daily java

Daily Java:

She dresses in fine linen and purple gowns.
Her husband is well known at the city gates,
    where he sits with the other civic leaders. (Proverbs 31:22-23)

Long ago I promised sister Ella I would tell her if something didn’t look good on her.

There is nothing worse than a woman going to the store, picking out some article of clothing that she just knows will look good, putting it on, wearing it out for her husband to admire and she doesn’t know she looks like a truck with a badly fitting tarp.

So I promised her I would not say it looked good unless it did. And Ella likes that.

Now to some people this is being mean. I have had people really gripe at me for my insensitivity in telling her that something looked bad when I knew full well she wanted it. Even if she looked bad, she wanted it. And that matters to some people.

But really, what is worse? Telling her it looked good when it made her look terrible? Or telling her it made her look bad because you want her to look good and you love her? It is a lot meaner to tell her she looks good when she doesn’t. You have lied.

After all, I want my wife to look good. I look bad enough for the both of us. And just about everything she has looks good on her. I picked it out. She tried it on and I told her it looked good so she bought it. Otherwise, it would be a waste of money.

If she bought something that looked bad, sooner or later, she would figure it out and then not wear it and it would be a waste of money. And she would feel guilty. We do not spend much on clothing, but what we spend I want to make count.

She knows that she has one objective view in the world that is concerned with her looking good. I love her too much to let her look silly in bad fitting clothing.

I want her to look good. And she does. To help her do this I edit her clothing. And I have to. She hates change. If I didn’t help her change her style, she would dress like she did in 1973. I have forced her into every new change of fashion that she looked good in. I never bought her spandex or tight things or disco clothes or stuff like that. But most women really don’t have any business wearing that sort of thing anyway.

She sees something she likes. She asks me what I think. I give her a preliminary opinion. And I am brutally honest. Some things I know automatically will not look good. When I am, she knows that when she goes to church or wherever, she will have clothes that look good on her, the style of which fit her.

Then she goes into the dressing room and comes out. I tell her exactly what is right and wrong with it. After all, salespeople will lie because they want the sale.

I was with a guy the other day outside a dressing room and his wife came out and looked like a giant badly dressed sausage. Her clothes were terrible. She loved them and told him he did too. So he agreed and asked me. I said fine, sure. They didn’t ask what I thought, just if I agreed. So I did. And she was going to look horrible.

Not Ella. Everything she has fits her to a T, whatever that means. And I like it, because I like to be with a well-dressed woman. And I like being with her.

If you love someone, you will be honest. It means you care for them.

daily java

Daily Java:

Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the reign of King Herod. About that time some wise men from eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose, and we have come to worship him.” King Herod was deeply disturbed when he heard this, as was everyone in Jerusalem. He called a meeting of the leading priests and teachers of religious law and asked, “Where is the Messiah supposed to be born?” “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they said, “for this is what the prophet wrote:
‘And you, O Bethlehem in the land of Judah,
      are not least among the ruling cities of Judah,
 for a ruler will come from you
      who will be the shepherd for my people Israel.’”
Then Herod called for a private meeting with the wise men, and he learned from them the time when the star first appeared. Then he told them, “Go to Bethlehem and search carefully for the child. And when you find him, come back and tell me so that I can go and worship him, too!” (Matthew 2:1-8)

Jesus was a blessing to all who were around him. At the same time, he was a threat to all that was around him.

He was a blessing because he was the Savior, the Prince of Peace come to this earth to save men’s souls, to bring us back to God. In that respect, he was the gift of God promised throughout the ages, that which the world looked toward since Adam brought sin into the world.

But he was also a threat. He represented change and change is never welcome. Everyone around would be affected. But some would like the change, would appreciate and love being affected. Some, on the other hand, would not.

King Herod did not. He didn’t appreciate the change at all. In fact, he did everything he could to stop the change, including the wholesale murder of all children under the age of two in the city of Bethlehem in hopes of killing that agent of hope. He didn’t want to worship, he wanted to stop Jesus.

But that agent of hope was not going to be stopped by someone as pathetic as King Herod. Yes, the king was powerful, but God had something better in mind.

God had Jesus in mind. And Jesus was going to come to this earth, no matter what a king of anyone else thought.

That is the problem with Jesus. He is Change. And the world hates to be changed from what it is to what it could be. That is why the world, governments, Hollywood, everything else fights him so hard. He is good, they are not. And they resist him.

But he will win, no matter what else may happen. His is superior strength and has endured for over 2000 years. And it will endure until God is through.

daily java

Daily Java:

I appeal to you to show kindness to my child, Onesimus. I became his father in the faith while here in prison. Onesimus hasn’t been of much use to you in the past, but now he is very useful to both of us. I am sending him back to you, and with him comes my own heart. (Philemon 10-12)

A slave stole some of his master’s things and then ran away. Then he found Jesus and knew he had to do what he could to make up for it. But in the meantime, he had also found the apostle Paul. Paul had made him a child of God, but more than this. God had changed him. He was now what his name meant in Greek: Useful.

He had been useless, now he was useful.

He had probably been a lousy worker, always griping, sullen, hiding from the people he was supposed to be working for. He had probably stolen other things, but one day he saw a chance to make a big score and with it, gain his freedom.

The man he worked for was a good man and kind. But it didn’t make any difference. Onesimus wanted want was “his” and was willing to steal to get it.

But contact with the apostle Paul changed him. He saw how he could be better, how he could serve God. However, he had to not only change his heart, he had to change his relationship with his old boss.

Paul wanted him for an assistant in his ministry, but he also knew things had to be made better between the two. So he sent him back.

We don’t know what happened, if Onesimus came back or if Philemon, his old master, had him put in jail or what.

But it is absolutely true that, if you can change what you have done, you need to. If you have stolen, and you can repay, you need to do so.

Sometimes, the amount of things you have done and the distance involved make it impossible to repay. There was a classmate of mine in the seminary I attended that was told by our teacher, who was a rather black and white man theologically – no room for any variance, that he had to repay anything he had stolen. The man said it would be almost impossible.

The teacher asked, well, how much money are we looking at here. The young man replied, hundreds of thousands of dollars. As it turned out, in his former life, he had stolen to feed a drug habit. And there was no way he could repay it all back. If he could even have found out who he had stolen from, he would have worked the rest of his life and more just to repay. He could not.

But he had changed and would steal no longer.

Some things you cannot repay. But you can quit doing what you were doing and become useful for Christ.

Then and only then he can use you.

nothing but the word of our God lasts

A voice said, “Shout!”
      I asked, “What should I shout?”
“Shout that people are like the grass.
      Their beauty fades as quickly
           as the flowers in a field.
      The grass withers and the flowers fade
          beneath the breath of the Lord.
      And so it is with people.
 The grass withers and the flowers fade,
         but the word of our God stands forever.” (Isaiah 40:6-8)

Forty years ago, I had been out of the army for about a month. Civilian life was still new and exciting to me.

Since I was a draftee, I still had a couple of years of reserve left. I didn’t want to do it, but then again, there was nothing I could do about it.

I showed up for reserve the first month with my new muttonchop sideburns. No one cared that I was there, no one noticed me. I left and went home and never went again.

And I grew my sideburns and mustache long along with my hair.

Forty years ago. That is four decades. And in many ways it seems like yesterday.

We lived in an apartment on Lawndale St in Houston, TX. I worked for Bell Telephone and Ella had a job with Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Corp. We were having a good time.

The old song says, “Those were the days, my friend, we thought they’d never end, we’d sing and dance forever and a day.” It seemed like it would go on forever.

Still newly married (January of that year), still reveling in the new familiarity that was the United States after a year and a half in Germany for me, six months for Ella. Stores were open late (they closed at five in Germany), hamburgers were huge, all the stuff. It was just plain fun.

Forty years ago.

So what do I tell my kids? What do I tell kids in general?

I tell them people are like grass. I tell them the grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our God stands forever. That’s what I tell them. Things that seemed so permanent are gone. And America has changed so massively, and not for the better.

Nothing but the word of our God lasts. Nothing but his love and grace are eternal.

Of course, when you are young, and the blood runs hot in your veins, you don’t think of the temporality of life. You are invulnerable. You cannot die. You are strong and healthy and full of life.

September of 1971. My hair was getting longer, I had traded fatigues for bellbottoms, I was making friends and driving fast and just in general having a good time. “In the Year 2525” and “Admiral Halsey” were on the radio, Nixon was president, gas in Houston was less than twenty cents a gallon and we were feeling fine.

But – beauty fades as quickly as the flowers in a field. The grass withers and the flowers fade beneath the breath of the Lord.

Stuff stops being so easy and you get older. You get tired, arthritis replaces good muscles, you get cataracts, yada yada.

Unfortunately, like it was with Isaiah, people do not want to hear that things will change. And sometimes I cannot tell them.

But it surely is true.

daily java

Daily Java: 

Each Sabbath found Paul at the synagogue, trying to convince the Jews and Greeks alike. And after Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul spent all his time preaching the word. He testified to the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah. But when they opposed and insulted him, Paul shook the dust from his clothes and said, “Your blood is upon your own heads—I am innocent. From now on I will go preach to the Gentiles.” (Acts 18:4-6)

There are people you want to reach for Jesus and it hurts that you cannot. Some of them are people you were acquainted with and maybe even loved, who had been a part of your church, but turned away. It could even be hat they became adversarial in their relationship with your church and begin to try to tear it up. And it hurts you when that happens.

What can you do?

Many times, you can do nothing. You have told them you love them and have reached out to them. But they are not going to come back and they continue in their destructive ways.

All you can do in this instance is say okay. If that is how you want it, then that is how it will be.

It is not your fault they are doing what they are doing and you have honestly tried to reach out to them. They have decided to be this way and there is nothing you can do.

You finally, and it may be in tears and sorrow, have to shake their “dust” off your feet.

The apostle Paul loved his fellow countrymen, the Jews. That was natural. He was raised Jewish, he had all his education in the Jewish faith, he was Jewish. But they had repudiated the gospel of Jesus Christ to the point of physically hurting him badly. They had followed him around, trying to undo what he had done and had even tried to kill him.

What could he do? He could do nothing. So he told them okay. That is the way you want it and I will have to allow it to be that way. After all, he could do nothing to change it.

You may love someone, and they may have loved you in the past. They may have been a vital part of the church where you are. But something happened. You may not even know what it was. But it changed them. And now they have placed themselves in the position of enemies.

You did nothing to put them there and you can do nothing to change them.

There comes a time when you have to say that is the way it is going to be and accept it. Paul did, and had done everything he knew how to do, accomplishing nothing. As far as Jesus was concerned, the Jews were rabidly against him. He brought fundamental change that they did not want.

Since the change had to be, there was nothing Paul could do short of compromising his ethic to make them come over to his side and he had to accept it. It hurt, but he did. He even said, in Romans 9, that he would accept eternal punishment himself if he could change his people.

But he couldn’t.

You cannot change some denominations, you cannot change some groups, you cannot change some people no matter how hard you try. And all you usually get is hurt in the process.

If you didn’t cause it by some action of yours – and sometimes even if you did – you cannot change their attitude. If you caused it and asked forgiveness and they refused, then you are not bound. If you didn’t cause it, you have no reason to be held guilty.

Sometimes you grow in a direction they do not like, or change your mind and it makes them mad, or try something new and they do not want anything new. Sometimes the reason they are mad is small and petty. Sometimes it is large. But whatever it is, you cannot change it.

What you can do is, as Paul said, Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us (Philippians 3:13-14).

You have to move on, whether they do or not. Even though it hurts.

daily java

Daily Java:

Soon the news reached the apostles and other believers in Judea that the Gentiles had received the word of God. But when Peter arrived back in Jerusalem, the Jewish believers criticized him. “You entered the home of Gentiles and even ate with them!” they said. Then Peter told them exactly what had happened. (Acts 11:1-4)

If there was anybody who was considered a leader in the early church, it was the apostle Peter. It was he who preached on the Day of Pentecost, it was he who, along with John, was whipped for preaching. As to the kingdom of God, he was a man to be reckoned with.

Yet he did something everybody thought was wrong. He took the gospel to the wrong people and, not only that, but he also ate with them in their own homes. To a conservative jew, this was heresy.

So they called him on the carpet. “How dare you do things differently that how we have done them in the past!”

It didn’t matter that this was Peter, the great apostle of Jesus. All that mattered was that Peter had done something they didn’t want him to do.

When Peter calmly explained why he had done it, that Jesus himself had told him to do it, it stopped everybody. To their credit, their response was:

When the others heard this, they stopped objecting and began praising God. They said, “We can see that God has also given the Gentiles the privilege of repenting of their sins and receiving eternal life.” (Acts 11:18)

No matter how respected the minister of a church is, sooner or later he does something that goes against the grain of the prominent members of the church. It may be his reaching out to the wrong people so that they will come to church. It may be the inclusion of the wrong kind of music in the worship services. He may decide to preach out of the wrong translation of the Bible. he may decide not to wear a tie on Sunday morning.

Sometimes the offense is so small in relation to the outcry. Sometimes it is not.

With his actions at the house of Cornelius, Peter challenged all of the preconceptions of the early church. He said, in effect, there are others besides you that can be in this church. And there will be other ways for the church to go than the ways you want.

That always makes some people mad, when you tell them that they are not in charge. After all, they have seniority, they are charter members, they have given a lot to this church. And because of all that, they feel they should have first say in how things go.

The funny thing is, Peter was one of those people. He went reluctantly to Cornelius’ house. After all Cornelius was a Gentile and Jews considered all Gentiles – 99.5% of the world – to be unclean. Their tiny fraction of the world’s population were the only ones who were “Clean and holy.”

But God made Peter by first showing him a vision of animals considered unclean by the Jews and telling him that what he had made, they were no longer to consider unclean. And then, as Peter spoke to Cornelius and his household, the gift of tongues fell on the listeners.

That was the end. Peter had to accept it. And again to his credit, he did. And because he did, the church had to also.

It is hard to change, but we have to. We are not in charge of how the church will go. God is. And we follow him.

daily java

Daily Java:

Jesus entered Jericho and made his way through the town. There was a man there named Zacchaeus. He was the chief tax collector in the region, and he had become very rich. He tried to get a look at Jesus, but he was too short to see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree beside the road, for Jesus was going to pass that way. When Jesus came by, he looked up at Zacchaeus and called him by name. “Zacchaeus!” he said. “Quick, come down! I must be a guest in your home today.” Zacchaeus quickly climbed down and took Jesus to his house in great excitement and joy. But the people were displeased. “He has gone to be the guest of a notorious sinner,” they grumbled. Meanwhile, Zacchaeus stood before the Lord and said, “I will give half my wealth to the poor, Lord, and if I have cheated people on their taxes, I will give them back four times as much!” Jesus responded, “Salvation has come to this home today, for this man has shown himself to be a true son of Abraham. For the Son of Man  came to seek and save those who are lost.” (Luke 19:1-10)

Jesus always made those who were in leadership mad. Instead of kowtowing to them as he was supposed to (at least in their minds), he went to the wrong kind of people. Zacchaeus was the wrong kind of people.

Zacchaeus was a tax collector. A tax collector worked with the occupation army taking taxes from the Jewish people on a commission basis. The Romans had to have a certain amount and the more the tax collectors could get, the more they could keep. It was a situation ripe with graft and extortion.

They were considered traitors. And as a result, they were hated.

It was the same feeling as the French had in World War II when French women would give themselves to the Nazi soldiers. If the French caught them, they would shave their heads and throw them into the street. The French felt the same was towards anyone who colluded with the Nazis.

The Jews felt this way about those who worked for the Romans, especially the tax collectors.

But who did Jesus go to dinner with? A tax collector. Who did he hang around with? People like this. All of them felt welcome with Jesus.

While he was at Zacchaeus’ house, the people (mostly the leadership and those they could get to gripe with them) were mad because he had gone to the house of a notorious sinner.

While they were complaining, inside the house, Zacchaeus blurted out that he would give half his wealth to the poor and recompense anyone that felt they had been cheated on their  taxes four hundred percent.

The leadership whined because things weren’t done their way and Zacchaeus did things God’s way. good things happened inside where Jesus was while stupid things happened outside where Jesus wasn’t.

The outsiders brought Jesus in while the insiders left Jesus out.

The outsiders always felt comfortable with Jesus and the establishment didn’t. But because the outsiders were with Jesus, and because Jesus is the kind of person who not only loved people, but changed them, the outsiders became better. The establishment didn’t.

It is the same today. The Christian establishment is never comfortable in the presence of the real Jesus. They like the one they have cobbled together over the years, a Jesus who is as judgmental and traditional as they are.

While churches that portray the real Jesus are changing lives, churches with the judgmental and traditional Jesus are dying.

And it should be that way. Jesus did not come to make people happy and to keep things the way they were. He came to change people. He was the ultimate change agent. He never left anyone unchanged.

Even if the change he left was anger, people were always changed when he came around.

I want to be changed and I want to have a place where people are changed into his glorious image (2 Corinthians 3:18).

Without that change, that glorious change, Jesus’ coming is worthless. Unless Jesus had gone with Zacchaeus and his group, nothing good would have been accomplished that day.

Jesus wanted change and he brought change whether people wanted it or not.

a priest after the order of melchizedek

While Jesus was here on earth, he offered prayers and pleadings, with a loud cry and tears, to the one who could rescue him from death. And God heard his prayers because of his deep reverence for God. Even though Jesus was God’s Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered. In this way, God qualified him as a perfect High Priest, and he became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey him. And God designated him to be a High Priest in the order of Melchizedek. (Hebrews 5:7-10 NLT)

Jesus was a priest after the order of Melchizedek. So since we are priests like Jesus (Hebrews 2:9 But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light) so are you.

Isn’t that great? Just think. You are a priest after the order of Melchizedek . Doesn’t that make you feel better?

Or at least it would if you knew who Melchizedek was and what difference it makes.

Melchizedek was a Priest/King of Salem in the time of Abraham. Salem was the city that later became Jerusalem.

In Genesis 14, there had been a war. Some of the neighboring tribes got into a fight and ended up capturing Lot, Abraham’s favorite nephew. Abraham went and whipped them solid with his tribal army.

On the way back home, Melchizedek came out and said hi and gave Abraham some lunch. The Bible says he was the king of Salem and a priest of God Most High (Genesis 14:18). Abraham gave Melchizedek a tenth of all of his spoils he had gotten from the war. When one group won, they got to keep all the stuff the other group had, along with a lot of slaves.

Melchizedek, the Priest/King of Salem was only in the Bible just a few verses. But then, several thousand years later, along came Jesus. The priesthood of Israel was pretty well cut and dried. You couldn’t be a priest unless you were part of the tribe of Levi, one of the twelve tribes of Israel. If you weren’t,  you went to church, but that was all.

When Jesus came, God changed everything. That is what the book of Hebrews was written to show, that something new had come.

Jesus was born in the tribe of Judah. This was a good tribe and all, but it was not the priest tribe. Because of that, there was no way Jesus could have been a priest under the Old Testament law.

But God wanted him to be. And God changed the whole system. He went back before the Jews were even born, before Israel, before all of the people of God to Abraham, the father of the faithful of all times. Before Israel was started, Abraham gave tithes (a tenth of all his stuff) to Melchizedek and Melchizedek took it.

God says, that was the kind of priest he wanted Jesus to be. He wanted everything to be different now. No more would people be children of God simply because they were born to children of God. Now everybody comes to God themselves.  Everybody is adopted (Romans 9).

And the new King, Jesus, who was also the High Priest, would not be a hereditary High Priest like all the others. He would be different.

Melchizedek was different. He came to God himself, by himself, with no help from priests or intermediaries. He just came to God and talked to God. He was his own priest.

And above all, he was before the old law that the Jews lived under. He was his own man.

God says, in Hebrews, now we are our own people. We don’t have to go to a priest or a preacher or somebody ecclesiastical to go to God. We can come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most (Hebrews 4:16).

No more religious hierarchy. We all come to God ourselves, just like Melchizedek.

What it means is that we are free from structure. We all go to God ourselves. We are our own priests.

That what it means to be a priest after the order of Melchizedek. Nobody but God can tell you what to do.

daily java

Daily Java: Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe. (Hebrews 12:28).

We live in an uncertain world. You never know what company is going to be there tomorrow.

In the movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey, it is interesting to see how many companies that the writers used for the year 2001 that were no longer there when 2001 actually came. Pan Am and Southwestern Bell were two that come to mind immediately. Nobody in 1969 when the movie was made could have possibly guessed that the mega-giant Pan Am would go out of business or that Southwestern Bell would be broken up into the mini-Bells.

A lot of things we saw as big and powerful thirty or even less years ago are gone now. Attitudes have completely changed, things that were acceptable no longer are, things that were unthinkable are now commonplace. Jobs that were lifelong and solid now are lost in a global shuffle. People with real talent cannot even find a job.

Because of that, we get to worrying. We have gone beyond what Alvin Toffler called Future Shock in his book of the same name and are into fear. Future shock was a symptom of older people who had seen society change so much it left them reeling. We are no longer reeling, just untrusting of anything.

It is easy to put that lack of trust on God. But we can know this. We do not serve a God who may or may not be there, and we are not in a kingdom that might to default, that is unsteady or uncertain. We serve El Shaddai, God Almighty and are part of the Kingdom of Heaven and even of his family.

We can know that he will always be there, always keep his promises, always love us. We are in the only unchangeable situation it he universe.

When God set up the kingdom, he set it up on the fact that Jesus was the son of God. That was the rock that Jesus talked about in Matthew 16:18 – on this rock I will build my church. His life and his ministry were the only sure things.

Now worship styles may change, translations of the Bible will change, ministries, ideas, everything we do will change. And there is nothing wrong with all that changing. None of that is real nor part of the gospel. It is all our part and changes with every culture.

Jesus on the other hand, is real and unchangeable. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow (Hebrews 13:8). He will never change. His message will never change. His love and his grace will never change.

Matthew 24:35 says Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. God will never change.

And we praise his name.

you cannot change your life

The following article was written to inmates in the Creek County Jail in Oklahoma in 1996

Someone in jail was telling me not long ago that as soon as he were able to get his life straightened out, he was going to become a Christian.

Of course, if he could get his life straightened out by himself, he wouldn't be in jail right now.

People can't seem to realize that, though. If you could do it -- anything at all -- by yourself, you wouldn't need Jesus.

If you could change your own life, make your own right decisions, chart a good course for yourself, you wouldn't be behind bars.

You can't do it. You tried and here you are. You've failed.

So what do you do? You have to admit that you can't do it. You have to admit your defeat and ask Jesus into your heart to change your heart for you. He, on the other hand, can do it and by himself, too.

The Bible says that God alone knows the heart, and that he alone can move the heart to the right place (Jeremiah 17:9).

The Bible also tells us that when we ourselves try to move our own hearts in the right direction, we end up as wretched men, people that are miserable (Romans 7).

Let him in to change you and move you to a better place. In him alone is real freedom.

forgetting what is ahead

This article was written to inmates at the Creek County Jail in 1996.

Maybe you remember that old story of the guy at the Alamo who drew a line in the dirt with his sword and told everyone who wanted to help set Texas free to cross over it and fight the Mexicans.

The apostle Paul, a prisoner himself at the time he wrote it, talked about such a line in life when he wrote: One thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

You are at a line today and you need to step over it. You can either choose to stay on the side of the line you're on now and keep on getting in trouble.

In this life, you always run the risk of going back to jail or even prison. Your friends take advantage of you, you never have enough money and feel desperate for more, you are unhappy and so is everyone you know. No one loves you and you hate yourself and your life. Life is miserable.

Or you can do like Paul said, you can forget what is behind and strain on to what is ahead. Ahead is the grace of God and his help in living your life.

In this life, you know that there is Someone who loves you, that you are part of a group that will help you live right, there is forgiveness and purpose and meaning to what you do. Jail can be a distant memory of another life. God loves you and you can feel great about yourself and those around you. Life is great.

One of these lives is your in your future. You can choose which one if you will cross the line and accept the love of Jesus. All you have to do is ask him into your heart and accept his grace. He will change your life.

changing my mind

I have changed my mind theologically dramatically over the past twenty years. What started out as absolutely immutable I soon found out wasn’t.

I still maintain a hard-core conservative view of Christianity (I believe in the virgin birth and in the bodily resurrection of Jesus, along with the infallibility of scripture), but I have moved from one side to the other when it comes to changing my view of how God works and what Christianity does.

In my life, there has been a shift from denominational conservatism to theological conservatism.

These are not the same, no matter what anyone says. Denominational conservatism means that you view your denomination as the standard of conservatism. Theological conservatism means that you are at the right (whether center or hard right) of the theological world in general.

I just read about Reinhold Niebuhr. From the little I have seen, he too made a strong move in his life. he evidently moved from viewing sin as the fault of society to viewing sin as the fault of our own pride. That is a long way to go.

He began as a liberal minister, turning to Neo-Orthodox theology, from liberation theology to a far more conservative view of sin.

He was a supporter of just war and was a phenomenal influence on a lot of politicians on both the left and the right, I suppose depending upon at what point in his writings they read him.

Both Obama and McCain viewed him as their favorite philosopher. So did Carter and Hillary Clinton.

A strange potpourri of politicians to go to the same font for inspiration.

Christian Century Magazine used to have a column on the back page, I believe, that was entitled something like “Why I Changed My Mind”. It was full of articles of people who had moved theologically, usually becoming liberal, since the magazine is liberal.

But it began me thinking (too much, according to some of my old colleagues) and the move was rather fast from then.

I began to move 25 years ago when I went through some difficulties in my life, my ministry and my marriage.

It began to be apparent to my limited knowledge that what I was defending was not necessarily the thing to be defended.

I was in a very conservative, opinion-as-theology-driven denomination and began to change my mind. Within ten years, I had to move out of it.

Then the Lord began to open my eyes further and I shifted even more.

But the thing is, I changed my mind.

It is always good to see others who have changed their minds, and fascinating to see the process.

More later.

daily java

Daily Java: Several days later Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was a Jewess. He sent for Paul and listened to him as he spoke about faith in Christ Jesus. As Paul discoursed on righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come, Felix was afraid and said, "That's enough for now! You may leave. When I find it convenient, I will send for you. (Acts 24:24-25)

That can be a problem. You know you need to do something, but you do not want to do it.

Maybe you are living in a way that you like, or maybe feel you cannot change without a lot of effort. Maybe you are caught in a situation that to change it would be earth-shattering. Maybe you are just too lazy to change, or it would just be too hard.

Felix, the governor here, had a lot of respect for the apostle Paul, but he also had a lot of fear of the Jews. They could cause a lot of trouble and headaches for him and he just didn’t want to mess with them.

Whatever the reason, his problem was that he knew Paul was right. He needed to change and he didn’t want to.

We get in that problem a lot ourselves. We need to change our way of eating, or we need to do more exercise, or we need to get rid of a friend that is hurting us. Maybe the nights out where we drink too much cause a lot of problems with our family. Maybe just a little thing like a car that is causing us so much expense but we like it.

Whatever it is, we need to change, but we just feel it is too much trouble. After all, we like the food we eat, or the friends we have. Sure, they are hurting us, but changing just seems too hard.

Changing is hard. But sometimes we have to. Felix recognized that he needed to quit being the person he was and be something better.

But after all, he was a Roman governor, a position he didn’t get by being a good guy, for sure. And to change, he would have to give up a lot of stuff that he thought was fun.

He thought, there will come a time when I can do all this, and then I will listen.

We don’t know what happened, but chances are, he never found the time.

Then he died and it was too late.

I hope that doesn’t happen to you.