Friday, March 28

Truth

"For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever." Romans 1:25 (NASB)

Get for yourself that which is true, and do not let it go for money; get wisdom and teaching and good sense." Proverbs 23:23 (BEB)


There is a new movie coming out from Ben Stein, entitled "Expelled" that talks about the debate between evolution theory and intelligent design. Ben Stein says, "There's no doubt about it. We have lots and lots of evidence that [a deity created life] in the movie. And you know Einstein worked within the framework of believing there was a God. Newton worked within the framework of believing there was a God. For gosh sakes Darwin worked within the framework of believing there was a God. And yet, somehow, today you're not allowed to believe it. Why can't we have as much freedom as Darwin had?" Quoted in Christian News and Research of Christianity Today article by Marty White, Executive Administrative Editor.

Man has always been on a quest for truth, but it seems that we are constantly changing the standards to that which we declare are fundamental truths. Sometimes it is because we realize that what we thought was true isn't; such as demeaning and devaluing another race because of differences. Unfortunately, we too often are too pigheaded to have a Truth that is far beyond our capability to alter to our world and so we adjust the telling of what that Truth may be to suit our desires.

And when we do that, we run afoul of nature, others, and ultimately God Himself. Altered truth cannot stand the weathering of time, or the assault by those who oppose its rotten core. Ultimately, human truth falls prey to those who would change it to their own methods and society fails.

We have taught our children that they are lucky, lucky to walk on the earth because we've allowed them to be born. And in that truth, we have taught that they aren't valued or treasured and without our intervention, have no purpose or individuality. We call it abortion and right to chose.

We teach our children that they are special and things can be adapted to eliminate competition, goals, and rules because of that. And families have broken over the growing tendency of children gone amok. Love cannot exist, we claim, with boundaries and absolutes and then we create scattered lives without focus.

Truth is on the auction block to the highest bidder, that person with the loudest voice that proclaims the succor of love can only be filled by their proclamation. And we follow as sheep because we don't want to offend, devalue, or be brought against the law in our desire to correct and ascertain the real Truth.

We remove what we believe is the only obstacle to our being gods, able to proclaim and enforce a truth that changes before the dawning of another day that we are incapable of creating. We remove God, for there can only be one and we want us to be that one. Despite our human failings, fragility, or self-preserving tendencies.

The Truth cannot be altered by individuals, truthfully. It stands far above our individual needs, wants, and desires. It hasn't changed in eons. And it can set you free, far beyond the boundaries we too often allow to be imposed upon our life.

It's not mystic, it's not illusionary, but it is frightening in the sheer power that comes from knowing and realizing the Truth. You become free, beyond the lock-down cry of self-preservation, and are able to move freely within boundaries set by the Designer.

Yet, we don't want the Truth and keep rewriting it. Isn't there something wrong with that picture?

"When the Spirit of Truth comes, he will guide you into the full truth. He won't speak on his own. He will speak what he hears and will tell you about things to come." John 16:13 (GWT)

Thursday, March 27

Heir/heiress living

"Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God." Galatians 4:6-7 (NASB)

America was built on the concept of Freedom. Freedom to govern human society with biblical standards, although that seems to be under attack more and more as we deny the historical evidence and nitpick the heritage of our Founding Fathers. The claim that they were deitists, or not "Christian", seems to ring hollow with me because if they were societal Christians, deitists, then why didn't they stay in England and submit to the distorted view of the Church of England? Again, we rewrite history to suit our desired view of the present difficulties in this Republic.

We are dismayed that the Truth can seemingly be altered to meet the cultural structure of the society in which we live, failing to realize that it is us who are changing the truth to suit our desire to be capable of controlling our world, our destiny, and our relationships.

We short-change God, and we create self-preserving blindness because we don't want the responsibility that comes with being heirs to a dynasty that was created before we were thought of in the minds of our peers, before all that we know even existed. Instead of rejoicing in a God that is so beyond our human failings and understanding, we seek to humanize God so we can attain the unattainable; Godhood.

To submit to the authority of Someone that has no reason we can think of to love us is unthinkable.

Paul tries to explain to us the glory and honor that awaits us and the blessings that we, in modern society, too often fail to see is right within our grasp. All we have to do is reach out, be willing to embrace it, and be still. It is against our nature, and against our desires to be under the authority of Someone that is so powerful, so holy, and so foreign to human understanding. Yet, there lies the answer to the peace we so desire to have.

This is what is wrong in the church today. The concept that the Gospel can be adapted to cultural 'awareness' rather than adapting, drawing the culture back into an awareness of the Gospel, is why we see the trend of college-age adults moving away from the church despite the pleasant, non-threatening message preached. Or the adaptation by those still spiritually immature to proclaim a 'new' gospel message, one of love without boundaries, desire without instruction, and pathways without guideposts. Truth has become self-serving, self-preserving, and ultimately distorted by individuals strong enough to sway the thousands.

The Truth is beyond anyone, insofar as it cannot be changed to suit individual desires. It stands beyond our capability to adapt to our needs, our wants, and our hopes and it is within that 'truth' that we find something more than ourselves, SOMEONE beyond our limitations, that has given us such a powerful and loving gift that we desire to be closer to Him.

And it lies within our hope that the inheritance, the adoption that has taken place within our hearts upon the submission of our lives to the Truth, that we find the joy, the passion, and the desire to know more of that Truth, and the God who is the embodiment of it in every way.

We are all, those who have submitted their hearts to the call of Salvation, heirs to something we once lost through our father Adam. True love, True peace, and a return to the world that we were originally built to occupy, in a relationship with a Creator that we were meant to serve.

But not serve in the sense that we understand it, rather by being in a relationship with Him in a way that is the embodiment of Freedom, true liberty, through the love we were designed to give and the Love we were meant to receive.

The concept of the slave that Paul speaks of isn't speaking of the slavery we once knew of when we were fully in sin, ignorant of the Truth and the redemption of our souls. Rather, it is speaking of being a slave to the ceremonies once performed within the Old Testament Laws. We were given freedom from the requirement of the Law, performed to forgive sin, by the ultimate sacrifice of Christ. But, with that freedom comes responsibility and with fulfillment of that responsibility, we find ourselves living as sons and daughters, heirs and heiresses to the Truth and the Creator who is that Truth.

And we aren't left alone, just as human heirs and heiresses aren't within the realms of their human 'kingdoms'. We have a Counselor, a guide, and a Spirit that indwells within our newly beating hearts that if we would only listen, only follow the prompting of His guidance, would enable us to live joyfully and peacefully within a world broken, amongst those who are still ignorant and sinful, and find ourselves living a life that would be labeled as a 'serving life' by our human standards but a life that we would recognize as 'liberated' as we gain supremacy over the suffering of our world through 'not being part of the world', rather living as heirs/heiresses on the journey to our Father's kingdom.

And then, we can fight the enemy without fear. For we know our true heritage, we fight not only for our true inheritance but those who are blinded to it, and we become feared because we are fearless, as heirs/heiresses of the Truth can only be.

Wednesday, March 26

Abraham, a study in faith

"Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father's house, to the land I will show you; And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you, all the families of the earth will be blessed." So Abram went forth as the LORD had spoken to him; and Lot went with him. Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran." Genesis 12:1-4 (NAS)

Everyone knows who Abraham was and the great story of the testing of his faith with Isaac, the promised offspring of God's covenant with Abram. This patriarchal figure spans the gap between denominations and even major religions. He is known in Jewish, Christian, Islamic traditions, and even the Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) hold claim to the name, if not the historical and biblical facts of this founding father of many nations.

The Israelites, Ishamelites, and Edomite people claim him as their founding patriarch and the spawning of generations of "True Arabs" and "Arabized Arabs" (to mention a few) follow their lineage back to him. The Judeo-Christian faith is based on the lineage traced back to Abram and the promise made to him and point to Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of that promise.

But who was this great man that Christianity and many other religions claim to be their own?

As always, man has a desperate need most of the time to prove the faith of Judeo-Christians either perfectly truthful or flawed by inconsistencies. This is usually done with a historical 'check' into the background of the individual or the context in question. Abraham is no different and as his descendent, Jesus Christ, has been maligned and torn apart in an effort to make him a fictional character to the world.

Historically, there is enough non-biblical and biblical evidence to prove that such a figure walked on the earth. Of course, it is up to you to believe whether this or that scholar is correct and ultimately up to you as to whether or not such historical evidence is a linchpin to your faith. But, let's look at this rediscoverer of the monotheistic faith in God.

According to non-biblical evidence, such as Josephus in the 1st century, we find that Abraham came from Ur of the Chaldees which was located at that time in Northern Mesopotamia (modern-day Turkey) or the nearby Urkesh that is often identified as the "Ur of the Chaldee". Josephus isn't the only Jewish authority to claim this, Maimonides and others do as well, and they all seem to be in agreement. Since the Jewish lineage is traced back to Abraham, it would seem to be a valid conclusion to find agreement between the Torah and historical accounts. Christian scholars believe that Abraham came from the Chaldean City of Ur, also, but place the modern day equivalent in Iraq. Even the Islamic faith have this specific location, Ur of the Chaldee, as Abraham's birthplace. If we look around the countryside of Haran, we find cities with the names of Peleg, Serug, Nahor, and Terah that are the forefathers of Abraham . This would also lay additional evidence, logically, that such a man came from this area.

There is evidence that the Kings that Abraham fought against to reclaim his nephew Lot were also in existence during his lifetime and in the areas mentioned in biblical accounts. But there has been such disparity between scholars on what to believe and how that I will only mention that such claims exists and are widely varied.

In conclusion, there seems to be enough evidence to point to a man named Abram/Abraham existed in that time and culture. Jewish, Christian, and Islamic religions point to this patriarch as an important figure in their faiths. But beyond the historical, each have different views on the life and character of this man of faith.

I will look at the differences between the faiths in my next blog.

This was a series I did on the Biblical Heroes mentioned in Hebrews 11. I have been asked to lead a bible study in this series I gave as a sermon, and so looked into a deeper understanding of the characters mentioned. I will blog my discussion as I have time.

Wednesday, March 19

Contemplative mistruth....spirituality man's way

"The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men. Therefore once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish." (Isaiah 29:13-14)

I left my old church because of the diverging movement from what the original mission statement was and the direction that the Founding Pastor was taking. Various little things disquieted my heart as I listened to sermons and discussions, mostly concerning things like "I don't need accountability" and "If you don't like the way things are, leave."

It became clearly evident to me while I served at as Senior Chaplain at the Meadowbrook Chapel that there was a marked difference between what I read and studied when compared to what was being preached. I can't claim that I felt fine about the leadership's dismissal of my Call to ministry, but it wasn't the reason behind the slow and painful process of realizing the views expressed "don't necessarily reflect the views of evangelical born-agains or God." By digging in research for my own services, I gradually felt that there was incorrect biblical truths being ignored or misstated in the home church. I left quietly just before Thanksgiving last year.

My wife brought home a book last night that she was told 'by someone we both know' who had read it and felt that I needed to read it. It's by a pastor who was struggling in his leadership of his church, dealing with issues like alcoholism and such, at least according to the back cover, and found contemplative spirituality to be the way to emotionally mature spirituality.

My wife said, in a discussion that we had earilier, that this Pastor's wife told him that he was unbalanced....in his pursuit of ministry he had neglected his wife and family. Two things hit me as I picked up the book; one the 'emotionally' in the title and then "contemplative spirituality" on the back. Something didn't sound right and so I went investigating about this philosophy and where it's roots lie. I've always told my wife, there is one absolute that I hold all else against; the Bible. That is when I discovered the truth behind the glittering image of another humanistic attempt to redefine God.

It is the latest weapon in the arsenal of those we were warned of who honor God with their lips but hold their hearts far from His bright light of truth.

Humanism and naturalism, the gnostic-driven belief that has been relabeled "emergent movement", have found a new champion in the 'contemplative spirituality' or eastern mysticism doctrine that is seeping its way into the evangelical mind-set through the disillusionment and distortion of our youth and college-age generation. The name itself, just as 'emergence' is, is misleading. We are told to contemplate and meditate.....upon the Word of God. To study those things that stand well beyond our capabilities to truly 'gain' them in this broken, saddened world through our natural tendency of sinfulness.

Yet, this growing movement doesn't give any weigh, other than a passing glance, to the biblical principles of centuries past. The Millenials have been taught that spiritual growth and true spirituality occur by contemplation not of Scripture or even of scriptural themes, but contemplation of God through emptying your mind. God is holy and is a "wholly other," undefinable by doctrinal systems and destroyed by western rationalism. We have the capability, the Millenial emergents claim, to move beyond intellect, doctrine, and even words to gain a deeper union with God. Naturalism and Humanism are mere vehicles through the mystic wall to rejoining God in spiritual mysticism. Realtivism is not based on absolute truth.

But the emergent writers today aren't coming right out and saying so. They rely on personal stories of grappling and overcoming fear, guilt, and even psychological hangups physically manifested in addictions like alcoholism to tug on a reader's emotional heartstrings and slipping in ideas that would be rejected by the logical and intellectual contemplation of such superspirituality.

And when we believe that we can overcome, deny, and define our God, the natural objections that a set of true propositions from the Bible cannot be supported literally, objectively, and historically becomes not as objectional as we once thought. Truth is not objective or absolute but is socially contructed and inaccessible to universal reasoning. We begin to listen to the serpent's voice once again as he whispers in our ear, "Did God really say....." In our minds, the search for ultimate truth lies beyond words and doctrine to be something we can define ourselves to be ineffable. Absolute truth becomes something that we can change at our leisure, to fit our mood.

With an fuedian echo of past understanding, our ego isn't driven by a desire to fulfill that empty ache in our souls, to find the reason behind our feeling disconnected from the world as if we were designed for better, rather by fear of death or alienation according to our emergent friends. Yet the thing we apparently desire the most, relationship, also carries the most pain and hurt. We suffer and become wounded in a drive to 'be', supported by a drive leads us down paths born of duality between self (the ego) and oneness (being) according to the contemplative spirituality tool of the emergent.

We no longer believe that we cannot affect our world but rather we can control our world; there is no need for God. We are Masters of our world and nothing can happen within it that we do not allow ourselves. If something has gone wrong, it is us who have done it. Much like the Islamic claim of "there was no Jewish holocust", the emergent slaps across denominational lines with claims,"the Fall is a mythical story told for deeper 'universal truths' and nothing more." All we have to do, the contemplative spiritualists claim, realize that sin doesn't separate us across a gulf from God, rather we have always been 'one with God' or even Gods ourselves. There is nothing like sin and we are basically good people.

The new practice of contemplative spirituality is fraught with dangerous undertones for those who want to live a biblically-based faith. It is riddled with false teaching, abhorrant to the God as shown in the Bible. The fact that it is used by non-Christian movements only highlights these dangers. At the core of this emergent tool is meditation and "Contemplative" or "Centering prayer." The emergents who promote this point to several verses that call for the faithful to spend time in meditation. But there is a dangerously missing element to 'centering prayer' and 'meditation biblically.' Joshua 1:8 calls for us to "Study this Book of the Law continually. Meditate on it day and night so you may be sure to obey all that is written in it. Only then will you succeed."

Such specifics are ignored by the emergent 'contemplative prayer', in which you spend a specified period in prayer concluding with the Lord's Prayer or a favorite Psalm recited to give it that "Christian" flavor. This smacks dead against the admonishment Christ Himself gave us concerning prayer, "Jesus said, "And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do" (Matt 6:7)." The Lord's prayer is an example of the way we should pray, not some rote memorization that we repeat back to God daily. Any routine prayer repeated after each prayer session would soon fall under "vain repetitions.

Contemplative spirituality driven meditation focuses on nothing, with the exhortation placed on completely emptying one's mind, and just "be". This is contrary to the biblically stated purpose of mediation to "transform our mind to be that reflecting Christ's." Not to mention that Christ tells us to guard our minds against untruth. In CS, you are also encouraged through contemplative prayer to pursue a 'mystical experience with God', to believe that direct knowledge of God, spiritual truth, or ultimate reality can be attained through subjective experiences such as intuition and insights. Knowing God through His Word is no longer effective enough.....

From the Center for Contemplative Spirituality, we find the true purpose of this weapon of the Emergents, "We come from a variety of secular and religious backgrounds and we each seek to enrich our journey through spiritual practice and study of the world's great spiritual traditions. We desire to draw closer to the loving Spirit which pervades all creation and which inspires our compassion for all beings."

This 'reimagined' Gnostic religion is clothed in the christian-zeez of the Emergent movement and so has drawn in more and more evangelical Christians who haven't taken the time to look beyond the "Glittering Image" of the Eastern Religious movement. Instead of remember what is said in 2 Timothy 3:16-17, that: "All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It straightens us out and teaches us to do what is right. It is God's way of preparing us in every way, fully equipped for every good thing God wants us to do," they allow themselves to see 'no real harm' in seeking God through mystical experiences. Faith and Fact take a back seat to the Eastern mysticism style of meditation.

Christianity that relies on the judaic example of contemplation of the texts of God's Word as we read them, as opposed to the transcedental practice of seeking God in the mystical realm of transcendental meditation. The belief of 'oneness' with God is not that far away from such thoughts from the universalist movement that has gone underground where we 'are God'.

Paul Proctor spoke of this emerging danger to the evangelical born-again church, in an article he published in 2006, "The greatest danger to the church today is not the atheist, the agnostic, the liberal, the humanist, the Marxist or even the Muslim extremist, but rather the "Christian" who subtly blends truth and lie resulting in a designer deity and discipline that finds common ground with the very enemies of Christ so as to become modish and marketable to the mainstream."

The seeker-sensitive pulpits of America have worked long and hard to erase the fear of the Lord, the Gospel of repentance, and absolute truth in an effort to be 'culturally sensitive' to those who no longer believe the Church is nothing more than an avenue to cozy truth, outward adultation and affirmation, and turning more and more inside instant gratification (instantly) and guidance. Once again, man is attempting to establish a religion that is based on mystical practices wrapped in Christian terminology to promote a panthesitic and panentheistic spirituality, where God is all and God is in all.

No longer do we have to worry about how the ridiculous idea of an all-encompassing religion can be established in the world. Tolerance, diversity, and unity to the universal occult of altered states of consciousness to bring understanding and truth as mystically defined by human minds are the path to such a one world religion and it is coming into being beneath our noses. David Steindl-Rast, a Roman Catholic contemplative, puts it this way in a 1992 article, "Envision the great religious traditions arranged on the circumference of a circle. At their mystical core they all say the same thing, but with different emphasis."

We haven't learned any lessons from our past.

Whenever humanity defines for itself the course of its own destiny, we go further and further from the reality of our desire. From the partaking of the forbidden fruit, the formation of Hinduism, Mormonism, Islamic faith, and the other varieties of humanistic religion, we continue to wander the desert.

If we stop and look to the Word, leaving the definition of our purpose in the hands of a Creator capable of creating a world and us, we find the answer to the unhuman need to .....

fulfill forever the eternal thirst of Truth.

Ordinary lives....extraordinary achievements. The key is God.

"Looking at them, Jesus said, "With people it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God."" Mark 10:27 NAS

Last night I was able to get to watch a movie based on a real person who showed me again that ordinary people can do extraordinary things. Amazing Grace, the story of Wilberforce primarily focused on his contribution to ending the slave trade that predominated the English society for years. At the end, one of the characters that opposed Wilberforce stood and said, "Who would've though so much passion from a commoner." At least, something to that effect.

What hit me was the conversation Wilberforce had with his cook. He was trying to explain to him about his 'crazy' behaviors and the cook asked him, "Find God?" Wilberforce replied, "No, He found me. Most inconvienant." Instead of following a natural desire to change professions, Wilberforce allowed himself to be convinced to stay where he was and "change the world."

Wilberforce had two primary objectives for his life; two missions that he dedicated his entire life and passion to. To end the slave trade and to reform society. Much of the twenty some odd years he spent fighting on those two fronts. The reformation of society was apparently easier than the fight to end slave trade. Only three days prior to his death did that dream come true.

An ordinary man, gifted in speech and personality, wasn't only known for those things but the way he would touch someone's life in pursuit of his missions. No one who knew Wilberforce remained the same. And the world slowly shifted in response to his determination.

No doubt he would've been embarassed by such things as the adulations and honors accorded to him since his time here, he would've pointed to a faith that would not let him lie still. Despite failure and rejection for the majority of his political life, Wilberforce kept to the missions appointed before him whether in good health or sickness.

And he shows us the truth of the Mark verse, when God is at the helm there is nothing that cannot be achieved.

Ordinary people can do extraordinary things with the strength of God behind them.

Tuesday, March 18

As we focus....

"Still later He appeared to the eleven disciples as they were eating together. He rebuked them for their stubborn unbelief because they refused to believe those who had seen Him after He had been raised from the dead. And then He told them, 'Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone. Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved. But anyone who refuses to believe will be condemned.'" Mark 16:14-16 NLT

We are coming up on what I consider the pivotal event in Christianity, without the events that we celebrate at Easter time there would be no salvation and no hope for the generations that have passed upon this earth since the time of Christ. But, I, like many Christians today have mistook the Great Commission as a right to go bible thumping. The Commission isn't about bible thumping, but relationships....as Christ established before giving the Commission to the Eleven.

Faith is foundational for salvation. Without faith, there can be no redemption. God has placed within each of us a measure of faith. That, coupled with our free will, is ours to chose how to place it. Some place in the assurance there is no God. Others in the fact He is an absent God. Others consider this God to be someone or thing that they can call on whenever they need a boost. Only those who truly have 'seen' the risen Christ believe. And they fall into two camps; saved and condemned. There are no other divisions other than what we as humans make in the world. You either are or aren't.

Ordinary people in extraordinary times where those who lived to witness the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the God-Man who came to this broken and fallen world to redeem a people who would be responsible for killing Him. For brutally beating and whipping Him. Who would declare Him King in one breath and curse Him in the next. And His blood poured out upon the earth in atonement for our sin-price.

One would suspect that as He hung upon that cross, thorny crown embedded in His head, that He would decide that we weren't worthy of His sacrifice, and He would call upon the Heavenly legions waiting for His beckoning to rescue Him. But He endured the taunts of the Pharisees and the bitter pain of the Roman crucifixion.

And went a step further, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." One can envision a God upon His heavenly throne angered and bitter by the displayed pain and enduring images of His only begotten Son so brutally treated. "Don't they understand what they are doing?" And it is that Son that calls upon Him to forgive a foolish and ignorant people who didn't realize what was happening.

No, I'm not saying that this wasn't God's plan for redemption. I just want to put into context what I feel this moment in time meant. As a father, I can fully relate to a anger that comes from a son unjustly treated. And I know the same feeling of a son forgiving and asking me to do the same.

No, I am not a Israelite hater. Rather, I feel like Mel Gibson did as he spoke of the only role he could've played in the Passion of the Christ movie. Those of the Roman solider who drove those sharp, thick nails into the flesh of the True King. You and I, our fathers and mothers, our grandfathers and grandmothers, all the generations since that fateful day and all those who walked the earth before He came; are responsibile for the crucifixion of our Savior.

Instead of listening to the church play about the Crucifixion and Ressurection this Easter, why not instead close your eyes and envision yourself as a Pharisee, the women who watched the sacrifice, John who embraced Jesus' mother as his own, or even the eleven as they hid afterwards in a sheltered room, praying that the storm on the horizon would pass them by. Go back into the time of our salvation and live the moment.

And imagine your utter shock and disbelief as the man who you followed and learned under appears before you in a locked room, the stain of the crucifixion still upon His body in His hands and feet, the spear pierced side. And feel the sting of the rebuke and the redemption of the Commission.

Then go to your neighbor, your coworker, and that bitter person that delights in ridiculing your beliefs and look at them in Christ's eyes. And start the relationship of the Commission.

Tell them what Christ has given you.

And why.........

Friday, March 14

Meritorious Advancement....

O God, though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet Your unfailing love for me will not be shaken, nor Your covenant of peace be removed. You are the Lord who has compassion on me (Is. 54:10).

I thank You, my God, who always leads me in triumphal procession in Christ and through me desires to spread everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him. For You have called me to be the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved as well as those who are perishing (2 Cor. 2:14-15).

Turn the darkness into light before me, Lord, and make the rough places smooth. I pray these are the things You will do, for I know You will not forsake me (Isa. 42:16)


A friend, who knows of the struggles that I am facing in these days, felt led to send me a few devotionals that God spoke to her in regards to me. I've removed the devotional author's comments, because they didn't speak words of wisdom or understanding to me as the verses did.

I am well experienced, both in my life since Christ saved me and before, of a world-ending event where it would indeed seem that mountains are shaken and the hills removed from existence. Even since my life was begun to be reshaped and restored through the gifting of the Holy Spirit, I knew that the landscape changes in my life were simply that. Changes.

And I have been disabused of the teachings of the church that being a Christian, saved by the blood of Christ, is a renovation that will lead to happiness, joy, and peace. In the recent year's struggles, where I have discerned a movement of the enemy within the walls of my strongholds, I have been depressed and sorrowed, experienced yet another death of a loved one to whom life was lived in a sound and spiritually fulfilling way, and have had my dearest desires ripped from the beatings of my heart.

I have suffered, not as some have suffered--- like the child whom has battled cancer for the last four years, the mother who had to bury her child because of her death in a foreign land serving people that are under attack from outside forces, and a husband who has fought beside his wife for so long only to see the cancer spread to a life-ending point. No, I haven't suffered as they have and I can only consider the blessings that God has given even in these times for not having to deal in those ways.

No, I have suffered in other ways and have sometimes done so well under the prompting of the Spirit and other times have failed to find that peace that was being held out for me to take. I have imposed suffering upon myself from my foolish actions and I have been convicted by others due to the path my life has taken. And though I have struggled, I have been over and over reminded:

God loves me.

God forgave me.

God called me.

There was a time, when I joined the US Navy, and simply due to my size, I was given the recruit rank in Boot camp of BMOW/SSWL (Bosun Mate of the Watch/Starboard Section Watch Leader). This entitled me to wear a first class chevron on my uniform lapel denoting leader status within the company of newborn wannabes in the Naval service. And with it brought a host of responsibilities and pains.

I didn't sleep more than an hour and a half for eight weeks. I was harassed, being short-sheeted and genuine hatred from those I had to impose sanctions against in the course of our training. I can recall, time after time, of walking into the CC (Company Commander's) office and throwing that chevron down on his desk saying I quit. Only to have to put it back on again because it wasn't a choice, my CC told me.

And then there was always the Captain's Mast, a disciplinary court presided and decided by the CC. Any recruit within the company could bring a RPO (Recruit Petty Officer) up on charges of dereliction of duty, conduct unbecoming an officer, or the age-old "I don't like em" excuse. The Mast was always on Friday night, and I spent eight Fridays being 'tried' on various charges. Most of them were of the "I don't like him" variety.

And I always had to put my chevron back on and continue my responsibilities as third in command of the company despite the knowledge that the following week would bring new charges, new short-sheeted adventures, and glares from the others in the company roster.

The night before graduation, the CC called me into his office and proceeded to shock the living daylights out of me. He told me that I would have a long and distinguished service in his beloved Navy because I refused to let go. He tried everything in the book that he could legally, and illegally do, to break my spirit and I just kept going. He told me that of most of the RPOs in the company (there were about ten of us), I was the one that he felt earned the rank I didn't ask for. The CC told me that he was proud to serve in a Navy with men like me and he would serve beside me any day. Then he handed me a piece of paper and yelled for me to get out of his office and stop gundecking!

The paper conferred the next rank, E-2, upon me by meritorious advancement upon the graduation for service to the company above and beyond the call of duty.

That has resurfaced in recent days, that memory. Not because of the training that made me a sailor in service to our country, not because of the few friendships that I made there that endured my entire five years of service. No.

It resurfaced because I endured suffering and hardships, and succeeded to continue to solider on. And in the end of it all, I was given something I had not expected.

Much like today.

I am growing in my understanding and wisdom of God's love and how it will endure in the times of struggle to give me peace and joy despite the stormy skies and agitated seas.

I run for the prize of eternal reward. To have my Father confer upon me the honor of being a "good and faithful servant."

AMEN

On the edge....

"But if one of you suffers for being a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God in this matter." 1 Peter 4:16 WEB

It is easy to suffer for being labeled a Christian today, at least in the corporate sense. As the Pastor of my old home church said, "If you don't like it here, leave." We have a host of 'suffering levels' that we can endure in a collective body of others; those of like thought, like heart, and like mind. It is a breeze.

And a curse.

For it is when that suffering becomes personal that our faith lies barren upon the desert sands, being baked alive in agony and pain, that it becomes an entity itself that can consume us like paper is by a flame. We isolate ourselves from the shared burden of suffering in the corporate body and become self-focused.

Poof! All our hard work gone in the blink of an eye, joy and peace become an illusion of our former glory. This isn't what it is supposed to be. This isn't what the church promised Christianity to be. One of my old phrases, "If this is Christianity, I'll gladly pass," comes to mind as I write this.

And a picture forms........

A warrior stands alone. His comrades lies strewn across the landscape at his back, dead or dying from the onslaught of the enemy forces. Everything he left behind; family, home, and peaceful times are gone. There is nothing that he can do now but submit to the forces that are arrayed before him. All else would be furtile. He can lay his sword at the feet of his enemy.

Or he can die well.

I stand at the edge of the killing field in this battle for the souls of all those I hold dear and true to my heart. Tired, weary, and broken. Cut off, it would seem, from the comfort of family and friends and the wise counsel that has echoed through my ears in the din of the battle. But now, the suffering focuses squarely on me. And I am faced with the burning question......

Will I submit or will I die well?

It comes back to me on my drive into work today that the phrase describing Jesus' death is so simple. "He suffered and died." Yet it is so much more complex than that, with the medical knowledge we have now we can accurately give a measure to the suffering that Christ endured for three hours upon a wooden cross with metal nails driven forcefully through his nerves causing excurating pain. The piercing of the heart chamber. The painful cruelity of the crown of thorns dug into His head.

Yet we say He suffered and died. Suffering leads to death, and yet we are called as Christians to suffer gladly, or as one of my mentors say, "Suffer Well." We realize in our maturation that Christians aren't given a life of luxurious comfort and restrictive peace, but are called into suffering greatly in the separation from all of creation's flawed existence. With a smile.....

I stand at the edge of the killing field……..

For just a moment.

And I step forward to reclaim a soul that has been burdened and lost, wandering the field of suffering and darkness for too long, for too many painful moments. To answer the call of my God who has asked, "Whom shall I send?" I step forward in fear; fear that this may just be another illusion that the enemy has offered to a weary soul stretched beyond his endurance. I step forward in fear of the suffering that I yet can endure and may have to endure. Without promise of a successful retrieval or the comfort of knowing I will live another day.

And my soul laughs with the anticipation of the suffering to come…….

Because I am already FREE!

And there is no greater love that any man has than to give his life for another.

As one famous person once said, "I regret that I have only one life to give."

But I chose to give it in service to the KING!

HOKA HEY!!!

Thursday, March 13

Amazing Grace.....

"Love prospers when a fault is forgiven, but dwelling on it separates close friends." Proverbs 17:9 NLT

"Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is put out of sight! Yes, what joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared of guilt, whose lives are lived in complete honesty! When I refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away, and I groaned all day long. Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me." Psalm 32:1-4 NLT


How often do we examine deeply this concept of forgiveness that seems to me as I grow in my pursuit of God more and more central to the salvation transformation? I think we fail, in our personal progression and in our churches, to address this concept that is a stepping stone to joy and peace within the family of God. For, to talk of forgiveness, one needs to address the weightiness of sin. And our churches have shied away from that, saying everyone knows they have sinned, after all that is why they are searching. But, I would offer this; we have devalued sin to the point of an afterthought. And that is why many Christians in the world today feel unforgiven and consequently, unsaved.

We were born broken and sinful; it is in our nature to be self preserving in our actions, thoughts, and deeds. We seek to control our world to eliminate distractions from that primary and unbiblical design; a gift that we have inherited from our father Adam. But the world stands in opposition to us, both in the natural world and in our interpersonal relationships. Pain is everywhere. Discord echoes throughout creation, as Paul puts it, "All of creation groans". We start, from the moment we are created in the womb, to die from the sheer weight of original sin that we add to daily as we grow because of our guilt and continued disobedience. We develop a 'criminal record' of hefty sins.

We ultimately reach a point where we cannot ignore the painful discord our soul feels as the conviction of sin continues to be carried upon our shoulders and added to. We hurt those we love, we are dishonest in our dealings with our neighbors or friends, and some of us go to ultimate extremes in secularly and biblically declared criminal activities. And our concept of truth shifts with our struggle to ignore the one basic thing that haunts the recesses of our souls; that we are living in discord and emptiness to a world that we don't feel connected to. We try to 'fool ourselves' with possessions, good works, or sheer anger at the audacity of a God that would declare us flawed from the beginning and in need of a total restoration. We'd rather convince ourselves by the act of a makeover that we are once again 'made new'.

The more sin becomes a dominant force in our life, we react more strongly in seeking that method, that possession, or that 'new mind' thinking that can restore balance and accord to our soul. And we enter into a vicious cycle of sin begetting sin begetting sin until the destruction is complete with our death; whether real or spiritually.

The "amazing" thing is that we are the most intelligent species (to be PC) on the planet, in the world, and all of creation. Man (or humanity—PC, don't want to offend the offended) has sought throughout history to dominate his world through the application of his mind. Inventions, research, and scientific advancement ignore the reality of a Creator because to do so would prove that we are not in control and everything has been known before we know it. We realize that we have 'fallen' or backslidden in our 'enlightenment' of our world, our souls, and our future. We are working backwards even as we declare we are moving in a forward direction.

But that moment in time when the weight of the Holy Spirit's conviction upon our 'shoulders' is realized to be a physical presence, a realistic burden that we carry and respond from in our relationships, desires, and 'fix-it' mentality, when we reach the point of critical unbalance…failure imminent, we do one of two things; we reach beyond our own flawed expectations to God or we die from the result of our unconfessed sin. There aren't any other options.

And that is where most Christians, I think, fail to be aware. Aware of the sheer undeserved nature of Christ's sacrifice and the powerful impact upon our lives that the Salvation Gift entails. How releasing, how comforting, and how unburdened we become when we realize that an All-powerful, All-knowing, and Loving perfected God, beyond any realistic and humanistic expression, chose to send a Son, the only Begotten, the Alpha, and the First born, to die in the most cruel and viscous way to be the final sacrifice for the price of sin. A price that had to be paid, BECAUSE God is righteous and Holy, not because He had a cruelty streak in this 'game' this 'god' would play upon our psyche. No….we reach beyond our understanding…and run smack into God.

We can't then deny our need, our failures, and our helplessness to restore ourselves to a former glory that we felt but never experienced. We realize we are undeserving, unqualified to redeem ourselves, and ultimately not living as we were meant to, designed to, live.

It is that realization that brings us happily to our knees, tears streaming from our heart-felt ache in our souls, to the full realization of forgiveness' reality…….

And we can cry out joyously and expectantly in a realized love that brings us into a place of forgiving life......

" He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness."

Have you experienced, deeply and renewingly, the awesome power of Forgiveness?

It brings me to my knees each time I realize it.......

Wednesday, March 12

Going BALD for a cause.....



Last year, after hearing on the radio about an event held for children with cancer, me and my family went down to the Walled Lake Fire Department with the intention of me shaving my head for the cause...to raise money. My son wanted to do it too, and we sat on the stage together as my daughters shaved our heads....Hey, I got fifty bucks for my goatee!
This year, I know my son will want to stand with me again and shave our heads for the sake of raising money for the little warriors who are battling such a big disease. I know of several, within the walls of my old church home, my community, and far away in lands where stats aren't kept.
You can go to www.stbaldricks.org and look for me under Jim or James Hutson if you want to donate. If you are in the area and want to attend the event, I've posted the info below. It will be from 2-7pm.

In Christ,
Jim

Venue Name: The Claddagh Irish Pub (Livonia)
Event Date: March 16, 2008
Address: 17800 Haggerty Road
Livonia, MI 48152
US

An eternal deposit in a God-insured bank

"For this cause I also suffer these things. Yet I am not ashamed, for I know him whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to guard that which I have committed to him against that day." 2 Timothy 1:12 WEB

I went looking on the bible research site I often use for the "do-do" verse, where Paul speaks of "doing the things he knows not to do…" and this verse came to my attention.

I have been in self-preserving mode lately, with the fierce winds and lashing rains of the trials which beset my weary faith. I have had hope ruthlessly ripped from my hands by the one who seems to play the games that toss me about the seas. According to them, I am a victim (or at least I act like it) and they continue to lash out with distain and lies.

But I look upon my heart and my faith and can find only sorrow. Sorrow for the things that I haven't done well and the things I haven't done that I know to do. No shame, for I know that the strength of the Father is there to tap, has been tapped, and sustains me in these dark hours of the twilight. No, I only feel sorrow for the course that I have to take to deal with the struggles that face me in the life. For those who depend on me, and for myself.

Because of the future, and the eternal hope secured, not by my means and not by my acts. But by the Father's desire for me to be redeemed and restored. I can only pray that all who face the choices that this person is making are convicted and condemned by the Spirit, in hopes of restoration and grace to be given. For the course of actions that they take lead only to death, possibly in this world and definitely in the heavenly one coming.

It is not, as Paul makes clear, how I believe in a faithful, promise fulfilling God that I suffer in peace, but knowing WHOM I have rested my hope upon. As the Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary says, "A feeble faith may clasp a strong Saviour."

Everything that God tells me promises that He is here, in the darkness of despair and loss of earthly hope, to sustain me and bring to a point of grace my journey to His sight. I am persuaded in His ability, desire, and choice to deliver me to that better place, either upon this world or upon His return.

Like a deposit made into the bank of eternity, I know I can deposit all of me; my body, my mind and my spirit into the God-insured bank of Salvation. It is slowly working its way into a peace that knows no struggle and a joy that knows no end.

Keep me in your prayers as I struggle in the areas that God knows I am in; for finances, for automotive, for employment.

And know that I struggle well.

Tuesday, March 11

Feeling the journey....

“The marks of Jesus are silently impressed on His true disciples in the normal procedure of life in society as well as in the crises of suffering and martyrdom.” Hebert Hensley Henson,
Retrospect of an unimportant life. (As referenced in chapter seventeen of Glittering Images by Susan Howatch)


The truth will always attract the seekers, those lost souls who are searching for the fulfillment of their thirst and the answer to their stories. We don’t have to stand separate in the world, because it is in the process of being in the world that we show that we truly don’t belong here anymore. We are forever marked, in the blood by which we are set free.

A spiritual giant that has walked in my world spoke some words that I failed to understand in my younger days, when I believed God to be a legalistic and unsatisfied God with me. He told me, “Do you have to tell someone you are a Christian, or do they assume it by your actions, words, and life?” Christ spoke to doubting Thomas, “Touch my wounds so that you would believe.” His marks were clearly visible to the assembled apostles in that Upper Room, so there was no question to who He truly was. All doubt was removed.

Too often in the workplace, in our communities, and in our relationships with others, we leave the question to be asked, instead of walking in a lifestyle that is clearly different from the walk of Christ when He stood upon the shores of Galilee and taught twelve different and very diverse men the truth of the Kingdom they had grown up expecting.

If an outsider, who doesn’t see you in the worship center of your church or witness you speaking “christianeze” at some gathering of ‘Christian’ folk, saw you in your everyday image, would they assume the question to be answered? Whether you carried yourself as if a pilgrim in this world, despite the raging storms?

It strikes me that the story of Peter getting out of the boat to go to Jesus is similar to our journey to Christ. That we must forego the illusions of this world, with all its trappings of instant gratification and peace for the delayed justice of being made righteous and restored with Christ’s return.

We all have our ‘glittering images’, those selves that we show to the world as a whole, that are a pale illusion of the true self. We have this desire not to be close to one another supported and reinforced by the Church today. If the Church viewed our true self, they would have to claim some responsibility under the established behavior God set for all His redeemed children and walk alongside each of us, in our broken and sinful state.

But the Church is offering instant redemption; an illusion of the true process that each of the true followers of Christ have to go through to become what God has purposed for each of us in this broken world. We will have trials, people we love will die or fall by the wayside, children will turn from the teachings of their parents and chart a journey through dark valleys, and we ourselves will fail to achieve the mark on occasion as our old selves, our glittering images, seek to limit the painful interaction with the world that opposes our new birth.

But, it is remarkable, in a way, that the strongest warriors for the kingdom are too often those who have been scarred and wounded. Who have endured personal tragedy and sorrows and embraced the ‘glittering image’, recognizing its danger and limiting its power through the grace and working of the Holy Spirit.

And that reminds me of Paul’s words, those verses in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10, that were spoken to me what seems so long ago in the journey God has asked me to walk; that Paul, like I, rejoice in the trials, tribulations, and tragedies that are experienced in this world of sin and shame……

For it brings us closer to the goal; to be like Christ.

A sign that we are on the journey to our homeland as less and less of the world's tragedies hold any claim to our peace and hope.......

Monday, March 10

When I get where I'm going.......

"For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body." Romans 8:18–23

"It won't always be this way," I told my son last week as he was emotionally distraught over the events and trials that our family is undergoing. "As God promises us a better future, I pledge to you that this too shall pass." Later, as I was struggling to pray with the Father, I wondered if I had given my son a pipe dream. In a way, I guess I did. As Dr. Larry Crabb says, "There is something seriously wrong with EVERYTHING!"

I have buried my father some ten plus years ago, my step-mother who raised me and has the status of mother in my heart died a year after he did, and I have been to my grandmother's funeral less than three months ago. My family wasn't the best of families; my father married several times and always seemed to end them in infidelity. My birth mother, still alive, and I have a estranged relationship because I am more my step-mother's son than hers. I have been in a cycle before I became an honest child of Christ and the life struggles that I've gone through since receiving the Call have been brutal, painful, and frightening.

I have discovered, in the maturation process, that being a Christian doesn't mean that things become rosy from the moment you give your heart to Christ contrary to the popular church doctrine that seems to fly across the pulpit today. Life is broken, harsh, and in opposition to what our designed purpose is. Mature Christians don't become wealth, wise, and joyful in a life that seems to have their best interests in mind. Death of loved ones still occurs, struggles with the poisons and addictions of this world's current 'ruler' happen with alarming regularity, and happiness is, to borrow a phrase, "a state of mind."

Those momentary glimpses that we have; those happy, content, joyful, and rewarding moments that come in the form of a newborn child, a raise in a job that brings us some fulfillment of our human desire to matter, and in the touch of a loved one are just that….glimpses into a future promised, paid for, and approaching. And it is that most of the "Spiritual" amongst us can point to despite the raging storms that affect even their lives. This is but a taste of the reality of being made perfect in righteousness and truth. It is that sip of water in a desert of no end.

Creation was set against man from the Fall, to work against us in the natural desire of man to control his world. That is why I fail to be alarmed by the incorrect warnings of a global warming…..anybody in Michigan will tell you that it doesn't seem to be a problem here. Ask the folks in Ohio who are digging out from two feet of snow that was dumped on them in the past few days. Now, that isn't to say that I don't agree that we should work a bit more to maintain this world we've been given. I just don't think purchasing offsets to a 'carbon contribution' to this fictional global warming is the way to do it.

The day will come when, as the song goes, "I will shed the sin and struggles I've carried all these years." When we arrive upon the destination all pilgrims of the Christ journey to, we will shed all the dead weight of the world and will see the pain of loved ones lost redeemed in the smiling faces waiting our arrival. And all the joys, temporary happiness, and pleasing things will pale by comparison to the realization of the hope that sustained us in the times of trial, tribulation, sorrow, and pain.

The Heavenly Father, CEO of the biggest adoption agency in the universe, will approve the application made by our Lord Jesus Christ to make the adoption into the family permanent and binding, and we will be given the bodies that were made to be lived in from the dawn of creation.

And that thirst, that each of us have, will be fulfilled. With the floodgates of living water.

Friday, March 7

"FREEDOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith." Galatians 6:7-10 (NLT)

Last night, I was honored to be in fellowship with some (well, okay….two to be exact) men that are on the journey of spiritual manhood, to put it simply. Taking up the sword and shield of the Army of God and standing to the battle line in this war for the souls of all mankind (PC-human kind). As is the case in physical warfare, as any solider will tell you, there is the illusion that you are fighting alone in the midst of the clamor of war. But you aren't.

Nor are we in the spiritual warfare that men were designed to fight, nor in the spiritual support that comes from women of faith. We were made for community, relationship, and better things than this world can give us in its current state.

Once again, God impressed upon me that I am not alone. Though the clamor of war barely reaches my ears as I struggle the foes that surround me, there are other warriors standing the line….fighting the only fight that has any meaning in this world. For souls, for faith, and for God.

I was given the opportunity to hold a real Scottish broadsword, like the one that Mel Gibson carries in the movie Braveheart. As the group leader pointed out, the sword doesn't have to be sharp to cause damage, the sheer weight of its blade can do harm and mayhem upon a human body. Just like our words, those immaterial things that we can say that will destroy a human heart in a few beats of breath….not sharp to a point of sheer sharpness maybe, but brutally heavy. I couldn't imagine fighting a prolonged battle with such a weapon in my hands…..but I can remember several times the weapon of my words, and how easily it swung on target with savage perfection.

Submission is a word that carries a weight all its own, and is as misused as the word love or the concept of manly headship in the homes of America today. Mention being submissive to most women and they will respond with anger, frustration, and disconnection. Mention the concept of headship to most men and they run in terror or laugh sarcastically in your face. And yet, mention service and all of us will nod our heads with understanding. But both designed purpose for men and women are couched in service. Men with service in protection, prophecy, priesthood, and promise; women with service in the form of willingly and voluntarily placing themselves under the leadership of another.

Like that Scottish sword that I held for a brief (very brief) moment last night, our ability to harm each other takes effort and deliberate motion (consciously or unconsciously) to do so. And it doesn't have to be sharp to cause damage to the fragility of the human spirit. We plot our revenge against those who have harmed us, cause us pain and sorrow, and see justice from the God we as Christians serve. When it doesn't come, we feel that anger redirected against a God that doesn't seem to have our best in mind. So we justify to ourselves.

And just as sheathing that heavy broadsword took deliberate motion and thought, so does our unnatural (humanistically speaking) ability to not swing it in intentional purpose even when our hearts cry out for the justice of the offended, the misaligned, and the wounded. It takes a deliberate and intentional action to stand amid the battle raging and lower the sword to the ground.

Yet, in that moment of what would seem intentional suicide, we show the strength of our Lord and Savior in the movement towards that which we most fear….the loss of our very lives. God tells us, as Jesus spoke, there is no greater love than someone to lay down their life for another. To give opportunity for wounding and possibly a deadly blow upon our very life.

We have become a society that is honors those who isolate and rip at the very fabric of our design. We proclaim that "it's all good" so long as it promotes the individual over the majority, the crowd over the single person, or the minority over the national heritage. We have redefined God to be someone who is just along for the ride, who doesn't really care how we get there (spiritual freedom) but that we realize that we are the agents in our own destinal desires. We aren't about to lay down that sword and shield, but we will turn as the Scottish Army did when the English brought out their mighty body of warriors. "We didn't come to fight," is one Scottish warrior's cry…….

And William Wallace rode before the Army standing there and talked about how they might not live the day, but they would stand for freedom…….and then went to pick a fight with the English negotiators. History proves what that stand did…and the rewards of the inflamed spirit that Wallace fueled to fighting on that ground that day for a purpose beyond what they could've settled for but lesser than what they were called for; as men, as countrymen, and as a nation.

We can stand with our swords in our hand and the shield riding strapped to our arm. And claim we didn't come to fight. And we might survive the battle that day, going home to our loved ones surrounded by friends and family, to live another day. Negotiating a peace that is as fragile as our human bodies. And as illusional as our control over our lives.

Or, we can do what William Wallace did that day and go pick a fight with the enemy. And instead of swinging our swords against those who stand in that mighty darkness, we can drop them or sheath them and embrace those wounded souls.

There is a season in which we have to raise sword and shield, as one of Wallace's lieutenants said "Well, at least we're not dressed for nothing." There will be times in our battle where the wounding of souls will be necessary and justified. How will we know? Where is the ability that tells us to embrace or pierce?

In the manifestation of the Holy Spirit. We have to be tuned to the will of the Father, implanted with the commandments of His Law, and living in constant communication with the battle leader, Jesus Christ, as we engage in this battle for the souls of all humanity. When we have placed ourselves into submission to the Savior and the Father, our actions become directed by the true King. We become greater than we ourselves ever could be.

Maybe the verse I was directed to today doesn't fit the rest of what I've written. Or maybe it is indeed the stirring speech not unlike what William Wallace was portrayed to have given in that decisive battle on that dreadful day in the history of Scotland.

Maybe.

Or maybe it is the very stirring of our struggle…..to not give up hope that spring eternal and to remember that sometimes it will be our brothers and sisters that fall in the battle of this war. Or it might be our time to sheath our swords and embrace those who are lost at the cost of our own.

We can chose to turn around and go home; doing nothing more than accepting the salvation given. Or we can stand for something greater; as men, as countrymen, and as the family of God for something greater than we ourselves could ever achieve.

Through love and with the goodness of the Spirit as our guide, we should always remember to………………

Struggle well. And never accept a negotiated settlement that supercedes the promise of our freedom, inspired and promised from the Creator Himself.

FREEDOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wednesday, March 5

We're lying to ourselves....

"Friend deceives friend, and no one speaks the truth. They have taught their tongues to lie." Jeremiah 9:5 (NIV)

"They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator ---who is forever praised. Amen." Romans 1:25 (NIV)


Genesis 2:7 tells us that man was created from the dust of the earth. In all of the created world, this is the first thing that God finds in conflict with His plan. He gives to Adam the right to chose a suitable companion to offset the unbalance, but nothing was found suitable enough. So, He didn't scoop up some more dirt to make a suitable companion (helper). He causes Adam to sleep deeply and woman was fashioned from the rib of man. Fashioned, not made.....shaped in deliberate fashion from the first human, Adam, instead of all of the created world and things within it. The Potter shaped with deliberate care, woman, to give balance to man.

We have become worshippers of ourselves; it is all an individual path to God's glory, there is no absolute truth. We have ceased to look at what we do, but rather simply ask "Is it possible to do it and how?" We look at what we can get out of our understanding of God instead of realizing that we cannot understand God completely outside of Heaven. We define God according to human standards and then argue when those incomplete standards come into conflict with the Bible.

We seek to clarify within denominational walls what the 'true' meaning of the text instead of understanding that the text clarifies itself to us. It is too easy to trace the contextual and root words of the Biblical narrative in today's society, but too often...we just don't want to take the time. We'll let someone else do the work for us and hence, we become Lutheran, Catholic, Protestant, or Emergent.

Or we create a totally separate and false religion designed to answer those questions that burn within our hearts and we don't like the biblical answer to. We worship our cars, our homes, our TVs, and our bank accounts. Created things that belong not to us, but to the Creator Himself. And, as the Church has retreated from that truth as it has come against the wall of the society that it is supposed to serve.

The Church has become a friend that deceives a friend; the congregation it harbors. It has taught itself that it can modify and reduce the harsh truth of the Gospel into a more societally accepting version "just to get them in the door." The Church is more concerned about being a 'friend' to everyone and every thing, from the seekers to the unbiblically living 'Christians' that file in and out of their doors (funding their salvation with hefty tithing) and the 'global warming' cries of human supremancy led science to God is 'love and only love' mentality of proclaiming homosexuality is a environmental or genetical error that must be accepted because God wants all of humanity saved.

We lie and tell ourselves that we know God, and since we do...we can name what we want and He has promised to deliver...or else we'll just get it ourselves. We define the standards that we live by....that aren't too difficult for us to follow.

We seek the answers to our existence and seek the balance that was upset by the sin in the Garden. We've become a society that has devalued life to the point where we ignore the murder of unborn children because they are inconvenient. Even to the point where we justify the murder in cases of rape and incest. After all, 'it' was born from sin. Problem with that is that we all were born from sin. Should we, as a moralistic society, commit genocide?

We proclaim that God makes mistakes; after all, it's not the homosexuals fault they feel attraction towards another of the same sex. They were born that way, science PROVES it. Or the hidden homosexuality of gender error....where a man was born a woman or visa versa. We are imminently qualified to make that decision of what sexual identity we should have been born with....those chromosomes were mixed up during the formation process.

We declare that men aren't supposed to be the "head" of the household because men have once again surrendered it to society as a whole to define them. Of course, men will sweep the truth of what they are supposed to be under the carpet. Headship in the household isn't a dictatorship but performed with biblical love, rooted in the Word, and under the directorship of God characterized by selfless intimacy (opening themselves to another in areas that they let no one else into). Men don't want to claim the Biblical role of priest, prophet, protector, and provider because that might 'demean' women and force themselves to a higher standard.

Women don't want to follow the biblical standard of 'helpmate' because it is demeaning and not promotional of equality. After all, it was a cultural thing that defined the Biblical standard and not an equal and balanced design. Women aren't supposed to be submissive as we are told in Ephesians 5:22 ff. Of course, the word is taken totally out of its true origins….Woman are to be voluntarily submissive, placing themselves under the 'position' of another, and is only regarding the 'ranking' of the biblical order rather than establishing value. Men and Women are created equally…wonderfully and fearfully made.

You may think I'm speaking from a place of authority, I'm not. I am chief sinner amongst sinners in this regard; subjecting myself to my own authority too often and allowing God in only when things are pretty good. I am my worst enemy, the old man who is chief agent of the enemy camp. I have convinced myself that all that is 'wrong' with my world is mine to fix and control.

I don't have the gumpson to speak with the authority required to back the words I've written here. They are standards higher than myself and a struggle that I put effort into to achieve even a near miss in their truth. I may write what God puts on my heart to write, but often it is for my own growth and no one else's. I am first to claim imperfection and last to claim humility.

As I grow closer in the walk with God, I realize that I am totally and helplessly in a tail spin. I cannot even control the navigation of my vessel in the storm tossed seas of this life and the world that commands it. I am subject to the whims of things I cannot control and usually screw up the things I think I have control over.

And if I willingly submit to that realization, then I can gain some spiritual guidance from the Creator Himself. I can realize that there is control and it is in the best of hands, the One and True King. I can measure peace that withstands the broken reality of a world gone wrong and find joy in the realization of the designed perfection that lies waiting for the King's return.

And, no matter the tides or the sea state of my life, I will gain headway under the captaincy of the King to that destination.

Simply: In giving up my life, I gain it.

Not too terribly PC in today's world.

But then, humanity is under the delusion that they know what's best for the world and its inhabitants. They feel that they have the right, coming from primitive ooze, to proclaim what is best for everyone upon the globe surface. They have gained the right to be GODS.

A look back upon the history of the Jewish nation of Israel and the secular history of this entire world proves that we are still in a state of denial.

We can't do anything.

We aren't worthy of anything.

We aren't GODS.

We're just lost children in the woods, trying to follow our own breadcrumbs home.

Why don't we just follow the guy with the map?

It is there.....in the Bible.

I am nervous about posting this today. I've struggled to make it as unoffensive as possible and keep erasing what I corrected. Maybe I'm too intolerant, maybe I'm being too critical. Maybe.
You can take it or leave it. I speak what I feel God has laid upon my heart to write. For myself. And anyone else called to listen.

Tuesday, March 4

Plumbing the depths......

"The purposes of a man's heart are deep waters, but a man of understanding draws them out." Proverbs 20:5 (New International Version)

I'm reading the Gospel of John as part of the 'homework' for the leadership group I'm studying with. SO what's the Proverb have to do with John?.......

It is interesting to see Jesus' interaction with Nicodemus, the Pharisee who hides under in a tree and comes to Jesus in the cover of darkness……."The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit." (John 3:8 NIV). The NIV commentary says, "The Holy Spirit is sovereign. He works as He pleases in His renewal of human hearts." But, I think it goes deeper than that.

Jesus continues His discussion with Nic, "Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God." (John 3:20-21 NIV).

Our moral behaviour is too often defined before we reach out to discover that which is missing in our lives; Jesus Christ. Some respond to the light quickly and with due haste because of the representation in their own lives through the parents. Some are broken upon the mantle of righteousness before they can see. Others won't ever know the reality of the depth of their Heavenly Father's love because they've never realized it can be deeper. A study done recently by Pew Research (I think, or Barnum) showed that the faith of the children is exactly the same as the faith displayed and represented by the parents.

Is it any wonder that the millennials who are defining the church today in the emergent movement do so with a shallow and pale comparison of the truth? Christians in the United States are supposedly 82% or greater of the populace, but what kind of faith is represented? We find that only about 8% are of the 'old guard', those conservative, evangelical followers of Christ, while the vast majority have a dim and boxed image of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Some have gone as far as saying God can be found in every religion, others that Christ is representative of Buddhist, Hindu, and Islamic faiths.

Why?

Because man has defined the surface tension that protects the deeper, more basic purposes of his heart. We hide the interior of our homes and our lives from outside view because we are ashamed or fearful of exposing that which is done in the darkness. And, anything that is not of God is not good. We don't want others to know that we are basically fallen, sinful beings that imperfectly attempt to follow a God that we have devalued and boxed into a definable presence, brought out on Sunday and put away for the rest of the week. Our children, who are 'coming of age', are finding the world moldable and a God that can be fitted into their definition of truth. There is no prophecy; there are no miracles because we are in control of the picture.

For a people designed to live in relationship with each other, we are constantly seeking a method in which to claim relationship without connection. We maintain a distance in our church relationships with those who claim our beliefs, keeping our 'personal' business personal and putting on an image of propriety that isn't even tested by our closest brothers and sisters too often. They may attempt to explore a deeper relationship with others, but when the surface tension is met and they feel resistance…..they think they have plumbed the depths of each others soul….and call it good.

Who is this 'man of understanding' Solomon talks of? What are these 'deep waters' of a man that hide the purposes of their lives? And how are they 'drawn out'?
The good, the bad, the ugly. Those wounds of our hearts caused by ill-intent parents or in the best of circumstances by loving and gentle parents are what we hide within the deep waters of our hearts, dealing with each other from a position of painful relating and setting the 'depth gauge' to a pressure that we are comfortable with. Who wants to know the true brokenness of another, for knowing requires a response (at least that is what we are taught). After all, a true Christian will not simply walk beside their brother and sister in pain, but seek to 'lift up' that person from the anguish of being human.

But a 'man of understanding' looks to his own wounded heart and seeks to bring the light to the darken depths of his soul. Realizing that we are all living flawed and imperfect lives and that the true nature of God is so far beyond our understanding that we cannot contain or direct His movements in our lives and the history of the world. We can only seek after that which we were meant to be and find in the passage of time that we have changed. As the wind blowing in our lives, eroding the landscape to an image more reflective of the Father.

Why does God do the things He does? Why does the world exists the way it does? Who decides who has to suffer and who can triumph over the trials of this life?

By living our lives exposed, to the wind of the Father's breath, we find and root out the basis of evilness that has permeated our beings since the Fall. Living in true relationship with each other; loving despite the pain, accepting the pain of a broken world as it affects us, and striving in the storm tossed seas of this journey to our true homes despite the growing water in the bilges of our vessel, we find understanding, joy, and peace.

We find a touch of Heaven in our living.

But we have to dive the depths and discover our true purposes hidden there. And expose them to the light of the Truth so that the evil of our broken humanity can be charred away by the purity of His presence, and our true design can shine through, as God intended.

And in the process, we discover the solidity of our Creator………

Just my thoughts..........

Monday, March 3

He's everywhere that I am.....

"Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me," even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. Psalm 139:7-12 (NIV)

I spent Sunday unlike any Sunday I have spent in some time now, in a church. No, I've gone to church in that 'some time' frame I speak of and I've been the Senior Chaplain of Meadowbrook Chapel for over a year now. No, I went to church Sunday at the beckoning of the Lord.

A church that isn't in transition so much as it is in MOVEMENT. A church that has, after three years, obtained a structure in which to hold services on Sunday. A church that is not about those walls that contain its physical presence but rather what is happening outside those walls and where the Lord will lead them. A church with life, a life that is focused on what God wants, not what God needs.

A church in which the Pastor spoke of a old direction with a new twist. A church where expression isn't so much the expectation but the realization of the presence of the Holy Spirit. A church, so small in its physical congregation that I was immediately spotted as a 'newcomer' and spoke to as an old friend. A church so large in its mission that I find myself eager again to be about the business of God's kingdom.

The verse was part of one of the Pastor's wife speaking about the conference on healing that the Pastor, his wife, and one other leadership couple went to the previous week. But it wasn't the sermon about the healing sessions or the impact that it had on all who attended that made this particular section of the Psalm 139 chapter stick to me and give me my 'eat the carpet' moment…..you know, that moment when the presence of God is so powerful and so---well, present----that makes you want to go lower than the carpet…..because you feel so unworthy to be in such powerful light…….

I realized how much I need to be impacted, like drinking from a waterfall to quench my thirst…..that sweeping away of the fragility of my humanity to see a glimpse of what we each were intended to be and how much I fail to even come close to that vision. Which makes me reflect upon how much I need the indwelling of the Spirit to overcome the things that my flesh desires that remain sinfulness to God and how much I cannot do it on my own.

And how I can't hide from God, no matter where I go. When my life was in the darkness and I openly rebelled against God (if it was 'christian', I did the opposite), God was there. He rescued me from a few moments in my life that would've ensured my damnation and therefore my destination in the pits of Hell. He spoke to me, and spoke again when I would turn away from His whispering voice. He was there in that darkness, a presence that defied the black inkiness of its despair and stood as a beacon in the night.

He was there at that church on Sunday morning.......when it seemed the Pastor was speaking directly to me regarding a place I fear.....

He was there last night, as I failed again to overcome a desire to protect and defend myself, as I moved in pain and caused pain to those who love me.

He was there when I despaired in the darkness of my broken heart and He was there when I woke this morning, offering what little I have to His work, His command.

He is there as I stress about the bills, the apartment, the car, the family, and the relationships in tangle. He is there as I struggle to give it all to Him.

With open arms……..