the cornerstone is laid and the stars sing together

Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?
      Tell me, if you know so much.
Who determined its dimensions
      and stretched out the surveying line?
What supports its foundations,
      and who laid its cornerstone
as the morning stars sang together
      and all the angels shouted for joy?  (Job 38:4-7)

What a great picture. God lays the cornerstone for the world and heaven breaks out in the Hallelujah Chorus.

After all, the foundation and cornerstone of this world is Jesus. And the word says that he was laid from before the foundation of the world.

So when God set everything up and got everything ready, the angels were watching, waiting. He set the dimensions of this new world, he lays out the surveying line and ours the foundation.

The angels cheer.

The cornerstone is laid – the Word himself – and the stars sing together. the world is set up and the angels are shouting for joy, the stars sing, all of creation is beside itself in joy.

I wonder, though, if the angels or the morning stars knew the pain that would come in all this.

Yes, Jesus is the Foundation and the Cornerstone. But to truly take his place as those, he had to become human and die a violent death.

God knew it, of course. And since God knew, the Word knew, as did the Spirit.

They knew the sacrifice that would be made so that the people of earth would have access to God, would be able to show their love for him and feel his love.

What love God had for these people who turned from him the first chance they had, who spent so much time doing whatever they could to be against him.

What unspeakable love. Praise God.

daily java

Daily Java:

For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever. (2 Corinthians 4:17-18)

Delayed gratification is the word. Putting something off so that it can be better later.

That is why we go to college. We are broke for a while and all, but we know (or at least hope) that our preparation time now will produce something far better in the future. If we go to college now, we will get a better job and make more money and such.

It doesn’t always work, of course. In my own case, college was almost worthless and it took forever to pay back the student loans.

But in general, it works. Layaway is a perfect example of delayed gratification. You could buy a much cheaper item now for less, or you could put a much nicer item in layaway, pay for it over a period of time and then you would own it outright. Layaway, in general, is a great idea.

The problem is, we are not a society that likes to put things off. We want them now. All you have to do is look at our present credit crisis and see that. People have charged so much on their credit cards that they cannot afford to pay it all off.

I read an article a few years ago about so many “renting a lifestyle.” These people had good jobs that paid a lot. However, they were buying a house on time, two or three cars on time, the insurance for the cars, the credit cards, all the stuff they had.

The renting part came in the fact that if they were to lose their jobs today, in a short time, they would no longer be able to keep up that lifestyle.

In other words, they didn’t own the house or cars or anything else. They were really just renting them. As long as they could keep up the payments, they were fine. But if they ever got to where they couldn’t, they were through.

I have one friend that faced that problem. After the loss of the major job in their family, and the inability to find another, they burned through savings and now live in a borrowed house.

Not sure what to do about it. You need a house and unless you want to rent or have the money on hand, you have to buy on time. The same with a car.

But that delayed gratification is true and is a good thing. The apostle Paul says here that we delay our gratification in that we live here on this earth and do what we can in service to the Lord. Bad things happen and problems come, but we are looking toward something far better: a home in heaven.

And that is so far greater than this that it is almost unimaginable.

He says that these things will one day be gone, so it is worthless to put all our trust and store in them. The money will be gone, our youth and strength will be gone, life will be gone. So why work so hard on it all when there is something better waiting.

It is a fact that if there was nothing better waiting for me at the end of life, I would be in despair. The old song says, “Is that all there is?” if this is all there is, this would be a pathetic place indeed.

But there is a glory waiting that is so much greater than anything here. And we look toward it.

Harrison Bergeron

I just added a page to this blog with the story by Kurt Vonnegut written in 1961 called Harrison Bergeron. A great story.

witnesses like God wants

So when the apostles were with Jesus, they kept asking him, “Lord, has the time come for you to free Israel and restore our kingdom?” He replied, “The Father alone has the authority to set those dates and times, and they are not for you to know. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”   (Acts 1:6-8 NLT)

Jesus knew the apostles had the wrong idea about the kingdom. They thought that now that he was resurrected, he would set up the kingdom, the one they wanted.

Of course, the one they wanted was an earthly kingdom. Jesus would be king, they would all be generals and get to boss people around. Things would be great in this new kingdom. Israel would once again be the great nation it had been under King David a thousand years before with the Romans respecting and fearing them. They would once again walk large on the face of the world.

The only problem was that it was not what God had in mind. It was a very large pipe dream in the minds of the Jews. It was what they wanted: the return of their autonomy as a nation and the return of God’s favor on them.

But God had something different in mind. He wanted them to be witnesses of his power in a different way than they thought. They would see his power work through the present world, not the fantasy world they envisioned. They would see an internal power in lives and actions.

That is the thing with God. We witness what he wants, not what we want. And we do so in his time.

Yes, he cares about what we care about. But he does not order his will to give in to our desires. He does what he wants when he wants to.

Ephesians 1:11 says he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan.  And Philippians 2:13 says that he empowers us to do what he wants. For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.

Ultimately, although he works through us, it is he who does what is done. It is his strength and his will, it is his design and his power that gets things accomplished.

We witness him and we witness his power in the way he wants.

The apostles found this out pretty quickly. Ten days later, the whole thing was made apparent to them. And what a witness they became.

The book of Acts was written to show that witness. Read it with us.

If you need a study book, call or email the Firm Foundation church office and tell them. Do it through Facebook if needed. It will be a great study.

lot of people think the bible is gibberish

If the Good News we preach is hidden behind a veil, it is hidden only from people who are perishing. (2 Corinthians 4:3)

A lot of people think the Bible is gibberish. They claim to see inconsistencies and mistakes and all that and think that it is impossible to understand anything written that long ago. They just do not understand this stuff.

There are a lot of reasons people do not understand the Bible.

I believe people don’t understand a lot of times because they use an extremely outdated translation. They will read a King James Version with all the thees and thous and words like wist and shew. They do not understand because of the simple fact that the translation needs a translation itself.

They don’t understand too because they start out not expecting to.

My son would decide he didn’t like a food before he tasted it. I would say, eat some anyway. He would pick up the spoon of whatever, shake his head, take a bite and shake it again. Of course he didn’t like it. He decided from the beginning that he wasn’t and it became a self-fulfilled prophecy. He hated it because he expected to hate it.

Somebody tells someone else that the Bible is hard to understand and sure enough, it is. In the Middle Ages, there was one Bible in the whole town. It was usually in Latin and chained to the pulpit in the church.

The priest went on at length to tell everybody that the words God gave us were so difficult that there needed to be an interpreter. And sure enough, what do you know, he was it. Then he would tell you whatever he wanted you to hear.

Any time you expect something to be too hard, it will probably be.

But the main reason they do not understand it is because they do not have the mind of God in them to help them understand.

I understand the Bible. I don’t understand it because I am so smart, or educated, or because I have studied the Greek and Hebrew. In fact, sometimes that can stand in the way. We try to do it ourselves.

I understand it because God is in my heart. He shows me the answers. As convoluted as my thinking is, I do not think I could understand it at all if not for him. I always make too much of stuff and try to read too much into things.  I would have something that was so strange figured out.

But I don’t. I sit back and allow him through the power of his Holy Spirit to open all of this to me. I let him tell me what it says.

It is not some weird process where I access the divine database, or say the key words and get my mantra right or anything else. I just read it and wait for what it means. It isn’t really done on any conscious level necessarily. I just do it.

I read it and figure out what it means. If it makes sense, it is from God. If it doesn’t, it isn’t. it is that simple. His mind has worked so long in my mind that there is not a conscious delineation between the two. It just is there.

If the mind of God is not in you, all you will read is gibberish.

People who do not want to understand it and read it only for “the beauty,” of which it has a lot, will read an older translation. That way it sounds good and, since it is so old, they can’t understand it anyway. They do not have to try.

I firmly believe that a lot of people use old translations so they do not have to understand. They love the Bible, that is true, but their love is for a combination of sounds and rhythms, not what is said.

In fact, one man I was corresponding with over the internet confessed that his relationship was really with the King James Version anyway, not necessarily the Bible. His excuse? He was Church of England and they loved tradition.

People who do not have God cannot fully understand the Bible. And if they read it baffled without understanding it at all, they need God in their lives. He will show them the answer.

daily java

Daily Java:

Elihu continued speaking: “Let me go on, and I will show you the truth. For I have not stopped defending God. I will present profound arguments for the righteousness of my Creator. I am telling your nothing but the truth, for I am a man of great knowledge.” (Job 36:1-4)

There was a woman I knew who knew in her heart that she was the smartest person in any room. She told me that one day. And in her knowledge of her intellectual superiority, she expected two things;

1. that everyone else would eventually realize it and
2. they would all resent it.

I noticed, though, that when she spoke, she didn’t necessarily say anything particularly intelligent or scholarly. For the most part, she talked about herself and stuff she didn’t like.

She home schooled her children (of which she had 12) so that probably reinforced her feelings of superiority. She could tell her kids things and they really couldn’t contradict her. She was the final authority on everything at home and felt she should be elsewhere.

I thought she was silly and she turned out to be a bit more unstable than I thought after she did some things that hurt our family.

I have been reading the book of Job in my daily Bible reading. It is not a pleasant book to read, yet I understand why God included it in the canon. Or at least I think I do.

It is a book that shows two things:

1. things that happen to you are not always your fault. Sometimes they have no real reason. and
2. your friends can be ignorant and unaware idiots that think they have all the answers. They do not, no matter who hard they want to or how much they think they do.

Job’s three friends (?!) tried their best to convince Job that he had sinned before God and deserved what had happened to him. He tried his best to defend himself against their charges.

The fourth man was evidently a young man who sat also listening to the interchange between the three men and Job. The men didn’t do a good enough job, Elihu thought, so he was “forced” into defending God. Nobody else would, so he had to. Somebody has to stand up and tell the truth or God will be undefended.

Since I have already used the two things meme twice on this post, I will again. There are two things about trying to make sure God is defended:

1. God does not need defending. He can defend himself better than we ever could. And
2. The people “defending” God usually do not have the slightest idea of what they are talking.

Elihu is mad because the arguments the men have used to Job have gone “unanswered.” They were worthless and seemed to roll of Job like water of a duck’s back. He felt the arguments needed to be stronger, that by his giving stronger arguments, and more of them, by explaining further the cause of God would be advanced and Job would be made aware of his failure.

And it was up to him to make the necessary arguments. After all, it was obvious to all who had half a brain that he was the smartest person on the dung heap where Job was staying at present.

The funny thing about him is, nobody ever even comments on his diatribe when he is through. Nobody says a thing, either negatively or positively. Nobody says, Oh shut up, you little twerp. Nobody says, I don’t think so. Nobody says anything.

The smartest person in the room is roundly ignored and his arguments are shown to be worthless.

Just because you think you are the smartest person in the world, or simply because a small group of people think you are doesn’t really mean anything. Just because you have a badge or people elected you to an office, or you have a diploma or anything else doesn’t’ mean anything if what you say is goofy.

What Elihu said was worthless. All it was really was a rehash of what the other three had already said, just put in an obnoxious way.

He wasn't really as smart as he thought he was. Nobody ever is.

it has occurred to me that as a nation we are rapidly becoming wimps

It has occurred to me that as a nation we are rapidly becoming wimps.

The furor over Hurricane Irene has been just plain stupid.

I was raised on coastal Texas, in Freeport in particular. We went through a number of hurricanes in my life. We left town for only one. One. That one was Hurricane Carla, a category five hurricane in 1961.

Even then we didn’t go far, just to southwest Houston. Just far enough to get out of the main danger.

For the most part, we would sit through the hurricane doing various things. When the electricity went out, we would light lanterns and candles and have fun listening to the wind and rain. My mother was very inventive during hurricanes.

All our neighbors did too. And I never knew one single person to get hurt by them.

In fact, in 1983, I went out into Hurricane Alicia and stood for a while in the 100 mile an hour winds just to see what it was like.

My father worked for the light company in the greater Houston area and had to work all during the storms to keep the lights on and to keep things from getting too bad.

I suppose one of the reasons we may not have gone far was because he was still around and my mother didn’t want to leave him. I don’t know. But I do know that my wife would be reluctant to leave me in the same situation.

But the thing is, we sat them out.

Today there is the Weather Channel and CNN. They are on 24 hours a day and need news and weather to keep going. So they will manufacture any emergency they can to get viewers.

To see them gibbering at some little category two storm is pathetic. And in their gibbering, all they do is scare people. And people are ready for some reason to be scared.

It has turned the nation into a bunch of wimps.

The people of New York were ready to see bodies floating face down in the river that had been Fifth Avenue, according to one correspondent. They barely had any rain.

The mayor of New York, a wimp and control freak himself, ordered everybody out (as if people had extra places to go like rich mayors). His comment afterwards was that nothing much happened, that was true. But he would do it again if it saved a life.

What he has done is magnify false emergencies. When real emergencies come, and they will, people will pay no attention. People will be in trouble because those in charge are idiots.

We seem to have become a nation of idiots, running scared at every little thing that happens. Every pill that has been tampered with, every vegetable that has a mark on it that could be something bad, every little storm – sooner or later we become either scared to death or uncaring.

We have lost all perspective. Thanks to people like the mayor of New York and Al Gore with his Global Foolishness and others, we are running all different directions acting like major idiots.

Whatever happened to American self-reliance? To American ingenuity? To bravery in the “home of the brave?”

I mourn our passing as a great nation. There will be nothing worth having when it is gone.

there is nothing like confusing the issue with facts

Job’s three friends refused to reply further to him because he kept insisting on his innocence. (Job 32:1)

There is nothing like confusing the issue with facts.

Job had insisted on his innocence. His three friends saw all of the misfortunes that came on him – his loss of health, his loss of wealth and standing and family – and they assumed, as many do, that “Somebody up there doesn’t like you.”

They assumed that since all these negative things had happened to Job, he had to have done something wrong. He had to have sinned.

They couldn’t necessarily put their fingers on what it was that he had done but, come on, something happened to make God mad.

The idea of suffering being a random thing rather than a specific punishment never occurred to them. And when it finally occurred to them, they rejected it because it just didn’t fit in with their theology.

His insistence n his innocence in the face of their own brilliant arguments made them mad.

But they knew better. They had been around, you know. They didn’t fall off a turnip truck yesterday. They could tell that something was wrong. And it had to be with Job.

That was the problem with the book of Job and with Job’s situation. Nothing that happened was the result of Job’s sin. Job had not sinned. That was the point. He was a righteous man who God was using as an object lesson to the devil.

If Job caused it at all, it was because he had been good enough to attract the attention of the devil.

But his friends had their own theology. It was simple. Sin and be punished. The syllogism goes like this: 1. God punishes those who have sinned by bringing bad things into their lives. 2. You have a lot of bad things in Job’s life. Therefore 3. Job had sinned and God was punishing him. It was simple. It was flawless. They really liked it and had worked a long time on it.

The only problem was: it was hogwash.

First, God doesn’t deal like that with us and second, the Bible makes it clear that Job was an exemplary man living an exemplary life. His misfortune was not his fault, except inasmuch he was good enough to attract the notice of the devil, as I said before.

But his friends were mad that he dismissed their great theological arguments out of hand.

Nothing makes people madder than having their ideas dismissed. After all, they worked hard on those ideas. Then when you find a hole in them, or decide yourself that they weren’t all that good, it makes them mad.

After all, these ideas are their little thought babies. And who are you to be calling their babies ugly or no good.

It is funny that people think that simply because they thought of something, you are supposed to accept it as the wisdom of the ages.

It rarely is. And we all have to get used to the fact that what we think is sometimes full of beans.

daily java

Daily Java:

The old way, with laws etched in stone, led to death, though it began with such glory that the people of Israel could not bear to look at Moses’ face. For his face shone with the glory of God, even though the brightness was already fading away.  (2 Corinthians 3:7)

At the foot of Mt Sinai, the Lord spoke the Ten Commandments to the Children of Israel (Exodus 20). It wasn’t until later that he gave them the tablets. At first he spoke to them.

And it scared the Israelites to death. They told Moses you go up and talk to him. Make him leave us alone, they said. We are scared.

So Moses did. And while he was there, he asked God to let him see him. Of course, the Lord told Moses that no one could look at him and live, but he would let Moses see his back. And he did.

But just seeing the back of God was enough to make Moses shine. He had seen God, if nothing else than his back. And it impacted him in a way that was immediately noticeable.

When he got down off the mountain, everybody in the bunch could see that he had seen God.

What’s more, though, is that they could tell that they had not. They sent Moses off to do something they were afraid to do, and when he got blessed instead of them, they got mad.

The least God could have done, in their eyes, was send a little down here. But he didn’t. Moses got it all. And they didn’t want to look at his success while thinking about their failure.

So they told Moses to put a veil over his head. That way they wouldn’t have to look at their own personal failure to see God. And they could pretend for a while longer that they were fine.

That’s what happens when someone else gets blessed instead of us. Especially when we sent them to do something we didn’t want to do. They go off and do it and something great happens and our first impulse is to get mad. Why didn’t I do that, we ask? Then I would have gotten whatever the blessing was.

In 1973, I was in college choir. The choir director asked if there was someone who would like to try as student director. I did really bad. But I held off for a moment, and another guy volunteered. He went on to become the assistant director. Every time I looked at him the rest of the semester, I recognized that I had missed out because I had hesitated.

As the body-builders say, no pain, no gain. If you do not put out the effort, you will not get the benefit. Nobody outside a comic book ever became a well-built guy without a lot of effort and exercise. No one ever accidentally learns a foreign language or applied calculus or anything else that is worth knowing.

They learn it by trying hard to do it. They learn it by effort. Above all, they learn it by doing it.

We do not accidentally serve God. We serve God on purpose. We choose to serve him.

And when we do, we show it. And when we show it, others think we should quit. There are always those who think that no one should be any better than anybody else. That way they do not have to push themselves and they can have “positive self-esteem” while being a failure.

But that is not true. It is perfectly fine to show the effects of God in your life. Not arrogantly, of course. Moses didn’t parade around with a little band in front of him, selling autographs or forcing himself into others’ lives with his visible holiness.

He was just quietly and noticeably holy.

Just like we should be.

it is ten o’clock at night and i have just fallen down

It is ten o’clock at night and I have just fallen down.

It was a rather shocking fall that scared the daylights (except that it was night time) out of my daughter.

Her husband has an antique dog (16 years old) that is somewhat incontinent so she has begun putting her in the kitchen at night. Tonight she had the idea of putting the table leaf (a plain piece of plywood I fixed to extend her dining table) over the door.

The dog is old and infirm enough that she would not be able to jump over it, even though it is only 12 inches high.

For that matter the dog is less than 12 inches high so it works well.

The problem is, although I watched her put it there and we talked about it, it is the same color as the floor.

I walked into the kitchen with a couple of foam plates and tripped over it. I landed smack on my bad knee (the right one which is swollen most of the time anyway) and scraped the fire out of my left shin. Not only that but I hit the floor whack on my chest (alright, my stomach hit first. Are you happy?) and on my right palm, the same way I used to land the few times I fell off the motorcycle.

It was so quick. One moment I was standing and walking, a relatively normal and handsome, talented, erudite person, the next instant I was on my chest and in pain. It happened so fast I didn’t even know it had until after it did.

My daughter was shocked. She kept apologizing. She said, You saw me put it there, Dad. I am so sorry.

I levered myself up off the floor and told her it was not her fault, I had helped her put the stupid thing there myself.

But it was so fast. And since I am well over six feet tall and weigh 280 pounds, I fall far and land hard. It is one reason I never got into skating. Little people have no problem falling. They just kind of go down. I fall like a pine tree. Boom!

It made me think about the old people I have known who were living perfectly good and normal lives and then fell. In the two or three seconds it took them to fall, their lives were through. They broke a hip or shoulder or something and, due to their advanced age, never recovered.

It was not long before they were in nursing homes, and died soon after that.

It is becoming noticeable to me that I am getting older. That is the second time in less than a month that I have fallen. And there were two other times when I thought I was going to fall but didn’t.

That does not please me, since I do not like falling. It hurts. I have been fortunate in my life in that my bones and teeth are made of iron. I have never broken anything even though I have had some major whacks. My teeth have chipped a couple of places from using them as pliers as a young man but in general I do not even have any cavities.

But I suppose that could stop. Ella falls a lot and I worry for her. She has developed a grace in falling that comes from a lot of practice. When she feels herself falling, she goes limp and lands in a loose flop. Then if necessary, she will pull her skirt down.

I do not think I have ever seen anyone fall more gracefully than she does.

But she has had to. I have not. I have bulled my way through life on sheer strength and personal presence. Nobody much argues with a guy my size. I just move forward and life moves out of the way.

But a guy my size hits the floor hard. It is absolutely true the old saying: the bigger they are, the harder they fall.

And I hate it.

Well, a few extra Hydrocodones tonight. I am going to wake up so sore tomorrow. What a clumsy guy I am becoming.

Someone once said (actually my mother) that getting old is not for sissies. And they were right.

daily java

Daily Java:

Oh, the joys of those who are kind to the poor! (Psalm 41:1)

There are two kinds of people: those who are kind to the poor and those who are not. It really is that simple.

Those who are kind to the poor are those who are generous. They are kind to people who can do nothing in return for them.

The others take advantage of their position in life.

When John the Baptizer was in prison, he got just a little worried. He knew his job was that of Elijah in Malachi 4, pointing out the Messiah. He wanted to know for sure that Jesus was the Messiah and that he was not in prison in vain. Things were heating up for him and he just wanted to make sure.

So, in Matthew 1:1-6, he sent his apostles to Jesus to ask him, Are you the Messiah? Jesus told them to go back to John and tell him that the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk and the gospel is preached to the poor.

Jesus said, in essence, by my fruits you will know me. all of the miracles were happening, yes, but above all, those who could give Jesus nothing were being ministered to.

It is always interesting when the media releases how much the presidential candidates give to charity and charity causes. Usually the richest give the least.

I believe that is primarily because they do not care. I have mine, so you go get yours. It is a life greed of sorts, a refusal to help those in need.

Now I do not believe in a wholesale give-away. I think that giving poor people things all the time just makes life-long poor people.

We gave away food on Monday nights in Tulsa and had a number of people come. But when I went to visit a neighboring church’s food program on another night, there were the same people. And I found out that their job was to go from free food give-away to free food give-away. They never bought anything.

And on the days they didn’t get food, they were visiting other places that paid their electricity and other utilities. They called each other on free cell phones and wore free clothing.

There was no reason for them to work. They got everything they needed. Everything, that is, except pride and self-respect.

But it is not the government’s job to feed the poor. It is ours. When the government does it, it just engenders a class of people who are constantly needy.

Help is good on a temporary basis, or if some calamity has befallen someone. It is never good n a permanent basis.

Oh, and I do not believe Social Security payments are help. For the most part, those have been paid in by the people who receive them. They are paid back, not given. There is a difference.

But those who give are marked by one thing: they are generous. There is a love and joy in their lives that is totally absent from those who do not.

the girls on the ads at Victoria’s Secret are young enough to be my granddaughter

The girls on the ads at Victoria’s Secret are young enough to be my granddaughter.

I don’t have a granddaughter, but I am old enough to have one that age.

And that makes me feel like a pervert. I do not like lusting after girls that are a third my age.

Now I appreciate a pretty girl. My wife knows I do and we discuss them. Not in any prurient sense, just in an appreciative way.

As I have said before, I believe that to be a real man, you have to like women. It is hard to really love your wife if you don’t really like women.

And any man who says he has never looked at another woman is one of two things: he is a liar, or he is just plain weird.

But I do not enjoy being forced into a kind of looking that I do not wish to do.

Back in the late 50’s or early 60’s, I don’t remember which, I saw my first p0rn picture. It was a picture of Brigitte Bardot, and she was wearing a pair of jeans and an open denim jacket. That’s it. You see pictures much more graphic at the perfume counters at Dillard’s and Macy’s.

And then of course, there is Victoria’s Secret with their full length pictures of young women wearing underwear.

I saw some pictures on a website the other day of girls in Playboy in the 50’s and 60’s. They were wearing swimsuits and such and were so tame as to be nothing today. In fact, one of the movies right now being touted as a Christian movie, “Soul Surfer,” has more graphic nudity in the bikinis worn by the actresses than Playboy magazine did in the 50’s.

The actresses in our movies are getting younger and younger and all have nude scenes. There comes a time when a Christian finally decides he will not go to a movie. First of all, I do not want to see other women naked and second, I sure don’t when they are young enough to be my grandchildren.

As I said at first, it makes me feel like a pervert. And I am not.

I still go to the mall. And I still go by the Victoria’s Secret store. It is kind of hard not to. In Lincoln, it was by the food court and the chairs where we sat to watch the weirdoes walk by. Here in Columbia I’m not sure where it is, but you know it will be in a very visible location.

Evil loves itself and is evangelistic in promoting its lack of values.

Enough rant for today.

i have always been a person who sees the other side

If you think you are standing strong, be careful not to fall. (1 Corinthians 10:12)

He who doubts from what he sees
Will ne’er believe do what you please.
William Blake

There are those who no matter what you do, no matter how much the evidence or weight in favor of what you say, will never believe you.

And simply because you have proof, or facts or anything else really doesn’t mean anything.

They have made up their minds. At sometime in the past, they have decided that they are going to believe a certain way and that is that.

My father-in-law was such a person. It didn’t matter what the weight of evidence in your favor, he would not believe what he didn’t want to believe.

And oddly enough, my son is too. If he doesn’t already think it, he will not. His kind of music is all that matters, his kind of everything is all that matters to him.

It is strange that the attitude of believing only what you want passed over my wife and landed on my son. Now he is nothing at all like my father-in-law. Other than the fact that both are named Sam, they have nothing except that odd attitude in common. My father-in-law only liked one kind of music, as does my son – but they are worlds apart. My father-in-law listened only to country, my son only listens to heavy metal.

And the list can go on ad nauseum.

You meet people like that in religion, too. They believe what they believe and almost revel in their ignorance or single-mindedness.

I have always been a person who sees the other side, who tries to understand all the sides of an issue or point. It made me unwelcome in the denomination I spend 44 years in. that denomination had only one viewpoint: theirs. All else were not “honest.”

In fact, they would make the comment when dealing certain Bible verses that “honest scholars” would see things the way they wanted. If you didn’t, you had some unholy agenda.

I never saw that and sooner or later had to leave. The fact that I didn’t buy into the corporate doctrine made me, after a while, unwelcome.

I remember a man who came to me after church one Sunday and told me that when I came, he was impressed with me. But here lately, he wasn’t. I was not preaching things the way he wanted them preached so therefore I was wrong.

It is an odd quality. Even though something is so clearly in front of you, and even though there are so many in agreement, they do not believe it, so therefore it is not real. It is a denial in the face of facts to the contrary. They see, yet they doubt and they will never agree with you. It is not in their power, I guess, not in their make-up to change their minds.

And anyone who goes through life without changing his or her mind at least once is a fool.

Politics are (is?) full of people like this. Right now we have a president who has not done anything that worked, yet he keeps on doing the same things again and again. And he will until he is put out of office next year.

These are the people who see pictures of aborted unborn children and yet refuse to believe that they are killing real live people. They are the people who cannot see that giving people money does not make them free, but instead enslaves them. They are the people who think that a bigger government and more government control is the answer to everything.

Even though these things do not work, they still believe them.

I don’t think I have any such oddities in my make-up, but of course, I don’t know that I would know it.

But I do believe that anyone who thinks they are fine are foolish. Anyone who thinks they have all the answers are weird.

The older I get, the more I realize that I do not have all the answers. In fact, I have only begun to figure out the questions. That sounds goofy but it is true.

What is good in life? What matters? What does God want of us? What is important?

When you figure those out, you begin to understand that you need real answers, not just simple presuppositions.

I do hate liver, though, and no one can make me like it.

two women both trapped in their cultures

I saw something the other day that really struck me. I saw two women both trapped in their cultures.

One was a young Muslim woman walking her child to school. The other was an older woman walking on the sidewalk in front of the school.

The young Muslim woman was covered head to foot in spite of the heat. She had a rather thick black scarf that covered her whole head except for her face. She was also wearing a long sleeved black coat that covered her from shoulders to feet. It barely cleared the ground. You knew she had to be hot and probably smelled to high heaven from the weight of the clothing.

The older woman was probably in her 60’s. She was wearing a tight low necked shirt and short skirt with spike heels in spite of the fact that she was too old for such an ensemble.  You knew she had to be uncomfortable, her feet probably hurt, the clothing looked extremely uncomfortable.

Both women were trapped in their cultures. Both women, if given the choice in life would probably have chosen to wear something different.

If the young Muslim woman had been given her choice, she would not have put on a heavy coat and heavy head covering in 90 degree heat. But she had to dress the way she was dressed. It was mandated by her religion and her lifestyle. If she didn’t dress that way, she could be in danger of her life, or at least ostracism from her group. So, for self-preservation, she dressed in heavy clothing in the heat.

The other woman probably viewed her self-worth as needing the short skirt and tight low-necked blouse to be attractive to men. Why else would a woman of her age ever wear something so young and uncomfortable? If she didn’t dress that way, she could be in danger of being alone with no man wanting her. So, for self-preservation, she dressed in provocative clothing in spite of her age and her comfort.

Both women trapped in a need to “save their lives.” Both lived in danger of losing those things which were valuable to them.

It is sad that both were forced, or felt themselves forced to conform to their group’s ideas of how to dress.

Since this is America, the young Muslim woman was free to dress however she wanted. Yet she was in a group that used force, mutilation and death to force their women to wear things which were not necessarily needed.

Since this is America, the older woman could have found a group to be with that didn’t depend on her “beauty.”

But both were trapped. What a shame.

hot green plastic water

I lie in the dust; revive me by your word. (Psalm 119:25)

Have you ever been thirsty? I mean really thirsty, not just needing a drink. To the point that you were thinking of nothing but something to drink, anything at all.

I took basic training in the US Army in Ft Bliss at El Paso, TX. We did all of our marching and outside stuff west of El Paso near White Sands. They would truck us a certain distance out and then we would walk the rest of the way.

The terrain was desert. There were little or no plants, and the ground was sand. When I got out of basic and went to AIT where I was to be trained in communications, I had thighs that were so big that I had trouble wearing pants that fit my waist. I had to buy larger pants just to get them over my thighs. That came from the marching through sand.

But as we marched, the sergeants would not let us drink. This served two purposes.

One was that we learned how to go anyway even though we were so thirsty we thought we would die. Sometimes it is impossible to get water and you may not have enough time to stop and drink. That was helpful in combat.

Second was because they were cruel and enjoyed the pain and suffering they could inflict on the trainees. I believed that at the time and getting to know more and more about human nature (especially after coming to know jail and prison guards) I believe it more now than before.

We would get thirsty. Real, painful, skin crackling thirsty. Marching through sand in well over 100 degree heat in the blazing sunshine thirsty.

After a while we would stop to rest. But then again they would hold us off on our water. After a few minutes they would tell us we could drink. And we did.

Not long before I came into the army, someone had the idea of making the canteens from olive drab green plastic. So in the heat the water inside the green plastic canteens would be warm and even tasted green.

We stopped and drank our hot green plastic water. Nothing in this world has ever tasted so good as that hot green plastic water. Our throats were so parched, we were so dry. It was as fine a water as I have tasted before or since.

There is a perspective you have to have in order to enjoy hot green plastic water. The perspective is that if you don’t get some water soon, you will die.

In the Louis L’Amour novels, the characters do not drink much water even though they are in the desert. They know that they cannot waste any on just casual drinking. Of course, being a Louis L’Amour novel, they always have enough for coffee, but still. They know they have to make it last. They cannot always count on finding a spring.

And sometimes they find a spring, but it is brackish or alkaline water. Even so, they drink it and are grateful for it.

Most people go their entire lives and are not really thirsty or hungry for that matter. I have been both.

But when you are really thirsty or really hungry, what you eat or drink matters less than you ever thought it would.

We get to a point in life where it seems like a spiritual desert. We are alone. We are afraid. We are lying in the dust of life and we are spiritually thirsty. Then we look at the written word and the living Word of God. We take them into us and we are revived.

We are not revived simply by reading the Bible. We are revived when we allow the Word, that is Jesus, to come into our hearts and satisfy us, for lack of a better word. We are revived when we read his written word and take it to heart and are encouraged by it.

There is no reason to be thirsty in our spiritual lives when we have such great water, and such great satisfaction at our disposal, at our fingertips, near our hearts.

slowing down 2

Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. (James 1:19)

I used to be so fast. I walked fast, I talked fast, I just moved quickly. People even said I came into a room like a freight train. My average talking speed was four miles an hour. I drove fast. I just did everything fast.

Then my life changed. Ella was diagnosed with MS and all of a sudden, things slowed down. We walked slower and slower until today we practically crawl places.

And it takes a toll on your personality. What used to just take a minute now takes a lot of time. It will take us almost five minutes just to go out to the car from the house. Since her feet do not work well, she has to walk slowly and deliberately. And because she does, so do I. It is easy to feel like an idiot waiting, but you do get used to it.

It has made me slow down a lot, and it has affected me in ways that surprised me. Not only do I tend to walk slowly, I even drive slowly now. I rarely drive over 60 to 65 miles per hour on the freeway. My walking has slowed down to the point that just about anyone can walk faster than I do.

Part of that is the walking with her, part of it is also the walking alongside the scooters in WalMart and places like that. Those scooters generally go about one mph, so if you want to walk alongside the person who is driving, you walk slowly, just kind of ambling along.

I also find that I have gained the ability to sit quietly now, where I could never do that before. Listening to people I feel no real need to talk. It is amazing what people will tell you when you just sit quietly and listen.

It is an attitude or talent if you wish, that has come hard. I even eat more slowly.

It makes you different. For one thing, you look a lot less dynamic. The charismatic personality I had when I was younger is gone. The vibration I used to put out is stilled.

James, the Lord’s brother who is writing in the above passage, says that we need to not be so quick to do things. The old adage act in haste, repent at leisure is true. You do things quickly and sometimes you do them without thinking them out all the way.

That is theoretically one of the attributes of age, slowing down. And there should also be a certain thought accompanying that slowness.

Of course, just being slow doesn’t really accomplish anything. It really kind of irritates people.

But being slow to get mad, slow to say stupid things – those are good. You do not need to be around someone who is sick to do those.

daily java

Daily Java:

The rich and poor have this in common: the Lord made them both. (Proverbs 22:2)

You look at people that have everything. They have cars and houses, they travel on their own jets, they go where they want when they want and always have plenty of money to do so.

And many times because of it, they are vain and arrogant, feeling a sense of entitlement, they are captains of their own industry and masters of their own universe. Or so they seem.

Then there are people who have serious trouble just making ends meet. They work hard, yet never have the money to even pay doctor bills. Their idea of travel is to go to a neighboring city to go to the mall or maybe to the beach.

Two more different people there could not be, yet God made both of them.

And you wonder, why didn’t he make me like the rich ones?

Many times they are rich through no real effort of their own. Maybe they are actors who just happened to be in a hit movie. Even though they are no better than any other actor, they got a big break and it made them rich. Other, more talented actors still struggle on.

Maybe they inherited a lot of money. Their parents worked hard and achieved the American dream and then left all their money to a little spoiled girl who thinks it is her right to be wealthy, who spends her days in absolute waste, almost mocking the parents who made her rich by their endowment.

Maybe it is a politician who got rich off the people he was supposed to serve. And maybe it is someone who truly worked hard and earned their riches through both talent and tenacity.

And maybe the poor person is poor through no fault of their own. They are just as hard a worker as the rich person. They may be as talented or more so than the actor or musician, but were not in the right place at the right time.

Maybe they had their money taken from them by someone who was wealthy.

But the hard thing to notice is that God made them both. Both came from the hand of God.

God did not make the greed or the oppressive spirit, but God made the person.

And it is hard to realize that they both are the same down deep. Both want happiness, both want fulfillment, both want love.

It is really sad to see famous movie stars, men and women who are loved and adored by millions who cannot keep a relationship. There are millions who would give anything just to spend a little while in their presence, yet they cannot stay married and are, according to the tabloids, of course, constantly in pain from betrayal and desertion by others who are equally famous and adored.

Both are children of God. But the only ones, rich or poor, who are happy, are those who have locked their lives into God, who have allowed him control. When they do this, both display the love and mercy of God.

Without it, both are also similar in that they are miserable. No matter how rich you are, without God you are miserable. And no matter how poor you are,. With God you are happy.

I read an article recently that said that the rich and the poor share an attribute. The poorer you are, the less likely you are to go to church. And the richer you are, the same.

Both come from God and both react basically the same. Both tend to be wrapped up in themselves.

And both desperately need God.

slowing down

Here is an article I wrote for MSFocus, a free magazine for MS sufferers.

SLOWING DOWN

I used to walk around four miles an hour. I drove fast, did everything fast. People even said I came in a room like a freight train.

But then Ella, my wife of twenty years at the time, contracted Multiple Sclerosis.

It was small at first. She sprained her ankle and wrapped it with an Ace bandage. When she took it off, she still felt the bandage. That was her first indication of something wrong.

From there it got worse. She never had the Relapsing and Remitting MS. Hers was Primary Progressive.

Little by little she got worse. And as she got worse, she got slower. And as she got slower, so did I.

She had more and more trouble walking and she began to have trouble knowing where her feet were.

It first became evident to me in the middle ‘90’s when we were walking through a furniture store in Kansas City. It was one of those weird stores that sold hyper modern furniture – couches shaped like lips, hat racks that looked like the Blues Brothers. It was also carpeted in a soft dove gray all over.

As we walked on the second floor, we came to a step hidden by the sameness of the carpet. She tripped and fell and sprained her ankle. I started to help her up and she leaped up, looked at me and giggled – just like she had done when she was 17.

I realized that the Tramadol she was taking had really affected her. but I also realized that she was fast becoming incapable of normal walking.

She began walking slower and more deliberately.

We have always held hands as we walked, but I noticed that our hand-holding had changed. It became more of a hand-clutching than a hand-holding. She was holding on to me for support.

I had gotten her a cane but I was handier.

As we went on, she became slower and slower.

After a couple of years, we got a wheelchair and I was the designated pusher. I found out that I had to go slower than usual again because I broke one pushing it quickly along a pot-holey street.

Occasionally I had to break loose and walk. I would leave her somewhere while I went to get something for her and would walk fast.

But little by little, we began slowing down. It became evident that she had trouble walking.

At first she just looked unsteady. Sooner or later came the lurch, what I called her zombie walk. We would laugh about it because the alternative was too unpleasant.

But soon it became apparent she was too unsteady to walk very far, even a few feet.

She got her disability in May of 2004 and her first scooter a week later.

The mobility of the scooter was pleasant to her. She could go places and have a good time without me having to push her.

The only problem was that the scooter weighed 150 pounds and, although designed to break down for storage, would have something happen to it each time we did.

So it came to me to be the designated lifter. Fortunately, I am a big guy and have always been pretty strong. I had already gotten a lot of practice lifting her off the ground in her frequent falls. And helping her when she sprained her ankle, as she did an awful lot. Either that or breaking bones, which she did a lot, too.

As I got older, though, I did find out the power of leverage. Rather than breaking the scooter down, I would lift the front end, put it in our minivan, then pick up the back end and scoot it in. I became, not only the human cane, the wheel chair pusher, the errand boy, but also the scooter scooter.

For the first twenty years of our marriage, she waited on me, cooked for me, did about everything she could do as a homemaker. For the next twenty, I have been her caregiver.

It started small but has grown to the point that she is in constant pain. Of course, since nothing has worked to stymie the pain (including a virtually worthless neuro-stimulator and a semi-tractor trailer load of drugs), she spends a lot of time in her recliner.

I have become the go-getter. Johnny, would you go get… And I do.

I mean, what else would I do? I love her. I have read so much about men who leave their wives when they contract a debilitating illness. I have even known a couple of women in that situation. I really don’t know if I could live with myself if I did that.

Now we are down the line with the second scooter (fortunately much lighter but unfortunately not nearly as good as the first – it is slower). We have had several wheelchairs and three mini-vans, a number of what she calls cripple-stickers (the handicap tags), and life is considerably slower. I even drive slower now.

So it means picking up a few heavy things. So it means getting up from a comfortable chair and going to get her meds or a glass of tea or wine. So it means being inconvenienced a little.

It is far better than being without her.

And besides, I have slowed down so much that it would be hard to start with somebody else. Don’t tell her I said that.

read, read, read

“Read, read, read. Read everything – trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write. If it is good, you’ll find out. If it’s not, throw it out the window.”  William Faulkner

I read a lot. Over the years, I have read a lot of diverse things. I thought it interesting when I found out that I was more widely read than many of the literature teachers I met. Although he was more widely read in his specialty area, I was more widely read than my college lit teacher who had his PhD in literature.

I just like to read. Of course, here lately, I have read more fiction than otherwise and for some reason, William Johnstone and Louis L’Amour books hold a special appeal. Maybe their simplicity, their black and white way of looking at things. Maybe, just maybe, they are like women’s romances. No, of course not. They are manly books. When the boy gets the girl, he usually gets shot too. So he has to go up into the mountains where the air is thinner and eat a lot of bacon and drink a lot of coffee to get well. That’s a real man’s book.

Anyway, reading has been a problem with me in my life. I had trouble in my first denomination, the Church of Christ, because of my reading. It was not a denomination that prized wide thinking. It had a certain viewpoint and all others were contrary and detrimental to the minister.

I knew a guy who went through his PhD in philosophy and never changed his viewpoint that was a minister of this denomination. That takes some work to read all that stuff and not be changed.

I read philosophy, and I read a lot of the eastern stuff. I read a lot of the Great Books of the Western World (a set of books I bought back in the early 70’s to make the guy leave but that I found out I liked). I just read. I also read a lot of fiction, both contemporary and older.

I remember the day I got caught up in the book Babbit, but Sinclair Lewis. We had to read it for English class, I guess tenth grade maybe, but it, as books do, caught me. we were doing something else in class, and I was reading it secretly under the desk, like a guy would do a Playboy or something.

My teacher saw me reading secretly and came up and said, Well, Mr Cliver, what are you reading. She reached in and pulled out – Babbit. She didn’t know what to do. It is rare that a teacher finds one of her student reading “good literature” on his own time. She stood there for a moment, then gave it back to me with a perplexed look on her face and said Read it later, please.

I suppose the reading made me want, sooner or later, to write. I want to write something that someone will have trouble putting down. And while I enjoy writing for this blog, I would like to write something that was for a wider audience.

I have to admit, I know when I write something that is good. And I know when I write gibberish. Occasionally I will write something that I know has merit and I usually put those in a different file.

But a writer has to be also a reader. How in the world can you do something if you do not know what it looks like when you get finished?

daily java

Daily Java:

Keep your eyes open for spiritual danger; stand true to the Lord; act like men; be strong; and whatever you do, do it in kindness and love. (1 Corinthians 16:13-14 LB)

There are some verses that seem to encapsulate the Christian life in such a way that you could read nothing but that verse and know what God wants. The above verse is one of them.

Watch out; be real; grow up; be strong; live in love.

That is really all you need to do. It is like the verse that so any preachers have preached, Micah 6:9: He has shown you, O man, what is good and what the Lord requires of you. To do justly, and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Be just, be merciful, be humble.

A lot of the Christian life is to keep your eyes open. Jesus said to be wise as serpents but harmless as doves. In other words, know stuff will happen but do not cause it to happen. The Christian has to recognize that bad things will happen. We cannot walk blindly into things thinking that everything will work out fine.

One of my favorite movies lately has been the latest Rambo movie. A group of missionaries want him – against his wishes – to take them into a bad area, an area where people have been killed for doing what they want to do. They feel that just because they think God wants them to go, everything will be good and the rebels will leave them alone.

As it turns out, his worst fears are realized and he has to mount a rescue operation in best Rambo fashion. A good movie, if for no other reason that to say that simply because you think it is a good idea does not mean it is.

The missionaries in the movie should have recognized that it was a dangerous area and their sponsoring organization should also have. But they all figured that if the desire to go was there, God would provide the way. The sad thing is: sometimes he does and sometimes he doesn’t. Keep your eyes open. Don’t be stupid.

A Christian also as to stand true to what God says. He cannot just do what he wants. There are certain ethical standards that one who proclaims the will of God has to keep. Whatever we do, we must do to his glory, in his will, not our own. He is our guiding force, no other.

Grow up, Paul says. Hebrews 6 talks about those who should be more mature but are not, and still need teachers. He says act like men. Grow up. Be mature.

In my first pastorate, there was a ladies class. There were several ladies, but no teacher. And they could not teach themselves. So Ella, a 25 year old, new preacher’s wife, had to teach the class. In many ways, she was more mature than the ladies who were in their 60’s and 70’s.

The apostle Paul says, be mature, grow up, act like people who have been in the kingdom for a while. There is nothing sadder than a long term baby.

Be strong. There is an inner strength that a Christian must display to be a real Christian. It is the strength that the martyrs displayed. It is the strength that Shadrack, Meshack and Abdnego in the book of Daniel showed when they said that even if their God did not deliver them from the oppressive king, they would still not do what he wanted.

It is the strength shown over and over in the Bible in general, and Hebrews 11 in specific. The people of God would not let go of what they knew they needed to do, no matter what the enticement or danger. Real Christians are strong.

Of course, the whole binding agent is love. In 1 Corinthians 13, the apostle Paul said that he could do all kinds of great and marvelous things, but that if he didn’t have love, they were worthless. Nothing you do as a Christian is worth anything if you do not do it in love. Even the whole sacrifice of Jesus on the cross would have been worthless if it had not been offered in love.

Do these two verses and you will do what God wants.

daily java

Daily Java:

For you are misinterpreting the whole thing. You are doctors who don’t know what they are doing. Oh, please be quiet! That would be your highest wisdom. (Job 13:4-5)

I was listening to someone talk the other day and it was apparent that the person knew little or nothing of what they spoke. He really was just in love with the sound of his own voice.

A lot of people are like that. They love to hear themselves talk, love to see what they wrote, love to give advice or counsel. But the problem is, they are devoid of any kind of wisdom.

Someone was asking about a Bible verse not long ago. I gave them an interpretation. They said, but this particular books says this. My answer: yes, that’s true. It does. And this one over here says something different. And so does that one over there. I commented that the only difference many times between you and the people who wrote those books is that they got paid for writing them and you didn’t.

People love to talk. People love to explain. People love to expostulate on stuff that many times they do not really understand. If this were not so, there would a fraction of the commentaries on Revelation that there are. People rarely understand the book of Revelation, yet so many feel the need to write these long detailed expositions along with maps and charts and graphs to try to bolster their explanations.

It is amazing to me that people who can barely find the book of Matthew in their Bibles can find the “wisdom” to interpret great blocks of meaning into the book of Revelation.

Part of the problem on that book is that it is difficult enough that it is hard to argue with an interpretation. Some of them are so hare-brained that you wonder how the people sleep at night with all that gibberish in their heads.

But they go on and on, kind of like I am in this blog entry, I guess. It works both ways.

I will have to admit that some of my longest articles are my most shallow. But the point is, sometimes it is better to be quiet.

Someone once said that you could be quiet and thought a fool, or open your mouth and remove all doubt. Sometimes being quiet is the best course. You sit and listen quietly, gravely and people think you are so good.

Or you can write a bunch of junk and show the world that you are ignorant doctors.

Think I’ll stop now.

gospel preaching

Let me now remind you, dear brothers and sisters, of the Good News I preached to you before. You welcomed it then, and you still stand firm in it. It is this Good News that saves you if you continue to believe the message I told you—unless, of course, you believed something that was never true in the first place. I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said.  (1 Corinthians 15:1-4)

I remember them being referred to as “Gospel Preachers” when I was young. They were fire and brimstone preachers, hard and heavy on what it was that they believed God demanded of you. They were death on dancing, drinking, cigarettes, movies, rock and roll music, a guy having the top two or three buttons on his shirt unbuttoned, short skirts, long hair on men.

They preached what they called the Gospel. The only problem was, it was not the gospel. In fact, it was nowhere near the gospel.

In this passage, the apostle Paul says that the Gospel is the Good News. The Gospel is Good News from God.

What the old time gospel preachers preached was not the gospel. It was what they felt we had to do to be Christians. There is a world of difference between the Good News of Jesus and what we have to do, or at least what some man thinks we have to do to be a Christian.

When it comes down to it, there is no way that one can construe opposition to things as Good News. In fact, the old Gospel Preaching was as far from Good News as you can get and still be in the same universe.

Like John Lennon said, imagine it. I have good news. Great, you say, what is it? The Good News is that you cannot do anything you think looks like fun. Your life will be wrapped up in self-denial and association with a whole bunch of other people that are also denying themselves.

In other words, the Good News is that you cannot do anything you want to. Isn’t that great? Praise God, brother.

No. that is not Good News. That is legalism. Paul preached against legalism from his conversion. He made it plain again and again that one cannot tell other people what they have to do to be Christians. Only God can do that, and the remarkable thing is, he didn’t.

The Gospel is not the prohibition of life. If it were, it would be stupid and cruel to call it good news. Good News, children, we will have no more fun food for supper. From now on, you can’t eat potatoes, or fried chicken or have any cake. From now on, we will eat okra and liver and tofu. Isn’t that good news?

In that situation, the Good News would be that we will have a good meal each night. It isn’t about how we will eat or what we will eat. It is about the fact that we will be happy and satisfied with good stuff each evening.

The Good News is that Jesus died for our sins, was buried and raised on the third day. The Good News is that God loved us and sent his Son to die for us. The Good New is that we do not have to live in our sins, that God loves us. That is the Good News.

Good News is not some person’s idea of what we can or cannot do as Christians. That is interpretation and legalism. And to bind such an idea on another is sinful according to Paul.

When he preached, he preached the Good News. Of course, people have heard the other for so long that they get to the point that they expect it. It isn’t gospel preaching unless someone steps on my toes, they say. That is like saying, my husband doesn’t love me unless he beats me. Both are bizarre reactions.

God did not send Jesus to give us a new list of rules and regulations, in many ways harsher than the Old Testament. That is especially if you consider the fact that Jesus said to think of something is as bad as doing it. In the new order, if these are rules and regulations, Jesus introduced thoughtcrime. Not only can we not do it, we can’t even think it.

That, of course, is not what Jesus meant and it sure isn’t the gospel.

The Gospel, the Good News is that God loves us. And Gospel preaching preaches that Good News.

Jesus saves! Now that is Good News.

why the west is best

Here is an article I read a couple of years ago and saved. It is from the National Review blog. It sums up exactly why I am glad I live here in America. Those who want to apologize for us and our ways are fools. And those who refuse to teach western civ and our culture are equally stupid.

Why the West is Best   [Andy McCarthy]
http://corner.nationalreview.com/

The City Journal has a great piece from the brilliant Ibn Warraq, describing his side of a debate with Tariq Ramadan and others on the question whether we should be reluctant to assert the superiority of Western Values.  It's all worth reading, but I most enjoyed these passages:

    The great ideas of the West—rationalism, self-criticism, the disinterested search for truth, the separation of church and state, the rule of law and equality under the law, freedom of thought and expression, human rights, and liberal democracy—are superior to any others devised by humankind. It was the West that took steps to abolish slavery; the calls for abolition did not resonate even in Africa, where rival tribes sold black prisoners into slavery. The West has secured freedoms for women and racial and other minorities to an extent unimaginable 60 years ago. The West recognizes and defends the rights of the individual: we are free to think what we want, to read what we want, to practice our religion, to live lives of our choosing....

    A culture that gave the world the novel; the music of Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert; and the paintings of Michelangelo, da Vinci, and Rembrandt does not need lessons from societies whose idea of heaven, peopled with female virgins, resembles a cosmic brothel. Nor does the West need lectures on the superior virtue of societies in which women are kept in subjection under sharia, endure genital mutilation, are stoned to death for alleged adultery, and are married off against their will at the age of nine; societies that deny the rights of supposedly lower castes; societies that execute homosexuals and apostates. The West has no use for sanctimonious homilies from societies that cannot provide clean drinking water or sewage systems, that make no provisions for the handicapped, and that leave 40 to 50 percent of their citizens illiterate.

i am looking at a pair of red wool sox that i bought in 1970

Can he walk on hot coals and not blister his feet? (Proverbs 6:28)

I am looking at a pair of red wool sox that I bought in 1970. And here they are still in my possession. No holes, no visible wear, still bright red.

I remember when I bought them. It was in Germany in the PX and my feet were cold. They were ski sox and were rather thick wool and came in two colors: red and blue. I bought one of each for about a dollar each. I wore them with my combat boots in the snow.

I have had those sox since before I got married, before I had any career plans (other than leaving the army as fast as I could), before I answered the call to preach, before all my whole life.

I bought them before I was 21. And now here I am at almost 62.

The blue ones are gone somewhere, no telling where. The red ones look a little old, but for 41 year old sox, they look great.

I bought them when Nixon was president, when the Vietnam war was raging, when gas was less than a quarter, when you could walk right onto an airplane, when people hitchhiked without fear, when long hair on guys was considered bad, when bell bottoms were coming in, when cars were huge, when a computer took up an entire floor in a skyscraper, when the Beatles were still together (barely), when the world was young and so was I.

It was before air conditioning for the most part, before so many things, before fear.

When I bought those sox, my whole life was before me in all its shining splendor. Now it lies for the most part behind me. There are very few things I have that are that old or older, but none are in as good a shape as these sox. Except for the heat, I could put them on tomorrow and wear them. The elastic in the top is long gone, but the basic structure of the sox is still good.

Now sometimes my wife wears them in the evening. Since the advent of fleece sox, she hasn’t. but she used to a lot.

I have had a dozen or more guitars, a couple of dozen cars, one wife, two children, a dozen or more cats and dogs, a number of coffeemakers, quite a few heartbreaks in ministry, three or four wedding rings, but this one pair of sox still remains.

I may be making more of this than I should, but there seems to something apocalyptic about a 41 year old pair of sox. I feel they need to be noticed, celebrated, something. Maybe a frame with a little LED spotlight.

I know they are good for an article in my blog, but other than that, they will probably go back into the drawer and sit, waiting for their moment in the cold to give warmth. Maybe I can will them to one of my kids and he or she can start a heritage. Heritage sox.

Yes, kids, your great, great grandpa bought these in Europe in the old days. I think it was during World War 2 or something, and he brought them over the Oregon Trail or something. They were special sox and kept him from freezing to death with the Donner Party or something like that.

Great sox. Stupid kids though with no knowledge of history.

BTW, the verse above has nothing to do with sox, but I just like to match a verse. It makes me feel all spiritual.

we had a potluck dinner sunday

They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity – all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. (Acts 2:46-47)

We had a potluck dinner Sunday. That is one of the most interesting parts of Christianity and being part of a group.

It is a curious thing that you go to a dinner that has absolutely no plan, no rhyme or reason, just a whole bunch of food laid out on a table, in varying degrees of hot (if a hot dish) or cold (if a cold dish).

Some of the dishes were prepared a couple of hours ahead of time, some were baked right before served.

But the table literally groans with the sheer amount of food. and what is funny is that people are standing there in line just vibrating with anticipation.

You get your plate and begin the line. The mixture of foods is truly strange. There is lasagna, potato salad, a salad made with some kind of broccoli, another potato dish with chips on top, sandwiches (carefully labeled bologna, cheese and Miracle Whip),two or three corn dishes, two or three baked bean dishes, another lasagna, some kind of rice with cheese, a seven layer dip with tortilla chips – you could go on for a while labeling what is there.

But the common denominator of it all is that it was prepared at home and brought to this dinner in love. It was brought to feed others. It was brought with the hope that there wouldn’t be much to take home.

There are some dishes that people look forward to each month. Sister so and so’s beans, brother whatever’s meatloaf. There are things that people really look forward to. There are things they do not and tend to shun. There are things that come back again and again with the hope that this time someone will eat them.

It was all made, though, again with the common desire to feed others. The interesting thing is that unless it is a small church or you paid attention to who put it out there, you don’t know who brought it.

You fill your plate with a little of as many things as you can. Your dinner is a literal potpourri of different flavors and different textures, different taste and ingredients, different skills of cooking.

But it all comes with the single binding agent of having been made with love and put out on a table with 40 other dishes.

What a dinner. And then dessert.

What a way to be a Christian.

daily java

Daily Java:

After examining the affected spot, the priest will put the article in quarantine for seven days. (Leviticus 13:50)

This verse doesn’t really have anything to do with this article, but it seemed to fit.

The past few weeks I have been dropping stuff on my shirt. And I hate it. That means I always walk around looking like an idiot, some kind of mental reject.

Top it off with the fact that I am growing a beard right now and I look bad. Give me a pair of shorts and flip flops and I just look pathetic. A homeless man, schlepping along in his stained shirt and unshaven jowls.

(Older people have jowls. Younger people have jaws. In case you are interested.)

Friday we went to Columbia to the mall. We stopped and had lunch at a convenience store that sells good cheddar jalapeno sausages. We sat under a tree and ate our lunch. And sure as the world, a large glop of mayonnaise fell on my red t shirt.

So here was a big stain. When we got to the mall, the first place I went was JCPenney’s. They have a tall and big men’s shop and had pocket t shirts like the one I was wearing for about $5 on sale. I got one that was raspberry, a manly color. I put it on and we were set.

But the thing is, Ella went to wash clothes. And every shirt of mine had something on it. I have never been a sloppy person, but lately, things find their way onto my shirts and it makes it hard on both me (to wear stained clothing) and Ella (to make stained clothing unstained).

And I will not wear a shirt if it is stained. Will not. I have enough problems with self-image as it is without having to wear stained shirts, shirts with remnants of past culinary indiscretions.

That is the good thing about Hawaiian shirts. They will hide a lot.

I was talking to the church music director this morning, Kathy, and she suggested maybe I could analyze why I drop stuff on my shirts on my blog.

So here goes. I eat something, it falls off my fork or out of my sandwich and lands on my shirt.

Analysis over. I know why. I just do not know why now out of my whole life.

But so it goes. I have taken to wearing a bib (napkin tucked into my shirt, not one of those I Love Mommy ones), but I always feel like some kind of weirdo.

But I feel less like a weirdo than I do when I start out the day with a spot.

The other day, I was sitting in the front yard and a bird flew over me and pooped on my shirt. Go figure. Not even always my fault.

all of a sudden jesus was there

That Sunday evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! “Peace be with you,” he said. As he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and his side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord!  (John 20:19-20)

The apostles were scared. It had not been a good week.

They really didn’t know what to do. They were just caught in the moment and had a lot of trouble adjusting to the whole thing. A couple of weeks ago, they had been apostles and Jesus was hanging around with them. Now they were fugitives and Jesus was dead.

They had heard that Jesus had risen from the dead, and for some reason he had appeared to one of the women, not to them. But they just couldn’t be sure.

They were having another of those long, interminable discussions that they had at times. Everybody was pontificating and trying to be in charge. Nobody was really happy. They were all in all really just scared.

Then one of them looked up and –wham! There was Jesus standing there looking at them like he did: kind of an amused, tolerant, loving look, a look that was all his.

Hey, somebody hollered. Look! They all looked around and then they all saw him. He was standing in that relaxed way he had, a look of being in charge without being arrogant about it.

It startled the fire out of them. Even though they had been hoping he would come, really, the last person they expected to see was him.

But there he was. At first, they were just startled and some of them started hollering for lack of anything else to do.

Then they realized it really was him. It was Jesus. And he was alive and he looked so good. The last time they had seen him, he was bloody and beaten and dead. Now here he was, alive and clean and almost shining. He looked good.

He said, Peace be with you, the same thing he said each time he saw them. He held out his hands and showed them the holes, along with his feet.

When they realized it was him, they were overjoyed. What was he going to do? Was he going to stay, would he keep on preaching, would he make them all special beings like himself? What would he do?

They didn’t know, but they were surely excited. One of them commented that they sure wished Thomas was here

an unfair contest between God and the devil

In the book of Job, there is a contest between God and the devil. The devil tells God that Job, a faithful man, is only faithful because God blesses him. God says to the devil, take away everything he has, stopping only at  the point of death, and Job will still be faithful.

It is an unfair contest, one that God ultimately wins. Even after Job has lost all his family, all his wealth and all of his considerable social standing, he still worships God. The devil loses.

At the end, God returns to Job all of his wealth and standing, and gives him new children to replace those who died in the test.

There was only one problem. Job wasn’t aware there was a test. All he saw was his life falling apart and the loss of his children, along with everything else. It was, as I said, unfair. Yes, Job passed with flying colors, but at such cost.

Job rails against God. Tell me why, he cries out. Tell me what I did wrong and I will show you that you are wrong. His “friends” come and tell him again and again that he obviously sinned because God only punishes sinner, not righteous people.

It is a nightmare that probably lasted for a few years.

At the end of it, God tells Job – nothing. Not a thing. No explanation, nothing. What he says, in essence, is I am God and can do what I want. Job accepts this because of the kind of man he was. And things go back to normal.

Except that his beloved children are gone, his wife is hurt almost beyond reclamation, his friends see a God who does whatever he wants to do no matter how you have tried to serve him.

But the one thing God never does is condemn Job for complaining. He just tells him that this is the way things are and that is it. He is God and made the world and can work as he wants.

Job accepts it.

But it was not fair. Yes, Job got back all his stuff and more, it says. He also got back more children. But the first children were killed in quite a horrible accident and they will never be back. He will bear their loss the rest of his life.

He will also bear the fact that his God turned on him to make a bet with the devil.

Because no matter how you put it, God did. Yes, God is God. He ‘wills and works according to his good measure.” Yes, he is the Alpha and Omega, the First and Last, the Beginning and the End. Yes, he is Lord.

And quite frankly, any God that you can predict is not a real God. A real God is one who is unpredictable, one who is far, far greater than you can imagine. Otherwise, he is like the old Greek and Roman gods who were just great big people.

And you have to recognize that there is a capriciousness in God that can be uncomfortable. No matter how long you have served him, nor how hard you have tried to be what he wants, he will still allow bad things to happen to you.

Yes, he may care for you and see you and number the hairs on your head. But he will also allow one of his loving children to contract a debilitating disease that serves no purpose and brings 24/7 pain.

And there is no reason why.

That is the worst part. If we had sinned, that would be one thing. But for those who are simple worshippers to have things happen that are beyond belief is hard to accept.

For those who have served him for years to be cast aside is hard to accept. For those who love him to be ignored is hard to accept.

And the worst part is, I have seen the righteous forsaken and his seed begging for bread. At least I have seen them homeless, without the basic needs of transportation and medicine.

And I do not know why.

Yet, I say, as Job did, I know that my Redeemer lives and cares for me. he is still my God, even though he has disappointed me.

love is the center of all we do

Let love be your greatest aim; nevertheless, ask also for the special abilities the Holy Spirit gives, and especially the gift of prophecy, being able to preach the messages of God. (1 Corinthians 14:1)

Love is the center of all we do. But there is more that God will give us.

God gives us love. It comes from him, because he is the Source of all love. He is, in fact, love. 1 John 4 tells us that. So there is no real way to have real love in your life without having him.

You might have a simulacrum of love, something that looks like it. After all, the image of God is so pervasive in this universe that you would see ghosts of him everywhere. This universe was built by love and on love, so it stands to reason love will be in it everywhere.

Boys will love girls, parents will love children and vice-versa – there will be love in all aspects of life. But it is not the real thing. It is just reflected love.

Without God, all you have is reflected love. You don’t have real love inside if you do not have God inside.

But when you get the love of God inside, what do you do with it? He doesn’t give us his love just so we can sit around and be happy. He gives it to us so we can enjoy it first of all and share it with others second.

That is the problem with the over emphasis of tongues. They are a private thing, something you do between you and God. As Paul says later in this chapter, tongues don’t really do anybody any good except you. You talk to God and he understands you and that is good.

But how do tongues bring anyone else to the Lord? They don’t.

Paul says that if you want something useful, want prophecy. Yes, tongues are good and he mentions that he speaks in tongues as much as anybody, but it is prophecy, or preaching, that brings people to Jesus.

You want something useful, want prophecy. If you really want to be an effective child of God, desire the ability to tell others about Jesus. That is the gift that brings others into the kingdom.

daily java

Daily Java:

Then the Lord asked Satan, “Have you considered my servant, Job. He is the finest man in all the earth – a good man who fears God and will have nothing to do with evil.” “Why shouldn’t he, when you pay him so well?” Satan scoffed. (Job 1:8-9)

To some, there is always a mitigating factor. They would do something if only they were rewarded as well as someone else they notice.

In the beginning, satan was one of the angels of God. We are not sure of the relationship or who it all happened, but this we know: once he stood before God. And if Job is any indication of anything beyond just a morality tale, he may still do so.

But like a lot of people who are annoyed that they have not done better, he complained to God.

God said, look at Job. He is a good man. Satan said, sure he is. You pay him well. Pay me well and I would be good, too.

Of course, God had paid him well, giving him all that heaven had to offer in a literal, physical sense. He was an angel, with all the privileges attendant to such an office.

But he lost it through greed. He wanted more. And now he is again, wanting more.

Sure, I would be holy, righteous, happy, fulfilled, if you would give me stuff like you gave Job.

The Lord knew that it was not the stuff that Job served him for. It was Job’s love for God. But satan was so full of his own greed, he couldn’t see that.

When satan took everything away, Job still worshiped. When God pointed that out, Job’s response: Well, of course. Don’t make me sick and I’d serve too.

Patently false, but satan’s way of thinking. Reward me and I will serve. I rewarded you and you turned, says God. Well, reward me again and I would probably start again.

It is always about what have you done for me lately. No backstory, no memory of what had come before, just give me now.

Ingratitude is one of the worst things we can do, whether to God or each other. Taking what has been offered as one’s due rather than a gift, forgetting what has been done in the past, greed for more. All these kill a relationship.

They sure killed the one between satan and God, for sure. And they will kill any between us, too.

here is a real anomaly in my life

Here is a real anomaly in my life. I cannot figure it out. And it has contributed to the ending of my ministry.

The Lord gave me a heart for the Kingdom and put me in narrow minded churches who only see themselves.
The Lord gave me a love of the modern and put me in churches that worship the old.
The Lord gave me a love of hospitality and put me in churches where the pastor is disconnected from the church.
The Lord gave me a love of teaching and put me in churches that only want to listen to preaching.
The Lord gave me a love for youth and put me in churches full of old people.
The Lord gave me a love of progressivism and put me in churches that worship tradition.
The Lord gave me a love of new ideas and put me in churches that only want to listen to old ideas.
The Lord gave me a thirst for knowledge and put me in churches where they feel they know all they need to know.

Why am I where I am? Why has the Lord put these things in me and put me somewhere that I cannot use them?

daily java

Daily Java:

Our bodies have many parts, but the many parts make up only one body when they are all put together. So it is with the :body” of Christ. Each of  us is a part of the one body of Christ. Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves and some are free. But the Holy Spirit has fitted us all together into one body. We have been baptized into Christ’s body by the one Spirit, and have all been given that same Holy Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:12-13 LB)

In the church, we fit together.

I have always said and I still believe it, that God has put into each church those parts of the body that are needed to make that church grow. Now people may not use them, or acknowledge that they are there. But they are.

It stands to reason that a God big enough to speak light into existence is also big enough to make a church grow.

The problem comes when people will not acknowledge their gifts. They do not want to do whatever it is that God gave them.

Maybe they want to do something else, or don’t want to do anything at all. But when they refuse to do what God has given them to do, they will never be blessed in their lives. It is only through obedience to him that we are really blessed.

Of course, some churches have destroyed that relationship God has with them by constant fighting and division. In those cases, it is better that the church die and start again than continue.

A church can get these bad things into its spiritual DNA so that any time they get any size, they will come into an argument or power struggle. When that happens, they break up again.

God will never bless a church that tears or breaks apart that holy structure, and he will never bless people who do so.

The church might get big for a while, but underneath it all is that unholy root of division, or desire for power, and sooner or later it will come out.

It is like building a skyscraper on a fault line. Sooner or later the fault line will shift and the building will come down.

That is what Jesus was talking about in Matthew 7 when he told his people to pay attention to God. Those who paid attention, he said, were like those who built their buildings on solid ground. When the storms of life came – and they will – the building would stand firm.

Those who built their buildings on shaky ground, sand he called it, would have nothing but destruction for their trouble. The sand, the shaky ground is the bitterness, division, church politics, those who desire power to the point that they will destroy the church.

A church with those attributes is at odds with the fruits of the Spirit and cannot grow for long. Again, sooner or later, it will have something happen to it.

No church founded off a church split has grown for long. It may get big and look exciting, but there is cancer at the base. It will come out one day.

When we work together, we do what God wants and we honor him. And the Spirit works in us.

daily java

Daily Java:

For I fully expect and hope that I will never be ashamed, but that I will continue to be bold for Christ, as I have been in the past. And I trust that my life will bring honor to Christ, whether I live or die. For to me, living means living for Christ, and dying is even better. But if I live, I can do more fruitful work for Christ. So I really don’t know which is better. (Philippians 1:20-22)

There does come a point in your life when you get tired and are ready to be through. It is not that you seek death, or anything weird like that, but you just are through.

That is what happened to John, the apostle, when he said at the end of the book of Revelation: He who is the faithful witness to all these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon!” .Amen! Come, Lord Jesus!
He was ready. He was old and tired and just ready.

And I think that sometimes myself. I am solidly in my 60’s now and have stuff wrong with me. Just general stuff, of course, not cancer or the like. At least, I don’t think so. But then again, sometimes Ella looks at me oddly. Maybe she knows something I don’t.

Anyway, I am probably fine. But I am also at the point that if God took me, I would be glad.

The only problem is that my wife would be alone. I also would not have any more chances to witness to my son and my grandson. I would not be able to help Pastor Mel understand hard passages of scripture and show him the other hand.

The thing is, leaving my own wonderful and valuable indispensability behind, there are things I need to do. For one thing I would leave my wife and who would lift her scooter into and out of the car? I am our primary cook, so she would end up eating junk or –blecch – frozen dinners.

I would not be there for my son or to see my grandson, Brody, grow up. I would rather give him stuff than have him inherit them. I’d like to watch his eyes when I give him my broadsword, or the other stuff I plan to unload – I mean bestow on him.

Other people I would not be able to touch if I were dead.

That is what the apostle Paul was talking about. There were people he wanted to touch, to teach, to talk to. Places he wanted to see. Ideas he wanted to pursue.

And he couldn’t do it if he were gone. All he would be would be happy in the presence of Jesus in heaven.

I don’t know. That doesn’t sound so bad, though. But I know how he felt.