The Prodigal Father with two sons.....

“The younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the share of the estate I have coming to me.' So he distributed the assets to them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered together all he had and traveled to a distant country, where he squandered his estate in foolish living……….But [the older son] replied to his father, 'Look, I have been slaving many years for you, and I have never disobeyed your orders, yet you never gave me a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when [the younger son] of yours came, who has devoured your assets with prostitutes, you slaughtered the fattened calf for him.' (Luke 15:12-13, 29-30 HCSB)

I knew this parable, now correctly identified theologically as “The Story of Two Sons”, as the Prodigal Son and have written on my blog about it. The worst thing in the world I ever heard was, “You are just like your father.” The first comment caused me, when I left home at the age of sixteen and turned my back on ‘The Church” to hate looking in the mirror because I was reminded of whom I looked like. Granted, my father was no saint and did a lot of things that were wrong but I understand him more and the wounds that he himself carried in the darkness of this world. Indeed, we were very much alike.

I left home at sixteen, boldly telling both my fathers (earthly as well as the heavenly) that I was done with them and would be a shining example of the problematic son that would only bring grief in the telling of who’s I was. A majority of my testimony I’ll probably never tell in one sitting because of the places I went and the darkness I wrapped myself up into. Much like the younger son, whom squandered the inheritance, I was for the majority of my life. I even squandered the financial inheritance my father sent me a few months after I left home. I was, in my opinion, everything my earthly father hated in one of his offspring. What I didn't know is that everyday my heavenly Father looked longingly down the road for my profile to crest the hill.

The greatest thing I ever heard on this earth was, “I was never, for one minute, ashamed of you.” I can remember sitting down in the living room of my earthly father’s trailer on the farm in Gladwin and telling him I had traveled up there to ‘bury the hatchet’ for my own sake, if not for him. I was tired of running away from myself because of who I reminded myself of and I was sorry that I had been a son of whom he was ashamed. The shock on his face, along with the words he spoke, was not what I had practiced for or expected. We didn't suddenly become close, hugging and weeping in each other’s arms and when he passed away a few months later, the intensity of the sorrow was partly for that lack of intimate love a father and son should have had…..but, that step was part of the journey I began to take to understand the man I knew as my father. To this day, I look in the mirror and thank God for the memory that presents itself to me of the man known as Ronald Lawrence Hutson.

I thought my connection to this parable ended there, but my heavenly Father taught me something in the last year that had me realize that this was not true.

Against my heavenly Father, I have been an older son too, especially in regards to the pursuit of His purpose for me. It has been a struggle, fighting the wounds of the past and dealing with the circumstances of my sinful life. I am very much older, physically, than my chronological age because of the abuses I once visited upon a body I didn't care for and the emotional scarring that was allowed in the darkness to tighten and limit my mental health. Much of the last year has been a ‘quieting’ of the ‘What about me?” syndrome that has haunted the lessons and discipling that the Lord has put me through, at my request, because I have surrendered all I am to His shaping. It has been hard, this redemption of my mind and soul, because I've struggled with the concept of love and mercy and grace…..and why, if I was ‘doing so well’ I still faced the struggles I did. Much like the older son, I wanted the bigger portion because I had done the ‘bigger’ growing.

The greatest thing I've ever heard from the Heavens is “"'Son,' he said to him, 'you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.””

As always, I have learned, it is a choice that you have to make; both initially and continuously, whether you will remain outside the party in anger at the celebration of sibling or go inside to raise your heart in praise at what the Father has done.

And that is a prodigal move either way.

My reason for my seasons

"I have become a fool; you forced it on me. I ought to have been recommended by you, since I am in no way inferior to the "super-apostles," even though I am nothing." (2Co 12:11 HCSB)

It just gave God’s word to the seasonal theme of this time; not just the unemployment or the move to a different city or even the loss of someone that I truly loved but also the events that have carried me from that moment in October 2004 until now……bits and pieces of the work that He began way back in February 2004 until today that I thought were seasonal changes of my journey. As I sit here and stir the campfire in the dark echoes of the night, listening to the nocturnal creatures of its inky blackness, I have realized that there has been only one season since the end of the cold winter that began that February day. It has been a long journey and there are some who would say that I am no closer to the ‘goal’ than I was that October day in Chicago. Others would say I’ve become a ‘burden’ to the cause. Some will say I’m about as ‘godly’ as a addict or as ‘saved’ as a person drowning. Others, that quiet majority, have said that God is amazing in what He has done in my life, to this point, and the direction they perceive Him to be taking me on.

It has not been easy; this journey in the deepest heat of the summer past. It would seem for the majority of the trip so far, it has been through swamp and murky bogs….attacked by mosquitoes and pursued by bears. Always on the defensive, always working on wounds and new hurts and old recurring nightmares, grasping at peace and running to try and capture joy. Pursuing what I perceived God to be only to find that He was nothing like what I had thought. Seeking that direction to achieve the purpose He has set within my bones, that desire that seems to ebb and flow with the beating of my heart only to feel mislead by the directions and opinions of those who have come into my life. I have proclaimed the purpose He has called me to and been laughed at…..told to stop being foolish and do the ‘responsible’ thing. In several ways, by several people, for several different reasons.

I have been defensive in some of this season; fighting the perception of those both right and wrong, those who are lovers and haters and those who truly want what God is doing in my life, around me and through each of us. I have been offensive; fighting for the development of the purpose, seeking the ‘in’ to the ‘inner sanctuary’ though all the doors seem locked. I have argued, cajoled and calmly interjected. I have written, I have preached and I have volunteered. I have experienced the fullness of many opportunities and shied away from others. It has been a long, tiring and unrealized journey through this season.

And it boils down to what a friend said to me that I believe these verses speak from God’s own mouth. “I should…be…act…think…” has to be replaced with “God is” and that is enough. No longer, from the moment of my salvation can I expect myself to achieve, but (and he said this was from a seminar he went to) I have to consistently put myself in situations where if God doesn’t show, He’ll look foolish. In the absence of our own abilities and skills, where there is no rhythm or reason to the success of the struggle, the goal or the dream….in that the only thought that can be given is that God has done the work. We are merely the putty in His hands, shaped and fired to meet the requirements of the vessel for the Holy Spirit to fill.

I presented myself to the Church as a candidate of calling; there are those who have seen it and those who have not. There are those who, checking off the list of ‘requirements’ have forgotten the one sole requirement God has given to them…to disciple and further God’s cause in the call. The rejection of the Church has been a damaging wound to my life, but I have realized there was never a ‘Church-requirement’ of approval in the things that God has purposed me to do. Only my obedience and movement towards Him.

There are those who say I’m foolish to still dream, to still question whether or not God has called me to go into fulltime ministry……. If I am foolish for the impossibilities of God, then so be it.

So, now as the unemployment runs out and still no job on the horizon…..as the last of the money is poured into my gas tank for fueling the car…..and I face the coming New Year without apparent prospects, I wonder and trust in the provision of God for me and my family. I am awed by the questioning of my heart to pursue His big, audacious and hairy dreams for me or to sulk into a job to ‘just get by’ if I can.

As a pastor challenged his readers in an blog he wrote about “Daring to pray this prayer,” I can only bow my head in supplication and raise my hands in adoration…….and pray this prayer for 2011. For this is what God has taught me in the theme of this season…..He will have me where He wants me to be.

"Two things I ask from you; do not refuse me before I die: Remove falsehood and lies far from me; do not give me poverty or riches, feed me with my allotted portion of bread, lest I become satisfied and act deceptively and say, "Who is the LORD?" Or lest I become poor and steal and demean the name of my God." Proverbs 30:7-9.

It is my only resolution for 2011. What is yours?

As Christ said, "They shall know you by how you love one another" A blessing from a sister in Christ....

I've heard this song in relation to Olympic athletes - perhaps the 1996 Olympics, of which I was a particular fan). I think of you as that athlete. You are running one of the most challenging marathons I have heard of. You are trying to do your best, in obedience to God's leading, to keep your head above water, only to find yourself sinking with every effort you make. Do not be discouraged, beloved brother. God is not done with you yet!

To dream the impossible dream
To fight the unbeatable foe
To bear with unbearable sorrow
To run where the brave dare not go
To right the unrightable wrong
To love pure and chaste from afar
To try when your arms are too weary
To reach the unreachable star

This is my quest
To follow that star
No matter how hopeless
No matter how far

To fight for the right
Without question or pause
To be willing to march into Hell
For a heavenly cause

And I know if I'll only be true
To this glorious quest
That my heart will lie peaceful and calm
When I'm laid to my rest

And the world will be better for this
That one man, scorned and covered with scars
Still strove with his last ounce of courage
To reach the unreachable star

Here is what Paul wrote, about YOU:
I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. (Philippians 1:3-6)

Take heart, dear brother! God will lift up your head. Your eyes are focussed on the prize - achieving the impossible dream, reaching the unreachable star - with a heart overflowing with love for the lost and wounded in this world, so that they will be blessed in heaven eternally. Do not be discouraged by circumstances. They seem so definitive, though, don't they? But look at Sarah. She conceived in old age. And Elizabeth had been barren. And Mary yet a virgin! God seems to be blind to earthly circumstances, not of discompassion, but to the obstacles.

Joy...the fabric of hope, love and peace...deep in my heart

“So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.” (John 16:22 NIV)

The kids are safely ensconced in their individual schools, Sara at Farrand and Casey at Central, and I have met with the Teacher Consultant regarding Casey’s IEP. It looks like Central will not be able to give him the support he needs for his cognitive impairment which means he’ll have to move over to Discovery. Life goes on, its struggles never far from mind and its demands never ceasing in my ear. Sorrows and heartaches beat in tune with my heart……the future doesn’t look bright, even without shades.

A friend of mine on Facebook, Kimberly Cash-Tate, writes a devotional “Colored in Christ” and the most recent was “I’ve got the Joy, Joy, Joy, Joy…..” She references the verse above and says this, “God didn’t give us joy just to feel giddy. It fortifies us. It helps us endure. Like Jesus, believers know that this life on earth isn’t all there is, no matter the trial. We’ve got an eternity set before us.”

I look at the life that I have lived so far upon this world and I, quite frankly, am amazed that I have survived so far…even still today…both life in general and the attempts that I made to try and exit out early. Sometimes, it isn’t amazement but a sullen sorrow that I have. Sometimes I wonder if God is playing some cosmic game where I am the pawn with the big old red target plastered on my back…..customized for everything possible that could go wrong, be difficult or painful. It is very natural for me to withdraw from the world, to protect me and my children from the difficulties that are presented to us and the ignorant attitudes that can be so viciously applied from those who seem to have no regard for the well-being of those they should. Others, brave enough to step into the chaos of the life that this part of the Hutson family lives, are disrupted and don’t seem to fare too well for too long because of the myriad of complexities and relational defects that plague my children and break my heart. They fall away into the annals of the past, sad reminders of what could have been and what is not.

Sometimes, stumbling around in this darkness that permeates the world…..not so much casting out the junk, that ‘stuff’ that God is working on, but moving it around so that, in my own broken, dysfunctional way I can move….for the sake of my children…I break further and feel more and more unable to overcome the major mountains of my life, straddled as they are with the Goliaths of my deepest fears. Even as I fall to my knees, overwhelmed with depression and heartbreak, as that anvil of living slams into me again and again to bury me in the dirt from whence I was formed…..I cannot escape that knowledge that God is good, merciful and graceful…..even in the depth of my despair, I cannot escape that fact that God is…..GOD.

At times like those, that knowledge haunts me….doesn’t give me peace….doesn’t give me strength…it hangs like that undesired diagnosis from the Doctor: incurable cancer, stage 4, and only months to live.

You can’t escape its complications, its connotations….God exists and isn’t going away, even if you move to that state down south of the everglades called Denial.
He is unmovable, unshakeable and totally undeniable……there is no way to ignore that pink elephant that sits in the corner of the room…..even denying His voice doesn’t do any good….in the middle of the tempest, battered back and forth by the mighty waves, pummeled by the merciless gale and listening to the stressed joints of your vessel straining to the point of sheering….you can’t deny Him.

That knowledge keeps you fighting against the gales of this life; struggling even as the ship fills to the bottom of the gunwales with icy cold, black water of the depths….even as the masts of your dreams come crashing upon the deck of harsh reality….even as your world is reduced to a small life raft bobbing on the vast open waters…..even when it seems all hope is gone…..it drives you beyond yourself and its hopelessness.

Some call it the unshakeable ‘human’ spirit….that essence of humanity that has driven us from the protoplasmic wiggly mess to grow legs, grow through the centuries’ march to that complex form that we currently inhabit as a ‘twenty-second century’ construct of mankind….or, to be PC, Humankind…

According to those, it is such ‘drive’ that has brought us through the dark ages and the industrial age into the technological age…..it is the driving force that causes us to invent, to question and to divine our place in this universe……That ‘human spirit’…..it is the reason why abortions continue to decimate entire populations and races, why abnormal and psychological/physiological behaviors continue to destroy the fabric that stitches the myriad of complex human personalities and cultures together and pulls apart the entire cohesiveness of the ‘societal’ makeup of the species called homo sapiens.

It’s ugly, broken and corrupted head was first reared in the Garden and it has been slowly killing itself ever since. It’s driving force isn’t ‘being’, ‘who am I’ and ‘why am I here,’ it is to create a way so that it can deny the truth, that we are created beings who corrupted ourselves through sin and are in need of salvation that only that Creator can effectively deliver to us. If we can only prove the illogical probability of our own ‘chance’ existence, we will have effectively proven the concept of a Creator is false and therefore our own corruption is a figurative thing, individually defined. We will be the unlikely, undesigned Masters of the Universe……and the source of our own destruction when such illogic becomes logical.

Some call it the ‘collective consciousness’, that massive cerebral mystical being….made up of all of us, mini-gods, self-aware, self-evolved and self-determining. It is what brought humanity from the oozing fields of prehistoric life into the upright forms today, highly intelligent and socially evolved. It is the “CC” that is driving humanity to the ‘next level’ of consciousness…..when we will become one with the cosmic and float among the stars in a mental/spiritual return to that protoplasmic organism of our creation……the ultimate circle of life; birth, life, evolution, expansion into the cosmic……never-ending and definitely non-fatal.

Those who fail to achieve the higher consciousness will simply be absorbed.

None of it answers everything….nothing explains its existence in the primordial ooze before words could be shaped to explain its concept. It is there, as if designed and grafted into our being, the fiber of our physical/mental/spiritual totality of our being collectively called human---which works independently and co-dependently together for a purpose designed by something other than ourselves. It drives us to supersede our ‘animalistic’ instincts for the sake of the other, to seek beyond ourselves and to care for the wounded, hurting and broken of our species…..beyond the ‘conscious human spirit’ that calls for survival of the fittest….

As if, in our design there was given a measure of this stuff…..that drives us to find more of it within ourselves, our world and those around us.

It isn’t love; unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another or the warm attachment, enthusiasm, devotion or affection for another……

It isn’t hope, for hope without it is nothing except a statement, a wish for something with expectation of its fulfillment that is absent of any life…..

It isn’t peace, for without it peace is nothing but a fragile individualized inner contentment or serenity that is unsustainable in the harsh light of day…….

It entices us into places we have been hurt before, if only to feel it’s temporary and brief warmth again for a short time…….

It dares us to love, to hope and to be peaceful in this midst of being in a self-serving, individual world that cuts us daily, wounds us weekly and demands everything from us............

It rallies against our ‘human spirit’, is indefinable by our ‘consciousness’ and defies our attempts to create it unreliant upon anything else that may cause its collapse. It exists where it shouldn’t, moves us into places we may not want to go and propels us to do more than we might be comfortable doing; for others and the society as a whole. And sometimes it is a deep river within the protected walls of our heart.

But, when we experience it…..it is an intense, ecstatic and exultant happiness that renews our hope, sweetens our love and brings peace in the chaos. It allows us to experience an undeniable reason to keep fighting, keep struggling and keep working towards its embrace again….laughing madly in the face of the tempest. When felt, it vibrates within the fibers of our being, physiologically and psychologically, as if we’ve touched upon that which we were designed to continually feel, to be in a state of each and every moment of our lives…..it makes us feel ALIVE

It’s name is Joy…………………

From the joy of our Father, we were created…..to live and to be in relationship with Him. From the joy of the Father and the Son, the sorrow of the Cross was endured…..for the joy that would be reborn from its sadness and corruption would bring humanity back into His arms, in relationship with Him.

From joy, we strive to live a ‘Christ-like’ life, forsaking our comfort; peace and measure for the sake of helping others find that joy….a sustained, living and breathing happiness that comes from an indefinable source….God. Even in the midst of our sorrows, it is the smile that comes to our face as we;

Hear the whispered words, “I love you”, from our children……………………………………….

Think of the beating heart of a unborn child that beats within a woman’s body.........................

Feel the tender embrace of another after the brutality of our peers……………………………..

Know we are truly, deeply and powerfully loved in measures we do not deserve…………….

It brings us to a group of fellow ‘like-minded’ fellow human beings, in various sizes and shapes, to lift our voices (and sometimes our hands) above the impoverished state of our world to raise high our thankfulness, hopefulness and happiness to a Father who loves us, a Son who died for us and a Spirit that struggles for us each day of our sorrowful lives.

It is what creates, breathes life into and endures the ability to struggle through the trials, tribulations and sorrows because of the knowledge of its existence in a God who created us, died for us and beckons us back to His arms. Who holds, for a little while, His righteous wrath so that His desire that none should perish but all know the happiness of eternal life.

It is that knowledge that, even as we live in sorrowful grief, that sustains the hope and belief that we will be back in those arms again…..as soon as we see the face that is it source and we know upon that day………..

Our Joy will never cease………

because our Savior has come back to make it complete.

I have joy, joy, joy, joy deep in my heart….deep in my heart….deep in my heart

4th of July thoughts...going from comfortable to uncomfortable in a world of sinful agendas

“And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds….reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail, in exclusion of religious principle.” George Washington, 1st President of the United States of America.

“Whatever we once were, we are no longer a Christian nation –at least, not just. We are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, and a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers.”President Barrack Obama, 66th President of the United States of America.

“For what great nation has a god so near to them as the Lord our God is, whenever we are turned to him in prayer? And what great nation has laws and decisions so right as all this law which I put before you today? Only take care, and keep watch on your soul, for fear that the things which your eyes have seen go from your memory and from your heart all the days of your life; but let the knowledge of them be given to your children and to your children's children..’ (Deuteronomy 4:7-9 BBE) Moses, Leader of the Israelite people after the Exodus.

It is oft the debate that clouds the issues of abortion, immoral sexual lifestyles and any discussion of the religion of Evolutionary Darwinism, meant to shut down the calls of Homeland Security’s ‘extreme right-wing radicals’ for the revival and return of America to its foundation and its purpose. (Side note: I am, according to DHS Intelligence Assessment of 4/7/09, said ‘extreme right wing’ activist) It is a hot topic, usually found in the arsenal of the secular or cultural religious that form the majority of the ‘83%’ declared-Christians that populate America’s shores, that we were never a Christian nation, never meant to govern by the biblical principles or should expect our national morality to be tied to the commandments set forth by the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The American Dream isn’t what it once was and neither is the nation that envisioned its creation.

The celebration of our national independence from the governance of Great Britain and King George lit up the sky this past Saturday, the booming echoes of explosive charges hammering the ooohs and ahhhhs of the crowds gathered around this land. Mostly done were the barbeques, the games or family gatherings by nightfall so that grand tradition of fireworks could be comfortably viewed, no matter how reduced or less-grand than years previous. A celebratory air seemed to float everywhere, as even those who had to work on a national holiday were caught up in the joyful proclamation of our national birth……and I would venture to guess, scarcely a thought given to what we once were and the dying cries of its once vibrant life.

Our President, the sixty-sixth man to hold that office and title, has it all wrong; we are no longer a Christian nation, period. No ‘at least, not just’ or any carefully worded phrases to give a passing glance to the national heritage of Christianity that has been crowded out by false doctrines, false religions and reintroduced pagan rituals. No longer can the words of our pilgrims and colonists be heard and the remembrance of the blessings received by a young nation by the hand of God due to its foundational dream lay forgotten and twisted in the cavernous ruins of its destruction. The reasons, hopes and dreams of our fore founders no longer excite the national identity. The grand experiment of a republic, guided by the morality and direction of the Judeo-Christian God has fallen prey to the manipulation of man…..and their complacency in its growth. Accordingly to the DHS assessment, holding positions of “the right to bear arms under the 2nd Amendment”, “abortion is morally wrong”, “lower taxes, not higher”, “state and local governance as opposed to federal expansion”, “the bible is literally true” and “veterans deserve honor” are a few of the ‘warning signs’ of radicalism from the right-wing segment of American society.

If you go back in history, this describes the Pilgrims who traveled to America, colonists who formed their governing bodies for the colonies and the colonial minute man who stood against the British distant and enslaving rule. Each of the founding fathers of this republic would be in chains under DHS control if this document was applied to their thoughts, words and deeds that ironically gave birth to the body that created such an entity. No wonder why America has fallen into the practice of rewriting historical facts with distortion and misstated half-truths. America was once a Christian nation, in its infancy…..and has never achieved what it was supposed to be: a nation governed by, seeking after and under the divine guidance of Almighty God through the working hands, minds and hearts of its people and by a federal body that subscribed to principals and created institutional foundations that were biblically based to govern a people with a understood and shared biblical worldview. A Christian nation is not one in which all the people are all Christians, but where the social and governing morality are biblically defined and biblically enforced (i.e. in love, with the intent to restore) for the benefit of all; even Muslim, Buddha and nonbelievers.

"The highest glory of the American Revolution,” said John Quincy Adams, ”was this: it connected in one indissoluble bond, the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity." The grand experiment has failed, because we lay in ignorance of our heritage and the blessings that enabled a ragtag, untrained and outmatched band of ‘patriots’ stand against the mightiest army of the time and win.

We can look at historical documents and derive clear intention from the “July 4th colonists’” forbearers; the Pilgrims. The first known governmental document, the Mayflower Compact, 1620, written on American soil puts pen to paper what those colonists, in the Plymouth colony of what would become Virginia, considered their mission in the New World; “….Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the first Colony in the northern Parts of Virginia; Do by these Presents, solemnly and mutually, in the Presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid….” The Compact would be used to fashion other governance documents, like the Exeter Compact, and its meaning echoed in the writings of other colonies….

In the Supreme Court's 1892 Holy Trinity Church v. United States decision Justice David Brewer overturned the decision by circuit court of the United States for the southern district of New York in the matter of the anti-immigration statute (143 U.S. 457, 459]…) that forbid certain vocations from being filled by foreign nationals. Holy Trinity Church had hired an Englishman to be its pastor and the Immigration and Naturalization Service moved to block his installment. In what is now a rarity, the Supreme Court interpreted the law made by Congress by drawing on the background of the law’s creation and implied intention not to include Christian ministers in its scope because of the lengthy review of the ‘mass of organic utterances’ throughout the history of America that established “this is a Christian nation” overturning the circuit court’s decision because it’s decision went against the whole history and life of the country.

In the reversal, we find example after example of Christianity as the national identity intentionally and with clarity: “The commission to Christopher Columbus, prior to his sail westward….the first colonial grant, made to Sir Walter Raleigh in 1584…the first charter of Virginia, granted by King James 1 in 1606…….the language of subsequent charters of that colony in 1609, 1611…..and various charters of other colonies……the celebrated compact by the piligrims of the Mayflower….the fundamental orders of Commecticut 1638-39……the charter of Pennsylvania to William Penn…..the declaration of independence……every constitution of the 44 states [note: this was the number of states in the US at the time] contains…..constitutions of the various states recognize…..the constitution of the United States, which is supposed to have little touch upon the private life of the individual, contains in the first amendment a declaration common to the constitutions of all the states, as follows: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," etc., - and also provides in article 1, § 7, (a provision common to many constitutions,) that the executive shall have 10 days (Sundays excepted) within which to determine whether he will approve or veto a bill constitution of the United States…….”, all that provide there is no disagreement in the historical documentation and intent of the United States because of an ‘universal language pervading them all’ that affirm throughout its history that it is a religious nation.

Justice Brewer called these examples “organic utterances” that speak the voice of the entire people,, using the Pennsylvania decision (Updegraph v. Comm., 11 Seg. & R. 394, 400) to point out “Christianity, general Christianity, is, and always has been, a part of the common law…….not Christianity with an established church and tithes and spiritual courts, but Christianity with liberty of conscience to all men”

In conclusion, Justice Brewer wrote; “If we pass beyond these matters to a view of American life, as expressed by its laws, its business, its customs, and its society, we find everywhere a clear recognition of the same truth. Among other matters note the following: The form of oath universally prevailing, concluding with an appeal to the Almighty; the custom of opening sessions of all deliberative bodies and most conventions with prayer; the prefatory words of all wills, "In the name of God, amen;" the laws respecting the observance of the Sabbath, with the general cessation of all secular business, and the closing of courts, legislatures, and other similar public assemblies on that day; the churches and church organizations which abound in every city, town, and hamlet; the multitude of charitable organizations existing everywhere under Christian auspices; the gigantic missionary associations, with general support, and aiming to establish Christian missions in every quarter of the globe. These and many other matters which might be noticed, add a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of organic utterances that this is a Christian nation.” Likewise in 1931, Supreme Court Justice George Sutherland reversed the 1892 decision in relation to another case and reiterated that Americans are a 'Christian people' and in 1952 Justice William O. Douglas affirmed 'we are a religious people and our institutions presuppose a Supreme Being.'"

“Saying that the U.S. is not "just" a Christian nation carries the sense that it is both a Christian nation and more:” opines Brooks Jackson in an article on FactCheck.org, “a nation of Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and nonbelievers as well. Furthermore, any survey of religious beliefs held by Americans will show that to be a factually correct statement.” A slight twist of meaning and suddenly it doesn’t appear so bad, being ‘not just’ a Christian nation but rather a collection of people with differing moral values. I would offer that a survey of religious beliefs held by Americans proves that this is no longer a Christian nation, though it was once declared to be so and it was once intended to be. It is the distortion of what it means to be a “Christian nation” that has led to its demise.

“The observation could be made because people of all beliefs largely respected the Judeo-Christian system,” Monte Kuligowski points out on AmericanThinker.com, “and accepted it as society's basis for right and wrong and moral order. Indeed, back then, even an atheist would have acknowledged society's religious moral framework as the basis for social order.” Justice Brewer pointed out that his claim reached into the ‘organic law’ of the nation and each state, showing that America being a Christian nation was “the domain of official action and recognition….[not mere] individual acceptance.” (Brewer, The United States: A Christian Nation/1905)

Our 66th President says that our national heritage of ‘faith’ was twisted into a divisional weapon by the "Christian Right": “Somehow, somewhere along the way, faith stopped being used to bring us together and started being used to drive us apart. It got hijacked. Part of it's because of the so-called leaders of the Christian Right, who've been all too eager to exploit what divides us," he said, in an article on WorldNetDaily....and promptly ignores ‘official action, recognition and responsibility’ that supersedes individual acceptance or desire. Far beyond a misstated and untruthful statement of “separation of church and state” which has led to the social separation of faith and governance in the voice of the people, the government should well look into its own formation and hold itself accountable to the utterances of its membership. The moral fabric of the national identity superseded any individual acceptance of its decrees and was the guide for the formation of what was to be a “Nation under God”, in a world where each state was Christian, constitutionally and ‘organically’, the founding fathers envisioned a ‘theocracy’ of democratic accord as the goal of America, which since 1947 we have declared to be otherwise.

In the current decline into the humanistic, postmodern world of self-theology where the Mormonistic preaching of ‘self-evolution’ into godhood seems to be the prevailing whim as the American dream has morphed into one of comfort and ease, such historical facts are reinterpreted and reexamined so that a legislative branch can make laws protecting and promoting an alternate history that denies the un-attaining of the original goal for this nation. Instead of a nation empowered by God, indwelled with the Holy Spirit and given the holy charge to ‘storm the gates of hell itself’ with a promise felt in the individual marrow of its citizens of “surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age”….we have become a mockery for the world to point to as we run full tilt for the things that have been proven worldwide to be the death of nations; socialism, postmodernism and individualism.

History is no longer studied to gain knowledge of the mistakes that lead to the fall of empires, the decline of the societal fabric that binds civilizations together with the cohesiveness to weather trials nor to find a better path for the future. It is simply examined for the simplisticity of altering, denying or misstating the facts to the cultural inhabitators so that an agenda, human in its sinfulness and evil in its bondage, will bring the masses back under Egyptian rule.

“It must be admitted that today, although we are still essentially a Christian nation in form (i.e., the Constitutional, legal structure, church affiliation), we are not one in conduct. For the first 250 years of our existence Christian character determined the conduct of self-government in homes, churches, and civil society,” an unknown author submits in their essay posted online. “But today we have forgotten our heritage and only the skeleton remains. Even so, deep within the American character there lingers a Christian conscience ready to be revived by the spirit of God through awakened American Christian patriots………………. Our history is unique in that we were allowed to express the full flower of Christian civilization and government. This fact should give us cause to ponder the price we have paid for the maintenance of our Christian liberty. Will we be the generation that presides over its death?”

A haunting modern echo of the words of Thomas Jefferson, one of our founding fathers………

“God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that his justice cannot sleep forever.” (Subscribed on the Jefferson Monument in Washington, D.C.)

I don’t know if this blog makes any sense today….finally finished four days after we have gone back to our daily lives having celebrated the 4th of July throughout the land called America……I don’t know if I conveyed my feelings about this country, about the direction its heading or the sorrow I feel for her greatness, once glorifying God and now only condemning itself to the annals of history where the writers will write, “The once grand experiment……failed”.

I leave you with a poem from Sir Frances Drake, sent to me in a devotional I read a few days ago. It is time for the patriotic to show their pride in country and countrymen, the faithful to express their faith in conduct and life and the Kingdom of God to be restored upon the societal fabric of our land.

It is time for us to surrender the comfortable uncomfortableness for the disturbance of God’s movement in our lives and once again cry out in humble thankfulness, “One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” It is time to dream the American Dream anew, from the freshness of the original hopes and dreams of the founding fathers and the ones who journeyed to its shores to establish a nation shining for God…….

We have been asleep for far too long………………………………

Sir Frances Drake:

Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves,
when our dreams have come true because we have dreamed too little,
when we arrived safely because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when With the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly, to venture on wider seas
Where storms will show your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
As Christians we know that with God all things are possible.
In are communities we face challenges both small and large.
Let us remember with God there is no task to large, and nothing is impossible.

Revival starts within each one of us,
as God moves and empowers us to speak a good word to our neighbor,
invite them to church,
to fellowship at your home.

Or just a warm greeting,
representing Christ in our actions.
Let us try to remember God in all we do,
and as a great Christian song says:

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
and the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.

Prayer

“For a child has been born to us, a son has been given to us. He shoulders responsibility and is called: Extraordinary Strategist, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. His dominion will be vast and he will bring immeasurable prosperity. He will rule on David's throne and over David's kingdom, establishing it and strengthening it by promoting justice and fairness, from this time forward and forevermore. The LORD's intense devotion to his people will accomplish this.” (Isaiah 9:6-7 NET.)

I have been thinking of a way to express anew the miracle and the impact of the birth that we celebrate as Christians this 25th of December as Jesus Christ’s birthday. That God, in so much love, would cause a virgin to be pregnant with the very begotten Son to be born of woman, yet still fully God, is an event that still astounds me to this day.

I have spent a sleepless night; the trials and tribulations of this ending year have reached another milestone of heaviness and sorrow, for me….the person who is struggling to be a good steward of their finances, a good father, and a godly man. With all the strides I have made in the last few months by the blessings and encouragement of others, it seems impossibly unfair that a ‘random’ event that I had no way to avoid and no reason to suspect it’s coming would bring me right back to square one and the potential loss of every gain I have made.

It seems that I have been born to live on the cutting edge of impending doom and gloom. And yet, I am seizing hold of that promised peace and joy.

This Wednesday past, we were blanketed with a little taste of winter. About three to five inches of snow covered the ground as I departed my humble little apartment, as I have done since we moved here in September, from the little village of Holly enroute to my work in Allen Park, about an hour and fifteen minute journey. Not three miles from my home, I saw the headlights of a car that had slid off the road into a yard.

As I slowed down to see if the driver was in need of assistance, my car was rocked and lifted a few inches off the ground. I stopped a few feet further and retraced my route. Lying off to the side, now, was a large landscaping rock which had been apparently thrown into the roadway by the car that was now idling on the banked lawn of a home. I discovered another rock, which I had apparently missed and put both of them well off the road so that another vehicle wouldn’t hit them as I had. Checking with the driver, and getting a “I’m okay”, I got back into my vehicle and said a quick prayer of thanks that the driver was okay, that my car seemed to be okay, and that I hadn’t had worse happen that just a little ‘scare’ thrown my way.

The car seemed to be okay and drove normally all the way to work. When I got to my job, I checked it over quickly and didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. I drove home that night and to work the following day without any issues. I had indeed been blessed.

The blessings that have abound in my life since the life-altering events that had destroyed the world I once knew; the separation and impending divorce from my wife, the failure of one vehicle, the engine destruction of its replacement, the financial stresses and worries, the decision to let my daughter stay with her birth mother –separating the two children because of the impact the havoc of having to move twice since the separation, my son’s sorrow and increasing special needs, and the self-destruction of the industry that my job is a part of (automotive) that seemed to make more real the yearly worry of not having a job come the new year…….throughout these sorrowful and painful events, God showed through the working of His servants that He had me, my children, my ex-wife, and all the futures of each in the palm of His hand.

Facing the impossibility of moving; no money, no car, the inability to stay where I was, no prospect for a place to move to and no reason to suspect any of that would change, I prayed and asked my brothers and sisters in Christ to pray also. A woman travelled to my work, giving me a card filled with 10 $100 bills, which gave me enough to buy the car that I mentioned, because the owner accepted my request that he take a substantial cut in his asking price. A sister in Christ, who in the past gave me the funds to attend the IFOC Chaplaincy program, sent $200 dollars to help. The scrap yard who gave me just enough for the vehicle with the blown engine, $300.00, and a brother who gave me another $400.00 and helped me load the trailer with all my possessions. All these blessings worked, along with God giving me a landlord who would rent to me, the ability to move my son and I to Holly to a two bedroom apartment of fairly decent accommodations. God showed in a powerful and impacting way that I was His child through the blessings of others.

A brother heard of my need for clothing for my son and a group went out and purchased new clothes for him (telling me that they were used, hand-me downs from his son until I picked them up and discovered otherwise). Another brother, who two years ago I attending a life-changing event called a men’s story weekend through the Awakened Hearts ministry and I hadn’t seen since, blessed me with a month’s worth of rent for December.

As I have written my blog, and the time grew closer to the celebration of Christmas; I have spoken of these blessings and my learning to be blessed by the blessings of God through the work of others. I was not worried about presents under the tree for myself, because the presents had been given already…..one of my biggest beefs of the “Christmas season” is that we act differently at this time of year when Christ would rather have us bless others with the feelings, the gifts, and the fellowship common to this season the entire year……and I was happy to focus on the true meaning of the season celebration; the beginning of the redemption of mankind and the prophesied coming of the Messiah.

Coming home from work Thursday, it seemed the remark from a brother came into reality. He said, after an event that seemed random and impossible, said that I was the unluckiest person he knew. I started my travel home from my job and about a half-hour into it, my car started acting like it was in trouble. Grinding came from the transmission and then went away. I could shift and stop with no problem and the clutch seemed to work without issue, so I continued home. When I got there, the grinding was back.

I decided, with the impending winter storm that was to dump 7-10 inches on the ground and this problem, that I would take Friday off of work and take the car to the shop to have the transmission checked. I prayed for guidance and for mercy in this problem and contently went to sleep that night feeling assured that all would work out.

The following morning, with school cancelled for a snow day, my son and I went out to go to the repair shop two miles from home to have the car looked at. A quarter mile into the journey, the car bucked and stopped. It wouldn’t move and I was smack dab in the middle of a busy street….in a snow storm….

A friend came and pushed me out of the road, where I had a tow truck sent by the officers of the Holly Police who stopped to render assistance. We travelled to the repair facility and arranged to have the car looked at. Me and my son went home, helped dig out our neighbor on the ground floor and settled in to spend some time together.

I sent a prayer request out to the campus pastor and lead pastor of my new church, The River, here in Holly and cooked dinner for me and my son….well, my son cooked with a nervous father standing over him….. I answered the offer of a breakfast fellowship with a brother in Christ in the ministry called M3 and spent the day with my son………

And then I got the call from the repair facility. It would take 1780, minimum, to fix my vehicle because the rock that I had hit on Wednesday had hit the exposed transmission case and cracked it. All the fluid had leaked out over the next day and the clutch was ‘smoked’. If, once they got into the repair, there were other parts needed the price would, of course, go up. I have exactly $0 for such a repair.

It has been a depressing yesterday for me, sick with a coming cold and stressed about how I am going to keep a job that I don’t have the ability to get to anymore; the loss of at least three unpaid days because I could work Friday and will miss both Monday and Tuesday before the layoff for the end of the year takes effect. I have spent the night tossing and turning, praying and pondering, and have felt the need to write down this prayer request to send to those faithful and powerful warriors of our Almighty Lord, Savior, and King who’s birth we gather on the 25th of December to celebrate with family, friends, and our brethren of the faith.
Because of the actions of my son, Casey. Because of the words of wisdom that he spoke with compassion and defying belief yesterday as I worried and fretted about this dilemma.

“Don’t worry, Daddy, Jesus will save us.”

I told him that, while Jesus would help us in this situation, the outcome may be different from our expectations. But I realized in the dawning of this new day, that God had already given me the assurance once more that He does indeed have me and my son, my daughter and all of us firmly within the plan of His salvation for all of His fallen and broken children. Whatever the outcome of this latest crisis in the life of His servant; whether I am homeless, jobless, carless……I am indeed saved.

I send this to you, my brothers and sisters in Christ, to speak what God has spoken to my heart this day……….

In the coming week, we gather together with loved ones, serve our less fortunate brethren in various ways, fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ or reach out to those in need; and celebrate the birth of a baby that was wrapped in swaddling clothing, proclaimed through the heavenly sound of an angelic host, and witnessed by the lowly shepherds as he lay in a manager amidst the sounds of the livestock he displaced; amidst the discarded wrapping paper and the joyful sounds of our loved ones reflecting upon the heartfelt gifts we have given them…..let us remember the reason we gather, whose birthday we honor and remember. Despite the economic worries, the president-elect’s promised agenda, and the daily struggle that all of us, not just me, face; losing homes, jobs, livelihoods.

Because God gave us His only Begotten Son, who became flesh for the salvation of all mankind…..through the human experience of birth, life and death……and because this Son of God, this King, and this Messiah will come again to permanently establish the Kingdom of His Father upon the renewed creation with the sons and daughters redeemed by His blood.

Please pray this day that God will move in His way; no only in my life, but the lives of your neighbors, family, and friends. That His hand will be felt in an undeniable way to those who still don’t know Him and the reason we celebrate Christmas. That He will renew within those who know Him the joyful powerful impact and blessing that came in the form of a baby boy to the Virgin Mary and her husband Joseph in a little town of Bethlehem…

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty King, Messiah…….

“You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God; or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

I would ask the faithful to lift those in need, not only me and this need, up to the Almighty, that His blessing in this moment will not just impact me but bring into realization for those who need it of the love, mercy, and joy that He holds for those who will just partake of the salvation gift born on this Christmas day so long ago.

I pray that the coming celebration of the birth of our Savior is renewed within each of us; a child in swaddling clothing, of poor beginnings, who was the One who would save the world through His sacrifice upon the Cross of wood. I pray that each and every one of us facing the uncertain future of manmade designs would find the peace that comes from the assurance that our future is written in the Book of Life, and our names will be called by the Savior at the time of His Father’s choosing. I pray for peaceful fellowship, blessed relationship, and a joyful gathering on Christmas Day.

Thank you, my brothers and sisters in Christ.

In joyful proclamation of the birth of our Savior,

Jim Hutson

Simple.....

"Yet, in order to teach others in church, I would rather say five words that can be understood than ten thousand words in another language." 1 Corinthians 14:19 GWT

Recently a brother in Christ, with whom I have been in fellowship with for a few years now, posted a comment on www.outofthewild.ning.com (Out of the Wild), a men's online ministry we belong to. His title was; This is my church. An awesome expression of how the church should be, in his mind, and how Christians within the walls of the church should act, down to a soul level.

I wrote this in reply, for I believe that the church is too cultural, too secular, and too much an enclosed community of the 'haves' (those who are in connection with leadership, well known and though of in the church, etc.) and the 'who?' (the rest of us). Church isn't where sin is exposed, per se, but where a fallen brother or sister can come for salvation, redemption, and overcoming through the support, edification, accountability, and love of those who are just as burdened, just as broken.

I posted:

This is my church. It is composed of people who stand as representations of the various stages of my faith; some greater, some lesser, some even with me. It is friendly in excess of friendliness, emboding true friendship as set forth by Barnabas....believing despite reason, loving beyond simplisticity. It has set its hand to greater things, mourning the failure of the goal and picking itself up to renew the drive towards it again. It is generous beyond borders, walls, and ideologies, seeking only to be a source of hope and companionship in life's trials for all the lost and torn in the darkness of the night. It is filled with impatient people, for sitting down is not the mission field, but a rest stop, and they are eager to be about the harvest. It is loyal, loving, and faithful as the bride waiting its bridegroom to come and knowing He will.

My church has no walls, no chairs, no tithing plates. My church is noisy, broken, and bruised by the battering of life. My church is full of imperfect, struggling, and desperate people. My church is the world. My people, those lost in the darkness. I will be a source of its light.

But, in the church of today, such is not the case.....the world has overtaken the church and there are too many 'famous' and 'well-articulated' preachers talking gibberish and false doctrines who are gaining converts even among the faithful. Books abound couched in biblical terminology that expouse an all-too-human concept of God, Christ, and Faith. It seems that someone out there is putting a new book on the shelves daily expressing some view that has never been seen before and we are just nodding our heads.

God's truth hasn't changed in two-thousand plus years! The ultimate copyright!

Those who preach a doctrine subtly oppose the 'traditional' biblical text, reaching slowly into the mystical and intellectual to draw those who are not so gifted into accepting distortions of the Truth because they have no smooth sounding language to give back.

The Biblical text is simple, mankind has made it complex.

My son, who is cognitively-impaired, has the best concept of God that I have ever heard, and with the complexities of biblical text is the simpliest. God is God and I am not.

Christ came to the earth, born of a virgin, in the town of Bethlehem, lived with us for 33 years or so before He faced the purpose to which He came; to be a perfect sacrifice upon the Cross for the sins of all mankind. He died upon that cross of wood and rose again after three days, and ascended to the right-hand of His Father. He is coming again. To partake of the salvation gift, you have to believe in these things.

God will work on helping you understand the rest, through the guidance and prompting of the Holy Spirit, the counselor left to the Apostles and us until Christ's return.

We celebrate the beginning of this salvation gift on December 25th, not because He was born upon that day nor because the Biblical text calls us to remember it, but because it happened as it says in the scriptures.....this process of redeeming all of Mankind with the blood of a perfect lamb.

"Scripture truth, plainly and duly taught, has a wonderful power to awaken the conscience and touch the heart." Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

Merry Christ-mas to you and yours this celebration season.

A Firstborn with full birthrights!!

"The LORD said to her, "Two countries are in your womb. Two nations will go their separate ways from birth. One nation will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger." When the time came for her to give birth, she had twins. The first one born was red. His whole body was covered with hair, so they named him Esau [Hairy]. Afterwards, his brother was born with his hand holding on to Esau's heel, and so he was named Jacob [Heel]. Isaac was 60 years old when they were born. They grew up. Esau became an expert hunter, an outdoorsman. Jacob remained a quiet man, staying around the tents. Because Isaac liked to eat the meat of wild animals, he loved Esau. However, Rebekah loved Jacob. Once, Jacob was preparing a meal when Esau, exhausted, came in from outdoors. So Esau said to Jacob, "Let me have the whole pot of red stuff to eat-that red stuff-I'm exhausted." This is why he was called Edom. Jacob responded, "First, sell me your rights as firstborn." "I'm about to die." Esau said. "What good is my inheritance to me?" "First, swear an oath," Jacob said. So Esau swore an oath to him and sold him his rights as firstborn. Then Jacob gave Esau a meal of bread and lentils. He ate and drank, and then he got up and left. This is how Esau showed his contempt for his rights as firstborn." Genesis 25:23-34 (GWT)

I would recommend, if you have the opportunity, to go to www.hisriver.net and download the audio for last Sunday's sermon given by Pastor Jim Combs, jr. At first, as is usually the case with most preachers and ministers I meet and respect, they at first alienate me, then show me where my humanity alienated the powerful membership I can claim within the Body of Christ.

You see, Pastor Jim is the firstborn of his family and he spoke of the firstborn 'specialness' in both the Old and New Testaments. I was born the second, or third (depending on the story and who is telling it) in my family. The second, third, or anything passed the first really isn't all that special within the community mentioned in the Old Testament stories. The firstborns were everything....and got everything. The birthright, which was essentially everything the father had to leave, or at least the best of everything in abundance. And the blessing, essentially the father's spiritual passing on of the leadership of the family.

The firstborns were also recognized as important by God Himself. In Exodus 13:2, He santicified the firstborn...making them special. In Numbers 3:13, He called the firstborn hallowed (holy). In Numbers 8:18, there is a connection between the priesthood and the firstborn. In Numbers 18:16, God said that a special price was paid for the first born....a special redemption. And, the most important figure in the 'firstborn' hall of fame is Jesus Christ, firstborn child of Mary, as mentioned in Matthew 1:25.

Firstborns......who cares!!!!?

God apparently does and adapted a culture of an entire nation to reflect that special place for the firstborns. So, my older brother Larry---a missionary with the Navigators in Germany, is the firstborn of the our family and therefore was in line (at least by biblical standards) for the best of everything, and the blessing of the leadership of the family.

Being second-born isn't all it seems to be cracked up to be......oh, I know I still have the chance of salvation (taken) and the opportunity to do the Lord's work (which I currently am 'enroute' for), but gee, nothing like getting the top of the birthright and the blessing....leaving the 'droppings' for the rest of the family........at least, that was some of the thoughts passing through my head as I listened to this firstborn preach.....

and I wasn't too happy with his 'flaunting' of his status............

yes, I was jealous!

Pastor Jim wanted to let us know, not of his specialness (though, by discussion such was declared), but of why it is mentioned that Esau 'spurned' his inheritance.....he gave up all the specialness of the birthright AND the blessing...later in Genesis (27:35-38) Esau is cheated again by Isaac for the birthright...and Esau gets upset, because it is the second time! Maybe the birthright was something Esau wasn't willing to wait for....with his belly so hungry and famished it felt like he was near death.......but the birthright, in his mind, might have been the 'coup-de-grace' and would not leave him empty of anything...

And Isaac took it from him.......

In my mind, I was thinking....'serves him right! maybe the firstborns aren't so special after all......!"

Heck, there is even a 'special' church, mentioned in the chapter of Hebrews declaring Jesus' importance....chapter 12, verse 23 "to the general assembly (all of us) and church of the firstborn, which are written in Heaven (see even special notation!), and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect....." who got to sit with 'immeasurable' numbers of angels for this declaration.....

Of course, Pastor Jim was saving his zinger for just that particular moment.
Yeah, as the pastor began to speak, I whispered....."We've been duped!!"

Jesus, remember, is the highest of the firstborns.....the 'first' of the firstborns and worthy indeed of such status and distinction. But, as we know....in the study of God's word, we aren't seen once we are covered in the blood of this firstborn as sinful, broken human beings but as Christ Himself, who covers all of our sins by the death He died upon a cross of wood and iron.......and other verses in the text tell us that we inherit everything that Christ Himself is allotted by His Heavenly Father...............we become firstborns.

We are the Church of the Firstborn!!!!!

We are special, santicified by the declaration of God Himself! We are hallowed, made holy by the desire of God! We are connected to the priesthood...those who utter and remember God's words, covenants, and laws.........and especially....we are redeemed especially in a spectacular way by the first of the firstborn!!!!

Unfortunately, we are treating this birthright and blessing from our Heavenly Father much in the same way that Esau saw it. Our birthright is being cast aside for the immediate satisfaction of the moment....we give our birthright away when we walk into those things which are earthly and temporary....far in contrast to the eternal satisfaction and best of the best which await us...an eternal perspective.................

We surrender our birthright for that which we think will quench the thirst that parches our throats, we give it up for the sake of trying to quell that overwhelming need........immediate gratification for that which will not be satisfied on this earth until the 'First of the First" comes or we head to Him. The brokenness of this world cannot be filled by the 'red soup'.

We allow Satan to steal our birthright.....because we believe such things aren't as important as the immediate quelling of our thirst....it drives us insane with the parchness of our throat.

And we're letting him steal our blessings too.............

God has given us special status, special consideration and the ability to do greater things than we could have ever imagined.....so let's take our 'firstborn' status and do the things God intended us to do with our blessings and our birthright. As we declare ourselves the "Church of the Firstborns"....let us use our blessings to bless those outside the circle, and draw them into their birthrights under the authority and gifting of Jesus Christ Himself.

Let's not let the Devil convince us that we are about to die from thirst and need to sell out on our birthright as Firstborns under Christ.

There is a famous Christian song in which the chorus is….."Hold the fort, for I am coming, Jesus signals still; Wave the answer back to heaven, By Thy grace we will!"

Let's be those valiant warriors in God's Army holding the line until He comes upon that White Horse!!!!

Never give up, never surrender!

A birthday.....

Forty one years ago, in a little suburban hospital on Grand River Boulevard on the Farmington side, in the great state of Michigan, in the United States of America; a male child, the third of Sharon Lee Nitchie and Ronald Lawrence Hutson, was born. A story began that September day so long ago........

The story is still in process, still being written as you read this. The year that child was born was the year of the infamous Detroit City Riots, which erupted in one neighborhood and caused damage to almost half the city. Eleven years past the age when that child believed the life he led would end. Five years since that child found that the ache in his soul wasn't going to be filled by anyone other than Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, and God (Three-in-One), and a call was placed in his heart to serve God in ministry. Three years since the call led that child into a chapel as Senior Chaplain. Two years since that child finally started the stunted process of becoming a man.

When I entered the world, like most babies, I was disrupted…..the warmth and cocoon-like comfort of my mother's womb was violently and unavoidably disrupted as I entered a world of pain, discomfort, new sensations, and need. Most of the physical needs were met, but so many of the spiritual, mental, and psychological ones were partially met or not at all.

Much of my childhood is a slideshow of snapshots; a bee sting in my eye socket at the bus stop on Wormer that made me look like the elephant man and showed me I was allergic to bees. split green pea soup in a metal container on a stove; being given a bowl and shoved outside. Falling off the kitchen table and cutting my tongue; which led to the diagnosis of Epilepsy with Petite Mal seizures. Being forced to wear a diaper as punishment for 'having accidents' and having a picture taken to be displayed for family and friends. Crying myself to sleep on the front lawn of the house on Wormer because I had watched my father drive away from a broken marriage and home, thinking it was my fault because I was my father's son and due to my failure to measure up caused him to forsake the whole family.

Being left at the supermarket at the end of the street with a tert phone call to my father to come get us. Meeting a woman, all of five foot and a few inches, who I would call Mom for my entire life and who I considered to be a giant among giants. A new concept of a God, who...by following His commandments, you could be worthy of blessings and eventually a spot in Heaven, some mystical place in the clouds.

Military Academy, on the basis of the recommendation of the psychologist at Hawthorne Center, who felt that the child was the 'black sheep' of the family and was capable of living outside the confines of the community where he lived for a few years. First Holy Child in Monroe, Michigan and then LeMans Academy outside of Rolling Prairie, Indiana.

A bicycle for my birthday, a failed paper route, another divorce and the breaking of the 'family four' when my older brother stood his ground and refused to move in with my father and his new girlfriend. My departure at 16, after a failed attempt at 15, and the history I lived for a few weeks with my birth mother.

A life lived trying to prove my father right when he said, "You'll never amount to more than a trash collector and that's if they take pity on you to give you the job."

A life that came to blessings as a heavenly Father I rejected as too harsh and distant rescued me time and time again from those events that should've killed me, as I hoped for so long.

A life that came to a moment in time when a gift was given as my earthly father said, "I was never disappointed in you" a week before he died from a massive heart attack.

A life spent trying to make things work under my own abilities and failing; sometimes through design (my own) and most of the time because my own strength and abilities weren't enough for the situations I led myself into.

A life that came to a moment in time when my son was born, and the frantic promises of a father who was overwhelmed (he was thirty-three weeks, right at the edge of sustainable life the docs said). A promise made by a father who felt he wasn't capable of being a dad, much less a father.

A life that ended on a February Sunday, the 14th, when the child heard the call of his Father, "Don't you think its time to come home?" and was redeemed, restored, and immediately put into training for the purpose to which it had been designed and assigned.

A life that was told in a story with a bunch of other men in the Canadian 'wilderness' because one man stood in that place with him and called him to deeper life in the Savior we both claimed.

A life that was affirmed and attested by those men who saw a strength designed by the Creator's own hand and a leadership ability shaped by the journey taken.

A life that realized that living as a man of God requires God, for movement in fear is impossible without a strength that comes from the Creator's hand.

A life that began movement despite the realistic fear of losing all that was grasped, because the child becoming a man realized that to hold what is dear requires releasing it into the Father's hands from whence all of it came.

Now, at forty-one years into this journey that God has set my feet upon...always journeying with me even when I refused to look in His direction and listen to His voice calling me away from the mistakes, choices, and poor judgments made by my own choice....I stand and look back upon the journey so far, without anguish or apology (for those that were needed were given) and see the shaping of my Father and my father's hands.

I have realized forgiveness because I have learned to give forgiveness; even if it wasn't received. I have forgiven my father for what went wrong and what he was responsible for because my Heavenly Father has forgiven me my wrongs, my sinful denials of His design. I can celebrate the great things that my father passed on to me and mourn the things that weren't as great that were a result of wounds he himself carried.

I can feel the love unspoken and see the gems of my childhood; the dog my father brought home because the kids so desperately wanted one, the time at the dining room table when he showed me the 38 he carried for his job and the wisdom he imparted about handguns. My grandmother, now passed, who would always ask if I was Ron on the phone because I sound and look like my father. My father sitting in the stands at the parade grounds at the Great Lakes Recruit Training Center, where he himself went for basic, and celebrating his son's 'graduation' from training recruit to sailor in the greatest navy ever known.

Those things, I want to pass on to my son and a daughter; a blessing from a grandfather unfortunately they never knew.

And, as I had started life so long ago now, as a disrupted baby boy....I carry on with being a disrupted man.......moving in fear and trusting by faith in my Heavenly Father when He made the claim;

"You are My Beloved Son."

Even though I still fail, still fall short, and struggle against the sinful old nature that once 'defined' who I was.....

Where I once sorrowed over struggles, I rejoice because God is glorified either in His movement within them, or my honoring Him in the midst of them.

Where I once struggled with my own strength, I realize in my weakness God moves with His strength.

Where once I prayed that God would let me end this life I was forced to live, I pray that God will give me more time to pursue Him through the struggles, chaos, and disruption so that I may be His light, His vision, and His warrior for the sake of those men battered by life, bruised by heartache, and living a life cocooned in a false sense of safety.

To answer the 'silence of Adam' with a heartfelt, spirit-driven yell of a warrior in God's Army;

Calling all men to battle.........

for their wives,

for their children,

for their communities,

and FOR THEIR GOD.

Warriors who will stand with the beauty and order of God's created at their backs and face the chaos and darkness with swords at the ready and shields interlocked with other men.........

and tell the fallen one, Lucifer, that he shall NOT pass.

Laughing with the joy that comes from knowing the peace of their Heavenly Father, and living the purpose to which men were designed, as they face a chaotic and broken world.

Reflections....

"Having gifts (faculties, talents, qualities) that differ according to the grace given us, let us use them: [He whose gift is] prophecy, [let him prophesy] according to the proportion of his faith; [He whose gift is] practical service, let him give himself to serving; he who teaches, to his teaching; He who exhorts (encourages), to his exhortation; he who contributes, let him do it in simplicity and liberality; he who gives aid and superintends, with zeal and singleness of mind; he who does acts of mercy, with genuine cheerfulness and joyful eagerness. [Let your] love be sincere (a real thing); hate what is evil [loathe all ungodliness, turn in horror from wickedness], but hold fast to that which is good. Love one another with brotherly affection [as members of one family], giving precedence and showing honor to one another.
Never lag in zeal and in earnest endeavor; be aglow and burning with the Spirit, serving the Lord. Rejoice and exult in hope; be steadfast and patient in suffering and tribulation; be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of God's people [sharing in the necessities of the saints]; pursue the practice of hospitality. Bless those who persecute you [who are cruel in their attitude toward you]; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice [sharing others' joy], and weep with those who weep [sharing others' grief]." Romans 12:6-15 (AMP)

Since September 11, 2001....as I sat in a call center for cell phone information service and answered call after call of worried parents wanting to contact the administration at their children's schools and four planes took the lives of fellow Americans who began their day in the usual way that they did...I have been reflective of what my life means, where it is going, and would---in the final moments of my last breath---it have meaning.

It wasn't until three years later that I found the source of that meaning, and a scant few months later in the same year that He proposed His proposterous idea of what my service to Him would mean. Two churches, one chapel, and a new community later....I wonder if the next corner I turn will lead me into that call to ministry, or be another slammed door by those who feel that they know what God can do, even in the life of a redeemed sinner as myself.

"Not only has God given us natural abilities, He also equips every believer with spiritual gifts for the purpose of ministry. God doesn’t use the unwilling—He won’t force us to serve Him. His part is to equip us and empower and prepare us for service. Our part is to be faithful and available and aware of opportunities to use our gifts," writes Cindy Hess Kasper, Associate Editor for Our Journey at RBC Ministries and author of Today's "Daily Bread Devotion."

Four years, almost a month from now, God has been rooting around the cellar of my soul and tossing things into the scrap pile....widening the place for His word and His design to dwell in. A church left, another separated from, and a community that I had been a part of for five years in the rearview mirror of my car as my newly-divided family headed in the directions that were set for them. Me and my son in a community vastly smaller and more tight-knit than the one we left and my daughter to spend a season with her birth mother. A chapel left behind for this time, my sabbatical becoming a hiatus of indeterminal length. Change; not asked for or even wanted, but still led by God's call.........

I pass by the abandoned Jehovah Kingdom Hall on my longer drive to work each day, both ways. I still can see in my mind's eye the growth of a congregation of bible-believing and following people of the family.

With each step taken towards a God that I cannot fully define, but fully trust.
But this season seems different. As if that purpose to which God called me so long ago is right around the corner, so close I no longer have to envision what it would look like, but the shadowy outlines are becoming more and more defined as I stride closer to that corner.....

Relationships yet to be fully realized, others to be fully let go of. Hurdles to jump and some to knock down to walk over. Opinions to acknowledge and some to ignore.

I will follow in my Father's footsteps until I cannot follow anymore. I know that at that moment in time, He will pick me up and carry me home telling me that I have served Him well.

Like those souls who were taken from this earthly plane seven years ago at the hands of enemies of the United States of America AND of God, I started my day out like every other day.

I gave thanks to God for the blessings known, the blessing unknown, and those I've yet to encounter. For His love, His strength, and His purpose; imparted to me fresh each day. For His Son, who died so many centuries ago, for this soon-to-be forty one year old; that I might live.

And, I trust in the final moments of my life, as we saw so clearly in the accounts of countless others on that September day seven years ago, will find myself in the service of my Lord and Savior......until my dying breath.

Stop for a moment today and examine those Americans who aspire to the highest positions in the land. Would we want any of the four candidates to be on that plane that went down in the Pennslyvania countryside? Would they stand against the hopeless odds and face those who threatened our country? Or would they cower in the back?

Is your life in service to God lived in the same manner? Do you stand, regardless of the odds and declare yourself His---purposed by Him----and surrendered to His mission? Or do you cower in the back of the church, hoping to be passed by?
On a September day seven years ago, several Americans stood their ground and didn't count the cost. They call to us today; remember, honor, and never forget what being an American means. They call us to remember what being a child of God means.

Will we dishonor them?

Will we dishonor God?

I began this morning with a new request; one that I should have been praying for all these years.

God, give me the pride of a patriot, the wisdom of a Elder, and the mercy of Christ in my service to You today. That I may use my life spent for Your cause.

Truth. Honor. Service.

Carry Nation in Holly Michigan

Carry Nation, an infamous member of the temperance movement and the "Women's Christian Temperance Union" during the pre-Prohibition era in America and stood out infamously because of her style of promoting those values, vandalism.
She was arrested over 30 times for 'hatchetations' (as she called them), which were nothing more than (though well-intended) destruction of bar fixtures and the stock with her signature hatchet, performed either alone or with hymn-singing women accompanied by pray and singing in a ten year 'reign' (1900-1910). Smashing beer kegs wasn't her only cause; she also stood against tobacco and for woman's suffrage (the right for women to vote).
A strange place to be, it would seem, watching a pageant that celebrates such a character of the American landscape.

The Carry Nation festival was founded by Ardath Regan, a local history teacher who wanted to bring something to her little village. "We were trying to figure out what we could do to cause some excitement in the community for the community," Regan said. "I had heard this story about Carry Nation being in Holly…..." Regan also created a play centered on Nation's 1908 visit to the village by the invitation of Holly resident Winifred Mott, president of the local Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU).

According to a 1988 article featured in the Fenton Press, Nation's visit was a-typical of her visits to other beleaguered towns of alcohol drinking men….. "Nation would step off the train in Holly and make her first official stop at the Holly Hotel. Making a beeline for the bar, she then used her umbrella to send mugs of beer and other intoxicants crashing to the floor. Nation then saw the painting of a nude woman that hung behind Holly Hotel's bar.

"Naked Jezebel," Nation screamed.

By then, the landlord had grabbed Nation by the shoulders and was dragging her toward the exit. "Remove that wicked thing from your walls," Nation yelled. With that, the landlord pitched Nation into the street. "Don't darken my hotel again," he yelled.

Nation regrouped and proceeded to then raid several other watering holes along Battle Alley. The following morning, Nation was to speak at Baird's Opera House."

But Carry Nation was a bit more than a vandal, who would scream scriptures as she destroyed property. A self-styled 'home-defender', Nation was more than what was on the surface.

A fourth grader in Scranton, Kansas (the state where Nation lived and died), Jennifer Payne wrote this about her research into Nation's life and perhaps articulates most what the Holly festival and its pageant want to give the girls (who compete for Queen, Princess, Junior Princess, and Mini-Princess titles) who participate, something more than just a bit of excitement:

"Carry Amelia Moore Nation is much more than a blip in history. She has proven that when you believe in something enough, and stand up for yourself, anything is possible. I feel that getting to know more about her has made me a stronger person." Payne wrote, "I am no longer afraid to stand up for what I believe in. Standing strong to my own convictions gives me the power to change that which I feel needs changing and to look past that which I cannot."

It is often Carry Nation that is the name given to someone that is considered a crusader, who stands out against the tides of commonality and stands upon values that they hold dear.

I saw an embodiment of such spirit last night….in the bravery and outspoken declaration of a fifteen year-old woman who accepted Christ as her Savior not so long ago. She spoke loudly about it to the crowd gathered to watch the Carry Nation Pageant at Holly High School last night.

She sang a song by MercyMe, though the MC announced it wrong. He seemed surprised as he read the introduction to this young girl's expression of her beliefs……"Holly is proud to be a follower of Jesus Christ."

A teenage woman stepped onto the stage and sang her heart out to the crowd about what being a Christian meant to her. The words, the lyrics, embodied her desire that hasn't diminished since that night not so long ago where she declared herself in need of a Savior and claimed the One who was able to bring her that redemption. The rejection of one's self in favor of Christ…..

Her hair done in an 'up-do' hairstyle ( the only one there with her hair so) and wearing a beautiful black and white gown, she stretched herself beyond the walls of her comfort zone and sang. She was nervous, but certain. She relaxed as she performed for the audience and gave glory to her Heavenly Father.

Unafraid of standing in a crowd of her peers and community and say loud and clear, "I am a believer and this is why."

She worked on the things she had been told last year that caused her not to be selected and succeeded in showing that she had learned the confidence and the strength necessary to overcome them. She hit her marks, was elegant in her answers, and proud to be who she is.

She shined. There was no emulation of Nation's destructive methodology in her appearance, but an exclamation of Nation's crusading spirit…….

"This is who I am."

And in the end, when the 'votes' of the judges were tallied, she stood on the stage with her fellow contestants and waited the results. Then she did the hardest thing in such a situation and the bravest thing one could ever do: She gave honor to the one who was chosen instead of her to be the Junior Princess.

I think the judges missed their assignment. If the winners of the categories were selected based on their emulation of Nation's crusader spirit, the young woman who took the Junior Princess crown wasn't the best choice in my opinion. Maybe this young woman I know doesn't crusade up and down the streets opposing the inhalation of liquor in the dark recesses of the local bars.

But she crusaded for a higher cause and wasn't afraid to declare it.

And, even after the spotlights had dimmed and the focus was off, she continued to show her spirit. Her mom told me when I inquired after her daughter that this young woman said the one thing that I think Carry Nation would have been proud of:

"You taught me never to quit."

Holly Marie Fisher walked off the stage uncrowned at last night's event. And, in the twilight of the evening, she showed that she doesn't need to wear a fancy crown to be who she is:

A princess in the Kingdom of God.

And ……her Heavenly Father beamed with pride.

"This is my beloved daughter, with whom I am well pleased!"

Praise....

With the struggles intensifying, I haven't been faithful in writing to this blog, but today, my friends, God showed up in a big way in the form of a friend of a friend of a friend. I trust that this testimony of God's graciousness will give you a taste of peace for today.

Friends,

Today God showed up in a big way and a surprising way, a way that I had always 'heard' happens to others but never had experienced myself.

I received a call from a sister in Christ who said that she was a friend of a friend who has been receiving my prayer request and she wanted to bring something to me. As I was at work, she travelled out here to meet with me. The blessing was two-fold; one that God revealed in a BIG way that the prayers I've requested from those in the body weren't just sent out without finding fertile soil in which to find roots, but that they've landed in the hands of many, many warriors who haven't hesitated to lift up the needs of a brother. This sister sat with me and gave me blessings after blessings in encouragment and inspiration. That alone, to have it affirmed that I am not alone in these struggles, that there are true believers who will stand in the battlefields of this world and defy the enemy's efforts to defeat another, even one unknown to them, just makes me feel God's grace and peace in a real way.

She also left me a card, which I was afraid (for some reason) to open until a few minutes ago. Inside was another blessing that will help in the situations that I'm facing right now in a big way. I have always, as I said, heard of others who listen to the voice of God speaking and do what He wills as He wills and today He showed me that indeed, like the birds of the sky and the flowers of the fields, that He will take care of me and my family because we all are more valuable than those and I am His Beloved Son.

I got the impression, maybe incorrectly, that this person who gave me this blessing might not want to be 'identified' and I want to honor that 'assumption' until otherwise informed, but I wanted my friends, the ones who sent the emails to other prayer warriors to pray and the ones who have stood with me in such harrowing times, to know that God has moved and God has answered in a powerful way my cries. Funny, the verse I was going to write on today speaks of this too…..

"O people of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious He will be when you cry for help! As soon as He hears, He will answer you. Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying “This is the way; walk in it.” Isaiah 30:19-21

God has heard my cry for help and has been so gracious in His response to it. Not only in the prayers of the many, many faithful who have devoted their time to lifting me and my family to His ears, but in the blessing this sister brought to me today. He has fed me bread of adversity and water of affliction but has given me the teachers, the wise elders, to stand behind me and give me the direction and the strength in which to walk this path that He has chosen for me.

Sometimes in the struggles, as this dear sister said, you need others to help point out the blessings that lie in abundance around you because you are simply overwhelmed by the menancing trees that surround you. Sometimes, when the winds are strong and the decay of this world is overpowering, you need to just keep plogging on, even though you may be weary and fatigued with the constant struggle. But, at those moments, when the world seems to have captured your attention and drawn you away from the path, God drops a hint (either through another, through a whisper, or through a vision) that He is waiting just around the corner with arms open and full of love if you will just take one more step in His direction. He isn't hiding from you, but like a father who stands with his arms outstretched and with words of encouragment coaxing his young child in their first steps, so God is…..a big smile plastering His beautiful face, and arms miles wide, giving you the encouragement you need to overcome that fearful step into the unknown.

He always wants to give us more than we could ever want from Him and He wants to spend more time with us than we will ever want to give Him.

I would ask, and covet, the continued prayers that God will continue to provide what He has in mind for me and my family. Please remember that I am not alone in my struggles, as many other families are finding themselves in positions financially and emotionally that they never imagined themselves to be. Lift up those in your communities, in your neighborhoods, and in your churches and please show them the grace of God's love by reaching out to them with words of encouragement and affirmation that they are not alone.

I wish I would've saved the phone number so I could call this person back and try, in some small way, to express what the blessing given means and the testimony to God's movement that it sings loud and clear of. Unfortunately I am typically in the habit of erasing the phone logs, and erased her phone number before I thought of it. So, if you know her, please pass this on. If you don't, please pass it on to the ones who've you have sent my prayer requests to in the past. God is faithful and I'm sure she will get this thanks.

I would ask that you lift up that sister in Christ, if you know who she is or not, with a mighty shout of praise and glory to the Father, who worked through her today. Please pass this on to the others that you have before so that the sister who delivered a blessing from God today would know that I cannot express the words of thanks strong enough to convey what a blessing it was. I wish I could express the appreciation in a beautifully written poem, but words escape me. I stand in awe of her blessing to me and mine.

May the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; His only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ; and the Holy Spirit, counsellor to us all bless and keep you, my brothers and sisters, and return your faithfulness seventy times seven as you continue your faithful service to Him.

Because of each of you, with your encouragement and prayers, I am still in this fight and will continue to struggle towards that finish line hand-in-hand with all of you. I still have a long way to go, but God is good and I know whatever the future He has planned, He will provide the means and the call to get there.

In God's grace,

Jim Hutson,