachings of the gospel.

In our day it is easy to see how people get caught up in the promises of going beyond Christianity. They hear about how it would be great to not only have Christianity but to also go beyond it and have a large family, or to have a career, or to have science.

Or to have good political views.

Do these pursuits which on occasion pretend to go beyond Christianity offer promises we really believe to be higher than the claims of Christ?

I wonder, if a person were to be gravely wounded in a traffic accident (to the point where someone had sent for a priest), would such a person in their final moments instead call out, "No! Send for a scientist! I want to hear about the amazing wonders of green energy!"

Perhaps we do not really believe these alternative pursuits offer us something as valuable as Christianity, but we lack the faith to believe the rewards offered to us from God are real.

In the absence of visible confirmation and esteem from our friends we turn ourselves like sheep gone astray down paths with obvious rewards and obvious comforts instead of being truly rewarded and truly comforted.

A Matter Of Want

2009-05-10T14:03:00.003-10:00

And Jesus stopped and called them, and said, "What do you want Me to do for you?"
Matthew 20:32

These days the words of our Lord are rarely meditated on as they were originally intended. Instead of searching for the depth that strengthens and fulfills, people try to search out everything and instead find nothing.

However unlikely it may be to find a verse like this mentioned in a sermon today (and even less likely to be commented on), an ordinary sermon would probably be content to note that Jesus cared about the needs of others and served them for the single and solitary purpose of setting an example for us to love others.

And not ourselves.

Yes, it is true. Jesus does want us to care for those God sends to us. This is perhaps the most successful way of expressing God's kingdom on earth. More imporantly than caring for others, however, is caring for others in a particular way:

The way we want to be cared for.

And so the cursory examination of the verse -which settles for mere appearances- fails to grasp the fullness of God's message. In this way we altogether miss the assurance He provides and the audacity with which He provides it to us.

Perhaps it would be easier to understand the audacity of Christ's question by contrasting to other questions, particularly the questions we ask.

'What do you need me to do for you?'
'What do you need me to do for the poor?'
'What does the community need me to do for the uneducated?'
'What does the world need to do to reform pollution standards?'

And so we spiral farther and farther from the heart of God as our questions lose their relevance to the godly desires God has placed in the center of our hearts.

The word translated to English as "need" does not appear very often in the Gospels.

When Jesus gave the sermon on the mount he noted the pagans desperately search for physical provisions: food, clothes, and shelter. The spirit of paganism is continually focused on needs and not on wants, and Jesus rebuked this spirit when he said, "your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things".

And again there was an occasion where many followers of Christ were listening to him preach and the disciples asked Jesus to let them go find food to eat. Their thoughts were on how people need physical food more than they need Jesus. But Jesus responded saying, "They do not need to go away; you give them something to eat!" Again, putting the emphasis on something other than what commonly passes for "needs".

But if there was one disciple who appealed to the needs of others more than anyone else it was Judas.

When the prostitute came and emptied the pure nard -the very expensive perfume- on the feet Jesus, it was Judas who suggested the perfume should have been sold and the money given away to the poor.

By the standards of this generation, Judas was a praiseworthy fellow. If such a person lived in our day he would be cajoled into running for office and have his face put on the cover of every magazine.

Yet, the person who appealed the most to the physical needs of others failed to recognize his own inner longing. Unlike the sick who came to Jesus to be healed, Judas had no knowledge of what he wanted Christ to do for him.

Unlike the gift of the woman which the Scriptures called "pure", Judas instead gave a suggestion in thievery which was corrupt. The woman received what she wanted from Jesus, and Judas also received his cravings: money.

May the children of God reflect on the power of their Lord to richly supply them with every gift for their pleasure as they meditate on and consider how strongly their weak and passing frames wish and long to serve and be with their master forever.

Amen.

Devotional Lives

2009-05-02T09:39:00.002-10:00

Sorry I've been away so long. School is coming to an end.

I've been making some pictures of some of my heroes.

I made them to be displayed at a smaller size, but I think they look good large also.

Hit the jump for the third picture.

They're supposed to be mother Theresa, Soren Kierkegaard, and Mr. Rogers.

Three Excellent Stories

2009-04-20T13:39:00.008-10:00

If you would have told me when I was putting this site together that I would spend a couple posts discussing women's beauty pagents, I would not have believed you. In addition to covering Katie Stam's Miss America victory -where she performed an interpretive dance to Via Dolorosa- I would like to say a few words about Carrie Prejean in the Miss USA pageant.

Carrie was asked by a blogger judge if she supported the legalization of homosexual marriage in the United States. The fact that this particular blogger judge -a militant homosexual- is a major scandal in itself. Carrie gave a very honest answer:

Well, I don't think that's right; I think marriage is between a man and a woman.[1] [2]

She was booed, heckled, and attacked. The blogger himself acknowledged she was the frontrunner and would have won if she had not answered that question. Some have spoken well of her for sticking up for her beliefs (and I share their opinion). Carrie is a student at a San Diego Bible college and works with charities to help disabled children while the blogger judge is known for little more than schmoozing with celebrities. It reminds me of this passage in Luke 6:24-26:

But woe to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full. Woe to you who are well-fed now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way.

Another excellent story has been penned by a theology professor who still teaches at my old school Biola. In it, he discusses the early period of Karl Barth's ministry when he was still very much involved in watering down Christianity.

During those years, Karl Barth wrote a piece on the recent sinking of the Titanic. You should read some of the excerpts:

There is a way of using technology, that cannot be called labour any more, but playful arrogance. It is arrogance to install theatres and fish-pools on a vessel exposed to these sort of risks … God will not be mocked. He certainly intends us to work and to achieve something in the world. But he does not intend us to act as though we were done with working, and could now go fooling around

The story ends with Karl Barth realizing his error: he was making Christianity out to have worldly importance, when those who truly understood Christianity found something in it that surprassed all worldly comparisons.

Barth's transformation involved setting aside his political views about how the government and technology are supposed to give us meaning in life. In the void of these visible, worldly things, he presented to his audience a person I believe to be the real Jesus.

The third story of this post involves a woman who decided to give up stripping to become a nun. The writer of this article is obviously poking fun at this woman, but there is something in his title worthy of note: "anything can happen".

"I was throwing away my life dancing for men. I was being used as a drug by people who wanted to see me dance."

Next week she will be in Rome to perform a ballet called Holy Dance, dedicated to episodes from the Bible, for senior cardinals and bishops.

In the ocean of scoffing, I saw many attacks on her physical beauty or accused lack thereof. I was surprised I didn't read anyone saying that it was easy for her to give up her stripping career now that she had become so old.

Although not a woman myself, I have seen something of the low esteem they often hold for themselves. Most women, I believe at that point in their lives would say, 'I've become worthless to God long ago, and now I'm worthless to the world!' But the way I read the story, the woman abandons the world's approval and clings in faith to God's strange and wonderful redemption of her life.

Three stories of mere devotion: a woman who lost all worldly approval for standing by her convictions, a preacher who learned how to look past the surface of world historical events, and a woman who learned to value herself by following Christ's example. Each story has something to teach those with ears to hear, to those who wish to learn the secrets of mere devotion.

Plus Ultra

2009-04-07T19:44:00.004-10:00

A certain Hollywood actor made a name for himself playing biographic roles of famous people. The studios were won over by his talent, but when he was approached to play himself in a film about his own life he replied, "That is the one character I have no wish to play!"

Do idiots go to swim with crocodiles? No, not even idiots do that. Even idiots are full of schemes and calculation, and they stay away from the swamps were the crocodiles lurk. The only people who go to find the crocodiles are scientists and those who have given up on life.

Do not be eager in your heart to be angry,
For anger resides in the bosom of fools.
Ecclesiastes 7:9

Plato and Diogenes went to the supermart together. As they were strolling down the aisle Plato saw Diogenes look at some cereal on the top shelf, and so he asked him, "Diogenes, tell me: is it better to have a long ladder or a short one?"
"You appear to have some ready answer." Replied Diogenes.
Brushing his observation aside, Plato told Diogenes that with a longer ladder you can reach higher and grab higher objects. Plato moved a store ladder to the cereal and climbed it -going up much higher than he needed to reach the cereal. "... And ... you will be closer to the gods."
As Plato finished his words he flourished a smile, but the smile disappeared quickly as the ladder tilted and he fell -crashing to the ground.
Diogenes found a stool down the aisle, moved it beside the ladder, and grabbed the box of cereal easily. Then he noted to Plato that low chairs are more sturdy because they are the closest thing to keeping your feet on the ground. "... And ... perhaps the God has come down to dwell among us."

If you're okay with a superficial salavation, then go ahead and lead a superficial life!

Silent, Inevitable

2009-03-26T11:16:00.005-10:00

Natasha Richardson recently died of an acute epidural hematoma.

I do not have the medical background to describe her affliction, but from what I gather she suffered a blunt impact to her head -causing blood to fill a gap between the brain and the skull. This gap grew until it pushed her brain into a series of sharp-edged bones -eventually causing her death.

Perhaps the most dramatic aspect of her condition was her obliviousness to it. At first she was totally aware of her injury. For some time she thought she would be fine. A certain pain began to grow, which seemed to be nothing more than a slight headache at first. The severity of her condition was not obvious until some time later.

It would not be correct to say that this woman was totally oblivious to her condition. She knew that "something" had happened, but there was some question as to just how bad it was. From what I understand there was a sense that things would soon go back to normal.

Her case is dramatic, and a source of study for professionals in the medical field. On the other hand, it really is not so different from a very real, a very overlooked part of life. And this part of life is inevitable.

As children we learn that everyone comes to a point where they die. The dramatic part is when we learn that we ourselves shall die. As Woody Allen once noted, "I'm not afraid of death. I just don't want to be there when it happens." And so people prepare for death by checking out of life.

Perhaps it could best be said that when death comes across most people, like Natasha Richardson, it finds they had really died long ago.

Natasha Richardson concealed her death within her, and human beings also conceal their death within themselves. No one knew what was happening in her brain until it was too late, and even a CAT scan would probably have not revealed the true condition. In the same way people keep their worst things in a place where no one can see them.

When a person wishes desperately that they were somewhere else, that they were talking with someone else, that they were themselves someone else, such a person essentially wishes to be removed from their own life.

Perhaps there is no stronger kind of desperate wishing than the kind afforded by guilt. When a person commits a crime, when they come to regard the person they see in the mirror as a criminal, they often wish (sometimes passively, other times violently) to be someone else.

And the desperate desire to be someone else is the true death.

As in the case of epidural hematoma, immediate action is necessary. The means of deliverance is not an obvious, passive remedy, but a dramatic and all-risking intervention. Just as the appearance of health and good looks were not enough to save Natasha Richardson, the appearance of good behavior is not enough to save us.

When a human being genuinely and completely gives their life over to Christ, they are doing something that is far, far different from rearranging the appearance of their life. Something very deep within changes ... and dies. The effect is not that they wear different clothes or speak with different words. They become a different person.

And just as a full and complete healing would have been a full and complete miracle in the case of Natasha Richardson, nothing short of a full and complete miracle will deliver us from the death within us.

The solution for the death that has awaited us all, in fact any reversal of our condition, is radical, and seems to hard to explain. Just as it would have been hard to explain how Natasha Richardson could have recovered, it is difficult -almost impossible!- to explain how our condition can be reversed.

The solution, the prescription not written with fallible human fingers but by the hands of the divine doctor, is to give one's entire life over to God. To love him with the entirity of one's heart, one's soul, all one's mind and all one's strength. This is the severity of the prescription.

The promise of recovery, however, is sure. God offers His healing, His gifts, yes, even Himself! over to those who throw themselves into the recovery plan He has written, which is the life of His Son Jesus Christ.

May God continue to work His will in the lives of those He has chosen as Jesus draws all men unto himself. May the light of Christ shine in those who fear him and love him completely.

The Dr. Pepper Question

2009-03-23T09:25:00.004-10:00

Matt recently put up my guest post about Dr. Pepper at MereOrthodoxy.com.

It's kind of a radical one.

Matt's introduction:

Micah Hoover is an engineer by day, and a blogger by night. He posts Kierkegaardian-style meditations on the Christian life at his blog Mere Devotion. We are happy to have him here.

That Reminds Me Of ...

2009-03-17T21:21:00.005-10:00

The more effecient the world becomes at grouping together, the faster they go over the edge.

The way learning how to win is different from learning how to find value.

The way our disguises meant to fool others often leave us unable to understand ourselves, and we become deceived.

Update

2009-03-09T20:25:00.002-10:00

I've taken a brief break from blogging on meredevotion.com to post something over at mereorthodoxy.com during Lent.

Matt Anderson hasn't posted it yet.

And I recently ended the google ads I had for this site because they weren't bringing anyone over.

And I ran out of money.

I'm afraid spiritual devotions aren't drawing in the crowds these days ... but I can't say I expected them to or even wanted such things.

Sometimes the best things are understood only by the few people who take the time and make the effort to understand something

small

difficult

wonderful.

Dressed To Serve

2009-02-26T20:40:00.005-10:00

"Be dressed in readiness, and keep your lamps lit.

"Be like men who are waiting for their master when he returns from the wedding feast, so that they may immediately open the door to him when he comes and knocks.

"Blessed are those slaves whom the master will find on the alert when he comes; truly I say to you, that he will gird himself to serve, and have them recline at the table, and will come up and wait on them.

Luke 12:35-37

Often times when I go about my day I hear verses in my head from my morning readings. Usually the verses are the ones I understand the least.

he will gird himself to serve

As uneasy as it is to understand, God has called his people to be slaves, the slaves of all. What is even harder to understand is the way Christ styles himself to those who wait faithfully for him: he returns dressed to serve them and they recline at his table.

However much these men become slaves for Christ, it really is Christ who has become a slave for them.

that they may immediately open the door to him when he comes and knocks

Often times we think of godliness as a slow process that increases gradually (perhaps without being noticed) until it has ripened fully. The passage here speaks about an immediate readiness.

The slaves do not build up a lifetime of strength so they are able to open the door at the very end. The faithful slaves are ready all along, and they are ready at every instant.

May God work within the ones He has chosen, that they may be ready to serve their Lord and that they may be ready to be served by their Lord. May their hearts be ready at the moment He comes for them.

Quite The Contrary

2009-02-17T20:41:00.002-10:00

Life only seems shallow when it is understood in a shallow way.

Once upon a time there stood a tall, giant of a soldier. He was regarded as a champion by his countrymen and a terror to his enemies. When he passed by, no one looked down on him, but in a secret way he looked down on himself.

In this life it is not the talented
   who find success,
And the true judges do not favor
   the strong.
In times of trouble
   only the poor in spirit are victors,
The ones who are soothed
   in the most inward place.

No illusion is stronger than the illusion we create to fool ourselves.

There once was a baker who made a batch of cupcake batter using the finest ingredients. When he was about to pour the batter into the cupcake pan, he noticed the cupcake bins in the pan were too shallow.
'If I bake these confections in there, no one will be able to taste the cupcakes.'
So he found a new tray with deeper bins in which he filled the cupcake batter.
'Take the old cupcake tray,' He said to his servant, 'And throw it away.'

Love transcends every human law.
It is the authority by which God reigns over all things.

Don't Bet Against Yourself!

2009-02-10T19:31:00.007-10:00

Pete Rose, a baseball player and manager for the Cincinatti Reds, achieved a number of lofty accomplishments in his career -including three World Series championships. He is considered to be the person who popularized sliding into base on a steal.

Perhaps the most well-known aspect of his time with the Reds was his agreement to stay permanently ineligible from baseball following allegations of gambling.

I understand very little about baseball myself. I wouldn't even say I have a favorite baseball team. So it could very well be that gambling -as innocuous as it may seem to me- is better left out of baseball.

That being said there is something about Roses' gambling practices which deserves attention: he always bet on the Cincinatti Reds ... and never against them.

This distinction seems shallow to many. What difference does it make if he bet for his team or against it?

Like the characters in the Bible who attempted to communicate with demons, those who have bet against themselves have often found (in a very disturbing way) exactly what they were looking for.

In someways it is hard for those who have heard the word "faith" from childhood to have a good understanding of exactly what it means. It can sound common, safe, politically correct, but the Bible says faith is focused on something that is unproven, unverifiable, and unknown.

To have faith is in some ways like betting in such a way that you are already certain of repayment. This is difficult for us to understand with our flesh and bone understanding ... if there is little or no external confirmation about something, how does someone have any confidence it will happen?

This simple question reveals the mysteriousness of faith's strength.

Faith is not an achievement of calcuation, observation, and persperation. Faith is a willed state of understanding. A person does not think or feel or work his way into a state of faith. A person cannot receive it from anyone else. It is something he or she decides, and they cannot receive it from someone else.

... and whatever is not from faith is sin.
Romans 14:23

In contrast to faith, bad faith is a state where someone places a bet believing that they will most likely lose or have already lost. This kind of active doubting -in all its undesirability- is actually very common.

For example, suppose someone enters into a business partnership with someone else. Suppose they secretly buy insurance to protect their investments in case the business fails. Then suppose they begin taking actions that some would interpret as being against the interests of the business.

Although such an act has a host of legal names (insurance fraud, conflict of interest, etc.) they are all symptoms of a larger problem: betting against yourself, and the market continues under the assumption you will not do it.

Legally speaking acting "in good faith" is a suffecient condition for legal justification. This means that if you really have consistently and whole heartedly done your best, no prosecutor or interest can rightfully bring charges against you.

I am no lawyer, and I have no desire to be one, but I observe this very practice of betting against yourself all the time. I have committed this mistake myself, and I believe every human being is guilty of it before God.

For example, suppose a man wishes to have sex with a woman (yes, I assure you it has happened). Does this man find the woman to be beautiful? Does he find a lasting beauty in her? If he does, he should marry her. I've heard married people have twice as much sex as single people. If he doesn't find her attractive, why does he want to have sex with her?

But men frequently have sex with women they are not married to, and the Bible says that such people will never enter life if they refuse to repent. Why do men do this?

Often times men believe that if they have found a truly wonderful woman -a marriable woman- that she will not really want to be married to them. As soon as such a woman uncovers the true identity of the man, she will file for divorce ... or so the wicked men think.

And so we see that beneath the signs of confidence in wicked men there lies a great deal of doubt and self-loathing.

Suppose some man says, 'Sure, this woman is beautiful, but I doubt she will stay beautiful. I have no ethical way of finding fulfillment. All my options lead to ruin, so I might as well live out my days in desperation and pleasurable doubt.'

Such are the thoughts of humans, and this is exactly the way we are separated from God -who refuses to be pleased with a single person if that person doesn't believe God rewards those who earnestly seek him.

The man who doubts the lasting beauty of such a wife is betting against himself. He may doubt he will be able to find fulfillment in any other way other than through surface attraction. He is gambling that he will stay forever a slave to impressions, appearances, and -in a word- deception. Such a man is not only the epitomy of unhappiness (as we all have been), he is ethically and spiritually dead.

Often times women in relationships differ in the appearance of their error, but the true standards of justice have no knowledge or concern of appearances.

Many women suppose men will never love them for who they are. Such women began to take desperate measures: talking much too forwardly, undermining their modesty, and offering to barter against the ethical in exchange for attention -or what they consider to be attention (indeed the men who 'attend' to such women are actually attending to their peripherals).

And so the women who offers to move in with her boyfriend bargains (between the lines) that no worthy man would ever want to live with her in a worthy way. In bargaining thusly how unworthy she becomes to others and especially to herself!

Consider the way Christ described the father's response to the son who did not squander his share of the inheritance. The son who did not run off protested that his father had welcomed back his brother. The father did not say, "Stop thinking about your own interests. You'll never have those things anyway. You should bet against yourself."

Instead the father responded, "You are always with me, and everything I have is yours."

The son who did not run away had made a bargain. He was to some extent bargaining that he was some sort of lesser inheritor -that his father did not want to extend to him his possessions.

The father assured the son who did not run away with the inheritance by telling him he had a lot to gain through his investments. In truth everything that the father owned was already his!

As believers in Christ we are called to live in such a way that we really believe God has good things in store for us, that He has not abadoned us, that our confident wager in the death and ressurrection of Christ will pay off for us in a way that far exceeds any investment or 'sacrifice' we made in coming to Jesus.

So if you want to live a righteous life, hold firmly to the belief that God rewards those who earnestly seek to please Him ...

... and don't bet against yourself!

The Hostage

2009-02-01T08:09:00.001-10:00

Earlier Episodes:
Episodes 1, 2, 3
Episodes 4, 5, 6
Episodes 7, 8, 9
Episodes 10, 11, 12
Episodes 13, 14, 15
Episode 16
Episode 17

Not Forgotten

2009-01-25T08:01:00.005-10:00

"That beauty that you feel on the inside, it's that confidence, that radiance inside of you, that's what glamour is,"
Katie Stam, Miss America 2009

Have you noticed the way babies often have that spontaneous look of gladness? Sometimes I think that's exactly what everyone has, but adults seem to bury that deep under their calculations, their anxities, their posturing ...

Katie Stam, a girl from a small town in Indiana, won the Miss America pageant last night. I found it easy to notice she wasn't pretending to be someone she wasn't. She was just glad to be herself.

My wife got me into watching the episodes before the pageant. She was definitely an underdog candidate coming from a state with a relatively low population in the midwest (where the pool is much smaller, and the state competitions are presumably less competitive than states like New York and California).

But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith!
Matthew 6:30

Katie sang Via Dolorosa for the talent portion of the pageant. My wife has told me this is a fairly common song heard at pageants, but I found it to be a bold way of explaining what her Saviour had done for her.

All this is to say that we should look at babies and folks like Katie Stam and remember the blessedness, the joy of view the life we have been given with simple eyes and thankful hearts.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Matthew 5:8

Him Whose Voice Melts The Earth

2009-01-19T15:20:00.003-10:00

Psalm 46
For the choir director. A Psalm of the sons of Korah, set to Alamoth. A Song.

God is our refuge and strength,
A very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change
And though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea;
Though its waters roar and foam,
Though the mountains quake at its swelling pride. Selah.
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
The holy dwelling places of the Most High.
God is in the midst of her, she will not be moved;
God will help her when morning dawns.
The nations made an uproar, the kingdoms tottered;
He raised His voice, the earth melted.
The LORD of hosts is with us;
The God of Jacob is our stronghold. Selah.
Come, behold the works of the LORD,
Who has wrought desolations in the earth.
He makes wars to cease to the end of the earth;
He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two;
He burns the chariots with fire.
"Cease striving and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."
The LORD of hosts is with us;
The God of Jacob is our stronghold. Selah.

This Psalm is a poetic account of the way human estimations and assurances melt away in the presence of the Almighty God.

He raised His voice, the earth melted.

However consistent we see things happen in this life with our limited vision, God has the power to bend or break every known law in the physical universe. Analysts may judge a nation's military by the size of it's standing army and it's military budget, but it is God who decides the outcome before the battle begins.

He doesn't need bows and arrows to win a war. He doesn't need bloggers like me to spread his message. He doesn't need money, or electicity, or popular support. He needs nothing from the world or in the world, and His reign is not by its consent.

These verses present a terrible and severe claim to those who live according to the normative laws of the world. The day will come when Christ returns and the unbelievers of the world will tremble because they will know (and already know) how they have squandered their days.

At the same time these verses present the children of God with a peace that is higher and more profound than anything our human understanding provides us today or has ever provided anyone.

It is not only the physical laws which God turns back. He not only melts the mountains with his Word. He has melted away the law of death with His word, for his Son is His word. The regulations which have exposed our guilt for what it is have been nullified for those who have faith in him.

God has prepared a place in heaven for the people of Israel, for the people who have become sons of Abraham through faith. God dwells in this place, and he provides the waters that make his people glad.

Praise the Lord, who watches over his people. He delivers them in His timing and with his perfect judgment. He knows their weaknesses, and He gives good things to those who fear Him.

Lillies of the Field

2009-01-11T08:23:00.005-10:00

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Matthew 6:25-34

Jesus, in this passage, does not bring into question the need humans have for food and clothes. It was, after all, God who clothed Adam and Eve after they sinned, and it was Jesus who fed the five thousand and the four thousand.

Many preachers these days pass quickly over the verses and say, 'Stop thinking about your needs and think more about the needs of others.' And, 'Trying to acquire things is selfish.' This isn't the point Jesus is making here.

Jesus tells us his Father knows we need these things. His emphasis is on the priority of these things in our lives and whether each listener is living in faith or not.

There are atleast two places here where Jesus emphasizes the priority of these pursuits. He asks if life is more important than food, and he asks if the body is more important than clothes. If your answer is, 'Yes, I believe life and the body are more important than these things, these objects', then you are obligated to weigh life and the body more heavily than food and clothes.

The second place where Jesus addresses the priority of our tasks is in his command to 'seek first his kingdom and his righteousness'. He does not say, 'Seek only his kingdom...'. Although God does at times require sacrifices from his children, they are not what he desires.

Christ's yoke is easy and his burden is light. He didn't come from heaven to make our lives miserable. In fact, he didn't even come so we could serve him; he came to be a blessing to all human beings for our welfare and also so that we could bless each other.

The other salient aspect of this passage is the emphasis on faith.

The pagans are in a sense led by their doubts. They doubt they will have the food and clothes they wish for. They are always trying to compensate for these doubts by making vigorous efforts and running restlessly after them.

It is important to realize that Christ is not telling his followers they should stop working. His emphasis is that they seek first God's kingdom and that they trust God will extend all these things to them.

In some ways this passage mirrors the words of Paul in his first letter to Timothy. He did not order the rich to give away their riches, but he commanded the rich to not put their trust in their riches. Under divine inspiration Paul tells us the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil (and not that money is the root of all kinds of evil). The faith element is where Paul tells his readers that God "richly supplies us with all things to enjoy".

So the next time you are tempted to worry, ask yourself if your anxiousness for food and clothes is of more value to you than your life and your body. When you doubt that God is able to meet your needs, consider the lillies of the field and remember how God clothes them.

Demons And Tidy Lives

2009-01-04T15:48:00.010-10:00

"When the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and not finding any, it says, `I will return to my house from which I came.'

"And when it comes, it finds it swept and put in order.

"Then it goes and takes along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first."
Luke 11:24-26

People put a lot of energy into sorting, managing, and beautifying the trivial aspects of their lives.

At a certain point, a person comes to ask, "What good is any of this? This life may look good to others, but what does it matter to me? This life maybe orderly, but where is its basis?"

Occasionally such people consider how they get up in the morning and go to work. They go to bed, and they start all over again. They begin to wonder where the meaning is in it all, where their meaning lies.

When people are released from their demons, when they are set free from their obsessions, their anxieties, their neurosis, their dark and lawless thoughts, the demons wander restlessly.

The victims who have been set free often begin their restless activities as well. Such victims busy themselves with empty delusions to the point where their old masters find grounds to return to the places they have left.

The demons are not attracted to people who are 'well swept' and 'put in order' because they like orderliness for its own sake. They recognize the defiance and vanity in jumping through such empty hoops.

When a person begins to understand the emptiness of it all despair sets in. They say, 'All the things I have done amount to nothing, and I am nothing.' The temptation toward suicide becomes more prominent even though it was present from the beginning.

And suicide is the culmination the demonic hosts wish for.

The deception is not that a person has become nothing. Indeed the Apostle writes,

If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
1 Corinthians 13:2

The deception of the demons is to pronounce such a man hopeless.

The demons work diligently to convince men there is no inner life except for tidying and managing the trivialities of life. They do not want anyone to believe in a way out, and Jesus is the way out.

If a man or woman is willing to receive Jesus into their lives, the Holy Spirit will live inside of that man or woman. Such a person discovers what it means to have their needs met with divine completeness.

God does a far superior job of ordering and tidying the lives of people when they allow him into their lives. When a man allows God to guide him, he begins to leave behind his crooked ways, his hypocrisy, and his phoniness. However ugly or unsightly he becomes on the surface, his care for his God and his neighbor as himself gives him an appearance more beautiful than the lillies of the field.

When the demons see that the Most High lives inside a person, they quickly leave. Such a person knows the joy of personally finding God in his or her heart, and that joy disgusts the unclean spirits.

Yes, God is able to plant hope in the strangest of circumstances. If He is there living inside someone, that person will always have the means of finding hope -the hope that nothing else can bring.

Wormwood

2008-12-30T10:49:00.003-10:00

Years ago I met an older man who recalled to me that he once discovered a note attached to the back of a tree in a cemetary.

The note told a story which had been found in a book of myths, from some distant place a long time ago. According to the story, the book of myths was based on some fourth-hand legends which might have been started by pilgrims visiting an inn in the city, which had originally begun as a goat farm.

According to the account, there was once a great empire on the face of the earth. They built tall buildings, harvested large amounts of food, and they had powerful rulers.

The construction workers built their buildings out of clay, mortar, and brick. In every building, they also mixed in a large portion of wormwood, although no one could feel it in the walls or flooring.

And the entertainers came with their elaborate productions. They put on dances, plays, and operas. The characters they portrayed were full of mirth and villainy and wormwood, although no one could see the wormwood on the stage.

The rulers were very powerful and controlled their armies to keep invaders away. Their battles were full of many victories, a few losses, and they were also full of wormwood, which no one could hear during the battles.

Their empire grew in strength, power, culture, beauty, might, and the wormwood flew through its rivers and language and history.

The citizens of the empire were themselves full of wormwood. Although they could not sense it, they knew it was there all along. They knew they what they were dwelling with, the wormwood they personally carried, and they began to die by the thousands.

As the empire was about it enter its golden age, darkness fell across the land, and the people began to vacate the largest cities. In the final years, wolves roamed the streets of the towns and the fields turned into barrenness.

The book of myths has been lost, and the pilgrims no longer pass by this city. The goats have taken over the land where the inn once stood, and the tree in the cemetery has fallen over. The old man who explained everything to me has passed away.

If I had kept quiet about the empire, no one would know it once stood here. The people who once claimed their land to be the greatest was the land consumed with wormwood -the land that decayed, the land that was totally forgotten.

Widows, Orphans, and My Hope for Glory

2008-12-30T08:35:00.003-10:00

I am God's child. This was not always true for I spent the first 19 years of my life orphaned by sin. I was born into a world held in sin's sway and by my own sin, I was made dead to God. It was through faith in Jesus, in recognizing who He is and what He has done for me that I was adopted into the household of faith and became a child of God. My heavenly Father is a perfect father. He is a fit parent in every way and He meets my every need.

Not only am I God's child but I am also a part of the bride of Christ. Before I came to Jesus, I was as a widow struggling alone in this harsh cruel world. I had no protection and I often fell prey to the wickedness around me and also the wickedness that had taken root in me in my constant struggle to survive. My betrothed now watches over me, protects me, never leaves me lonely, and I am never left to feel used and unloved. He fills every longing of my spirit to overflowing and the harsh memories of before are being washed away, day by day, as I bask in the light of His love.

I am no longer a widow nor an orphan for Jesus visited me and brought me Hope beyond measure. He has left me here (though not alone for His Holy Spirit is ever near) in a world filled with widows and orphans. He commands me to do as He has done for me, visit them in their affliction and take to them the Hope that is Jesus. I am to love God above all others and all others as myself, just like Jesus. This is my calling and what it means to be a Christian, that I take the gospel to the world in love. I do not need a degree in theology, all I need is Jesus living in me. All I am required to speak is the truth about Jesus and allow Him to love those who are now widowed and orphaned by sin, through me. I need no longer fear the sin that afflicts them for I belong to Jesus; I in Him and He in me, and sin has no power over me. The power to overcome sin and death resides in me and Jesus keeps me spotless and clean.

Child of God, never forget where Jesus found you. Do not begin to think more highly of yourself than you ought and don't forget the Great Commission. Do not isolate yourselves from the widows and orphans that surround you and seek to go out of the world. You are left here with a purpose and that purpose is to love; not with human love that seeks its own pleasure but with the divine love of Jesus. This divine love that sets God above all others including self and loves all others as we love ourselves. The love of Jesus that is the fulfillment of God's Will and not of human desire is what the world needs. It is Jesus loving others through us that has the power to turn the world upside down and set it straight.

Child of God, Jesus lives in you through faith. Will you also, through faith, allow Him to live through you that those yet afflicted by sin might turn to Him and live?

Paul said, "Christ in you, the hope of glory" and for those of us in whom Jesus lives our hope for glory is the same. May God use us all in the coming year, to reach others for Christ that by faith, they may also be adopted into the family of God as Christ takes up residence in them. May God renew in us all a hope for glory and a desire to see sinners saved!

James 1:27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the Fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted by the world.

Col 1:27-28 To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.

Gift Exchange

2008-12-24T09:02:00.006-10:00

Sometimes I wonder what it would be like if everyone was received into heaven after they died. At first I suppose people would say they liked it, but then they'd start getting curious about hell. Some would want to document hell for academic purposes, calling themselves professors. Others would lead tours down there calling themselves curators. Films would be made by people calling themselves actors and directors. The scientists would study the brimstone. Of course they would say they officially lived in heaven, that they entered into life ... but I suspect heaven would quickly become an empty place.

There is an old legend about Christopher Robin, that he once lost his bear Winnie the Pooh. After searching the Hundred Acre Wood, the boy found his bear at a consignment store. After producing some quarters, a few pennies, and a paper clip, the owner said Christopher Robin did not have enough -even after the boy told him it was all he had. Christopher then told the owner, "There is one more thing I have ... love." The owner, surprised, told the boy, "Well, that is certainly enough." And the boy left with his bear.

The sooner you start testing, the sooner you can start questioning the results.
1st Law of Scientific Analysis

One day all the workers came to the boss complaining the rules were too difficult to understand. "We need a way of knowing immediately what is acceptable and what is not." They said. "Yes," Said the boss, "That is exactly what you need. Here is our new standard: love. As long as your behavior is in love, they are acceptable to this company and to me." The workers grumbled. "I thought he was going to give us a formula or tell a joke. These serious types are no fun."

Some crusaders were given the task of building a make-shift fort out of a pile of ruins. One of the soldiers asked, "Should we find out what these bricks were originally intended for?". "No," Responded the officer. "It is enough for us to know how we ought to use them ... to find their purpose for us."

"I'd like to be beautiful." Said the young girl.
"Beautiful girls are unhappy." Said the older girl.
"I suppose you're right. It would be better to be smart." Said the young girl.
"Intelligent people are the most miserable of all." Said the older girl.

I wonder what it would have been like if the young boy Judas encountered the three wise men on their way to see the baby Jesus. He would probably talk about how the king they seek is so excellent that he needs no gifts and that they should be given to the poor. Then he would probably try to sell the gifts and keep the money.

The pastor mentioned to his wife that he would like to go to her company's Christmas party, but he didn't know if he was invited. The wife said she would find out, and left. He went into his study and began wondering to himself how he should preach about heaven next Sunday. "Lord," He prayed, "What is the single most important thing I should know about heaven? What is it about heaven that we ought to all remember?" Suddenly he noticed that he had received an email from his wife. It said, "I asked specifically on your behalf and you are personally invited."

Picture from here.

A Cold Winter's Night

2008-12-23T01:34:00.004-10:00

Winter and death are synonymous in many aspects and as one ages the dread of each can often be equal. When winter comes, all chronic underlying illnesses gain the ascendancy and many who are sick or old or both often do not survive the winter.

My thoughts are here, upon winter, because I am weak and it is very cold and I fear I might not survive. I have seen many winters but not as many as some and I would like to see more and pass through them unscathed. On this cold winter's night when my aching body will no longer let me sleep and I can't find relief, I long only for spring. I long for the warmth that comes when the earth in its orbit begins to draw nearer to the sun. I long for the snow and ice to be melted and then forgotten as the earth moves ever closer to summer's solstice. I long for the fullness of life that is summer.

There are times when winter creeps into my very soul and as my heart freezes over it seems that God has forgotten me. Just as the earth at winter solstice is very far from the sun, so too has my life's orbit taken me to where the warmth of God's love is nearly forgotten. I do not have the power to draw myself back for the orbit of my life is laid down for me by forces that I cannot control. The colder my spirit becomes the more I doubt that I will survive my soul's winter solstice.

If my spiritual survival depends upon me and my ability to correct the orbit of my life then winter will become the permanent state of my soul. However, it is God Who is sovereign and not I and my life has been pre-appointed to me. Through all the seasons of my life, (created by my orbit around God, the very center of life) He is in governance. Though the winter is painful, it is necessary. Spiritual winter tests all that is strong and weak in me; bending what is strong in recognition of an all powerful God as all that is weak and sickly in me dies.

This winter I am reminded of spiritual winter as my body, that is slowly crumbling from its weakness and the illnesses that plague me, is being sorely tested by the cold. The world in which I live is being tested also for it and I are made of the same elements and even the sun will someday, pass away. My physical eyes and mind tell me that all things will someday die and it is winter that will have final and complete victory over all things living. What my eyes see and all that I have learned from observation leaves me with no hope. Dust to dust and ashes to ashes. This is the vertical view produced by the dead of winter in my soul.

It is Jesus Who opened my spiritual eyes and He has not left me blind to hope. Though it appears that winter will swallow me, He has filled my mind with the knowledge of God that guides me through the long dark night and the life threatening cold of this season of my life. He speaks to me through His Holy Spirit and gives me comfort and warmth as my spirit, moving upon the orbit He has set for me, is drawn ever closer to Him. As I draw near to God, the deadly cold that has invaded me begins to melt away and I find assurance that winter will not last forever; and if my weakened body should crumble and not survive winter, all is yet well with my soul. For when my body does finally crumble to dust and ashes all that is weak will be removed from me and my spirit will rest in Jesus and from that day forward, I will know only the fullness of Life.

Unleavened Bread or Eating With Dirty Hands

2008-12-21T07:58:00.002-10:00

Matthew 15:1-11 Then some pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, "Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don't wash their hands before they eat!

Jesus replied, "And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, 'Honor you father and mother' and "Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.' But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, 'Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is a gift devoted to God,' he is not to 'honor his father and mother' with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: "'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.'"

Jesus called the crowd to him and said, "Listen and understand. What goes into a man's mouth does not make him 'unclean,' but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him 'unclean.'"

Matthew 16:5-12 When they went across the lake, the disciples forgot to take bread. "Be careful," Jesus said to them. "Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees."

They discussed this among themselves and said, "It is because we didn't bring any bread."

Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked, "You of little faith, why are you talking among yourselves about having no bread? Do you still not understand? Don't you remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered? Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered? How is it you don't understand that I was not talking to you about bread? But be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees" Then they understood that he was not telling them to guard against the yeast used in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

When Jesus walked the earth, He often went head to head with the religious leaders of His day. Religious leaders have not changed much in the 2,000 plus years since then. They are only men who need to put potatoes on the table as all men do and religion is their means of making a living. This is the basic temptation that takes them away from pointing others to Christ and instead toward religion. Jesus removes our need for religion by bringing us into a right relationship with God (thereby, making religion a practice that flows from Christ living in us rather than works designed to lift us to God) and also makes us independent of religious leaders. This is the deception of the devil, that church attendance, tithing to pay ministers and build buildings, and working tirelessly to build the ministry of a man as we listen to his direction and are careful to follow all of his rules and teachings are what is required of those who profess Jesus. This is a type of obedience but it is not living a spiritual life under the personal leading of the Holy Spirit. These are not bad things, in and of themselves, but if they are in opposition to what the Spirit is directing you to do personally then to forsake that direction in order to obey a religious leader is sin. When that leader has forsaken his calling and fallen to the temptation of maintaining his livelihood or even fallen to the greater temptation of gaining wealth and power for himself or his organization, he is deep in sin already and our compliance with him only adds to the burden of sin he has chosen to bear. If our leaders are caught up in this sin and their teachings become a leavening of the scriptures, meaning that they teach good things with a wrong spirit, then we must be faithful to test the spirits and then do as they teach us to do but not with the same spirit that they teach them by. This is the leaven of the Pharisees and it is still working in the house of God today.

There is also a leavening of the believer that takes hold of hearts who have a desire to be elevated above their current circumstances or station in life. This leaven, this wrong heart attitude, makes us vulnerable to the leaven that taints the faith of our leaders. It allows us to believe that we can earn God's blessings and have all that we want in the world when we are careful to do as our church, our 'spiritual' leaders teach us to do. Our wrong desire causes to begin to believe that if we are there every time the church doors are open, if we give above and beyond to the church out of our material wealth, and if all of our free time is spent working the programs of our church, then surely, God's blessings will be ours in this life and their will also be crowns for us in Heaven. This leaven of the believer is the same yeast that puffs up those who mislead us, it is the leaven of self.

Jesus teaches us that if we want to live then we must lose our life. We must take up our cross and follow Him. It is when we seek to save our life that we lose it. When we begin to fear that we will not have what we need to eat or to wear and stop trusting God to provide those things for us, then we have taken the first step away from walking by faith and have instead, begun to walk by sight. It is then that the traditions of men begin to make sense to us. They are practical and, surely, they will produce, through our correct handling of them, what we need to survive. The principles of God are good principles and will make even the life of a nonbeliever better but when a believer trades walking according to the Spirit for Biblical principles only then He has already stepped away from his or her calling in Christ. There is no eternal life in following principles and when God's personal leading is taken out of the picture then what follows is the traditions of men taught as the oracles of God. Rules, and rules, and more rules on what to wear, what to read, what to watch, who to befriend, who to turn your back on, all based upon the Word of God but with a spirit that is far from Him. The spirit of man's traditions is that of a futile attempt to make the things of man eternal apart from God. The spirit that gives the traditions of men their power is a spirit of man's dependence upon other men that are viewed to be greater than the common man. When we begin to fear our circumstance instead of fearing God and trusting Him to provide, we are made prey to those who make of themselves to be special holy men with the answers that can protect us in life. Their teachings may well make our temporary, earthly life somewhat better but that temporary safety and security comes with bondage to those whom we have given power over us.

A believer who has fallen into this trap has fallen into a very dark place. It is a place that causes Satan to rejoice for he knows that as long as we are in bondage to religious leaders and their traditions, our lives will be largely ineffectual for Christ. How better to defeat a Christian than to keep him or her in a place where their faults are continually pointed to and labeled as their failing of God and giving them the responsibility of righting the matter through correct choosing. How better to keep others from coming to Christ than to keep those who know Him in a world of their own making, kept separate from those sinners that need only Jesus to be free from their sin. How better to hide the Light that has come into the world than to surround those who are of that Light with darkness by convincing them that they are responsible for keeping themselves free of sin through their own works. How better to keep these sinners saved by Grace from living by that same Power that saved them than to replace faithfulness to God with faithfulness to the institutionalized church. How better to return such a one to a state similar to the one from which he or she was saved than to replace the personal leading of the Holy Spirit with leading of men, special in the sight of men, and their traditions.

Let us do as Jesus says and eschew the leaven of the Pharisees and of the religious leaders of our own time. Let's not forsake gathering together with other believers but also let us not allow that group of believers and the men they choose as leaders to place themselves between us and God. No matter how intelligent or charismatic a leader may be, let us not forget that he is only a man and not the mediator between us and our Heavenly Father. God may bless us through him but we are not dependent upon him to reach God. God has reached us through Jesus and nothing can ever again separate us from His love. We have been washed of all our sin by the shed blood of Jesus; our sin is covered and God no longer sees it. Jesus tells us to come and eat His flesh and drink His blood for this is spiritual food indeed. It will not pass through us as other food giving us only temporary sustenance but will actually, produce Jesus in us and make us like Him. We are invited to this feast of faith, a feast of unleavened bread, with our hands yet dirty with sin that no outward washing can remove; for when this feasting upon Jesus is over, our hands will be made permanently clean from the inside out and we will never be defiled again by anything that comes out of us. We will no longer sin. This is the manifestation of the eternal life that we receive only from Jesus in the moment that we first begin to believe in Him. There is no principle of conduct or rule to follow, Biblical or otherwise, that can replace this gift of faith in Jesus. There is no power like the Power of God in Christ.

Jesus lives in us and sin no longer has the power to defile us. Walk according to the Spirit, be free from sin, go where ever He directs you to go and fear not! Walk according to the Spirit and see the Laws of God fulfilled through your life. Come to Him in the trust and innocence of a child, dirty hands and all; and be sustained forever and ever more, eternally, upon the unleavened bread of faith. Amen.

Jesus, My Reason

2008-12-19T22:53:00.005-10:00

JoyIndestructible has recently offered her approach to understanding Christmas, and she makes some good points. I am unable to tell by her style if she is describing her approach or prescribing it for others.

If our Christianity is nothing more than venerating a day on the calendar, then it is worthless. I cannot agree with her more on this point. Nothing counts except for faith expressing itself through love.

Here is the devotional truth: one day we will all present our lives to the One who gave us life. He will not care which days we ate, which days we fasted, which days we celebrated, which days we stopped others from celebrating. Nothing will count except faith expressing itself through love. Everything else will be consumed as by fire. Everything not done in faith is sin.

More than anything else, we must understand that against love there is no law. It doesn't matter if someone is jumping on their bed, cutting the tags off their pillows, watching questionable shows on television, etc ... if they are behaving in love then there is no law that stands against them.

I lend Joy the microphone not out of my human calculation but out of my inner conviction. She writes like someone who understands what is important to God, and she sets a good model for others. I have a lot to learn from her.

My preference is to 'let each person be convinced in his own mind', and I wish to say nothing to discourage those who prefer not to celebrate Christmas on December 25th from the conviction of their hearts. What I do wish is to show how the issue is neither here nor there, and to offer some assurance to those who celebrate the gift of Jesus on December 25th.

Consider Joy's words:

I know that Jesus was not born on December 25th so I don't celebrate that day as His birthday.

As soon as I see the word, "Know" I get nervous. Do you really know Jesus was not born on December 25th? How many people were using the Gregorian calendar back then? Have you talked to eyewitnesses who recorded the exact date? What if someone received Jesus into their life on December 25th? Couldn't such a person claim Christ came down into their own life on that day?

I am sure that if He wanted His birthday celebrated, He would have made known the true date and would have commanded that we do so. He did neither and instead, the only religious observation He commanded was the celebration of His last supper.

If you are really so sure, if you are certain in the serious certainty from God that brings men assurance in the face of death, I have no argument and I have no wish to destroy such a measure of faith.

Yet consider this:

The Bible tells us that Jesus celebrated the feast of Dedication. What is the Hebrew word for dedication? It is Hannakuh. Yes, that is right, Jesus celebrated Hannakuh.

In my opinion, most of the Hannakuh stories are myths added years later to a story about purifying the temple. This doesn't matter as far as I'm concerned: Jesus' dedication of himself to God was something that was very real, and it was not delayed and made up later.

Where does it say in the Old Testament that we are to celebrate Hannakuh? It doesn't command us (or anyone) to celebrate Hannakuh anywhere in the Bible. Jesus could have said, 'Well, if God wanted us to celebrate it, He would have put it into the letter of the Scriptures.' The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Jesus' celebration of Hannakuh was righteous because he celebrated righteously.

To the pure, all things are pure, but to the righteous who do not believe nothing is pure.

Does Christmas have a pagan origin? Who knows? What do you call Christmas? If you consider Christmas to be a continuation of an earlier pagan/animistic holiday, then maybe for you it has a pagan origin. If you consider Christmas as a replacement for that holiday, or if for you Christmas was a time of repentence where God gave you the gift of his Son and this is the origin of your understanding of Christmas, then for you it has nothing pagan whatsoever.

This I believe in my heart: Santa Claus was no pagan. Saint Nicholaus was a person who was recognized as a believer in Jesus Christ by the church in the fourth century. Despite his mistakes (ahem, punching Arius in the face), he lead a godly example for other believers to follow, and in my heart I believe people are served by having an example of a person who lived Christ's words: "It is more blessed to give than receive". Also, Santa Claus believed Jesus was God when that was not widely held (or at least not in some parts of the empire).

Generally speaking, I fail to see how the origins mean anything.

If God originally instituted the Levitical priesthood, does that mean all Levitical priests were blessed? No, many of them, such as Eli (and later priests like Annias) were severely punished by God. Just because something means something to a person who does one thing, it doesn't follow that it means the same thing to another. There were also godly Levites as well.

The children of Israel left Egypt with treasures the Egyptians gave them to leave. These treasures were originally obtained by pagans who lusted after more possessions. Was it wrong for the Israelites to take the treasures? No, it meant something completely different to them. Their faith sanctified the treasures in spite of their origins.

I want all men to live in freedom with one another. We should not impose rules on each other that are not in the Bible. I support Joy to this end. I command no man to celebrate on any given calendar day, and I insist that he be given the freedom to celebrate what God has done on any given day -especially for the day called "Today".

If JoyIndestructible knows of people who are forcing people to observe Christmas by the Catholic calendar she is right to rebuke them. If she forbids people to remember the gift of Christ on December 25th, she forbids people to do what is pleasing to God.

We would all do well to remember that the wise men we see in the nativities (of pagan origin) brought their gifts (of pagan origin) to the Lord. They left their lands as soon as they saw the star. Most scholars think they arrived long after he was born (maybe December 25th, who knows?).

Did God rebuke these wise men who brought these gifts? Did the infant Jesus tell them that they picked the wrong date to bring them their most precious things?

No. I believe God honored these travelers, even though they were pagans.

So let us not become contentious about these matters (just as Paul refused to become contentious). Instead let us recognize the earnest efforts others make to draw near to God. Let us remember the woman who asked Jesus about the right way to worship God (whether it had to be in Jerusalem) and was told that the true worshipers are the ones who worship in spirit and in truth (which is to say, inwardly).

In all things may God reign in the hearts of those who fear him!

I have borrowed the nativity picture from here.

The Reason

2008-12-18T18:26:00.003-10:00

Jesus is the reason for the season; this phrase that has become the modern Christian mantra is true. Jesus is the reason for every season as in Him and through Him, God has created all things and in Him all things are held together. For the Christian, Jesus and telling others of Him is our reason for living during this winter holiday season and also every day of the year. We belong to Jesus and not to ourselves and our salvation is reason enough for celebration through-out the present season and for as many seasons as God has appointed us to walk upon this earth.

I know I have strayed from the original intent of this popular mantra and given it my own meaning. I have done so with a purpose in mind, that of reminding myself and other Christians who read this of what we should be focused upon during this time of year that so many hold to be special. Though many of us say, "Jesus is the reason", write it on cards, and have it painted on store front windows, I'm not sure that our words are really an expression of right focus. In recent years, it seems to have a more political meaning and has become a kind of battle cry against those secular progressives that want Christian values removed as the underpinning of the United States government and culture. Though I believe that Christians should be involved in politics and make an effort to keep Christian thought and values upon the common table of ideas, I don't think politics should be the focus of our faith nor where we place our hope for a better world. There are greater battles to be fought, at this present time, than keeping nativity scenes in court houses and pressuring retailers to continue saying, "Merry Christmas" rather than "Happy Holidays". Our focus, as always, should be on spreading the gospel and seeing people come to faith in Jesus Christ.

This may be shocking to some but I no longer celebrate a traditional Christmas and I have come to this decision because of my deep love for Jesus. First of all, I am not a Catholic and Mass has no part in my devotional life. I do celebrate the birth of Jesus each time that I read about it in the Bible and every time that God brings the wonder of His earthly incarnation to my mind. I know that Jesus was not born on December 25th so I don't celebrate that day as His birthday. I am sure that if He wanted His birthday celebrated, He would have made known the true date and would have commanded that we do so. He did neither and instead, the only religious observation He commanded was the celebration of His last supper. Jesus did not come to establish a new religion and rituals, traditions, and special days were not of great concern to Him. Jesus came to die for the sins of all of us and to save us by imparting eternal life to us through faith in Him.

I no longer bring a tree into my home or decorate as I know that Christmas trees are Druid in origin and my conscience won't allow me to do this even though decorating at Christmas was once my favorite part of the holiday. I do not tell my grandchildren about Santa nor participate in that game as Santa is also of Pagan origin and Paganism has no part in my life in any season. I belong to Jesus. The decision to eschew the Pagan practices that are a big part of the Christmas celebration did not come directly in response to my gaining knowledge of their origins. For many years, I bought into the notion that it was harmless and that it brought lost persons to church and gave Christians an opportunity to share Jesus. In recent years, Paganism has become a very popular religion and even if many Christians do not know where Christmas really came from, Pagans do. I could no longer be comfortable with such an alliance with the world that I feel can be confusing to those who do not know Jesus. I want Pagan people to be able to see the difference between Jesus and the gods that they embrace and for that reason, I have separated myself from many traditional Christmas practices.

I do not put myself into debt buying presents. I don't expect presents from others. I do not build high expectations of a special day when all should be perfect in myself or in any other person that I have influence over. I do not stress myself out with Church programs and performances either in taking part in them or attending them. I don't overwork myself cooking big dinners nor do I spend a lot of time making or eating unhealthy food and giving it to others. My body is a temple of the Holy Spirit and stress and eating wrong hurts my body. My conscience will no longer allow me to harm my body or do anything that encourages others to do the same.

Jesus is the reason why I have made all of these changes in my life and in the way I observe December 25th. Yet, December 25th is a day to be redeemed as is all the time that God has appointed to me to live on planet earth. I am not on a crusade to educate Christians on the evils of Christmas but I do desire that all the words that I write and speak be edifying to my brothers and sisters in Christ. I do not judge other Christians who choose to observe Christmas in the traditional American way and I do not wish to add to the controversy that also seems to have become an American Christmas tradition. Though there are many things I do not do in observation of this day, I can't go out of the world even though I am not part of it and there are many things that I do participate in. I enjoy church and I go to church at this time of year as I endeavor to do the rest of the year. I love to praise and worship Jesus with fellow Christians. It is always a good thing to have extra time off to spend with family and friends and I take advantage of it. I enjoy buying gifts that I can afford for the people I love and I do. It is a good thing to reach out to the poor during the winter months and give them something warm to wear or something extra to eat. If Christmas reminds me of this, I do so. I hope to always be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and careful to perform all the good works that God presses upon me to do. I desire that my life be an expression of the Love that is God and December 25th is as an important of a day to do so as any other.

So you see, Jesus is my reason for my choosing to observe Christmas as I do. I am not asking that any other do as I do. Just as Jesus did not come to establish a new religion, neither am I much interested in reforming any religion. I am interested in making Jesus known to those who do not know Him. I am interested in encouraging my brothers and sisters in Christ to keep their eyes and hearts set on Him. Most of all, I am interested in working out my own salvation with fear and trembling and living my life as the Holy Spirit insists that I live it. My prayer and my hope for any and all who may read this post is that Jesus also be your reason, your guide for living, during this holiday season and all of the seasons of your life.

When Darkness Fades To Light!

2008-12-16T23:22:00.005-10:00

Temporal life is a fearful life fraught with the constant struggle of avoiding all that threatens to bring life to an end. The only certainty of temporal life is death. The reverse of avoiding danger is remembering all of the right things to do in a futile attempt to make one's self stronger than all that threatens us with death. For each of us, the battle will someday, be lost.Some prefer to shake their fists in the face of death rather than live such a careful and fearful life. They deny their fear of mortality and embrace it by emotionally numbing themselves to that fear through risky and destructive behavior. They often give up early on and decide to eat, drink, and be merry and live this short life as they please. The problem is that this behavior often does not lead to sudden, painless death but to many years of suffering long after the party is over.

There is a better way to live, even in this temporary body of flesh and blood, than by following the dark light of fear. There is a way to be free of the fear of death that does not require emotional numbing. There is a way to overcome and rise above all that is set to destroy us without having to constantly be aware of every danger set against us. There is a way to live joyfully in the midst of every pain and sorrow that is common to us all. The Way is Jesus the true Light that fills those who believe with eternal life.

Faith in Jesus is victory not only over the fear of death but of death itself. Just as when the sun rises and all the lights of the night fade and then vanish, so too does death fade and then vanish in the heart of every believer who trusts Jesus and places their life in His hands. Even when their bodies crumble into the dust, the elements of the earth from which they were formed, that Light burns even brighter than when in full health. In the most hopeless moment of temporal life, the hope of Jesus overcomes every dark fear and has the power to guide the spirit home.

If you are tired of living in fear beneath the shadow of death, turn to the Light that is only, Jesus. If partying no longer satisfies and the safety of riches has made itself known to you as a lie, turn from the way you are living to the Way. Turn away from the lies of the world to He Who is Truth. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He will lead you out of the darkness making your temporal life abundant as He fills you with His eternal life. Jesus is Life without end.

The Evolution of Snobbery

2008-12-14T15:49:00.001-10:00

Roger Ebert recently reviewed the Ben Stein film Expelled. You can read Roger's review here.

Some of my friends have been talking about how Roger doesn't 'understand' Intelligent Design or Creationism. Personally, I think he understands these views well enough. The problem is the snobbery he reviews them with.

This film is cheerfully ignorant, manipulative, slanted, cherry-picks quotations, draws unwarranted conclusions, makes outrageous juxtapositions (Soviet marching troops representing opponents of ID), pussy-foots around religion (not a single identified believer among the ID people), segues between quotes that are not about the same thing, tells bald-faced lies, and makes a completely baseless association between freedom of speech and freedom to teach religion in a university class that is not about religion.

Often times film critics like to find the most colorful ways to put down a film. I wonder if it is an unspoken way that critics rank each other (certainly Robert Ebert is the king). In any case, any venue can go bad when it is overly colorful, and I find this critique (as his others) goes far over the line.

If a critic wants to say he doesn't like a movie, he is always entitled to his opinion. I would prefer it if he could articulate which elements he does not like, but if he wants to say that the movie is an unlikable movie -he really has far exceeded his say. This is the origin of snobbery.

Take some of Roger's claims here:

[His film] ... draws unwarranted conclusions ...

Isn't this just a snobby way of saying you didn't agree with the conclusions?

Roger is not content to voice his opinion as an individual, so he increases his scope to say -not only does he not agree with the conclusions- these conclusions are totally impossible to agree with no matter who you are.

Roger Ebert makes the accusation that Ben Stein leaves out that he has religious beliefs. That seems like a valid criticism to me (although not in the scoffing way Ebert says it). On the other hand, Roger Ebert is not up front about what his pressupositions are.

In some ways the film and the critique from Ebert suffer from the same problem: neither side is owning up to what they believe because they consider their opinions in themselves to be petty, trivial, and meaningless.

The scary thing about this that if you don't take your own opinions seriously, your opinions are not serious opinions. Both men are lacking in their ability to fess up to the fact that they have made interpretations.

The problem isn't just with film-reviewers who hide their closet secular agenda.

Personally, I am hard pressed to say who wields more snootiness: film critics or darwinsists. Expelled makes reference of this as well.

One of the people interviewed by Stein (who if I am not mistaken is something of an ally of Richard Dawkins) notes that Dawkins is a slimy lizard. The snobbiness of secular scientists is so vast, it is hard for their own side not to see it.

Again, the origin of the snobbiness is the insistence on forming opinions for other people. Evolutions insist their interpretations are not, in fact interpretations at all. They are 'conclusions'.

Even though Darwinists have never been able to prove their findings (and there really is no way to do it), they still proclaim it as (and fight to claim) that evolution is a fact. If you want to see an example of how snotty these scientists are, check out this so-called encyclopedia article on Evolution as Fact.

Wikipedia praises Darwin as the man who "realized" the "fact of evolution". The snowball really began rolling down the hill as soon as Wikipedia first started claiming to have a 'neutral', non-point of view perspective (by the way, another way to describe the condition of having a non-point of view is "blindness").

The problem is not that secularists are incorrect (and I believe they are very, very incorrect). The true problem is these people believe they know everything, and their pretentions have led them to abuse their roles as scientists to soapbox for their opinions.

At the same time, these men are really cowards in that they are too ashamed of their opinions to own up to them. This is why Jesus insisted that people answer for themselves when he asked them who he was.

From the perspective of mere devotion, it must be noted that as soon as someone becomes snobby about a subject, it means they do not love that subject.

For example, there are a lot of people who call themselves 'wine experts', (surely they must know everything about wine!). They always appeal to their laundry lists of rules about what foods go with what wines, which areas grow the best grapes (Can you imagine that? To claim that some places in the world have better wine because they were grown in a certain place? I have never been able to taste a difference like that; I don't mind it if that makes me unsuitably cultured).

If a person really loved wine, they wouldn't call themselves wine experts. They would call themselves wine lovers. But how many people call themselves wine lovers? People would think they were a bunch of drunkards putting on a show of their education and refinery, which is exactly what wine snobs are. They are ashamed, so they call themselves wine experts.

There are also experts in the fields of money laundering, kidnapping, terrorism, extortion, and -I might add- science.

And that brings us back to the theory of evolution: the scientists who profess evolution never love it, or talk as if they love it. The ones I have seen (like Richard Dawkins) talk like it is immaterial whether they even like the theory or not ... this is done to hide their biases, but also because they do not really care for their theory.

From a strictly scientific approach, it is irrelevant whether an examiner loves his theory or not, and that is why the strictly scientific approach fails to explain life. It is ignores (or pretends to ignore) the prefernces and love of the individual. It is totally detached from a person's inner values.

From the authority of the Word of God we are not to take up the mockery and scoffing of the film critics, and we are not to live by sight (as the scientists do). We must remember that it is very easy to see how unhappy these people are. They win their university fellowships (sometimes), but their whole lives are just for show. The truth is their lives have become a burden for them, and that is why the talk about everything in such a disinterested, uncaring way.

We are instead to take full responsibility for our opinions. We should daily examine the things we love, and ask ourselves how zealous we are about valuing those things. This is the path that leads to happiness. This is the perspective of mere devotion.

Just Another Billboard

2008-12-08T21:01:00.002-10:00

Full size image here.

This was statement was often quoted in the writings of Soren Kierkegaard.

Terms of Victory

2008-12-06T09:11:00.007-10:00

"Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes."
Ephesians 6:11

The phrase 'spiritual warfare' has become such a cliche expression in churches, that it is hard to see how it continues to mean the same thing it originally intended (or anything at all for that matter). So often teachings on 'spiritual warfare' only give us the perspective of how a successful commander leads his troops into battle.

There are important truths to know about how God leads His troops into battle, (how our adversary is not flesh and blood, how our God is not vulnerable to the enemy in any way, etc.), but clearly the shoes of our commander-in-chief are not the ones we called to fill. Although we are not God, spiritual warfare writings often speak to us as though the task of highest importance were to have the top-level view of the battlefield.

We forget how the Bible speaks to us: not as an army in masse, but as soldiers in God's army.

"...so that you can take your stand..."

It is important to note that believers are not called to fight against all the forces of darkness. We are not commandos called to bring down the entire army of the enemy. That task can only be completed by God. Paul instead tells the individual troops, "you can take your stand".

If the entire army of the devil is united against a single believer -if this is what that believer must stand against- God will give that believer all the stength he or she needs to put on their full armor and oppose the enemy and all his forces.

A soldier does not need to understand all things, but he does need to understand the terms of victory. He is not called to bring the enemy to an unconditional surrender. He is not called to bring the enemy to an epic, world-historical finish. The soldier of Christ is commanded to be victorious with regard to his own self.

"... your stand against the devil's schemes."

It is important to realize what our enemy is after. He is not trying to tear down church buildings (although that may be happening in parts of the world like China), and he is not trying to tear down the governments where Christians live (although the people may be quite capable of doing that on their own). Our enemy is trying to take down individual soldiers. Just as we are called to stand aginst the devil's schemes, the devil has called his forces with their fiery arrows to stand against us.

We are the battlefield.

This is what makes the cost of defeat so peculiar. When the devil secures a victory against someone, the world may continue spinning, the nations may go on their way, but the person himself is defeated, and the defeat is supremely personal.

Just as the cost of defeat is very personal, so too the victory is a tremendously personal victory. The day is coming when all the battles shall be over and the soldiers shall present themselves to their commander.

On that day it will not matter that the battles have come to an amicable conclusion, or that collateral damage was avoided, etc. What will matter is how well the soldiers succeeded in standing, and Paul makes it clear that God has fully empowered us with the ability to stand.

Therefore we ought to stand, and we should do it in the full armor he has entrusted us with. It will not matter how well we understood the battlefield, or how well we took someone else's stand, or how finally the defeat against the enemy was concluded. Our orders are to take up the full armor of God in standing firm against the forces of the devil.

Picture from here.

A Thanksgiving Psalm

2008-11-27T10:39:00.003-10:00

Psalm 103
Of David

Praise the Lord, O my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Praise the Lord, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits-
who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.

The Lord works righteousness
and justice for all the oppressed.

He made known his ways to Moses,
his deeds to the people of Israel:
The Lord is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in love.
He will not always accuse,
nor will he harbor his anger forever;
he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
As a father has compassion on his children,
so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him;
for he knows how we are formed,
he remembers that we are dust.
As for man, his days are like grass,
he flourishes like a flower of the field;
the wind blows over it and it is gone,
and its place remembers it no more.
But from everlasting to everlasting
the Lord's love is with those who fear him,
and his righteousness with their children's children-
with those who keep his covenant
and remember to obey his precepts.

The Lord has established his throne in heaven,
and his kingdom rules over all.

Praise the Lord, you angels,
you mighty ones who do his bidding,
who obey his word.
Praise the Lord, all his heavenly hosts,
you his servants who do his will.
Praise the Lord, all his works
everywhere in his dominion.
Praise the Lord, O my soul.

Thanks for visiting. I wish you all an excellent Thanksgiving!

Worth

2008-11-22T09:52:00.005-10:00

To be a human being and be without use to another is to know hopelessness. There is no value of self if we are not in some way of value to those we seek to please. If we have no one to please, we have nothing. There is no self-fulfilment if we are not valued by others no matter how much we pamper ourselves or seek our own way. To live a life of self-service is to live out life in an airless vacuum and to be utterly alone.

To know Jesus and to also desire to live for Him as Lord is to live a life of great worth; not only to Jesus but to all the others we come in contact with during our service to Him. There is no hopelessness in Jesus for whether we are strong or weak, He values us and uses us right where we are. In the prime of our physical strength, He uses us to care and tend to those who are weak. In our spiritual and emotional strength, He uses us to lift those who are down and spiritually bereft. In Christ, it is also quite possible to be weak but strong at the same time for it is in our weakness that Jesus outshines our own selves and is made visible to others. When we are weak, we have no choice but to depend upon Him. Even upon our sick bed when we are too sick to move a muscle, Jesus is very near and fills us with hope as He brings to mind all of those that we have nothing but time for as we lift them continually in prayer. Our loved ones may miss all the things we do for them physically but those temporal services cannot compare to the eternal blessing of having every action and every trial bathed in prayer by a precious saint who's last service on earth in this present time is that of prayer without ceasing. There is no church more enabled and empowered to reach others with the gospel than one that is continually lifted to God by these very usefull and valuble saints.

If you find yourself in a hospital bed or continually in the doctors office and you are thinking that God has placed you upon the shelf, open your spiritual eyes and see! All around you are the sick who do not know Jesus who's eternal future might be changed by an encouraging word from Jesus through you. Look into the faces of the tired and overworked health care providers who may have no hope but science and as they desperately try to mend the crumbling bodies of others, they are crumbling themselves from within by the emptiness of their own spirits. With the eyes of Jesus, look into these faces and see your worth, your value, and forget for a time, your own pain. There is no pain pill that compares to that filling and empowering of the Holy Spirit that lifts us upon eagle's wings to overcome all obstacles when we are fully operating within the full Will of God.

Dear Christian, no matter where you find yourself today, whether it be in sickness or in health, in poverty or wealth, in trial or celebration, look to Jesus and know the joy of being of upmost value to Him. He died for us so that we might live eternally with Him. He has left us here so that through us He may call others to that same eternal life found only in Him. He empowers us to do that work and protects us and holds us through every challenge that meets us as we walk the narrow path with only Him. We are His bride and He is coming soon to gather us to Him. On that day, there will be no more doubt caste upon our joy by the shadow of death that has in futillity set itself to destroy us and the work God has appointed to us, through our circumstance.

Look up! Our redemption is very near! Be lifted up as by the Spirit you are tucked safely beneath His wing as you soar above all trials, cruel circumstance, and even the crucible of physical pain and death to a day when the shadow of death exists no more and there is no more hopelessness and pain. Rejoice! Rejoice where ever you are today in the glory that soon we will celebrate together in Him.

Your Choice

2008-11-18T21:31:00.004-10:00

Don't just let this one pass you by.

It will be out of your window before you know it.

On Painted Tape

2008-11-09T08:39:00.004-10:00

Opera Singer
by Cake

I am an Opera Singer
I stand on painted Tape
It tells me where I'm going
And where to throw my cape

I call my co-star's brother
I call my co-star's name
I play both good and evil parts
I sing to Verdi's play

And every single morning
By 10 AM I'm dressed
My rehearsals last for hours and hours
With diligence I have been blessed

Some people they call me monster
Some people they call me saint
My talent feeds my darker side
Yet no one will complain

I am an opera singer
I sing in foreign lands
I've sung for kings in Europe
And emperors in Japan

And after each performance
People stand around and wave
Just to tell me that they love my voice
Just to tell me that I'm great

I am an opera singer
I will sing when you're all dead
I sing the mountains crumbling apart
I sing what can't be said

I am an opera singer
I sing in foreign lands
Most people seem to know my name
Or at least know who I am

If you ever get a chance to purchase Cake's album "Comfort Eagle" I recommend you go for it. It has a lot of fluffy pop-culture sounding arrangements with surprising lyrical depth.

Their first track on the album is the song "Opera Singer". The song is not performed in an opera style at all, yet the opera singer is oddly believable.

One of the main themes in the song is the way the opera singer is not really in control of his own choices. The painted tape on the stage tells him where he's going and where to throw his cape. He also boasts about the rigors of his schedule. I can't tell if he is crediting his "diligence" or his schedule for his success. Either way he is not behind the wheel of his life.

Another peculiar theme in this song is the way the opera singer plays the roles of so many different people yet has little or no understanding of who he is. He claims to play "both good and evil parts". He boasts that some people call him a monster and others call him a saint, and that this talent feeds his "darker side". He has presumably consumed himself with putting his identity in his outward appearance to convince others of his character -yet he remains a mystery to himself.

The problem is that he has no self under all those disguises. He says that most people seem to know his name, "or at least know who I am" -as if his self-identity were obvious, whereas recalling his 'name' is something of a test to see what circle of greatness someone has obtained. "Oh yes, that man. I am familiar with his work..."

Another major theme is the way other people motivate his work. After his 'performance' people just stand around and wave to tell him that they love his work and that he's great. He mentions this as though it confirms the value of his work ("Do you, sir, find your work to be of value?").

Are we all not -in some sense- like this opera singer? Do we not all put on performances for others to see? Do we not boast about the 'kings' and 'emporers' of our lives? Are we not all restless about traveling to other lands (either in the memory of something past or the fantasy of something future)? Yet do we not all fail to live in the present? Is our boasting anything more than a distraction from our thinly-disguised self-loathing? Are our efforts anything more than acting?

Lyrics pulled off of elyrics.net.

Faithful Sayings

2008-11-02T18:47:00.007-10:00

From the devotional library of Spurgeon:

It is a faithful saying.
2 Timothy 2:11

Paul has four of these "faithful sayings." The first occurs in 1 Timothy 1:15, "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." The next is in 1 Timothy 4:6, "Godliness is profitable unto all things, having the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation." The third is in 2 Timothy 2:12, "It is a faithful saying- If we suffer with Him we shall also reign with Him;" and the fourth is in Titus 3:3, "This is a faithful saying, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works."

We may trace a connection between these faithful sayings. The first one lays the foundation of our eternal salvation in the free grace of God, as shown to us in the mission of the great Redemmer. The next affirms the double blessedness which we obtain through this salvation-the blessings of the upper and nether springs-of time and of eternity. The third shows one of the duties to which the chosen people are called; we are ordained to suffer for Christ with the promise that "if we suffer, we shall also reign with Him." The last sets forth the active form of Christian service, bidding us diligently to maintain good works. Thus we have the root of salvation in free grace; next, the privileges of that salvation in the life which now is, and in that which is to come; and we have also the two great branches of suffering with Christ and serving with Christ, loaded with the fruits of the Spirit. Treasure up these faithful sayings. Let them be the guides of our life, our comfort, and our instruction. The apostle of the Gentiles proved them to be faithful, they are fiathful still, not one word shall fall to the ground; they are worthy of all acceptation, let us accept them now, and prove their faithfulness. Let these four faithful sayings be written on the four corners of My house.

Charles Spurgeon
Morning and Evening Devotions
October 27th AM

A Quiet Reminder

2008-10-19T16:12:00.005-10:00

I was thinking about several things while driving down the road, and I saw a car with the license plate: JUDE21.

Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.
Jude 2:1

I needed to hear this. Perhaps others do too.

aion

2008-10-17T20:32:00.004-10:00

Do you feel it? Yes, I know you do. Cast upon the winds of change, we are gathered here at this jagged precipice in time. All that we have known and all our ways of knowing end here. Let us collect ourselves, clasp hands, and breath deeply in these last few minutes of life that is familiar and comfortable; before we tumble into what no one has ever known or dreamed of before.

This was prophesied, we say; but the scroll that tasted as sweet as honey in our mouths has caused our stomachs to sour. That which made us curious from afar is now palpable, frightening, and starkly surreal. The darkness ahead is not like any night we have ever lived through. It is heavy with evil and no earthly light survives there. Yet, there is no where to turn and forward is the only way.

The day is coming and indeed, is almost here when man's rule will be fully put down. It is chaos and madness but also, the Master's plan. This dark day of man's fullness of himself is the day that will also bring his ruin. It is this ruin, this humbling, this laying low, that is the precursor of returning mankind to his rightful place. Man and woman humbled before God and made obedient instruments through the finished work of God's Son. The full revelation of Jesus Christ.

Child of God, you in whom Jesus dwells, do not be afraid of the dark. Though there be no earthly light to guide your way, the Light that is Jesus still burns within you to light you along the Way that is also Jesus. He in you and you in Him, your safety, your secure home, in whatever comes in the days, and months, and years ahead. He is also your Life and its quality is eternal. It can't be taken from you, not even by those who might destroy your body. Nothing can befall us that God does not allow and even when we can't understand, we rest in His glory. We are secure in His glory.

Do not fear what the world fears. Do not treasure what it treasures. Live in the moment and give thanks for the blessings you have today. Give all of your sorrows to Jesus quickly, that they might not become too much to bear. In your sadness and mourning, don't look down but keep looking up, and watching. Our redemption is very near.

Forgotten Tales

2008-10-12T20:00:00.007-10:00

The people who speak the kindest to animals are always the ones who are trying to eat them.

Tom and Angela managed to find the treasure soon after they entered the dragon's cave. Angela grabbed a couple of coins from the pile, but Tom quickly grabbed the large ingots of gold.
"What if the dragon returns?" Asked Angela. "You won't be able to make a good exit if you are weighed down by all of that!" But Tom filled his pockets with treasure.
The dragon soon returned and discovered some of the treasure was missing. Moments later, Angela and Tom saw the dragon running after them.
"Drop the treasure or the dragon will eat you, and then you won't be able to enjoy anything!" Yelled Angela.
"Well ... I think that somehow I'll be okay." Said Tom, as he began climbing the tree. Angela started climbing a tree also.
Tom was not able to climb the tree very quickly. "Drop the treasure!" Angela shouted. "You're going to be eaten!" The dragon was already beginning to climb up the tree.
Suddenly, a large brick of gold slipped out of Tom's pocket and fell down through the branches. It struck the dragon's head at such speed that dragon fell all the way down and stopped moving.
Angela and Tom climbed down the tree. Tom picked up the fallen brick of gold and continued down the path back home. He learned his treasure was highly valuable and was able to buy many things that he liked. Angela learned that her coin was made of bronze and threw it into the river.

Barbs and jest do not a secure footing make.

How tragic that during the French Revolution it was the very committee responsible for public safety that took it upon itself to send ordinary citizens to the guiliteen for mere trifles.

The theologian laughed and said, "Is that all? I have a thousand verses to refute such a measley temptation." And he recited a thousand verses word-perfect from one to a thousand. Then he said to the unclean spirit, "You see what I have accomplished? Christ responded to tempation with a single verse and I have provided a thousand verses. How I have surpassed him!" Of course, the verses meant nothing to him personally, and the unclean spirit never left.

Blessed are those whom God fashions as examples of life.

The girls surrounded the boy. "I heard you were color blind."
"Yes, it is as you say." Said the boy.
"So how can you enjoy the colors of the rainbow?" Asked one girl.
"Or see the beauty of the sunset?" Asked another girl.
"Or ever manage to dress yourself?" Asked a third girl, snickering.
"I have been spared from the vain life of doting on appearances. Everything for me is in black and white. The things I see are important to me or they are nothing."
The girls laughed at him, but years later one of the girls recounted the incident and became terrified.

The government worker set down his paper work and whispered to his coworker, "I mourn over the fact that my European ancestors spent their time going into the forest to worship dark gods. These gods promised the world, but all they did was laugh among each other at their oppression over the desperate people who came to them for crops and children."
The other government work paused and asked, "What were the names of those dark gods?"
The other man replied, "I don't know. If I had a guess, I would say Signs and Assurances."

Living In The U.S.S.A. (United Socialist States of America)

2008-10-09T10:19:00.006-10:00

Today, I am sad for my country. She has been betrayed by immoral men in high places, even by those who have sworn, on the Bible, to protect her. These men have sworn with their hand on what is only a book to them to protect a country through a governmental system that was designed for a moral people. America's greatness has always been in the goodness of her people. America has ceased to be good and America has ceased to be great. We are falling according to our own immorality as decadence and greed seem set to consume us.

Our capitalist financial system is systematically being socialized in the name of protecting us from a crisis that was induced by two socialistic lending entities within our government. They are, of course, Fannie Mae and Freddi Mac. The condition of these two government entities, developed as a means to help people who can't afford their own home to own them, is a prophecy of what our own country will look like when our treasonous leaders are done with the new 'protections' they are enacting in the name of protecting the American taxpayer. Socialism is not natural to the human spirit; even though its altruism is attractive to many, it does not deliver what it promises for it is a haven for corrupt bureaucrats. Socialism will choke down and kill the entrepreneurial spirit of America. That very spirit by which much of the world has also grown rich. It will also kill the remarkable charity that has long set America apart from other nations and those poor and struggling nations will no longer have America to petition when they are in crisis.

I am watching my dreams for retirement vanish before my eyes as the Dow plunges; but that is not the full measure of my sadness. As I watch these, not only immoral but also amoral, men spend astronomical amounts of money that we do not have and much of which is being borrowed from China, I see the American people being sold into bondage. Many generations into the future will be carrying this unprecedented tax burden. Our leaders have put us in the position of being beholden to a country that despises us. We are being auctioned off in the name of world economic soundness and our freedom is being sacrificed for the new world government that is beginning to emerge and become visible. Our destiny as a people is being decided by special counsels and treaties that are outside of our own legislative control. The voice of the people, that was ignored a few weeks ago in the implementing of this bill that will forever change our free-market system, will soon no longer be heard. In my lifetime, I have seen us go from a democracy within a republic to a democracy that is now fading into the socialized democracy of Europe. It is my opinion, that this mild recession has been creshendoed purposely into this imminent crisis for the very purpose of melding the United States into this new world order of not only a globalized economy but also a globalized government.

Today, the Bush administration is discussing how to buy stock in banks or even how to buy banks outright. It is not a far leap for any Christian student of the Bible to make the connection of also having to receive some sort of biometric tattoo to be able to access bank accounts that are controlled by the government. It is easy for those in Christ to respond to what is happening with fear but God does not give us a spirit of fear. Fear is what the enemy uses to hold people in bondage and in Christ, we are no longer in bondage to our sin or to the fear that accompanies suffering by the sin of others. When we fear God, the enemy has no hold over us.

Dear fellow Christians, do not fear that which the world fears. Do not give the government and the corrupt men and women who are presently wielding the governmental power over us the power to make us weak in spirit. Trust in God and abide in Him and He will make us fearless and enable us to endure and emerge victorious over all that the enemy has set in place to destroy us. Cling to Jesus and trust Him to guide us one day at a time. Even if we are in deep mourning for our country that was blessed by God for so many years, we will not be brought down with her for we have joy in Jesus that nothing can take from us that will keep us from being crushed with sorrow. We must pray continuously without ceasing, holding up to God those remaining good men and women who love God and also serve our country. Also pray for the salvation of corrupt leaders and the cleansing of their evil hearts. Pray that our nation would turn back to the God Who has blessed us for so long. Pray that we would turn from our sin even to the point of the slaughter of innocent babies through abortion coming to a halt not through legislation but through the changed hearts of the people. Today is the day of Atonement for the Jews. Let us also, as Christians grafted into Israel through faith in Christ Jesus, take our sins to God that we might be cleansed and function as light and salt in this very dark time. Pray for a spirit of repentance to sweep across our country that God might have mercy upon us and heal our land. Pray to end abortion and pray for the peace of Israel.

The Cobbler on Rosenborgade

2008-10-05T17:13:00.002-10:00

[Scene i. A young Horatio (perhaps six years old) enters the palace. Two soldiers stand alert while a servant, Hans, sits at a table.]

HORATIO:
Good morrow, sirs. My father has directed me to this court.

HANS:
Indeed, young master, the queen has been expecting you.

HORATIO: [To himself]
What matter is this that I have the Queen's attention?
Here is a fine moment to be counted her son's friend ...

HANS:
This way please, young master.

GERTRUDE: [elated]
Ah, young Horatio! Thank you for coming this fine morning.

HORATIO:
Thank you for the invitation, my lady.

GERTRUDE:
Horatio, a certain matter has come to my attention,
The avenue of my son's career as well the welfare of
Your majesty, my son, and, yes, your own benefit also
Are presently compromised by details I have neither
Interest nor the patience to explain.
I have arranged for you to meet my young son in the market
At the stroke of the third hour, where you must,
For the goodwill of all at hand,
Guide my son to the cobbler on Rosenborgade
Where he is to meet his servant Yorrick.

HORATIO:
I would be delighted your majesty. I will leave at once.

[Scene ii. The Market. Young prince Hamlet is escorted by the servant Anders]

ANDERS:
Is there no shop you wish to inquire upon, then?

HAMLET:
How I wish there was a shop that inquired on me.

ANDERS:
Perhaps the prince would care to see the animals?

HAMLET:
Are you refering to these animals
Who wander from sight to sight
Whose business is the business of
Sights, and smells, and fancies?
Or did you mean the animals at the animal shop here?
Look! My noble peer, Horatio!

[Horatio approaches from the opposite side of the stage]

HORATIO:
Greetings, my friend.
Anders, may I ask for your leave?
I will see to it that the prince is safe.
A company of this size is no place for villainy ...

[Anders leaves]

HAMLET:
Or rather the only place to find it.
Horatio, why are you of such a face?

HORATIO:
You have guessed already?
May my loyalty to the Danes stop me
From withholding secrets from the prince!

HAMLET:
Come, my friend, why do you disclaim yourself thus?
Formalities are not necessary between allies.
Whatever could be the urgency?
Has my own blood conspired against me?

HORATIO:
How uncanny you are to name my burden.
Your mother has instructed me to escort the prince
To the cobbler on Rosenborgade.
Of her designs I was unable to learn,
And sensed she herself was in preference
To forget them altogether.
Her words and mein were fitting
Of a doctor who wishes to explain medicine
While watching the path of a near gadfly.
Surely she has no fancy to end your life,
But her tone was of those with ruse and hatchery.
Why do you sigh? Have you discovered her plan?

HAMLET:
Methinks Queen Gertrude would be better served
In carrying out her office.

HORATIO:
Her office as Queen or as Mother?

HAMLET:
Neither, her office as Gertrude -
The only one to have no interest
in taking up the matter at hand.

HORATIO:
I have offered my burden, now please to me yours.

HAMLET:
Confined minotaurs hath more liberty
than the prince of the Danes.
You were fair to present your account.
I will conceal it even to myself.

HORATIO:
How could a person perform such a task?
Is there a man who can know
That he is no longer aware of a matter?

HAMLET:
All men, and I fear I with them.
Tis' a subject too sorrowful to speak much of.
As to the nature of this plot
I can stomach to be more forthcoming.
My mother has forgotten of my obedience to her
And has laden me with further hardship.

HORATIO:
She wishes you to be a priest?
Are you to study public policy?

HAMLET:
Were I to take up orders it would be my salvation.
As for the court and lawyery, I wish little.
My mother's concern is toward a lesser topic.
Of my garb she is loosely tolerant,
But my preference in shoes hath summoned her wrath.

HORATIO:
Your shoes? Is that the matter at hand?
If you respected my frank warning before,
Please excuse it once again.
Your shoes are a crime against the living,
And if you do not find a new pair
The dead will take note of them.

HAMLET:
Is there no sound to interrupt the gibes
And guffaws I have withstood all morrow?

HORATIO:
My apologies to you, sir. I meant no evil.
Were they given to you in endearment?

HAMLET:
Yes, I selected them myself.

HORATIO:
I prefer your company, though there is little
More than your peculiarity that draws me to it.

HAMLET:
What do you know of peculiarity?

HORATIO:
Here we reach our destination.
Remember the secret I have placed in your hands.

HAMLET:
I will, but not as closely as the burden on my shoulders.
May everything be well with you, my friend.
Whatever tragedy life affords me I hope that you remain unharmed.

HORATIO:
May the will of the prince endure all things!

[Horatio exits]

If You Want To Live

2008-09-22T21:23:00.005-10:00

I try to steer away from TV recommendations, but I have found one that is quickly becoming a great show: the Sarah Connor Chronicles.

This review from the International Herald Tribune claims the show is subversively trying to tell us that faith makes us human.

The Tribune (along with its parent company, the New York Times) has a strong bias against evangelical Christianity, and the article has a whiney tone about the whole thing.

This element of the show is definitely there. In the last episode there is an extended reading from 2 Corinthians, and in an earlier episode Cameron (the cyborg intent on protecting John Connor) asks Sarah if she believes in the resurrection.

While I do like the apocalyptic story-line and the edgy questions about faith, the style of the show is what really sells it for me. The characters and the acting are definitely part of that.

The premise of the show is an collection of vagrants trying to postpone the end of the world ("doomsday"). The grimness of the approaching crisis weighs heavily on the characters while the people around them are content with facades and distraction (true to the James Cameron films, particularly the first Terminator).

There are moments of happiness in the uncertainty for some of the characters. It is not like the Sunday school stories where someone discovers an equation and the sun shines down on them. It is more like a subtle joy while "standing over the abyss".

Jesus spent a lot of time teaching that death and judgment can come at any time, and so can the unmerited favor of God. This film plays heavily on the absurdities (harsh and joyous) of life and questions of identity that would have drawn in Luther, Shakespeare, and Kierkegaard.

I recommend giving it a watch, especially if you are male. The episodes are free to watch off the fox website.

Weighed Down

2008-09-21T11:01:00.006-10:00

Saul said to David, "Go, and the Lord be with you."

Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them.

"I cannot go in these," he said to Saul, "because I am not used to them." So he took them off. Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd's bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine.

1 Samuel 17:37b-40

Saul, flawed though he was, presented David with his best protection. The royal greatness of the gift was not in the strength of his armor but in the way he gave David his own armor. In the moment of crisis Saul achieved the greatness of treating others the way he wanted to be treated.

In the same way the gift became great -for it was indeed the very armor of the king- it became a liability for David -for it was not his own and neither were David's movements his own while he wore the armor.

The years have gone by but the battles are still in many ways the same. We still argue and quarrel much as they did back them, and we do it with words we ourselves are not used to. They are the words of someone else. We hold opinions that others respect, although we ourselves do not respect them. And our lives have meaning, yes! Rich meaning! But not to us personally. Our lives mean something only to someone else.

David wore the armor, but he took it off because he discovered it was not his own. There was something about it that he was not used to.

Is there anything today that people have not become accustomed to? The heaviness of jealousy can seem light after a while. The calculation of deceit can seem overbearing at first until it becomes second nature. The displays of righteousness seem phony at first until one forgets what it means to know something genuinely.

The armor of the modern world is something we wear to protect ourselves. Other people can see it, but it remains always on the outside and the weight crushes so quietly that we sometimes are completely unaware of it.

The court of appearances -the judgment of which humans have never questioned- was not in David's favor. If there were gamblers in those days as there are now, the betting odds would not be in David's favor. Yet inside he was full of certainty.

The certainty of David was a blazing fire in a company of half-fires and half-certainties. People could see glimpses of it through the way David carried himself on the battlefield, but they only saw someone else's certainty while they remained in doubt.

In melee combat, a major difficulty of fighting with armor was finding the right balance or -as some historians say today- alignment. Like a growing young man who has very quickly become tall, David had difficulty walking in Saul's armor.

In a way of speaking, balance was the skill David was not used to. Perhaps it could be said that David's talent in regard to balance was that he had no talent. He knew only one thing: the power of God, and in David's mind there was nothing that could balance against such a weight.

The absolute-ness of God is commonly understood in our day, we just relate to it relatively. Another practice that is becoming common is to consider God as a relativity and then to hold that belief absolutely. David's understanding of his relation to God was -as the poet writes- an absolute relationship to the Absolute.

Again, human intentions have changed very little. The ones who preach against idolatry are the ones harboring idols. The ones who pray in the streets are not the ones who pray in their closets. The givers of our day are the ones who sell their houses and keep a little for themselves.

But David knew nothing of balancing one part of his life against an opposing and opposite weight. His life was simple, divinely simple. In his way of thinking, he wanted to do only one thing and he wanted to do it with all his heart all his soul all his mind and all his strength.

Prepare us Father so that we too may enter your kingdom like this little shepherd boy. Assist us in making your words our words. Deliver us from the evil of our duplicitous minds. Save us from worldly thinking so that we may present our lives to you as pleasing and acceptable offerings. Amen.

One Life, Many Selves

2008-09-14T17:16:00.005-10:00

The self which people give more attention than any other self is the visible self. It is the self that people see the most -the one on magazine covers, in movies, and on television.

At the same time the visible self is the self that belongs to us the least -more a product of chance than of our choosing.

The fantasy self is the self that we often imagine we could be at some uncertain point -usually in the future. We have some control over how that self looks and appears, but our wishes about our fantasy selves do not run deep.

The fantasy self reflects not someone we would seriously wish to be, yet we do wish to be that self as strongly as we fantasize about that self.

The ethical self is the self beneath the appearances. It is the one we keep hidden from others out of shame, and -more than that- we keep it hidden from ourselves because we are personally ashamed of that self.

People tend to find their ethical self so disheartening that they distract themselves with the self they wear on the surface ... until the time comes when some choose to confront the darkness they carry inside.

The ideal self, the one we truly and seriously wish to be is hard to see, mostly because this self has little to do with who we are and the choices we have made. We wish to be like our ideal self, but people usually must reach far into their past to remember when this was the self they pursued completely.

And then there is also that absurd possibility that we may be somehow (religiously) united with it once more.

The inner self, that self of selves, is the self most people keep so locked away and hidden that they scarcely know they have it. It is the feintest to see with human eyes but the strongest and most powerful of all selves.

When a person examines the choices they have made -their hallow victories and their tragic mistakes- there remains that difficult-to-hear voice inside that says, 'And yet despite all this I can be made new again.'

The inner self is childlike and draws strength in the faith that although it may be and deserves to be annihilated, it may still find favor that all its wrongs may be overcome in the presence of a supremely loving authority.

This act of reconciliation is only possible through personally receiving the gift Christ gave on the cross to those who have faith in him.

And so life presents a simple question: who do you wish to be?

A Sobering Awareness

2008-09-06T10:09:00.009-10:00

Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.
1 John 2:6

My days in junior high were the most unhappy in my whole life.

It was a time of great malaise for me, this I was certain of -and I was very right about that. I blamed my circumstances, my school, my family, and some of the things I am now the most thankful for. Occasionally I suspected my own attitude had something to do with it, but I sent the suspicion away -calling myself the victim.

We studied the Bible in school. I considered myself to be a Christian, but I questioned whether or not I was actually living in the way God had commanded me to live.

The Bible readings were required, and not a matter of personal choice. It would have been easy to let the passages go in one ear and out the other, but I was full of questions. I didn't really want to know what happened to Noah's ark, or who the Nephilum were (although these were the questions I asked out loud).

The real questions I had about the Bible were really questions I had about myself.

With every command I read from God, I wondered to myself, 'Is this something I am doing? If I stood before God, if my appearances were as nothing as they are before Him, would He say, 'Well done, good and faithful servant'?'

One day the teacher introduced three verses we would be memorizing from 1 John. I had never seen these verses before. I remember the exact way that he wrote them on the green chalk board thirteen years ago:

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world - the cravings of sinful, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does - comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.
1 John 2:15-17

I wondered how I could memorize a verse which seemed impossible to even read. Do not love anything in the world?

Really?

There were a LOT of things in the world I loved.

I loved cartoons. I loved the cheap pizza my mom would buy for my sister and I at Costco. I loved going to the movies. I loved pop culture. More than all of it, I loved video games.

And could it be that here in this very place, John was telling in the full authority of the Bible not to love these things? If I did love them, would the love of the Father not be in me?

It sounded like I would go to hell, except that it was worded in the present tense. 'The love of the Father is not in him.'

I didn't care that the Bible did not forbid these things. I could stop doing them. I could stop watching my favorite shows. I could stop eating cheap pizza. I could (maybe) stop playing video games. But how could I stop LOVING them?

The second verse in the passage -the one about the cravings and the lust of the flesh and boasting about what a person has and does- that sounded just like me, just like my style.

It was like I was singled out and laid bare.

After digesting this verse for some time, I gave this messy region of my heart over to God (at about the time I was baptized).

These days I don't struggle with loving video games. There are moments where I get to do fun things and sometimes I struggle with loving those moments.

Then I teeter-totter about it and say to myself, 'Well, I don't love those things that much.'

And then I think back and I remember the chalk board on that day. I remember the verse that God commissioned John to write to me ... to give me a warning.

I remember how serious that moment was. How terrified I was at the choice I had to make and how seriously God takes my actions.

Father, keep my heart from the idolatry of the world. Spare me from loving the things here. Guide me into the fullness of your ways. As you prepare a place for me, prepare also that place for you in me.

Amen.

Home

2008-09-03T20:08:00.003-10:00

It has been many years since I have sensed any absense of God. I've been walking and talking with Him for a long time now and I have learned that if I never deny His presence, I am never unaware of Him. He is with me continually and there is nothing that we don't discuss. I ask Him lots of dumb questions and often reply to His answers with, "Why?". He is patient to answer all my questions but never forces the answer upon me. He always gives me time to grow into understanding. He is even with me when I do or say something really stupid. There is nothing I can hide from Him. He knows even when I'm thinking of sinning and if I immediately take that thought to Him, He prevents me from falling. If not, He lets me fall and then He dusts me off, bandages my knees, and tells me to tell anyone else I may have hurt that I'm sorry. Then He holds me close and lets me know that nothing I do can ever stop Him from loving me. I am getting old but I am still a small child when it comes to my relationship with my Father, God, my Daddy.

Because awareness of God floods me continually now, I sometimes forget what it was like to be new in the Lord and not so sure of things. Older believers would tell me about the void in all of us that only Jesus can fill and I would have pangs of doubt for often I wasn't really sure that void had been filled. Though I doubted, Jesus would never really leave me either. Jesus wasn't a fad or a faze that I could leave behind but I went for many years without full surety of faith. When I sinned, I doubted Him. When something bad happened to me at the hand of another, I doubted Him. When disaster would strike or war was threatened, I doubted Him. Every human failing, my own and those of others, did not cause me to doubt myself or humankind but instead to doubt God. The void in me still felt empty because when things were not as I desired them to be, I did not draw near to God. Instead, I pulled away from Him. The void in me had been filled completely by Jesus but I often denied His reality in my life.

Jesus came to live in me at the very instant that I first believed. He has never left me since that first moment. It was the very fact of His presence that slowly drew me away from doubt to the true reality of Him living in me and I in Him. Though my choices began to change, I was not changed by my choices. The presence of Jesus in me changed the choices I would naturally make on my own. My thinking began to change and when I sinned, I saw my own failing and the only remedy in God. When others hurt me, I began to see their need for Jesus also and was no longer upset with God for not making them more perfect. When disaster struck or war was threatened, I no longer shook my fist at God but began to see the helplessness of human beings and our futility in seeking to settle things our own way apart from Him. Slowly each area of my life in which I doubted God, was filled with faith by the presence of Jesus. As I grew into Him, denying that presence, the very presence of God, was no longer possible. I can no longer fully remember how it felt not to be continually aware of Him with me. He truly is my friend who sticks closer than a brother.

If you are young in the Lord and doubt because you don't seem to have what some others seem to have, relax. You don't have to figure it all out. God isn't waiting for you to work a jig saw puzzle of His grand design before He will come near to you. If you believe Jesus is Who He says He is in the Bible, He is near to you and all you have to do is draw near to Him. You may even believe you have wondered far from Him but if you are His, He has had His watchful eye on you the whole time and has heard even your innermost private thoughts. Turn away from the deception that is doubt to the reality that is God's Love. Feel His strong arms draw you safely to Him and enter His rest. In Him, no matter where you are, you are always home.

The Dove

2008-08-30T20:55:00.000-10:00

Look into these childish eyes opened wide in innocence. Peer within her soul and see, as fine paper carefully torn and shredded, the remains of her mind and spirit. This the shadow left behind of the personal destruction, not wrought by the random act of a deranged stranger, but by the hand of he who was meant to protect and provide for her. These murderous blows have left no physical mark but the inner devastation may never heal. The perpetrator of this secret crime enjoyed each artfully placed remark and each twist of natural affection; relishing his superiority and the entertainment found in these mind games. He is an emotional vampire, not feeding upon the blood of his victims but upon their pain and raw emotion. Long ago, he shut himself down emotionally and can only experience feeling vicariously through those weaker than himself, especially his child. In her he sees what he needs to see in himself, godlike power and strength reflected back to him by the helplessness of his victim. The knowledge that eventually his source will be destroyed by his feeding is of little consequence to him. In his eyes one may see the inner torment of one who has long lived in opposition to his own conscience and the innocence that remains in the eyes of his child drives him on to her destruction.

The child grows and is filled with rage that she turns inward in self-destruction. She has been well trained in bearing the sin of others as she has always born what her father could not bear to see in himself. This child that should have been cherished, loved, and honored as her own person has not yet grown into her own person but exists merely, as her father's sin eater. She is the reflection of his own dreaded imperfection. After fifteen years, the child cannot bear to eat the sin of her father any longer and castes herself headlong into the world. There she is met by others of the same type as the tormentor that she sought to leave behind. She has been educated in a manner that fits their purposes exactly. Each in turn, they amuse themselves with her and feed upon her childish gullibility. They pass her around and feed her the drugs that she learns to love as they are the doorway of the only escape she has ever known from her emotional pain. When she is bitter, sick, and broken they toss her away as so much garbage. She is a broken play-thing with nothing left in her by which she might survive.

At eighteen, her eyes reflect as in splintered glass the image of her shattered soul. The drugs that eased her pain have turned on her, and imprisoned her, and her heart is devoid of hope. Yet, deep inside she is still but a child; a child that has never been. This young woman who's life has been shaped by the cruel hands of others and the drugs she used to escape them, is but a shell surrounding the true person, the dove that fearfully, hides within. This dove is the innocence that could never be touched by all the abuse that the outer child survived. The innocence that she was not even aware of and no other could see, called out for rescue in indiscernible whispers of hope laced with pain. It was the dove that Jesus recognized as His own and it was to that dove of innocence that the Holy Spirit called. The innocence that empowered her to believe and call upon the Name of the Son of God. This Name that days before meant nothing to her had in an instant become her only hope. Her childlike gullibility no longer a deficit but a treasure to the One Who values children and knows what makes them strong. It is Jesus Who makes them strong and it is Jesus who took this battered child close to Him; and into all the cracks that threatened her with eternal death and destruction, He breathed His life and with patient, craftsman like care, undid all that the evil one had done.

This child is an old woman now but still, she is also, forever, a child. The dove of innocence still resides within her, protected, nurtured, and cherished by the One Who saved her and restored her to what the Father desired her to be.

Sexual Insanity II

2008-08-30T08:25:00.002-10:00

Fellow meredevotion.com writer, JoyIndescribable, wrote this month about Sexual Insanity as a gritty reminder of the way that "living" by the world's standards of living is a lot like a slow, inner death.

To the best of my knowledge this was the first time on meredevotion.com that someone has ventured to write about sexuality, but the topic has been on my heart for some time. I find sexuality (particularly the opposite sex) to be very mysterious and wonderful ... but ... even more than that, I find the things the Bible says about sexuality to be far more mysterious and wonderful.

Shun fornication! Every sin that a person commits is outside the body; but the fornicator sins against the body itself.
1 Corinthians 6:18

Does the world admit that certain acts of sexuality are wrong? Many people in the world do, although it is quickly becoming the case that only the more perverse of sins are being acknowledged as wrong. And some are openly valued as 'alternative lifestyles'.

Although the world may identify some acts of sexuality as wrong, it never agrees with the Scriptures about what makes it wrong. In fact, it recoils in horror at the way the Scriptures identify evil.

The world may say that fornication is prone to diseases ... which can be solved with contraception, science, etc. Or it may say that prostitution is a "selfish" practice that people use to take advantage of others. Or it may say that adultery is wrong because it is a kind of "cheating" where one spouse gets an advantage the other does not have.

Certainly the Bible condemns the practices of fornication, prostitution, and adultery, but it does so from such a completely opposite direction that men in the error of their thinking would have never guessed there was such a direction. And when they hear it, they recoil in offense.

The Bible says that when a person sins sexually that they are sinning against their own body, that they are not sinning against their neighbor, nor their community, nor their "society" or "the Public" (whatever that could mean, I do not know). The implications of this claim are highly offensive.

When a person is raped, who is the person who was wronged? An immediate answer might be: 'Obviously, the person who was raped'. People who are raped often have heavy emotional burdens that they carry, and they usually struggle with self-confidence issues for the rest of their lives. How can it be any other way?

The Bible tells us it is the other way around, that the person who is truly wronged is the one who committed the rape. That person has -according to the Bible- done himself 'no good'. This is disturbing and politically incorrect in the eyes of the world.

Consider the question put this way: "Is it better to be a person who perpetrates rape or a person who is raped?". Clearly, it would be far better to suffer in neither way.

The Bible takes a clear answer on this question. It says those who commit sexual sins are the ones to be pitied! How atrocious this claim is to the world which only considers the appearance of things and maintaining facades.

The person who sins sexually carries an enormous weight on his or her shoulders. The world in its wickedness supposed though, that they get some kind of 'unfair advantage'. The claim of the Bible is that nothing could be further from the truth.

Another aspect of sexual sin is the duplicity of it. And this is the insane element. Erotic love always posits that its ways are spontaneous, and it almost always posits that its ways are wrong.

Like the proverb says, stolen water is sweeter than wine.

At the same time that the soul of the sexual sinner says, 'This is totally wrong ...' Their flesh is saying, 'This is totally great ...'. Their flesh and soul are unified in the sense that the soul is driving away in one direction and the flesh is driving away in the other direction, which is to say they are not unified.

As long as the person is going a hundred miles an hour in two opposite directions, there can be no relation between the two parts, and the person fails to speak their choices with a single voice.

How can God relate to such a person? To a person whose only law (and they understand it as a law, for they are indeed slaves to it) is lawlessness? How can God relate to a person who seeks to find their happiness in true despair? How can God reveal light to those whose light is darkness?

Is it impossible for God to relate to such a person? Yes, it is impossible, but praise God because through Christ he has accomplished the impossible. He did this by making Christ -who knew no sin- to become sin for us so that in Him we might have the righteousness of God.

Not only does the person who accepts Christ find reconciliation with God, but his soul becomes reconciled with his body. This is what Christ meant when he said,

Come to me all you who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
Matthew 11:28-29

Everyone who has been redeemed by the work of Jesus is given the task of taking their two most opposing parts (their soul and their flesh) and unifying them in the task of righteous living. This miracle is an act of God, and He entrusts his children with the task of living out this change He has made in them.

The Important Thing

2008-08-25T06:37:00.003-10:00

If you want to know me, I'll tell you what I believe about God. If you want to know God, I'll direct you to Jesus. I have never seen God but Jesus has. In fact He is the express image of God in the flesh. He was with the Father before time began and God created the worlds and all that inhabits them through Him and in Him. It is Jesus that holds all things together and though He once came to earth in the flesh, He now sits at His Father's right hand. While on earth in bodily form, He died for the sins of us all so that we could be at peace with God and have close fellowship with Him. Through His own blood, Jesus reconciled man to God, despite the continuing sinfulness of humankind. He sacrificed Himself and conquered death by rising from the dead so that sin and death could be fully put to an end when Jesus has put all of His enemies down. All who believe in Jesus can have their sins covered now by simply believing that Jesus is Who is says He is in the Bible and that He died for our sin.

You may wonder how it is possible to know a man who died over 2,000 years ago. Jesus was not just a man but was also the Son of God. He says this of Himself. Also, He died but still He lives. He sits at His Father's right hand and He also lives in those who believe in Him. It is the Holy Spirit Who will reveal Him to you. If you desire to know God, pray that the Holy Spirit would lead you to Jesus that your spiritual eyes and ears would be opened making you able to discern, Jesus. When the Spirit leads you to sit at His feet, take responsibility for your sins. Name them and also confess your heartfelt desire to leave them behind. Acknowledge the price Jesus has paid and accept His sacrifice as full payment to God for all the sin you have committed in the past and all the sin you will commit in the future. Then open your heart and receive, Jesus! When He has made His home, by the power of the Holy Spirit, at the very center of your being, you will never again wonder how it is possible to know Him. You will have become a temple of the Living God! At the moment of salvation, Jesus will become your very best friend; One that is closer than a brother. He is a friend that will never let you down and as you walk through life with Him, He will reveal to you all that you desire to know about God and His plan for you and all others. Not only will you come to know more about God, you will be eternally bound to Him in a Father child relationship with guidance from Him available for all that you will encounter in this life. God, Who was once distant, will become known to you not only as Heavenly Father but also as Daddy and He will be most pleased when you walk through life with your hand in His.

These are the things that I have experienced in Jesus. Though, I have been His now for a very long time and have learned many things about God and have developed my own understanding of Him and the Bible, all that I have learned and added to Jesus is nothing without Him. For all the knowledge that I have, I still stray away and sin and because He loves me so much, I end up at His feet again. There in the same spot where Jesus was revealed to me thirty two years ago, I acknowledge Him, sorrowfully repent for the wrong I have done, and I am reassured of the eternal forgiveness that I have because of the blood Jesus shed for me. All my knowledge belongs to me, is given to me by Him, and the way I live by it will reveal who I am. The more you know about what I believe and observe of me, then to a greater degree will my hypocrisy or faithfulness be revealed to you. What I understand about God is not the important thing concerning you. The important thing is Jesus and the continuing revelation of Him to you, in you, and through you.

Life is short. Don't miss the most important thing. Don't turn away from Jesus.

Affordances

2008-08-17T10:45:00.003-10:00

Reflections on the Space Between Words

I once heard a speaker explain our problems with raising children. 'The problem is not that we do not love our children, the problem is communication -we don't TELL our children that we love them. The problem is metaphysical, we don't understand the nature of children or of parenting. The problem is scheduling and budgeting ... we don't make suffecient plans to love them.' But it turns out the speaker was deceived. The problem is we don't love our children.

In the months before getting married I asked a lot of people for advice about marriage, about the secret to having a great marriage. I was surprised by how much I advice I got to do certain kinds of things: buy her roses every three months, don't spend time alone right after work, spend at least one hour talking with her every day.

People do not realize how mistaken they are. If one does not make love the cornerstone of their marriage, all advice is vain. And if love is the foundation, all mistakes can be overlooked.

In this way, the legend of Wesley and Buttercup must be remembered. When he was told by Buttercup to fetch a pitcher, he replied 'As you wish', although he really meant 'I love you.' At a particular moment, the young maiden realized exactly what the young man was saying to her and the treasure she had found because, as Wesley himself observed, 'This is love. Do you think this happens everyday?'.

The sun rises every day. People go to work everyday. Men and women get married everyday. Love is not like those things. Love is an eternal understanding that enters history with a blink and stays forever.

When a wicked parent grows weary of his duty to care for his children and begins to despise his children in his heart, it does not matter what words he chooses -however lovely sounding they may be. The child, who hears the affordances of the words, understands perfectly everything the wicked father says. To the child it is as though he were saying, "I wish I could lock you up some place where I would never have to hear you again."

Studies have shown that when a man listens to a woman, he processes her words with the same part of his brain that responds to music. He does not hear the details: that her car broke down, that her coworkers said such-and-such, that it was a hundred degrees outside. He hears her tones, her sorrows, her relations to the details. And whether the words are full of sadness or joy, it is so beautiful for him to listen to the woman.

The brain is a vast, complex creation of God that is woefully understood by professors and doctors. Very often the brain does not remember what to say or think, it only remembers the affordances.

In dancing, for example, the brain does not remember 'Right foot goes to coordinate G4. Left foot goes to coordinate C3'. The brain remembers affordances: 'Move back just this much. Turn in just this way. Linger at this moment and then hold'. When the brain sees colors it doesn't say, 'Oh, that tulip is ten percent cyan and ninety percent magenta'. It says, 'That tulip is a little more pink than the others and I like it.'

That is the mystery of affordances, they often reveal what is brewing beneath the surface. Like facts they tell a story, but unlike the facts the story is about our own preferences and it is the story of who we are. Out of the outpouring of the heart the mouth speaks.

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.
Matthew 13:44-45

The way we act, behave, and pursue our desires says a lot more about who we are than what we do. The greatness of merchant was not told by the numerical amount he paid for the pearl of great value. It was told by the way he pursued it -what he was affording to part with for it, and, more importantly, it was told by his joy.

The Bible has little to say about what we ought to wish for, but it has much to say about how we ought to wish for it: in faith that we will be treated generously by God, with anxiety for nothing, in thanksgiving when we do receive it.

Our neighbors may never notice the way we live. They may only see our appearances and judge us for it. They may only see the clothes we wear, our position at our jobs, or our talents in speaking. But God sees beyond all those appearances because he looks at our hearts. He knows when we despise our neighor, and He rejoices when beneath our giving there springs a fountain of cheerfulness that wells up into life.

May the children who devote themselves to their heavenly Father take note of their hidden thoughts and the way they live out their lives. May they dwell on the rich way the Father blesses his children. May they take careful note of how they live. Amen.

A Loose Afternoon Conversation

2008-08-13T21:12:00.004-10:00

Earlier Episodes:
Episodes 1, 2, 3
Episodes 4, 5, 6
Episodes 7, 8, 9
Episodes 10, 11, 12
Episodes 13, 14, 15
Episode 16

After Thoughts

2008-08-10T16:03:00.007-10:00

Good appearances mean a little to everybody,
and they mean everything to nobody.
Jesus means something to few people,
and to those few people he means everything.

The problem with common sense is that it is far too common.

After the seminar I decided to introduce myself to the traveling professor. He was a philosopher par excellence, decorated with every medal in his craft from modal logic to epistemology. I noticed a small speck of an ornament among the rest and said, "Which medal is that for?". He scoffed and said, "That thing? That is for something so small that even a child could understand it. That medal is for truth. You can have it, it means nothing to me."

It takes a child to raise a village.

Even the greatest scholars fail to grasp everything, but love makes all things clear.

After my first week as an appentice, I surveyed the workbench and asked, 'Which tools are the greatest?' The master answered, 'The ones most leave on the shelf.'

What the philosophers say about reality is often as deceptive as when you see a sign in a second-hand store that reads: 'Pressing Done Here'. If you went in with your clothes to have them pressed you would be fooled; the sign is for sale.
Kierkegaard, Either-Or

Those who often give advice seldom take it.
Those who seldom speak need little advice.

"Watch out! Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod."
Mark 8:15b

As soon as the child walked into the barber shop, he noticed his reflection in the mirror. Then he noticed another reflection standing behind that one, and another one going back into the darkness. On his other side was a series of reflections that looked very similar. 'How just like time!' He remarked. 'The furtherest memories I have are so hazy, and the future becomes unclear after several moments. I have only this brief part here.'

God makes exceptions. Pray something daring.

Better to live among the primitivity of the Goths,
Than the intellectual fineries of Rome.

Scholars have the ability to explain happiness.
Everyone else has the ability to find it.

So many know-it-alls, and so few fools.
So many philanthropists, and how few are outwardly selfish.

The world insists on making everything impersonal,
though not as strongly as God insists on making everything personal.

Sexual Insanity

2008-08-08T18:12:00.004-10:00

Her beautiful face is hardened into a mask and set by empty eyes, crying. As I focus on one long tear coursing down, I see the artisan lifting, again, the hand that sculpted this girl's once innocent face by the chisel of emotional pain. The artist's name, Sexual Deviance and Perversion.

The artist sells his work to the sexually insane. Those who are twisted inside by that which satisfies them in self-and-other-degradation. They inflict their shameless shame upon the innocent; and inflict them with the soul killing pain of selling self for dark pleasure and monetary gain. These who were long ago broken inside can find no rest or satisfaction but in the shattering of the innocence of others. They find temporary but deep fulfillment in twisting younger hearts in soul-killing pain. Each would turn back now but the way has been blocked and all within are condemned. The entrance is bolted; and all here are trapped and can only move deeper within.

Many began this decent into sexual devience and depravity vicariously. Possibly, it seemed to be innocent enough as a diversion when viewed safely upon computer and television screen. As long as it remained hidden, it seemed that it would hurt no one. Just as drugs entice by killing pain and enhancing pleasure, so too does sexual voyeurism cure the boredom of an easy modern life. As the promise of drugs grows sour and their strangle-hold sets in, requiring more and more for the same lift, so too does pornography continually demand further deviance to provide the same level of escape. The fantasy world of sex normalizes the perverse and makes hum-drum the natural affection of a man and a woman. Soon many find themselves living in that fantasy world of sexual perversion as they leave normal relations far behind. Most embrace the drugs also as one feeds and then soothes the other.

The individual sinks slowly into sexual sin and our nation also has been cooked slowly, as the frog in the kettle, in the soup of the sixties sexual revolution. The Pandora's Box that was opened then still is not shut today. We tolerate more as our families are decending into Chaos.

Some of us seek to stop this tide of self-and-other-degradation by refusing to look and to watch. It isn't enough to simply close our eyes when our children, in eighth grade health, spent third hour putting condoms on bananas. Even when God's people don't look and don't participate, God can't look down upon us without seeing that which the majority no longer even attempt to hide. He sees us sexualizing our children en mass and I know that He cries. He cries for the children. For those who's young hearts are wizened too soon. For those who are born without parents committed to one another. He cries also for those who are killed because they were conceived inconveniently and sacrificed upon the altar of sexual desire.

We who are created to be the temples of God's Holy Spirit must not hide the Light that is in us. We must not close our eyes and cluster together, wringing our hands, hoping to hide where this vile degradation can't touch us. We can't hide our children from it and still remain in the world. Our hope is in Christ and the only hope for those whose sin has left them dead inside, is new life in Christ. We mustn't turn our backs in disgust but reach out with His Love to those He died to save. He came to save sinners and there is no one more relevant to our time and our need than Jesus.

All around us are those who have become sexually insane. They are lost in their sin and if we truly want this tide to turn, we must do more than complain that there are no movies for us to watch. If there is to be healing in our land then we must take part in the great commission that Christ Jesus left for us. We must take the gospel to a dying world. If we do not then soon our posh churches will be crumbling too and God will have no choice but to deliver our nation over to His Wrath.

We who were also once vessels set for God's wrath are now temples of the Living God. Let us live our lives before others in honoring our own temple through sexual fidelity, commitment, and love. Let us be bold in proclaiming Jesus to others who are now as we once were. May God send us revival and heal this desolate land.

Power Raining Down

2008-08-08T06:37:00.009-10:00

I followed my desire
To the depths of my own depravity.
Crumpled, broken, and hopeless,
I quivered and quaked
at the very gate of Sheol.

Oh! Wonder!
The Son of God came down
and there in that terrible place,
I met Him,

As He met me.

He taught me His Name:
JESUS!
And He told me
to believe in that Name.
This being the Name

that the Father gave to Him.

Do not doubt the Power of it!

Behold! The miracle!
All that my sin had laid waste and made hollow
in me, was filled with His Life!
As I reached for the Hand
that first reached down to me.
I, I! was lifted up!
Lifted from the quagmire
of my wrong desire.

Given God's Power,
each time I speak that Holy Name,
JESUS! JESUS! JESUS!

I shout!
I feel the Power raining down,
Filling my new heart with His Desire.
That right Desire,
The Desire that none should perish,
but that all men be brought to repentance;
and every knee bow at the Name of, Jesus!
As He, Only, is recognized as Saviour and Lord.

This is the true Love sent
By He Who is Love.
That those Who deserve only destruction,
might be saved,

by God's Power, clothed in Mercy;
His Mercy in long-suffering towards us all.
This is the substance of His Grace;
This Love and Mercy in the Person
Of His, Only, Begotten Son, Jesus!
This Son,
the embodiment of Righteousness
and the King
of all who call upon
His Name;
Will someday,
at His full revelation,
rule over all men;
the living and the dead.
For though He died,
He still lives;
Thereby, He has become
The Lord of the living
and the dead.

Even the gates of Hades
will not prevail
against Christ and His Church!

Rejoice! You who are broken,
You who are weary,
And can no longer find hope
within yourself;
This is the hour of your Salvation!
Reach for the Hand of Jesus!
As He now is reaching down to you!
There is hope in no other.
But even in the whisper of that
Holy Name, there is the Power,
to create you anew,

by His Spirit
from the very ashes
of your life ruined in sin.

At the whisper of that Name,
Satan must flee
and demons bow down;
To make Way for King Jesus!
As He takes the thrown,
in your once wicked heart,
now
Made clean by the
Power of His Life,
The Only Sinless Life,
That He willingly laid down,
For you and for me;
And then He took it up again!
And liberally, He pours His Spirit into
Those who are called by His Name!

In Him, they will eternally live!

Rejoice! Give glory to God!
A Way has been made for us
In Christ!
The Way is simple and sure.
The Way is Jesus!

BELIEVE!

Be lifted by the Power
Of His Name!
And though, you may at times,
still stumble,
being led astray by
wrong headed human desire;
Don't forget as you travel,
The Name,
JESUS! JESUS! JESUS!
That constant Power,
That promises,always, to lift you,
Again to the Father,
Until, one day,
He takes you home;
To that glorious and eternal place
where sin
is remembered no more.

JESUS! JESUS! JESUS!
Let God's Power
Forever, rain down!

Death's Demise, The New Adam

2008-08-04T06:32:00.005-10:00

When life gets confusing, and life is often confusing, I tend to look backward and long for simpler times. I long to be younger and stronger. I remember my dear children when they were small and wish that I could, once again, protect them from the evil in the world. However, the security of the past is an illusion. It's apparent safety lies in the fact that it has been survived, thereby, removing its uncertainty.

I also have a tendency, when working to achieve a goal, of dreaming of better days in the future when my goal is obtained. It is hard for us to achieve goals amid all the unexpected interruptions that are characteristic of temporal life. Future's perfection lives only in the future as uncertainty exists only in the present moment. If we are able to reach our goal, we find its promise diminished as uncertainty has followed into the future as it became the present.

Uncertainty is a benign way of expressing the deep fear we all live by; and that is the fear of death. Intellectually, we can plan and set dates and discipline ourselves to achieve great things in the world. However, we have no real control of anything as death rules the world in which we live. We never know when we or a loved one will be struck down and none of our plans can defer death. Death sets the clocks we live by and all things living are running down, preparing to meet our common destiny. Even when it appears that we will achieve our dream, our bodies are aging and growing weaker and our enjoyment of success lessened thereby. All of our work is but vanity. All that we are able to achieve is fading just as we are fading.

Sin is the sting of death and it is the fear of death that, often, leads us into sin. Life's uncertainty is met by most of us, at least once, with the cry, "Eat and drink, for tomorrow, we die!" We cringe at this phrase because it expresses the stark reality of life upon the earth. Truly, the animals have it better than we as they simply do as their instinct tells them without fear of their death for they have no knowledge of it. We who are cognitive creatures with knowledge of good and evil are born into a world in which the deck is stacked against us. We all must face the hour of our own death and have no idea of the date of that day.

The uncertainty of life, which is death, entered into the Creation by the hand of humankind. When Adam and Eve decided to choose their own destiny apart from God, sin entered the world and death followed soon after. In Adam, all living things became subject to death. All that God had created for eternal glory was cut off from Him and became mortal, being cut off from He Who is the sustainer of life. As a result, we are all born dead to God under the curse that Eve and then Adam brought into the world. God is Spirit and, in Adam, our spirit has been severed from Him. We are born, we dream, we work, we whither, and we die. In the old Adam, there is no hope; but only the common destiny of the grave and the future resurrection for Judgement.

There is now a new Adam. In this Adam, there is no death for He is not mortal as the old Adam. He is the One born of the Spirit Who came to do His Father's Will and not His own. This new Adam obeys His Father perfectly and has only been severed from His Father in the moment in which He took all of our sins and the curse of death upon Himself. He laid His own perfect life down that in Him the curse of death would be lifted from God's perfect Creation. Being without sin, being without the sting of death, death had no hold over Him. He died but then He took His life up again. He did not take His life up again for Himself only but offers it freely to all who believe in Him. This new Adam is a life giving spirit. Just as in Adam, death was passed to all, so too, in Christ, shall all be made alive.

In our bodies, we bear the image of the old Adam and our bodies will die. In Christ, however, life's uncertainty has met its demise. Jesus has obtained victory over sin and death. Though He died upon the cross, He rose again in a body that will never die as His flesh has been glorified, perfected by God. He is the first fruits of God's Redemption Plan. We who believe that Jesus is the Son of God and have a relationship with the Father through Him, will also be glorified in like manner, being wholly perfected in Him. We will be glorified at His coming when we meet Him in the air. In our perfected state, we will rule and reign with Christ Jesus for 1,000 years in God's Kingdom on earth. (This is the same Kingdom promised long ago to the Jews.) Jesus Who has had the only victory over Death, will put him fully under His feet at the end of this 1,000 year rule. He will then turn this Kingdom over to His Father. God's Creation will be returned to Him free from sin and the curse of death. Death will consume itself and time will end, passing into the eternal. For those of us who are now in Christ, who have received the new Adam, life free from death is our true reality. Though our bodies will die, our spirit will rest in Christ and we remain as living souls in Him. We will not know the nothingness of the grave and will not be raised only for judgement at the end of time. Instead, we will rule with Him in an age yet to come which precedes that final holy Judgement.

Faith in Christ is the death of uncertainty; though life may, at times, confuse us and cause us to give in to our old habit of fearing death. Let us who love Jesus remember that death is not eternal for someday, death will meet its final demise in the finished work of Christ upon the earth. Do not fear that which is temporary, even when the pain with which it torments you be excruciating. Satan's power is fear of death and it is temporary. Death has no hold over us who belong to Jesus. May we cease to walk according to the temporal power of the fear of death and begin to walk instead by that eternal power that is Life. In light of eternity, death's power is very short. Rejoice! Do not adopt defeat when your plans are smitten by the uncertainty that is temporal life. Do not settle for comfort in the glory days of the past, they are an illusion. Do not dream of future security while being tormented by the uncertainty of the moment. Instead, may we encourage one another to live in this eternal moment that is not an illusion and not only future promise but our present hope. Though everything we attempt to create and build be thwarted, God cannot be thwarted and in Him there is no uncertainty, no death.

Jesus lives!

1 Corinthians 15

Lessons With Aesop

2008-07-30T20:01:00.004-10:00

I recently came across a collections of stories from Aesop. The stories definitely have a comedic 'after-dinner' feel to them. Many of them were probably written by a number of writers. Some of the stories have morals as well.

Many of the reflections have a very pagan tone to them: don't ask for too much, don't expect too much, settling for less is best, etc. Some of the stories seem to go beneath that level, having devotional aspect to them. Here are a few that I have liked so far:

An old crab said to her son, "Why do you walk sideways like that, my son? You ought to walk straight." The young crab replied, "Show me how, dear mother, and I'll follow your example." The old crab tried, but tried in vain, and then saw how foolish she had been to find fault with her child.

Example is better than precept.

A farmer, being at death's door and desiring to impart to his sons a secret of much moment, called them round him and said, "My sons, I am shortly about to die. I would have you know, therefore, that in my vineyard there lies a hidden treasure. Dig, and you will find it." As soon as their father was dead, the sons took spade and fork and turned up the soil of the vineyard over and over again, in their search for the treasure which they supposed to lie buried there. They found none, however, but the vines, after so thorough a digging, produced a crop such as had never before been seen.

Jupiter issued a proclamation to all the beasts and offered a prize to the one who, in his judgment, produced the most beautiful offsing. Among the rest came the monkey, carrying a baby monkey in her arms, a hairless, flat-nosed little fright. When they saw it the gods all burst into peal on peal of laughter. But the monkey hugged her little one to her and said, "Jupiter may give the prize to whomsover he likes, but I shall always think my baby the most beautiful of them all."

A donkey found a lion's skin, and dressed himself up in it. Then he went about frightening everyone he met, for they all took him to be a lion, men and beasts alike, and took to their heels when they saw him coming. Elated by the sucess of his trick, he loudly brayed in triumph. The fox heard him, and recognized him at once for the donkey he was, and said to him, "Oho, my friend, it's you, is it? I, too should have been afraid if I hadn't heard your voice."

A dog was crossing a plank bridge over a stream with a piece of meat in his mouth, when he happened to see hiw own reflection in the water. He thought it was another dog with a piece of meat twice as big; so he let go hiw own, and flew at the other dog to get the other piece. But, of course, all that happened was that he got neither; for one was only a reflection, and the other was carried away by the current.

A lioness and a vixen were talking together about their young, as mothers will, and saying how healthy and well grown they were, and what beautiful coats they had, and how they were the image of their parents. "My litter of cubs is a joy to see," said the fox. And then she added, rather maliciously, "But I notice you never have more than one." "No," said the lioness grimly, "but that one is a lion."

Quality, not quantity.

A traveler was about to start on a journey and said to his dog, who was stretching himself by the door, "Come, what are you yawning for? Hurry up and get ready. I mean you to go with me." But the dog merely wagged his tail and said quietly, "I'm ready, master. It's you I'm waiting for."

Faithful Healer; Redemption

2008-07-28T05:39:00.003-10:00

Anyone who has suffered any trauma or abuse will tell you that the physical damage heals long before the psychological and spiritual damage is resolved. It can take years, decades, and even a lifetime for those secondary wounds to heal. They can scar over at times and be numbed for long periods of time only to be reopened at the slightest new trauma. It can be a messy process and friends and family can grow impatient and even angry and relationships can be lost. There is one friend, however Who sticks closer than a brother and will never abandon any patient under His care. I know this because Jesus has been and remains that faithful caregiver in my life. In all that I have suffered either by the hand of another, by my own hand, or by the happenstance that hinders us all in a world cursed by sin, Jesus has never abandoned me.

The crucible of physical illness, the trauma of war, natural disaster, or accident are not beyond the ability of Jesus to heal. Not even the degradation of physical and sexual abuse is too personally devastating to be completely healed in Christ. Those who know Jesus will tell you that He was with them in the crucible of their trial and that He remains with them in the aftermath. I too do testify that Jesus has never failed me and that He works continually to restore me to the person my Heavenly Father created me to be. I will be that person on the day that I no longer live in a world under the curse of sin and death. This is true of all who experience God daily through His Son, Jesus Christ. This is not the healing that is like the healing of modern medicine that postpones death for a season but instead, is the healing that will end in eternal life. This is the redemption process, the sanctification of His saints that begins with the forgiveness of our sins and ends with the freedom from sin and the complete cleansing and healing of the sin-damage that before Christ brought death to all. This is what it means to be saved and it is all for the glory of God.

Isaiah 38:16-19

Lord, by such things men live;
and my spirit finds life in them too.
You restored me to health and let me live.
Surely it was for my benefit
that I suffered such anguish.
In your love you kept me from the pit
of destruction;
you have put all my sins behind your back.
For the grave cannot praise you,
death cannot sing your praise;
those who go down to the pit
cannot hope for your faithfulness.
The living,the living--they praise you,
as I am doing today;
fathers tell their children
about your faithfulness.

Imitating Christ

2008-07-26T15:37:00.003-10:00

I am a failed Christian. Those in the religious hierarchy above me would probably agree. Though my husband and I conformed to their rules and were faithful to the ministries assigned to us, our children did not grow up and enter the ministry and as of yet, have not chosen Christ. Their rebellion has tarnished our image and we are not quite the ministry trophies we once were. I have also had health problems and as a result of each, we have become peripheral attenders and are no longer active in church ministry. Though I have failed at church this still is not the failure that I am speaking of. The failure that pricks my heart is that of not truly living a life that imitates the life of Christ.

Jesus was not well educated and did not need an education because He did not seek out His own personal success. He did not have the blessing of the religious leaders in His community when He entered the ministry. He did not study psychology so that He would be prepared to understand the flock He would lead one day. He was not a great theologian and He did not pit one theology against the other attempting to gain notoriety in the religious world. He did admonished the common folk to do as the religious leaders taught but not to do what they do because of their hypocrisy. Jesus was a humble man and not like those who love the lime light and the honor of other men. Jesus set aside His own Will, even His own life, to do the Will of His Father in Heaven.

Jesus had no home during the years of His ministry on earth. He could not even be certain where His next meal would come from. Jesus was a homeless, uneducated, sojourner Who turned the world on its ear. This Jesus, the most insignificant among the men of His time, is now proven to have lived the most significant life of any human being. He did not pontificate upon the holiness of God, He lived that holiness with every thought and action. He set aside everything that this world has to offer that mankind could be reconciled to God and through Him the Will of God accomplished upon the earth.

I have lived my Christian life in much the same manner as most of the Christians of my era. I have spent much time patterning myself after the Christian hierarchy that I might gain their approval and sanction. I have given many hours and much money to the ministries of my particular church. I have been zealous for right doctrine and values. I have sacrificed time with family and friends to carry out these ministries. I have separated myself from the world in an attempt to make myself holy and my testimony valid but I have not lived my life as Jesus lived His.

Sadly, much of what I have done in the name of ministry is in opposition to the life that Jesus lived. Rather than setting my life aside so that God's Work could be done through me upon the earth, I have sacrificed my life to do what pastors or the church expects of me when it would have been more spiritual for me to do otherwise. Though I insist that Jesus lives and that He lives in me, I have often made Him no more than a teaching. I am not the only Christian to reduce the living Jesus to only doctrine. I am not the only Christian to teach that Jesus turned the other cheek while I doggedly bicker over religious minutia with the brothers and sisters that I am to love. I am not isolated in teaching that Jesus ate and drank with sinners only to turn my nose up at those outside of Christ being fearful of what others might say or what I might be led into. Oh, that I were the only Christian to teach that Christ's church is known by its love for one another to behave cliquishly and divide the brethren! How many of us who teach that worship is to be in spirit and truth turn and resist the Holy Spirit's goading by accepting as worship that which is second best and according to the traditions and the desires of man?

As we come nearer to the end of this present Age of Grace, I wonder, will Christ find the faith upon the earth when He returns? Will He find among those Who call upon His Name any through whom He actually lives? Will there be men and women who have truly experienced God in their lives or only a form of godliness in man-made and contrived religion? Has the Power gone out of the faith called Christian? Has the salt lost all of its savor or has the Light of the world only been hidden, awaiting to be unveiled in faithful, slumbering hearts?

I am not sad that I have failed at church, at the game of religion. I am not even any longer sorrowful at what I have lost by playing that game. I am thankful that God has shown me the difference between dead religion and the Living Jesus. I am sorrowful that I have not always set my will aside that Jesus might become God's Will in me. Even now, I am not sure of the cost but I know that in Christ I can do all things. I desire to trust my heavenly Father just as Jesus trusted Him. Today's worry is sufficient for today and God will supply all my needs.

Today, dear Jesus, I open my heart fully to You and ask that You live Your life in me. May You never again be to me words on a page in the Bible or Biblical principle for a successful Christian life. May you never again be a way to an end for my own life but indeed, be the very substance of my life. Through me may God's Will and not my own be done upon the earth as it is in heaven. Lord help my unbelief! Amen.

Blessed Revelation

2008-07-20T17:01:00.006-10:00

The apostle John in his inspiration by the Holy Spirit embedded a number of blessings in the book of Revelation. I have noted seven of them here.

What is a 'blessing'? Blessings promise happiness to the people who listen to them.

Many of these blessings are also warnings. Far from the warnings of the world which demoralize and destroy, these warnings uplift those who listen to them, and have the power to impart something true about Life.

Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near.
Revelation 1:3

And I heard a voice from heaven, saying, "Write, `Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!' " "Yes," says the Spirit, "so that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow with them."
Revelation 14:13

("Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes, so that he will not walk about naked and men will not see his shame.")
Revelation 16:15

Then he *said to me, "Write, `Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.' " And he *said to me, "These are true words of God."
Revelation 19:9

Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years.
Revelation 20:6

"And behold, I am coming quickly. Blessed is he who heeds the words of the prophecy of this book."
Revelation 22:7

Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter by the gates into the city.
Revelation 22:14

The Mood Of Angels

2008-07-13T16:29:00.004-10:00

A professor once noted that feelings are not always the best portrayal of a person's spirit. In order to understand the person as a self, one had to understand their "mood".

Moods are peculiar things.

It is often the case that a person who is in a certain mood talks about their mood as if they had no control over it. Often people blame their unhappy mood on their circumstances or on someone else. People in good moods will rarely take credit for it -perhaps thanking someone else for something good they had done.

This strikes me as very suspicious. I question any claim that a circumstance has really affected someone's mood. Unless I know a person very well, I find it hard -perhaps impossible- to predict what mood they will be in at a given scenario.

DisneyLand is often described as 'the happiest place on earth'. This may well be true, but I am very certain that not everyone at DisneyLand is happy. Often times the unhappy children at DisneyLand are the unhappiest children I have ever noticed. Certainly the park has the power to provide amusement, entertainment -and many people there do have high spirits- but does it have the ability to give someone -anyone- a good mood?

As a young person I did a lot of reflecting on myself in Church, often times on my own sour attitude. I would tell myself that if I just had several of the donut holes they provided after the service, then I would be able to find a good mood. Often times I would recall eating the donut holes and noting that my mood had not actually changed ... and that I was now thinking of something else that bothered me. Or, when I was rarely in a good mood, I questioned whether it had anything to do with the donut holes at all.

A difficult thing to consider -when one is in an unhappy mood- is the possibility that one has some measure of control over it. The hardest thing to believe is that one is soley responsible for it, and that God takes it into account.

The Bible does not tell us much about angels, and those who talk very much about them end up saying all kinds of things about topics they do not know anything about. I do sometimes wonder to myself, though, if angels have moods, and -if they do- what can we learn from them?

Now when the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and does not find it.

Then it says, `I will return to my house from which I came'; and when it comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order.

Then it goes and takes along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. That is the way it will also be with this evil generation.
Matthew 12:43-45

This passage is conspicuous to my question because Jesus seems to be making a very psychological observation about demons: that they have unclean spirits, that they are led by their unclean state to restlessly looking for a distraction -not for a residence, for they have no designs to commit, but for a host.

We observe the same preference of the demons who encountered Jesus when he visited the Garasenes. The unclean spirits (calling themselves 'Legion') requested to be sent into the bodies of the swine. This request says something about their preference and about their mood.

I often see similar behavior between men and women who choose to live together without entering into a marriage commitment. A number of parallels may be drawn between the two, but for now I will note that often times when these relationships end (as they so often do) both the man and the women prefer (request?) to be sent into another relationship.

Another observation I see with this restless mood of the unclean spirits is that it is not some external sorrow that drives them onward. No, it is an inner sorrow. The authorities do not whip these unhappy people forward, they are merely permitted to scavange the dry lands of despair before finding their next distraction.

So far I have mentioned the element of the distraction when one has a bad mood. Who is the one who distracts? Not the authority, or some external circumstance. The unclean spirit is the one who distracts his own self. And what are they seeking to be distracted from? From their unhappy mood, their unhappy spirit.

Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
James 4:7

The apostle James tells us that when we submit to the authority of God over us the devil will flee from us. No one needs to force the devil to leave, the devil simply prefers to keep his distance from such a person.

It is worth noting that Saul was able to find relief from the unclean spirit that visited him by hiring a young shepherd boy to play the harp for him.

I am unable to say which tune exactly the young shepherd boy played, but I do know that the young boy, David, spent much of his times composing and playing worship and spiritual songs. One wonders if perhaps it was the very element of devotion that inclined the unclean spirit to leave.

And, again, it is worth noting that there is no mention of God compelling the unclean spirit to leave. From what I read in the text, my best interpretation is that the unclean spirit simply preferred not to be in the company of those who were praising God.

Another aspect of this story is the way the simple shepherd boy played the notes that inclined the unclean spirit to leave. One wonders, 'If losing one's melancholy were as simple a thing that even a child could do it, then why are there so many unhappy people?'.

Indeed the pharmecutical industry tells us that its complex chemicals (after billions of dollars in research) are able to undo the woes that hang over our hearts. And people pay a lot of money to go on vacations. Some people, perhaps like Saul, spend a lot of money on music too. Some people end their own lives, and others go on as if their lives ended long ago ...

Have people overlooked something as simple as becoming like a little child? Or is this something they simply prefer not to do?

We are told much about the followers of Satan and the crooked deeds of the unrighteous, and we are also told much about the clean spirits and the true followers of God.

When God chooses to do something that will bring happiness to many people He sends His own angels as messengers. The angels who worship the Lord are the ones who are full of gladness and thanksgiving. News of good tidings do not interfere with their mood or their spirit.

The book of Jude tells us the archangel Michael entered into a disagreement with the devil. The writer makes a very subtle distinction in noting the way the angel responds to the devil:

But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!"
Jude 1:9

If Michael had responded with a severe judgment, it would be hard to not think of the angel as being in something of a bitter mood. Or desperate. Although bitterness may summon (or pretend to summon) the severity and focus of seriousness, the clean spirit of the angels that worship God is full of blessedness. And this blessedness far surpasses the genuineness of any bitterness.

The story is not mentioned in Jude to tell us something interesting about angels. The story is told to provide us an example of how we are to live: not as the bitter and restless pagans in the world, but like the angels in heaven who rejoice in all happiness.

And a leper came to Him and bowed down before Him, and said, "Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean."
Matthew 8:2

The Bible tells us that God does not spare the angels who have turned against Him. The miraculous, and truly wonderful thing about the providence of God is that He has the power to give a clean spirit to us when we turn to Him. To this extent David prayed, 'Restore to unto me the joy of my salvation, and renew a right spirit within me.'

It is important for those who are sorrowed by the burden of an anguished heart to all God to set a new spirit within them. The opportunity which is extended to them -to all of us everyday- is to allow the blessed spirit of God (the spirit of makarios, happiness) into their lives.

Let everyone who has ears hear the message God has prepared for them.

Mercy River

2008-07-12T19:18:00.006-10:00

Forgiveness is to a soul as the monsoon is to the desert. In it lies the power to cleanse, restore, and nurture new life. Just as the rain does not come to the desert in response to any power that belongs to the desert but comes of its own accord, so too does forgiveness flow freely from the mercy of God. The power of the monsoon is announced in advance by a thunderous force so great that it seems to portend destruction of the life that remains after the long drought rather than promise the needed restoration. In like manner, does the soul who refuses to repent, being deceived by pride, fear the touch of God and His judgement; even though there is no hope for life but in that very touch of God. Life in the desert can survive without much water but can only live for so long. So too is the pride of human beings. There is an end appointed to all self-endurance. There is also a time appointed for recognition of He Who is the only giver of life. He sends the monsoon to the desert and has sent His forgiveness to men and women in the form of His Son.

When forgiveness finally comes to the repentant heart, it is as the rain in the desert that first settles the dry dust, washing the air and making it clean. Then rivulets begin to form, cleansing the nooks,crannies, and all the hidden places. The rivulets turn to streams that clear the dry riverbeds of all debris. The ground is soaked within minutes and when the rain stops, the sun peeks from behind the clouds as they pass and a sparkling world made clean is revealed. A bow in the clouds appears and the birds, rejoicing, burst into song, praising God for the renewal of life in their desert home. This too is the condition of a dry and bitter heart that can no longer endure by the power of its own pride and turns to Jesus.

When I sin, I want mercy and I want forgiveness. When someone sins against me, I am likely to shout for recompense and justice; but the Son of Man also has the power to forgive sins upon the earth. I am like the desert and there is no great mercy or natural forgiveness that flows freely toward others from me. I must depend upon Jesus just as the desert depends upon the monsoon rains. The desert can only bloom by the water that God pours upon it. I too can only give mercy and forgiveness to others as they flow through me from God by Jesus, Who lives in me. I pray that God will keep me humble before Him, fully aware of all my disobedience and pride as I lay them, daily, before Him receiving His mercy anew.

May His mercy and forgiveness become a mighty river flowing through me and through all who belong to Christ Jesus!

Romans 11:32 For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that He may have mercy on them all.

Between Two Altars

2008-07-06T17:38:00.004-10:00

A story can have different highlights depending on the way it is told. A daughter may tell a story a certain way, but it may turn out to be different when the mother tells it. Or perhaps one parent tells the story one way and the other parent recalls it differently.

When we read a story in the Bible we should keep in mind the story-teller. The stories are not told in such a way that everyone will understand them. And they are told by some One in particular. The story teller is not trying to tell the story like a newspaper reporter -pretending to hide his own opinions while vigorously working to persuade us of something 'we can all agree on'. The story teller is saying, "This is the way I see this story, and you should see it that way too."

To this extent the lense of truth does not turn away or moderate itself based on how many other perspectives there are. If the prophet speaks with the true words of the Spirit of the Living God, his words are not diminished by the other voices -however numerous they may be.

A crowd may seem to be full of truth. They may contend vigorously for something -whether it is for a political change or to have the Messiah executed- but however "deeply" the crowd feels about something it always has that component to it which remains unconvinced. The people in the crowd -in dread of being singled out and facing responsibility for their preferences- do not venture to leave the deceptive security of the crowd. Like the serpent, Eve, and, eventually Adam, the crowd always wants to say, 'Well, I was not the only one...'. But the voice of judgment is not daunted by the task of ruling in a number of cases ... even if all the prophets must be slaughtered one by one.

The problem with common sense is that it is far too common. Many people try to find distinctions, it is true. They find distinctions in the clothes they wear, their colloquial expressions, their athletic abilities, some people even find distinction in their knowledge of sports trivia. But these distinctions are all on the surface. All such distinctions could be lost (or in some cases gained) while the true person remains the same. Even those who are healed miraculously often fail to express the smallest amount of gratitude for the great things that have been given to them.
Few people have the peculiar advantage of understanding who they are -they would rather understand their circumstances. And so we have become a race of people who understand the world, but we do not understand life.

In some ways the story of Elijah on mount Carmel is a story about the evil of neutrality, the neutrality of remaining undecided. The two altars on mount Carmel represented what the prophet described as "two opinions". If the Truth of the matter were a matter of objective, factual, ostensible sensibility then the people could do nothing to impair the facticity of it. It would be so real that they wouldn't need to do anything.

The story of those who wait for knowledge -defined by philosophers as "justified, true belief"- is always the same. The important questions cannot be answered with knowledge. In the absense of clear and undisputed evidence we are left with a decision to make ... and even the choice to sit on the fence remains what it is -our choice to sit on the fence. As long as the people remain undecided, all their shouting says nothing ... they are like the virgins of Israel who give birth only to the wind.

The showdown on mount Carmel is not offensive to most people. It is the way the story is told in the Scriptures which offends people. And God does insist on telling it in His own voice.

The crowd wishes to hear a story about how people worked together as a team to solve something. This is the perfect covering for the dark motives in the human heart which prefer to remain covered. And when the notion of 'evil' is brought up, it is not evil really but the appearance of it. Elijah, the prophet of God, is ostensibly a trouble-maker. Yet the divine hand had selected the single individual -who appeared to be a trouble-maker!- with the expressed purpose of purging the multitude who seemed pious but were full of wickedness.

The story of Elijah on mount Carmel is a rebuke on those who try to remain neutral as much as it is a rebuke on those who worship false gods. Indeed, the prophets of Baal had no issue with the indecision of the crowd. They saw the mixed opinions of the people as an opportunity to remain in their position. The people thought that the priests of Baal ruled by popular consent (even if it was always in the consent of 'someone else'). But any reign by popular consent is always a house of cards which God often takes it upon Himself to obliterate with the smallest of means by human standards: the single individual.

When the priests of Baal had their turn to light the sacrifice, they unleased the fullness of their powers: theatrics, fanatical shouting, using many words instead of using meaningful words, or summarily: desperation. However committed these priests were to their despair, their despair was not committed to them. Like the crowd who wanted to see an amusing showdown between the two sides, the dark gods of Baal cared little about the actual lives of the priests.

The behavior of the priests is not so hard to find in our day. When we unleash our most vigorous efforts upon the challenges in own our lives, is it because we see something that really matters to us? Or is it that we wish to appear sacrifical and committed about something which really, in fact, does not matter to us at all.

Not long before this encounter, Solomon noted in the Proverbs that God detests the sacrifice of the wicked. This is not commonly understood. In the human way of considering it, the priests were spilling their blood over the sacrifice. Surely such a dramatic sacrifice would be meaningful in itself (even if no one cared about it, even a priest who cut himself). This is the landscape God surveys with His eyes: a world of people who have cut themselves over and over for the sake of things which they care nothing about. Will God honor a truly debilitating sacrifice if it is offered out of emptiness and despair? This is the very thing He hates!

The triumph by God and his prophet over the priests of Baal does not offer us a lesson in scientific understanding, but in true life greatness.

If a buffoon wished to make himself appear wise among the Hebrews by examining the altar and the sacrifice, his appearance of wisdom would have been his reward in full. He could have tested the acidity of the water, the water content of the wood, the trench, etc etc. Or if he wished to surpass the buffoonery of the priests of Baal he might have taken measurements and gathered witnesses as a way of 'proving' scientifically the instance of the miracle.

But the truth afforded by the story is not in the spectacle itself. Very often a child can see in his or her simplicity what the wise do not see. But, alas! We do not wish to be thought of as children (for children have no dignity among adults) and so we try to surpass the greatness which even children see clearly.

The smoldering ashes on the altar should serve to tell us this exact thing: that the physical circumstances and appearances of life are themselves completely subject to some One who is not constrained by any physical limitation. This is the terror which calls all men to examine their hearts and serve God in the most inner and spiritual way.

The physical world is always in question. Will it rain tomorrow? Who will succeed the king? We do not even know if the sun will rise tomorrow. Even healthy people die suddenly with the chance of seeing tomorrow suddenly taken.

But the reign of God is only in question by those who remain on the fense. God selected Elijah because in His way of understanding it, a single person who takes a firm view on something far surpasses a thousand people who remain uncommitted, undecided, unworthy servants.

May the God who does not judge by appearance find truth and clarity in the hearts of those who fear Him in these uncertain days. Amen.

On Mount Carmel

2008-07-06T09:51:00.007-10:00

So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him, and Ahab went to meet Elijah. When he saw Elijah, he said to him, "Is that you, you troubler of Israel?"

"I have not made trouble for Israel," Elijah replied. "But you and your father's family have. You have abandoned the Lord's commands and have followed the Baals. Now summon the people from all over Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel. And bring the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel's table."

So Ahab sent word throughout Israel and assembled the prophets on Mount Carmel. Elijah went before the people and said, "How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him."
But the people said nothing.

Then Elijah said to them, "I am the only one of the Lord's prophets left, but Baal has four hundred and fifty prophets. Get two bulls for us. Let them choose one for themselves, and let them cut it into pieces and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. I will prepare the other bull and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the Lord. The god who answers by fire - he is God."

Then all the people said, "What you say is good."

Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, "Choose one of the bulls and prepare it first, since there are so many of you. Call on the name of your god, but do not light the fire." So they took the bull given them and prepared it.

Then they called on the name of Baal from morning till noon. "O Baal, answer us!" they shouted. But there was no response; no one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made.

At noon Elijah began to taunt them, "Shout louder!" he said. "Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened." So they shouted louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears , as was their custom, until their blood flowed. Midday passed, and they continued their frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice. But there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention.

Then Elijah said to the people, "Come here to me." They came to him, and he repaired the altar of the Lord, which was in ruins. Elijah took twelve stones, one for each of the tribes descended from Jacob to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, "Your name shall be Israel." With the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord, and he dug a trench around it large enough to hold two seahs of seed. He arranged the wood, cut the bull into pieces and laid it on the wood. Then he said to them, "Fill four large jars with water and pour it on the offering and on the wood."

"Do it again," he said, and they did it again.

"Do it a third time," he ordered, and they did it the third time. The water ran down around the altar and even filled the trench.

At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: "O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so these people will know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again."

Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench.

When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried. "The Lord - he is God! The Lord - he is God!"

Then Elijah commanded them, "Seize the prophets of Baal. Don't let anyone get away!" They seized them, and Elijah had them brought down to the Kishon Valley and slaughtered there.

1 Kings 18:16-40

Flesh And Bone Jesus

2008-07-03T09:11:00.002-10:00

Many people relegate Jesus to the world of abstract thought. Spending the bulk of their time engaged in Star Wars like spiritual battles as they contend for the faith. I also have spent more than my share of time in the abstract world of theological thought and fought many spiritual battles in cyberspace. However, when the reality of sin and its consequences comes crashing in an abstract Jesus isn't enough. Even when we suffer because of the sin of another, theology and doctrine are not enough to sustain when your heart is being crushed. It is in these times that the Jesus Who was God but suffered as a man, the true Jesus, is the one we need. When the unspeakable has happened and there is no one to turn to and no one to bear the painful burden of despair, Jesus is there. He understands the gut wrenching pain with empathy gained only from experience. He is there to comfort and supply with that which enables endurance and even to love the one who's sin has broken your heart and threatens destruction of all you hold dear. In Him, no confidence is broken and there is nothing too awful for Him to hear. In His own flesh, He has already born the burden of all sin; even the one at present, the one with awful consequence that seems too great to bear.

Jesus, Who came to earth in flesh and bone, shed His own blood and bore the awful consequence of the sins of us all. He is here with us now, in the present, meeting our need where the rubber meets the road; meeting our need in the reality we now live out in flesh and bone. He is not distant in some far away place but as near as our own breath with the strength and the comfort that we need to carry on. Not only does He give us all that we need to endure but in Him, we will have victory over this world filled with the excruciating pain born by the sin of mankind.

Today, my heart is broken and I am filled with dread at what may come. In the silence of the waiting for the other shoe to drop, I take His hand. He pulls me to Him in understanding, in comforting embrace. In Him, my heart is already being mended as in His loving presence, I find healing and the courage to face whatever may come.

The Leftovers

2008-06-25T22:04:00.005-10:00

On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus' mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone, Jesus' mother said to him, "They have no more wine."

"Dear woman,why do you involve me?" Jesus replied, "My time has not yet come."

His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you."

Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.

Jesus said to the servants, "Fill the jars with water"; so they filled them to the brim.

Then he told them, "Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet."

They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, "Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now."

This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him.
John 2:1-11

I can still remember the day after I turned sixteen.

I woke up at noon somewhere on the floor in my bedroom. The clothes which I thought looked so cool were disheveled and odorous. My companions -so full of wit and clever jokes at every turn- were laying around like snoring furniture. The pillows -when there were pillows- were shoes, pizza boxes. The pizza, so excellent the night before- sat stiffly in the boxes as cold as corpses. The video game controllers were knotted together.

This is the way of esthetics. What looks good in the beginning looks terrible in the end. Sometimes it never has to change at all ... people simply tire of seeing it.

The world often deceives the young with grand delusions about their future -sprinkling half-serious notions of "changing the world" and "the world-historical significance of changing the world". And then the young grow up and find themselves selling life insurance or administering a business.

And then they look at their own lives and say, "What happened to the significance of my life? All the lovely sounding words and promises ... what happened to those? Perhaps I am not one of those important people ... not a celebrity or politician. Maybe I'm just an ordinary person living in their shadow."

But God loves the ordinary people. He loves the ones the world cares little about. He finds the things about them that others call "dull" to be His favorite. He is ready to find the people who have been forgotten and despised by the world. He is ready to find them and call them His own.

People tend to think of growing older as a process in becoming less interesting to the world, and this is true enough. As the people who have made the attention of the world their hope begin to lose hope day by day (while outwardly delighting in the excitement of thinking it may all be over soon), God has saved His best for last. The people who belong to God rejoice in the promises He has given them. Even though the vessels of their bodies begin to crack and fall apart, their spirits drink from the fountain of life, and they praise their God.

The day the world anxieties over will soon be here. Everything will be accounted and the desires of the world will be exposed. It will be completely clear to all that no one really longed for the things of the world. They were for appearances only.

Father, teach us to be your little children. Fill us with the life that does not waste away. Renew us with your understanding. Our greatness is so pathetic, and our patheticness, Father, how you love it! Send us into the fullness of your ways, so that your name will be blessed on the earth.

The End Of The End Times

2008-06-25T17:08:00.004-10:00

The end times officially began when Christ ascended into the clouds with the promise of His imminent return. The time of that return is know only to Father God. Jesus could have returned a few minutes or hours after His ascension or anytime there after. It has been over 2,000 years now and those of us who love Jesus are still waiting and watching as we keep a close watch upon the signs of the times.

Over the centuries, there have been many Christians who when comparing the prophecies with the events of their lifetime, have been certain that Christ's return would be during their lifetime. There have also been prophets who have been so bold as to even set dates for the Rapture and the Second Coming of Christ. Some have even stopped all that they were doing to gather in an appointed spot to await Jesus on a date specified by these prophets. From the Montanists, to the Adventists, to those of The Church of God, all have been disappointed as Christ's date of arrival was, again, postponed.

We live in exciting days in a globalized culture that to many Christians appears ripe for the unfolding of Biblical prophetic events. I also interpret the signs and watch the clouds waiting for my Savior's return. I wait in anticipation but many Christians who are young in the Lord, watch with fear and in trepidation. With lives yet to be lived and young dreams yet to be fulfilled, the idea of the Tribulation and near destruction of the planet only adds to the uncertainty that is inherent to living in a world under the constant shadow of death. Satan, who knows he can't remove a born again Christian from the hand of God and devour him or her, looks for every opportunity to use fear against us. Satan's great power is fear. Even such godly fear as that involved in reading the signs of the times according to scripture can be an opportunity for the evil one. By tweaking this fear, he is able to distract many Christians and cause them to lose their focus upon Christ.

When Christians take their eyes off of Jesus and their mind begins to wander away from the narrow path, they are easily sidelined from the mainstream of Christian life and service. All Christians should study prophecy and be aware of the season they are living in; but we should never substitute prophetic signs for walking by faith. If we begin to live our lives in response to events in the world that seem to be fulfilling what we read in the Bible, then we have begun to walk by sight and not by faith. If we join groups of believers who are bound together by the same understanding of prophecy or around a prophetic teacher, then we have left the church to form a cult. The true church gathers in the Name of Jesus, whether they be two or more, not around any teacher or set of teachings. The difference is subtle but insidious,in keeping with Satan's manipulative, conspiratorial style.

Jesus is coming soon. We don't know the year, the month, the day, the hour, or the minute; and He will come at an hour we don't expect. He will come like a thief in the night. In the twinkling of an eye, we will meet Him in the air and be changed. We will be glorified. We must stay aware and not give up our hope in expectation. We must remain mindful of the season and continue to read the signs of our time. We must not lose our focus upon Jesus and we must continue to walk not by what we see but by our faith, which is only, Jesus. Our Salvation is in Christ alone. Our Sanctification is Christ alone. Our Redemption too will be Christ alone. For as long as we remain in this Age of Grace, the age of God's long suffering towards mankind, there is nothing more required of us than holding on to Jesus and trusting that He is holding on to us.

Measure all things according to the character of Jesus Christ.

The Antichrists Among Us

2008-06-23T06:36:00.010-10:00

People in the United States worship many gods today and call many of them, Jesus. Some accept Him as a prophet but deny His Deity. They accept Him as the Son of Man but deny that He is the only begotten Son of God. They believe in their own definition of Him but refute what He said about Himself. This is one spirit of antichrist that is in the world. This is the Jesus of modern times who first appeared on the scene through the Modernists who viewed scripture as beneath the authority of man and subject to his interpretation. They believe that interpretation must change with the times and thereby, maintain truth that remains relative to modern man. This is the jesus of a god created by man to serve the will of man.

There is yet another jesus who is the jesus of wealth, health, and prosperity. These people don't deny the Deity of Christ but still view Him as one who serves their physical needs in this world. Truly, their god is their belly and they only follow that which promises to fill their insatiable hunger for what this present world has to offer. Their desires have enabled them to create a magic jesus to heal their flesh and give them the wealth of material possessions that they dream of. They don't understand that all that is material is vanishing and nothing that our eyes are locked upon in our desire for them is eternal. This magic jesus gives his followers momentary happiness but in him there is no joy as there is no eternal life in that which is material.

The third jesus, who is fast becoming prevalent today, is the new age jesus. He is god tailored to the individual. The god of personal choosing that tolerates all views except those who really believe Jesus as being the person Whom He says He is. All views are tolerated as long as those who voice them don't take their beliefs too seriously and actually believe they are literally true. The new age jesus is relative truth, man's way, and living the life of doing one's own thing. The new age jesus seeks unity of religion and moral license. His followers have their reward now for they are of the world and are perishing.

The final Antichrist is the most insidious and it is of this spirit that the final and most powerful Antichrist will arise. This jesus is known as the Son of God but not acknowleged as the Son of Man. This is the Gnostic jesus, he who is of spirit only and not able to indwell flesh as his followers perceive spirit to be good and all that is material to be evil. Gnosticism is an ancient Greek philosophy that was morphed with Christ early in church history. Some of their gospels (written as late as 300 years after the death of Christ, with new gospels being written presently) even teach that jesus did not come in the flesh but instead borrowed a body of flesh to die on the cross for sin while he remained outside observing. They deny the resurrected body of Christ as being flesh glorified by the Spirit. They deny the new Adam, Jesus Who is the Son of God and the Son of Man. They deny that believers in Jesus will also receive glorified bodies, bodies of flesh glorified by the Spirit of God and made eternal. They teach that upon death those who are the elect of the spirit that guides them (believing themselves elite among men) will become spirit only and ascend into heaven. They deny the earthly manifestation of the Kingdom and Christ's 1,000 year rule of righteousness on Earth; a time when God will tabernacle Himself among all men and fulfill the prophecies given to the Jews. Rather than teaching, as the Bible teaches, that the church is grafted into the people of God through faith in Christ, they teach that the church has replaced the Jews as the children of God and that the Kingdom is spiritual only. They twist the teachings of Paul which many have difficulty understanding and they do so to their own detriment. Gnostic's were called Nicoliatans by Jesus in Revelation 2:6. He commended the church at Ephesus for hating their works and stated that He hated their works also.

Gnostic's don't form their own churches but instead, they infiltrate bodies of believers. They often appear angelic, even as angels of Light. They are very hard to discern from true believers in the true Jesus and they guard the truth of their beliefs while also seeking to draw others in unawares. The Internet is made for their agenda as it allows them to make their way into homes to take advantage of people who have been hurt in their faith and are isolated and alone. They look for broken Christians. Those who have been hurt by life circumstances and currently doubt the purposes of God in their life. They especially seek out those who have been hurt by the church and discarded by mainstream Christianity. They seek out the spiritually gullible who have only a rudimentary knowledge of the Bible and can be easily swayed from the truth. They use charm and manipulation to gain the favor of those they are leading into deception. The Internet is chock full of their prophecies and hyper spiritual writings.

The Gnostic deception creates a strong delusion that is so subtle and convincing as to be powerful enough to deceive even God's elect if they were not guarded by Jesus. It is not possible for them to fully deceive those who belong to the true Jesus, the Son of God and the Son of Man. However, Satan can use them to make us ineffective in our Christian service by bringing us under the oppression of the evil spirit they channel. Every false jesus has this power but it is the Gnostic jesus that will deceive the entire world. It is to him that all other antichrist spirits will give their allegiance. Therefore, test all the spirits, even those that are pleasing and seem to be only Light. Test them according to the Holy Spirit within you and according to the Bible. Do not allow anyone to talk you into discarding the Scriptures as the authority for faith in Christ. Do not bite into the delusion that will someday, devour the world. Put your trust in Christ alone and no other.

2 John 1:7-11 Many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch out that you do not lose what you have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully. Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take him into your house or welcome him. Anyone who welcomes him shares in his wicked work.

Refuge From Fear

2008-06-18T05:50:00.014-10:00

Psalm 12:8 The wicked prowl on every side, When vileness is exalted among the sons of men.

There is no better description of the time we live in than what is stated, simply, in the above verse. All that God teaches us to be immoral is not only condoned but celebrated in our popular culture. We are now living in a culture that in many ways has become toxic to human beings. It is becoming increasingly difficult to find others who are safe to trust. In my lifetime, I have seen murder go from rare and often the subject of horror movies to often and too common-place for the horror genre. The taking of human life is no longer abhorrent to our desensitised society but instead, mildly entertaining. Mothers murder their babies in the womb and many consider putting down as one does an animal, our mothers and fathers when they become old and frail. We, as a people, are ceasing to protect the most helpless among us. We are losing the compassion for one another that marks us as human beings and above animals. Kindness and goodness are presently viewed as gullibility and weakness. None of us are safe among our own kind when living in a society with this mindset. This is the same type of spiritual environment which allowed for Hitler and his genocide of the Jews. Truly, we must enter into a delusion of safety to enable ourselves to lay our heads down and sleep at night.

It is not abnormal to view the world we live in as hopeless and desire to escape from it. Sadly, those who are in the world and of it will choose worldly pleasures and develop a sin habit as a vehicle for escape. Materialism,drugs,alcohol,sex, pornography, and gambling, are among the most common; and their promise of escape is a lie, for they only add to that which makes escape a priority. If we are left to continue in this direction, there is no hope for human beings. We as a species will become extinct by our own hand.

Psalm 14:1

The fool has said in his heart,

"There is no God."

They are corrupt,

They have done abominable works,

There is none that does good."

There is no God is a foolish but popular statement today. The most learned among us, those who lead us, are the most likely to utter it. In the sixties, God was pronounced as dead and by the nineties, Europe had entered what is called the post-Christian era. God has been removed from public life and His Laws are no longer honored as the basis for our law. Faith in God is murdered in the hearts of many young people by teachers and professors with an agenda to destroy Judeo/Christian culture. In the sixties, they began this agenda by inciting young people to rebel by using the Viet Nam War and the fear of the draft as a vehicle to create social unrest. Professors, such as Timothy Leary, plied young people with drugs that induced a false spiritual experience and false enlightenment that released the foul spirits that move the world today. Paganism and New Age religions now flourishes in a nation that once, openly and corporately, trusted in God. The truth of Jesus Christ is now heavily suppressed in a nation who's motto of revolution from the king of England was, "No king but King Jesus!"

There are many signs today that portend to the fact that God has delivered our once Christian Nation over to wrath. The first chapter of Romans runs a clear parallel to the decent of America that I have witnessed in my lifetime. This nation which once served as a refuge for those who wanted to worship God according to His Word and not according to government or apostate religious leaders has become, increasingly, uncomfortable for Christian people. We too have sought escape and systematically, over the past three decades, have begun to withdraw from the common culture. We began by first pulling our children from public schools and placing them in parochial schools. As the church became more anemic by those who wished to tailor her to please the world, parents withdrew even further and many now teach their children at home. Home churches and the Internet fill the spiritual void (felt by so many who long for sound, Biblical teaching) created by the leaders of an institutionalised church too consumed by worldly ambitions to accommodate. The one area that we have not retreated from has been politics and though involvement is good, there is no hope in politics. Time spent on political activism would be better invested in fulfilling our true call to activism, that of fulfilling the Great Commission.

Christians continue to flee from public life and with each one that enters retreat, the nation at large grows darker. It is not an abnormal reaction and I too have participated in trying to escape and protect my children from a culture bent upon self-destruction. Sadly, because of our exodus, we have become a subculture and in our frightened state, we have very little affect on the community that surrounds us. Our fear has resulted in our hiding the Light of the world under a basket. By not trusting God to keep us in the midst of evil, we no longer act as a purifying agent in our communities.

Psalm 18:1-3

I will love You, O LORD, my strength.

The LORD is my rock and my fortress
and my deliverer;

My God, my strength, in whom I will trust;

My shield and the horn of my
salvation, my stronghold.

I will call upon the LORD, who is
worthy to be praised;

So shall I be saved from my enemies.

Psalm 14:2-3

The LORD looks down from heaven
upon the children of men,
To see if there are any who
Understand, who seek God.
They have together become corrupt;
There is none that does good,
No, not one.

vs.5-6 There they are in great fear,
For God is with the generation of the righteous.
You shame the counsel of the poor,
But the LORD is his refuge.

Fear does not come from God and is not the spirit which should move Christians. Jesus is not an escape hatch from the world, not for us nor our children. When we seek escape in God, we are no better than a drug addict; and more likely, worse when we use God as an addict would use heroin to soothe emotional pain and calm our fears. Even though God does not allow us full escape, He is our refuge. In Christ, we know that the enemy can't destroy us for our lives are hidden in Him. Even if our bodies are destroyed, we will not die. Eternal life is ours in Christ. In Christ, we are emboldened to stand against all that the enemy uses to cause us to fear. In Christ, it is possible to do as Jesus teaches; to be in the world but not of it. God has left us here with an active purpose that can't be accomplished through nonparticipation. He is our fortress in the midst of battle but not a sanctuary for those who have gone AWOL. He is our strength to endure and even overthrow the darkness. He is perfect armor and in Him, we are safe and will not suffer defeat.

Psalm 18:4-7

The pangs of death surrounded me,
And the floods of ungodliness made
me afraid.

The sorrows of Sheol surrounded me,
The snares of death confronted me.

In my distress I called upon the
LORD,
And cried out to my God;
He heard my voice from His temple,
And my cry came before Him, even to
His ears.

Then the earth shook and trembled;
The foundations of the hills also
quaked and were shaken,
Because He was angry.

There is no anger as powerful as that of a parent when their child has been injured. God loves us more than we can imagine, even more than we love our own children. Those who come against us to hurt us will not go unpunished. Though He is angry with the workers of iniquity in the world today, He loves them also. God desires that all come to repentance so that all might be restored to Him as Father. None can hear about Jesus if there is no one preaching His Word. Those who have no hope will never experience true enlightenment if the Light of the World is hidden because of our fear of them. The darkness that now seems near to total will not recede if we hoard Jesus and keep Him all for ourselves.

It is time for those who are in Christ to come out of the closet. Let us open our hearts to Jesus and be empowered through the filling of the Holy Spirit to be bold in our faith. Let us not shrink from the battle that lies before us but instead, seek the sure refuge we have in Jesus that is our stronghold in the very midst of battle.

Christian soldiers, arise! "Even the gates of hell will not prevail against Christ and His church."

Don't Forget ...

2008-06-16T22:18:00.003-10:00

Only one this week ...

Earlier Episodes:
Episodes 1, 2, 3
Episodes 4, 5, 6
Episodes 7, 8, 9
Episodes 10, 11, 12
Episodes 13, 14, 15

Every Day Jesus

2008-06-16T06:55:00.004-10:00

God is not a talisman and nothing fashioned by human fingers can harness His power. There is no sign, encantation, or ritual that can call His power down from heaven. There is no sacrifice that will cause Him to serve our demands. Even if we pray in the Holy Name, Jesus, the human will won't be served but only the Will of the Living God. Our faithfulness to corporate worship does not impress Him; and neither does any work that we judge to be good buy us favor from Him. God does not serve men or women but we are served when we fully surrender to Him.

If I should pray asking God to make me strong, I am in error. If I should ask that I be found worthy of Him, I am also in error and seeking my own greatness and not the glory of God. He does not perfect me in my own strength and worthiness but instead has chosen to work in my weakness. When I deny my weakness and try to hide it out of shame, I have become unteachable. I have ceased to walk according to the Spirit and instead, begun to walk according to a religion of my own making. My religion being rituals and practices that, according to my own thinking, promise to make me holy in the sight of God. My religion is in vain for there is no religion that can make men and women worthy of God's love and favor. Even the religion given by God Himself to the Jews cannot make anyone holy. Therefore, there is no joy in religion but only guilt.

When I was young and new in the Lord, I made many vows to Him of all that I would to do for Him out of gratitude for my Salvation in Christ. I wanted to change the world for His Name's sake! I fought for Him! I stood fast for truth! I denied myself many things thinking that this would make me holy and that my testimony would shine as an example to others. For the sake of my testimony, I sought to hide all that was weak in me. I hid it from myself, my friends, my family, and any stranger that crossed my path. I often even sought hide my weakness from God. I was so full of my own works, there was no room left for God to work in me. I focused upon my own strength and goodness rather than the Power and Goodness of God.

The weakness of my flesh is undeniable and when it became undeniable to others, I would cry out in sorrow and shame asking to be strengthened that I might not fall again! I begged for endurance! I asked for these things that I might be glorious and be made capable of glorifying God through the power of my own actions. Though I was born again, my flesh did not want to die and fought hard to deceive me so that it might continue to live. Pride is the power of the flesh and my pride longed to devour for itself all that belonged to God in me. Many years later, my pride still longs for greatness but is greatly hindered as now I near the completion of my redemption and Jesus in me has grown and continues to grow stronger every day.

When I was young in Christ, I used swollen words of my own devotion and set my course, planning how I could best serve God; more correctly, how I could do God a favor. Thankful I am now that the Lord is patient and faithful with me. He has allowed death to shorten the time that flesh is able to live in a world that has fallen away from Him and death weakens my flesh daily. Now that I am older and much weaker, I no longer make vows to the Lord and take part in crusades in His Name. In my weakness, I have learned to hold up my arms that my Father may lift me and carry me where He Wills me to go. I have found contentment in, Jesus even in the midst of personal failure.

It is in my weakness that God is fully glorified in me; and His Glory is my glory. There is no greatness required of me but instead, the trust of a small child. I am a child with no strength and power of my own. Yet, I am living a life empowered by the Living God. I no longer pray for my strength but instead, that Jesus be strong in me. I know now that I will not find victory by my own strength of endurance but only endure by His Mercy. It is by dieing daily to the desires of my own flesh that I am learning how to live; not for a few years that will end quickly but for eternity. As I diminish, Christ in me is growing brighter. I am in constant and continual contact with my Father through prayer and my conversations with Him sustain me. I take all of my problems, concerns, and worries to God; but not with commands of how I desire Him to fix them. Instead, I am learning to lay them at His feet just as they are and seek His perfect Will in each situation. I am becoming dead to the desire of my own will being worked out through God.

Much of my life has not gone in the way that I desired it should go. Even so, I am not filled with regret but with joy for in Jesus, God's plan for me is His life perfected in me. This perfect plan is made of a sound substance that can't be corrupted. The substance is, Jesus and His living in me by faith. This is not my work but the work of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Though I don't have great wisdom or riches, God's Will for me is His glory and that is glory for me. The abundant life that I am living is the glory of God in me by the Power of His own Mercy.

Look upon, Jesus! Look at all that God has done through the Son that we might find favor in the eyes of our Father and be fully restored to Him. In Christ, we are invited to walk hand and hand with the Living, Creator God! This is no religion. This is transforming relationship. In Jesus, the Father accepts us just as we are not only on the day of our Salvation, but everyday. There is nothing we can do or not do that will come between us and God ever again.

Jesus is the every day joy that fills all who call upon His Name and belong to Him.

Doxology

2008-06-08T15:35:00.004-10:00

My soul shall magnify the Lord.
My spirit will praise Him for His many gifts.

He has blessed His servant with great riches,
And remembered him in the day of trouble.

In the time of my struggle the Lord heard my prayers.
He did not withhold His ear from the least of His people.

When the heavens foretold of destruction,
When the world seemed to be falling down around me,
My feet stood firmly on solid ground,
On a sure rock that does not waver.

I asked myself, "Who is this man to find such favor?"
Surely he is not one of the great ones.

Yet the Lord Himself watches over the ones He loves.
Behold He has set them aside for all He has planned.

Though the thinking of the wise man betrays him,
Though he says to himself, 'This will be my end'
Those who rely on God are never disappointed.
Even when they weep, their ways are full of joy.

Rejoice, oh my spirit, and know who reigns on the earth.
Magnify the Lord, oh my soul.

I won't say much about the details, but ... I had some major work to do yesterday. It looked like it was going to take all my time to make a deadline, and in the moment when it seemed too difficult I learned that my wife would be going into labor soon. This made my work very difficult indeed.

My wife and child are definitely more important to me than my job or school. Yet still I believe God intervened at a time when I felt very much in need.

It turned out she was not going into labor. I worked through the previous night, yesterday until 3 AM and it was finally done and completely working. Today I can rest, and I feel very much at peace.

Consuming Fire

2008-06-08T04:20:00.002-10:00

Oh Holy Spirit, burning within, You are the Consuming Fire that is my God. Holy Fire, consume me! Burn away all that is hay and stubble in me! The void left in burnings wake,may You fill with Your Divine Love. Cleanse, purify, and seal this earthen clay vessel. Prepare me that God only be glorified in me! I who have been chosen as Your temple, make me worthy of the Holy One of Israel. Make me fit for the indwelling King!

King Jesus, live in me today!

I lift up holy hands to my Heavenly Father. Hands washed in the pure blood of Jesus and cleansed of all the evil deeds they have done. I offer up this heart once black with sin made clean by that very same blood. With clean lips, I praise, Jesus! I lift His Holy Name as I long for all men to be drawn to Him. Oh, Holy Spirit, draw them to Jesus for salvation!

Jesus the Lamb of God has become the Lion of Judah in me! Jesus, my King, Who has laid His claim on me, soon will lay claim upon the whole world! The Father's Will is done upon the earth and revealed to men at the full revelation of Jesus, the Son.

Rejoice!

Jesus is coming! No evil will stand before the force of Righteousness. Jesus, for the glory of His Father, will put all enemies under His feet. His victory is complete, not partial; and all that He redeems, He will lay, with His crown, at the Father's feet. He will sit in righteous judgement. He will judge for the widow and for the orphan. All will be made right in the world. All that is and ever has been unholy, tossed into the Fire reserved for that Day. All evil, sin, and death forever put down;consumed by the very same Fire that now burns within and purifies me. Death's destruction come in suffering the second death. Amen!

Oh, Holy Spirit! Oh, Consuming Fire! Burn on until all that seeks to stand against and in the place of God is but heaps of ashes. The temporal state forgotten when death rules no more and only Life remains!

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Praise God!

A Mother Cries And God Speaks

2008-06-06T09:08:00.005-10:00

I have been a Christian for a good number of years and because of my familiarity with God, I can find myself taking the miraculous in my life for granted. I forget, at times, what life was like before Jesus; and the wonder of peace with God becomes familiar and even mundane. Instead of rejoicing as I did in the beginning when all things of God were new to me, I mumble to myself over the sin of others whom I love and pout because God has not yet brought them to faith in Christ. I have been praying for my children for so many years and am often discouraged when I see no result. Thinking along this vein can fill me with false hopelessness for them as they have backsliden in their faith and so much time has passed that I no longer know for certain if they are backsliden or lost. I know that the hopelessness I feel is false because there is hope for all in Christ. I know it but I don't quite believe it. Sometimes, my spiritual immaturity shows itself as I begin to walk by sight rather than living by faith. At these times,I behave as a spoiled child who has no appreciation for all that my Father has done for me. Promises as to my future seem too far away to really matter or trust. I want what I want now! As a petulant child, I complain to my Father that the Kingdom can't be heaven if my children aren't included there.

When I begin to wax unfaithful, God rescues me through His own faithfulness. Gently He speaks to me, in a small still voice that reverberates His Power within me; and as I am restored to walking according to the Spirit, I remember that I am a soul that belongs wholly to God. Once, I was a slave to my own sinful desires and further even from God than my children who I cry for and pray for now. I who once served my father, the devil, am now a servant of the Living God! I did not grow up in a Christian home and I did not go to church or know Christian people; yet, God had mercy upon me and simply reached down and saved me from my sin. He quickened my spirit and I who had been dead to God was made alive to Him, in an instant, when Jesus showed Himself to me and began also to live in me, by faith. No matter how I have failed Him since that day, or any calamities I've suffered, or the pain and discouragement visited upon me through the sins of others, nothing has been able to separate me from Jesus or remove me from the Hand of my Father. Jesus, my Lord and my Savior, is the Lord of the living and the dead as He suffered and died upon the cross and then rose to life again. There is hope for all in Him. There is nothing and no one outside the scope of His Power. If Jesus saved me, He can save anyone.

I found myself in such a doubtful state only a few days ago. It is a besetting sin I have, falling into feelings of hopelessness and failure concerning my children who have strayed far from God. This time, God not only spoke to me and encouraged me through the Holy Spirit by reminding me of what He has done in my life, but also confirmed His promises to me in His written Word. Promises that I did not know the extent of in all my decades as a believer. The words of the Bible that have instructed and comforted believers for centuries spoke to me as if written personally for me. In fact, they were written personally for me as God knows beforhand all that will trouble me in this life.

Isaiah 54:8-17
With a little wrath I hid My face from you for a moment;
But with everlasting kindness I will have mercy on you."
Says the LORD, your Redeemer.
"For this is like the waters of Noah to Me;
For as I have sworn That the waters of Noah would no longer cover the earth,
So have I sworn That I would not be angry with you,
nor rebuke you. For the mountains shall depart And the hills be removed,
But my kindness shall not depart from you.
Nor shall my covenant of peace be removed,"
Says the LORD, who has mercy on you.
"O you afflicted one, Tossed with tempest, and not comforted,
Behold, I will lay your stones with colorful gems,
And lay your foundations with sapphires.
I will make your pinnacles of rubies,
Your gates of crystal,
And all your walls of precious stones.
All your children shall be taught by the LORD,
And great shall be the peace of your children.
In righteousness you shall be established;
You shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear;
And from terror, for it shall not come near you.
Indeed they shall surely assemble, but not because of Me.
Whoever assembles against you shall fall for your sake.
Behold, I have created the blacksmith
Who blows the coals in the fire,
Who brings forth an instrument for his work;
And I have created the spoiler to destroy.
No weapon formed against you shall prosper,
And every tongue which rises against you in judgment
You shall condemn.
This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD,
And their righteousness is from Me." Says the LORD.

The passage above left me humbled and amazed at God's love for me. He has promised to teach my children directly and I need not fear for them but instead, surrender them completely to Him. The peace of God fills me anew and the dark and doubtful places that remained in me have been won as I realize the extent of God's peace in my life and the mercy and the promise it contains. There is no better place for me to leave my children than in His hands. I have nothing to fear for me or for my children for God will not allow Satan to have victory in any area of my life. God has said it and I believe it. I will no longer doubt and worry. I will completely trust Him with those who I love most in this life.

Overwhelmed and with my cup overflowing, I read on. As I read, God removed any room for further or future doubt as I read of His promise not only to me but also to my children who years ago, were discouraged in their faith.

Isaiah 57:15-18
For thus says the High and Lofty One
Who inhabits eternity,
Whose name is Holy:
"I dwell in the high and holy place,
With him who has a contrite and humble spirit,
To revive the spirit of the humble,
And to revive the heart of the contrite ones.
For I will not contend forever,
Nor will I always be angry;
For the spirit would fail before Me,
And the souls which I have made.
For the iniquity of his covetousness
I was angry and struck him;
I hid and was angry,
And he went on backsliding in the way of his heart.
I have seen his ways, and will heal him;
I will also lead him,
And restore comforts to him
And to his mourners.

I have been like Rachel weeping inconsolably for my children for many years. I am weeping no more. God has promised me that my children will return from the land of the enemy where they have been held captive. God has promised and I believe Him for He has never let me down and through His Son, He speaks directly to me. He reassures me and nourishes me with His Word. I know that Satan wants my children and that he is angry because he knows his time is short; but I will no longer fear him or cry out in doubt and torment for nothing can disassemble the promises of God.

After All

2008-06-03T22:32:00.001-10:00

Episodes 1, 2, 3
Episodes 4, 5, 6
Episodes 7, 8, 9
Episodes 10, 11, 12

The Successful Christian

2008-06-02T07:37:00.002-10:00

The church builds many expectations of the Christian life. Preachers and Pastors promise prosperity, happy families, and successful lives if we but follow Biblical standards for living. They promise that in Christ, we will have all that everyone desires. It is a great sales technique, good for bringing in the lost to fill church pews, but it is not what God defines as the successful Christian life.

Psalm 17:13-14

Arise, O LORD,
Confront him,
caste him down:
Deliver my life from the wicked with Your sword,
With your hand from men, O LORD,
From men of the world who have their portion in this life,
And whose belly You fill with Your hidden treasure.
They are satisfied with children,
And leave the rest of their possession
for their babes.

As for me, I will see Your face in righteousness;
I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness.

It is easy to be convinced that if we are obedient to Biblical principles, God will bless us with what everyone in the world desires; health, wealth, and a loving family. These are good things and they are from God but they are not the marker of a successful Christian. Success is not in blessings we have earned through our own good behavior but in Who's image we are being refashioned. It is even possible to not enjoy any of those blessings and yet, be a success in God's eyes. This success can't be earned but only submitted to. We are but clay in the Potter's Hands as daily He works to create in us the likeness of Christ.

Our faith is not of ourselves but is a gift from God. Our faith does not promise us a life free of pain and sorrow but instead, a life enabled to overcome pain, sorrow, and even death. In Christ, we are not promised a happy life, a painless life, but are gifted with the Power of Life from God at the moment we believe in Jesus. We suffer just as the ungodly suffer but we are not overcome because Jesus lives in us and He has already conquered all that seeks to conquer us. In Christ, we are empowered to overcome evil with good.

It is easy to listen to sermons that teach 'blessings earned' and be made to feel that somehow, we have fallen short. If one's children have rebelled and want nothing to do with God, it is very easy to condemn one's self by classifying one's self as a failed Christian. If one has bad health, this type of preaching can send us searching for some hidden sin that is blocking us from receiving the blessings of God. If one has lost their business or suffered some other financial loss, it is easy, according to this type of teaching, to begin to berate one's self for not giving enough to God's Work. Though Biblical principles are true and useful guides in daily life, to teach that abundant blessings are the norm for the Christian is deceptive. The abundant life is a life empowered by the eternal Life received in Jesus that is Jesus and cannot be overcome by all that a fallen world seeks to use to bring us down.

If we seek to live a Godly life and are met with persecution, we are a successful Christian. If our children turn from God and do all in their might to turn us away from Him also but we are unable to leave Him, we are a success in Christ. If we are stricken by poverty and even made homeless yet, we cling to Jesus, we are a success in God's eyes. If even all of our days are spent in physical and emotional pain and still we cry out to God, we are becoming what God has chosen us to be. If even in the face of death, we draw only closer to God, our success is near to receiving its reward. If we should fail at everything we have ever set our hands to do and yet, still believe, we have fulfilled what God intends in us, that the simple should confound the wise. A successful Christian realizes that what God desires to see in us is not our own good works that He might bless us but instead, His own redemptive work. Successful Christians are those who are being perfected in weakness and don't seek to perfect themselves.

We are not to be as the world who will believe only when their bellies are filled and their desires met. We must not be deceived into thinking that God has abandoned us when times are tough. Those of the world have their reward now. We who are in Christ seek a reward that comes in the future. All long for showers of God's blessings but for now, be content with those mercy drops that sustain us in this sinful and dying world. Our hope is not in the things of this world but in Christ, in an age yet to come. In that day, our Hope will be fully glorified and the pain we endure in this world will be remembered no more.

Hold on! Jesus is coming soon!

Two Hearts And A Firey Tongue

2008-05-29T06:24:00.007-10:00

We all speak from that which fills our hearts; and often, our hearts are not pure. It is easy to hurt one another with our words and we need to be mindful of what we say. Our words are capable of setting the whole world on fire. However, being mindful of our words does not cure the root problem, the sin nurtured within our own mind. Yet, some Christians cling to the notion that by their own mindfulness of words they can keep themselves from sinning by them. They learn to speak in opposition to how they feel and even teach their children to do the same. They speak words of love and devotion to God while in their hearts, they nurture vile hatred and even murder. By their own effort, they have given up on the sin of speaking evil and traded a wicked tongue for a double heart.

I have been a victim of double hearts. Too often, I have thought myself to be loved but later it was revealed that I was hated instead. How love sours when it is found to be pretense. That sour sickness is magnified many times when the love named as pretense is named as the love of God. It is enough to cause us to lose faith if that faith were dependent on us; but thanks be to God, nothing can separate us from the love of God, not even a doubled hearted Christian.

Psalm 12:1-8 Help, LORD, for the godly man ceases! For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men. They speak idly everyone with his neighbor. With flattering lips and a double heart they speak.

May the LORD cut off all flattering lips, And the tongue that speaks proud things, Who have said, "With our tongue we will prevail; Our lips are our own; Who is lord over us?

"For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, Now I will arise," says the LORD; "I will set him in the safety for which he yearns."

The words of the LORD are pure words, Like silver tried in a furnace of earth, Purified seven times. You shall keep them, O LORD, You shall preserve them from this generation forever.

The wicked prowl on every side, When vileness is exalted among the sons of men.

I am an open hearted person and often expression of that openness is in blunt truth. I never even think to say anything other than what I am thinking and even though it is truth, as I perceive it, my truth is not pure and my words cause damage. I am guilty of setting the world on fire with my tongue. I can choose not to speak but I am not capable of suppressing what is true and saying something else. I am helpless to this sin, apart from Jesus.

On the other hand, I know brothers and sisters who have spoken and acted in opposition to their true thoughts and feelings for so long that they truly can't express anything that comes from the core of themselves. They are the only ones who know the truth of their inner life. They exist within themselves until something from outside comes crashing in and their true thoughts and feelings are momentarily uncovered. Then the inner person emerges in contempt and self-defense, all of the 'wrong' feelings hidden behind an angelic smile rise with dank rancor. This person too is helpless to the sin they are predisposed to, apart from Jesus.

The natural response for each offender is to caste their shame upon the other and seek self-justification. The one lives by their own words justified as truth, while the other prides themselves on speaking words that cause no pain. To do so is to exalt that which is vile in the eyes of the Lord, making way for wickedness to abound on all sides.

The only hope for any sinner is Jesus and never in any of our words, whether they be blunt in truthfulness or sugary sweet and false. From our hearts we speak and the cure for every kind of sinner is a pure heart. Only Jesus can purify a heart and when His Words are spoken through that purified heart, all who are given ears to hear are blessed, nurtured, and healed.

May God make us mindful of our words and not of our words only, but also mindful of our hearts. May we be blunt and open toward God, hiding no ugly thought or feeling; but instead, surrendering them to Him to be purified as our hearts are also purified from sin.

Dearest Jesus, keep us humble before you and make us pure in God's eyes. Cause our tongues to speak not words of our own crafting or words of our own emotion but pure Words, the very Words of Life. Amen.

In The World

2008-05-25T20:46:00.005-10:00

"I pray not that Thou shouldst take them out of the world."
John 17:15

It is a sweet and blessed event which will occur to all believers in God's own time -the going home to be with Jesus. In a few more years the Lord's soldiers, who are now fighting "the good fight of faith," will have done with conflict, and have entered into the joy of their Lord. But although Christ prays that His people may eventually be with Him where He is, He does not ask that they may be taken at once away from this world to heaven. He wishes them to stay here. Yet how frequently does the wearied pilgrim put up the prayer, "O that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away and be at rest;" but Christ does not pray like that, He leaves us in His Father's hands, until, like shocks of corn fully ripe, we shall each be gathered into our Master's garner. Jesus does not plead for our instant removal by death, for to abide in the flesh is needful for others if not profitable for ourselves. He asks that we may be kept from evil, but he never asks for us to be admitted to the inheritance in glory till we are of full age.

Christians often want to die when they have any trouble. Ask them why, and they tell you, "Because we would be with the Lord." We fear it is not so much because they are longing to be with the Lord, as because they desire to get rid of their troubles; else they would feel the same wish to die at other times when not under the pressure of trial. They want to go home, not so much for the Saviour's company, as to be at rest. Now it is quite right to desire to depart if we can do it in the same spirit that Paul did, because to be with Christ is far better, but the wish to escape from trouble is a selfish one. Rather let your care and wish be to glorify God by your life here as long as He pleases, even though it be in the midst of toil, and conflict, and suffering, and leave Him to say when "it is enough".

Spurgeon, Morning and Evening Devotions May 2nd (Morning)

Satan often tempts people to chase after their ideals restlessly. Those who listen to Satan are deceived (and indeed deceive themselves) into thinking there is some terrible aspect of their lives -if they just had something else, or if they could just be free of their lives- then all would be well. The most restless pursuit of anything is suicide.

Yet, to be with God in the next life is certainly something to long for. The martyrs of the faith have met their end hoping to be with God, and this is lovely and becoming of faith. The difference is that those who have faith are not trying to escape from anything. If a man truly possesses faith he will not restlessly wish to be somewhere else or someone else because he is at rest knowing it is fine and acceptable to leave his lot as God sees fit.

When Christ imparts life to those who call on him, he does not just give them an eternal life that begins after they die. The life Christ gives begins as soon as a man or a woman receives it. The life that comes from Christ is not a matter of resisting or finding death ... it is a matter of finding Christ. Those who know him in life will also know him in death.

Oppression

2008-05-20T10:15:00.002-10:00

It is three a.m. I am suddenly wide awake. I have been roused by the moon; through the borrowed light that deceptively shines. The light that first appears to be as bright as day is merely a reflection of the true light of day. Soon this is made evident to me as all that is visible is reduced to shadow. Man and animal, friend and foe, are not discernible one from the other. They have been made equal in appearance by the deceiving glow.

Thinking the deep night to be morning, my thoughts and dreams begin to blend. Anxiety rises as all that I have forced to the back of my mind during the preceding days suddenly, comes to the forefront in its starkest reality. I cry out to God for my children and wonder, how long one can cry for their children? I have been crying out for them night and day for very many years. I beg God to bring them back to Him. I know they can never be safe unless they are in Him. Without Him, they remain captive to the enemy. Jesus is the only one who can make them free.

I rise with the sun and go about my day but the dark night hangs all about me still. This spiritually dark cloud that lingers and is not dispelled by the radiance of the sun. My spirit is heavy, weighed down, and afraid. By the power of my thoughts, night's dark wing is allowed to brush me and cut me with the invisible precision of paper. In my spirit, I am sliced from head to toe with hundreds of invisible cuts; and then they begin to bleed. The Life that is in me that I know to be the Holy Spirit of the Living God seems to be oozing out of me and leaving me. Deception fills my heart and mind as Satan rushes to fill the space that God's Spirit has left behind. He shines his false light into my mind just as the moon glows with light it borrows from the sun. This light he borrows from He who is the Light of the world; and twists it as if deflecting it with mirrors, deceiving me with hopeless thoughts.

As the day grows so does the intensity of my despair. Thoughts that blind me to reality. With my mind and heart in deepest gloom, I can't tell my friends from my enemies. With thinking deeply shadowed and muddied, I reach to embrace my friend and embrace instead, my enemy. I cry out in pain and fear and attack mistakenly, my friend. I cry, and cry until I can cry no more.

The heaviness of my spirit has fully enveloped me. As I lie upon my bed, I feel Satan pressing down hard upon me. He seeks to smother me and with glee, he whispers that I would be better off dead. He tells me that life is just too painful to bear. He reasons with me that my children are damned and will never return to God. They have no desire for Him he coldly states. He breaths hopelessness into me as I curl into a fetal ball longing for my mother's womb. As I curl ever tighter into myself, I am surprised to find Jesus there! Then I remember that Jesus lives in me, and I am in Him, and together we are in God. Satan has no hold over me and there is never hopelessness in God!

Suddenly, the Son rises in my heart and day begins to burn brightly again as in my joy, I cry simply, "Jesus!" At the sound of this Name, Satan has to flee and the inky black that gripped my spirit is dispelled. The bloodletting of Spirit is ended and the cuts left by night's dark wing begin to heal, as God's Spirit fills once again the empty space within me that Satan sought so hard to steal.

My joy I have found again and I am awed that it was truly never lost but only hidden. Jesus will never leave me even when I am deceived and blunder my way away from Him. Simply by whispering His Name, all spiritual oppression is lifted and hope for my children and indeed, all humankind is fully restored. This is so simple that I am most likely to forget it again and be roused once more to deception, by the one who desires to be in the place of the Most High. My flesh is weak but each time I falter, I am becoming sooner to remember the Name that fills my spirit with the power to walk according to the Spirit and not according to my flesh. I am ceasing to walk according to my weakness.

Spiritual oppression no longer has a lasting hold on me! All to the glory of, Jesus! Amen!

Interuption

2008-05-18T21:53:00.003-10:00

Graduation Day

Episodes 1, 2, 3
Episodes 4, 5, 6
Episodes 7, 8, 9

Through Me To You

2008-05-15T11:39:00.007-10:00

I am a woman of words. Thinking and speaking are hand in hand in me and my thoughts are not made solid until they are either spoken out loud or written on a page. The words I write come from a person that my friends and family know little of. The words I write come from a place too complicated for speech. The weaving of my inner reality is uncovered as I type revealing someone who is even a surprise to me most of the time. They pour from my heart in gentle waves and at other times, they crash and rage as a storming sea. I am a complicated woman and these words that I write are the relief valve that keeps the preasure of my inner turmoil steady and even. These are the words from my own psyche. Human words that entertain or educate; and work for good and for evil to all who may read them.

God has fashioned me as a woman of words. My passion and complexity, a part of His plan for me. How I have pleaded and yearned to be a quiet woman, a peaceful woman. How I have envied that gentle and quiet spirit that so many Christian woman seem to have. How I have struggled in my life with me and the pain my temperament brings down on me. I have cried out to God to change me! Change me! Change me! My Father quietly replies, "I have fashioned you to be who you are and not to be any other. The peace you desire comes only from me and it yours each time you write the words that are not your own but those that I lay upon your heart." These are the words that don't belong to me and words that don't come from my psyche but words that are blown into and through my heart. They are the words crafted from the pain of my sin and the glory of Jesus as He lives in me. They are the words that are like the continual prayers that mark the conversations with God, my Father, my Daddy that are mine through Jesus. These words that calm me, tether me, and change me as they gently fill me and quiet my spirit are the bread given me to also cast upon the water. These words that are of Jesus the Living Word are the bread that gives me life, eternal life, and can give life to an entire world. These words through me from God I cast upon the water to you.

A Sound Mind

2008-05-11T22:32:00.002-10:00

The day has come for those with clear and straight-thinking clarity to present to us -to everyone who is ready to listen however great or common- a firm account of the exact difference between a sound mind and insanity.

The history of the word 'sane' is of no help to us. It derives from the Latin word for 'health', sanus. Mental health is too ellusive to derive from eating correctly, exercise, or getting enough sleep -the things we normally associate with health. The word 'sanity' has taken on a transfigured role in language to portray for us something for which we simply have no word. If we intend to understand sanity on the historical basis of its shaping through the years we shall fail.

And what of that German physicist who so generously left the high towers of science (and those who point at the height of those towers as a means of certainty and assurance) to offer us a definition of insanity? Should we say insanity is simply "Doing the same thing and expecting different results"?

Einstein, it will be remembered, was a genius in many affairs but he had his failures also. He failed to recognize the absurdity of quantum physics -what he called 'spooky action at a distance'. And, although the man seemed to be as sane as the next person (though who can say the next person is sane or even if sanity is common?), he failed to understand sanity in the same way.

If one is to know true human greatness -to not only recall it from stories of old but also to find it in one's own life alive and healthy- one must acknowledge the power of those who have failed, and failed, and failed still a hundred times more only to try once again and succeed.

The realm of science is a strapped-down world. We are told that if the conditions are in place and the controls are in order the same thing will always happen in the same way as a result of the same measures. The very thing science rules out as a complete and total rule is the Absurd.

Science can acknowledge that Joshua walked around the city of Jericho six times and nothing happened. It can acknowledge that the city stood or that it fell (for indeed it can be verified that cities have fallen and stood many times throughout history). What science cannot accept is that the seventh time the walls which had stood six times collapsed on the seventh.

And yet Einstein is remembered for his words about sanity. After all, there is something sound about them -something which even the most studied critic can accept about them. Einstein places the focus of his words on the expectation of those who act.

Now, it must be noted, that the common man has some notion of general relativity since people have become more educated (although perhaps they have also become more insane). The common man has also contended with his expectations and putting them into action -something simple and often overlooked by those who write in science journals.

There is something hard to bear about laboring to achieve something one never expects to have. The story of Pandora was told by the Greeks with dreadful tones -not in spite of the hope at the end, but because of it. The ancient Greeks, like Einstein, wanted nothing to do with a hope that outlasted tragedy and misfortune. They considered it more sound to strive thinking their efforts would come to nothing, and for this reason the Greeks loved their tragic heroes who worked hard, who perservered, who gambled their life in a few undertakings, and lost everything.

Perhaps the greatest hero in antiquity, Achilles, is best remembered for sulking among the ships of the Achaians after he gave his captured woman Brisies away to king Agammemnon. The Greeks listened to bards like Homer and thought, 'Yes, that's exactly how it should be! That's how life is!'

This is exactly the perverseness of the world we live in. When a child hopes to receive a bicycle for his birthday and instead receives a sweater he is not only sad but also ashamed for having hoped for the bicycle. We remember the stories of failed marriages because we wish to justify ourselves for not having believed in something as serious and wonderful as marriage. When we are punished for a wrong-doing we expect only hell for the disappointment of losing heaven.

If I could dare to offer a definition in words for the kind of sanity and sound mind which cannot be organized or formulated into words, I would venture to say it is having a clear picture of exactly the things or thing which one values most and believing that they can have it.

For reasons that hardly need to be said, this kind of sanity may be too daring. For every angel that whispers into a young man's ears: 'You can surely find an honest vocation and live an honest life' There is an unclean angel who whispers: 'Do you want to hope for the heights only to be sent to the depths? Take what you can get because only the cheaters and hopeless get anything in this life.'

Healthy thinking is a daunting path. It is far, far easier to believe that salvation is too inaccessible for us and so we must confine our expectations to half-salvations and hopelessness. In the end it has nothing to do with the intelligence of our minds which makes us sane, but our daring to believe and accept good things.

There is also a kind of half-sanity. A voice which says, 'I do not believe a good thing will happen to me, but if -in my doubting- something good does happen to me, it will be just as well as if I had expected it.' If a man listens to this voice too long, it will become his voice.

But however true the voice may sound it is wholly a lie.

This is a voice that points its bitter finger against God and accuses Him of injustice as a way of condescending God into handing something over. But God does not give into the demands of those who take hostages, even if such a man has taken his own mind hostage.

The child who clearly recognizes his dreams and secures a false contendedness -a contendedness which says he shall never meet his dream- is a child who carries with him a heavy burdern. This is why the wise Solomon warned that a hope deferred makes the heart sick.

In the same way a mind that no longer expects to find what it truly desires is an unhealthy mind, and when the health of such a mind becomes completely unhealthy it is insanus, or insane. With the death of the spirit, the mind is also dead even if it goes on thinking.

If a person is to accept this view of sanity, they must also accept that a healthy mind is not too far from them. The alternative is mentally unbearable.

So let us dare to believe that good will be extended to us and not evil. Let us dare to believe that what is ours may be healthy, and that what is sick may be healed. Let us expect to see good things in our own lives and in the lives of our neighbors. And let us rejoice in the good gifts we receive.

Five Failed Paths To Meaning

2008-05-11T19:25:00.005-10:00

One of my old Bible professors posted an excellent article on how not to find meaning in life. Call it what you want, but it is definitely not 'more of the same'.

The post is brief and amazing. I recommend checking it out!

By the way, he's not that old.

The big trap for most people is definetly path number three: Huddle For Warmth.

I think I understand him on the small things (number five). In one sense God has chosen the small things to shame the big things. What I believe he's getting at is how people look so much at the small details (like picking the right mortgage and getting to the gym enough) that they never see the things that actually matter to them.

Also, I'm not sure about his note that 'meaning is something that needs to be received', it's something that I've been tossing around in my brain.

Anyway, it's a great post and I recommend it strongly.

Dreams And Fantasy

2008-05-04T15:13:00.002-10:00

Episodes 7, 8, 9 ...

Episodes 1, 2, 3
Episodes 4, 5, 6