Blog Posts before 2019
God is Good Gamez
‘God is Good’ Gamez: “G cubed”. June 1st 2018 to 1/1/2020
Escape rooms are booming as people enjoy working together to figure out how to get free. “Price is right” and other game shows continue to cash in on our enjoyment of games, prizes and challenges of every variety. People make money playing video games, skiing down a mountain, playing chess and even eating way too many hot dogs. Our culture is ablaze with the desire for conquest and measurable victory and no-one ever appears to question these flames. Participation in real learning is key. The Edgar Dale cone of experience shows that verbal communication impacts long term retention the least and ‘Direct purposeful experience’ teaches the best.
Why then is the primary method most ministries try to impact people of all ages for God primarily verbal only? Growing up in kids clubs of various kinds we always had game time separate from the Bible teaching. This unintentionally communicates to children that game time is fun and the time to learn about God is cramped and sterile and all about sitting still and looking like you are paying attention and care. Technology overload shrinks attention spans while children and adults alike are starving for structured yet very interactive experience with the active and alive truths of God’s Word.
My passion is playing interactive, teaching games with kids and adults where relational needs and learning needs are melded to bring about God ‘encounters’ that happen organically right in the midst of relational yet structured fun and healthy competition.
Measuring progress as feedback to motivate improvement is the life blood of the world Economy. Imagine trying to do business without measures of performance. Measures are not the problem (Try running a game show without having lines to separate winning and losing.), motives behind the measures are a gigantic problem. In talking with people about this concept I have had many well meaning followers of Jesus express firm concerns about using points and trophies as a tool to help those who want to participate from their heart.
For me, refraining from doing anything because some may not want to do it, or may question the motives of those who do, is not a reason to shrink back from anything. Being a partaker by definition is a personal choice. When food is offered, if the person offered chooses to not partake, it does not mean the food is bad, it just does not fit the needs of that person. In the same way, each family must choose participation for minors and each adult in “God is Good GameZ”.
*** This program is FREE and not aligned with any denomination or church and is not designed to compete with the work of any local church, but rather enhance it. This program is driven by a continued tapping of the Lord on my shoulder to move forward and the reality of God encounters that happen while teachable moments in the midst of an activity/game are written all over the faces of adults, teens and children alike.
Why rewards in the form of points and trophies? 1 Corinthians 9:24. “…Run in such a way as to get the prize.”
Games with rewards help us challenge ourselves. Keeping track of points to celebrate progress is motivating to most. Valuing how my ‘points’ compare to others more than Jesus who is the main point of the points is discouraging. I feel due to scripture, that avoiding the discouragement of any participant must be by internal transformation and healing of inner motivation instead of external removal of any and all points systems. Remember the prize mentioned above is after we have become partakers of Jesus’ amazing forgiveness and a new identity. It is from that place of receiving what we could never earn, that we are motivated to press on in obedience with all the tools God has given us. For example, someone who struggles with over eating still needs to eat. Counselors teach them how to change their internal motives regarding food but they still keep track of their calorie intake.
I have received feedback and confirmation that moving forward is led by Jesus. Not all are led to participate in this program and there is no ‘looking down’ on how they are being led. We trust and respect them to use different tools for their growth with no judgement. I pray that those this program does help will be encouraged as I am personally to use it as a tool to help us make the most of every opportunity to invest in eternity.
Points to be tracked to encourage for the PRIZE of annual trophies and TBA rewards January 2020. We started 6/1/18 but anyone can join any time because to make this an annual competition we made it 18 months for inaugural season! 6/1/18 through 3/31/19 will be regular points as stated below. On 4/1/19 points double. On 7/1/19 points triple. On 10/1/19 points quadruple!
*** All over age 5 led to participate are encouraged to join us. *** (“Silly parent, games aren’t just for kids!”)
Points can be tracked easily and submitted via email or text or messenger. ** I will assign “IDs” for each person so they can be encouraged by progress but not tempted to get ‘life’ from comparing**. Facebook page will be easy access for progress updates and announcements about events.
Points with a point!
Church Attendance (Limit 3 per week)(Any gathering of three or more believers): 5 points.
Prayer meeting (phone or in person) attendance: 5 points.
Ten minutes spent in personal prayer (max 3 times a day): 5 points.
Share Jesus via gospel tract or in person: 5 points. Any volunteer activity (limit 1 per wk) 5 points
Invest time in scripture memorization and internalization for 10 minutes: (30 minute daily max for points. “Over time,…. you will wanna do more!”). 5 points.
Personal goal points. Invest 30 minutes in any personal goal: 5 points.
*** One “Above and beyond” point can be awarded by parent(s) to their children under age 18 per week, per child. For showing initiative and joyful obedience. (Please be consistent in use)
—————————————————————————————————————————
Gamez with a point, points: Each day points can be tracked for one game or series of games where standings or ‘places’ are tracked, involving at least FOUR people. During the game or activity some time must be spent talking about how the game relates to a faith walk with Jesus.
*** (4-10 players) One point multiplied by finishing position. (Example: 2nd place out of four people gets 3 points and 1st place gets 4 points)
*** (10-20 players) Half point multiplied by finishing position. (Example: 7th place out of 15 players gets 3.5 points and first gets 7.5 points)
*** (20 plus players). Quarter point multiplied by finishing position. (Example: 24th out of 30 players gets 1.75 points and first gets 7.5 points.)
Just submit first name and last initial of participants and finishing order and I will calculate the points.
Bonus Points
*** If you schedule me to come to your church or home for a “G cubed” game night all points for that event are doubled. (Max 90 Minutes)
Awards banquet/pot luck at completion of the Gamez (Jan 2020) will give rewards to top ten participants, but the lasting rewards of growth in following Jesus will be enjoyed for eternity.
**Phone prayer meeting**: Thursdays 9:00PM to 9:30PM CST: 1-805-309-2350 Enter ID 2929533#
Podcasts and blog: http://www.lastinglifelessonsbyluke.com
Escape rooms are booming as people enjoy working together to figure out how to get free. “Price is right” and other game shows continue to cash in on our enjoyment of games, prizes and challenges of every variety. People make money playing video games, skiing down a mountain, playing chess and even eating way too many hot dogs. Our culture is ablaze with the desire for conquest and measurable victory and no-one ever appears to question these flames. Participation in real learning is key. The Edgar Dale cone of experience shows that verbal communication impacts long term retention the least and ‘Direct purposeful experience’ teaches the best.
Why then is the primary method most ministries try to impact people of all ages for God primarily verbal only? Growing up in kids clubs of various kinds we always had game time separate from the Bible teaching. This unintentionally communicates to children that game time is fun and the time to learn about God is cramped and sterile and all about sitting still and looking like you are paying attention and care. Technology overload shrinks attention spans while children and adults alike are starving for structured yet very interactive experience with the active and alive truths of God’s Word.
My passion is playing interactive, teaching games with kids and adults where relational needs and learning needs are melded to bring about God ‘encounters’ that happen organically right in the midst of relational yet structured fun and healthy competition.
Measuring progress as feedback to motivate improvement is the life blood of the world Economy. Imagine trying to do business without measures of performance. Measures are not the problem (Try running a game show without having lines to separate winning and losing.), motives behind the measures are a gigantic problem. In talking with people about this concept I have had many well meaning followers of Jesus express firm concerns about using points and trophies as a tool to help those who want to participate from their heart.
For me, refraining from doing anything because some may not want to do it, or may question the motives of those who do, is not a reason to shrink back from anything. Being a partaker by definition is a personal choice. When food is offered, if the person offered chooses to not partake, it does not mean the food is bad, it just does not fit the needs of that person. In the same way, each family must choose participation for minors and each adult in “God is Good GameZ”.
*** This program is FREE and not aligned with any denomination or church and is not designed to compete with the work of any local church, but rather enhance it. This program is driven by a continued tapping of the Lord on my shoulder to move forward and the reality of God encounters that happen while teachable moments in the midst of an activity/game are written all over the faces of adults, teens and children alike.
Why rewards in the form of points and trophies? 1 Corinthians 9:24. “…Run in such a way as to get the prize.”
Games with rewards help us challenge ourselves. Keeping track of points to celebrate progress is motivating to most. Valuing how my ‘points’ compare to others more than Jesus who is the main point of the points is discouraging. I feel due to scripture, that avoiding the discouragement of any participant must be by internal transformation and healing of inner motivation instead of external removal of any and all points systems. Remember the prize mentioned above is after we have become partakers of Jesus’ amazing forgiveness and a new identity. It is from that place of receiving what we could never earn, that we are motivated to press on in obedience with all the tools God has given us. For example, someone who struggles with over eating still needs to eat. Counselors teach them how to change their internal motives regarding food but they still keep track of their calorie intake.
I have received feedback and confirmation that moving forward is led by Jesus. Not all are led to participate in this program and there is no ‘looking down’ on how they are being led. We trust and respect them to use different tools for their growth with no judgement. I pray that those this program does help will be encouraged as I am personally to use it as a tool to help us make the most of every opportunity to invest in eternity.
Points to be tracked to encourage for the PRIZE of annual trophies and TBA rewards January 2020. We started 6/1/18 but anyone can join any time because to make this an annual competition we made it 18 months for inaugural season! 6/1/18 through 3/31/19 will be regular points as stated below. On 4/1/19 points double. On 7/1/19 points triple. On 10/1/19 points quadruple!
*** All over age 5 led to participate are encouraged to join us. *** (“Silly parent, games aren’t just for kids!”)
Points can be tracked easily and submitted via email or text or messenger. ** I will assign “IDs” for each person so they can be encouraged by progress but not tempted to get ‘life’ from comparing**. Facebook page will be easy access for progress updates and announcements about events.
Points with a point!
Church Attendance (Limit 3 per week)(Any gathering of three or more believers): 5 points.
Prayer meeting (phone or in person) attendance: 5 points.
Ten minutes spent in personal prayer (max 3 times a day): 5 points.
Share Jesus via gospel tract or in person: 5 points. Any volunteer activity (limit 1 per wk) 5 points
Invest time in scripture memorization and internalization for 10 minutes: (30 minute daily max for points. “Over time,…. you will wanna do more!”). 5 points.
Personal goal points. Invest 30 minutes in any personal goal: 5 points.
*** One “Above and beyond” point can be awarded by parent(s) to their children under age 18 per week, per child. For showing initiative and joyful obedience. (Please be consistent in use)
—————————————————————————————————————————
Gamez with a point, points: Each day points can be tracked for one game or series of games where standings or ‘places’ are tracked, involving at least FOUR people. During the game or activity some time must be spent talking about how the game relates to a faith walk with Jesus.
*** (4-10 players) One point multiplied by finishing position. (Example: 2nd place out of four people gets 3 points and 1st place gets 4 points)
*** (10-20 players) Half point multiplied by finishing position. (Example: 7th place out of 15 players gets 3.5 points and first gets 7.5 points)
*** (20 plus players). Quarter point multiplied by finishing position. (Example: 24th out of 30 players gets 1.75 points and first gets 7.5 points.)
Just submit first name and last initial of participants and finishing order and I will calculate the points.
Bonus Points
*** If you schedule me to come to your church or home for a “G cubed” game night all points for that event are doubled. (Max 90 Minutes)
Awards banquet/pot luck at completion of the Gamez (Jan 2020) will give rewards to top ten participants, but the lasting rewards of growth in following Jesus will be enjoyed for eternity.
**Phone prayer meeting**: Thursdays 9:00PM to 9:30PM CST: 1-805-309-2350 Enter ID 2929533#
Podcasts and blog: http://www.lastinglifelessonsbyluke.com
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Does lust satisfy, ever
As I sit and stare at the above title which has been on my mind
for quite some time, many thoughts try to overload my brain
simultaneously. My first thought is to stop writing and keep from ‘rocking the boat’. My second thought is ‘what will people think are my personal areas of lust that are motivating me to ask this question’? My third thought is ‘how do I summarize in this first paragraph the main point of what I am going to talk about to keep all the literary, publishing, snobs happy?’
Ironic it is that in life as we are talking with our friends and doing life together, trying to find meaning in the madness, when anyone has a cool story to tell, they never give a paragraph to summarize their story at the beginning do they? Do our friends really remember our entire story better because we follow literary rules or do they just remember the story because it is relatable? I have written many things over the years which never would have been written had I waited to write the perfect summary or outline or plot lines. I am imperfectly happy to not stop now.
Lust is a small word with a big presence in our world today. Lust is defined in various ways. The dictionary defines lust as sexual desire or longing. The Bible mentions “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.” In recovery lust is defined as misusing anything or any one in a way that takes instead of gives. Since true love is about giving, lust kills love.
Yes, when I ask “does lust satisfy?” I am speaking for myself first, but I hope my ‘confession’ makes my story relatable. We want characters in our stories to struggle just as we all struggle. When public figures of all political parties and Hollywood studios join the long list of pastors who fall in sexual lust every year, I suspect many are ‘tempted’ to lustfully think we are somehow superior because our forms of lust have not been plastered all over salacious, headline hungry, media full of gorgeous glory grabbers lusting after their own fame and fortune.
Lust is about mountains more than misdirected sexual desire. I can lust after anything, anytime. My readers can lust after anything because I know I may be weird and hokey and old, but I know I am a human and there are many humans just like me. A full list of lust objects would fill as many pages as would a list of every thing and idea on our planet. The partial list of lust objects in our world today that resonates most with me are personal because they either affect me or people I love or those in my acquaintance circles. People who are safe for me, know mine and I know theirs. Please resist the urge to speculate outside yourself as that also can be a form of lusting. I know a pastor who only had feelings of same sex attraction (never acted upon) who was outed against his will from a ‘confidential’ support group by another attender and lost his job as a pastor.
The incomplete list of lust objects we will be analyzing for ability to satisfy are as follows: Sexual pleasure of all kinds, food, materialism, gambling, perfectionism, fame, physical beauty, reputation, self effort, freedom, pride, being ‘in love’, judging, and alcohol. Finally, I must save the huge elephant in the room lust object for last, religious elitism fleshed out in judging attitudes.
As I interact publicly and privately with other humans spinning slowly on this big ball in space we call earth, the pursuit of satisfaction on the deepest of levels is so evident it literally drips off the faces of people as we interact. Satisfaction is defined by the dictionary as “The fulfillment or gratification of a desire, a need or an appetite. The pleasure or contentment that is derived from such gratification.”
Inside the definition of satisfaction is the seed of the answer to this basic, yet important question above. Meeting a desire or need is not the challenge of any listed option promising satisfaction. Sustaining the satisfaction is the challenge. All humans get some satisfaction at some point in their lives even though the Rolling Stones beg to differ. On a basic level, food satisfies the need for nourishment of our bodies, yet doing life requires repeated satisfaction of the need for nourishment or we die.
In my experience, the thing we all desire is permanent satisfaction. Only problem is, if the reality of our experience was ‘lack of any needs of any kind’ which is what permanent satisfaction would create, then we would never experience satisfaction, since satisfaction is defined as fulfillment of a need. Do you see the circular logic? For example describing real hunger falls short compared to letting someone go without food for a week to experience hunger. I personally can attest to the insanity of chasing things that I was sure would satisfy only to be disappointed. I can so easily get mad if I don’t get what I want and disappointed and just as mad if I do! Let’s look together at our list of neon blinking billboards promising satisfaction to see how they are performing. I hope my reader gets a fresh perspective on each shiny thing vying for our lust by how they deliver in the dull and messy reality and trenches of life.
Sexual pleasure of all kinds.
Not only does sex and the promise of sex sell, it makes our world go round. Sex inside marriage, outside marriage. Sex inside traditions of the past and outside. Heterosexual sex, homosexual sex, sex with animals, sex with children and of course sex with self. Defining sexual pleasure circles out way beyond just the act itself. Sexual addiction is getting closer to achieving “cool in a brooding troubled kind of way” like alcoholism. The theme of many movies with enticements to lust is often the married man having a tawdry affair only to realize he really loves his wife. The irony is that most married men watching said movie would not even watch without the fantasy or promise of the tawdriness. Producers of this most basic lust ‘cash machine’ love to sprinkle some nobility and real communication into their films after the smut when everyone in the room knows deep down, it is just about arousal, period. Even inside marriage, sexual pleasure can be about taking more than ‘making love’. Conversations by drunk males that include ‘rating’ sexual conquests while looking at their pictures on phones as being “top five” abound in our culture. Words like “I tapped that” or “I killed that” actually are spoken by men about other human beings as if they are just conquests. Cosmo headlines blare, “Sex that rocks!” Go to any bar near a college campus any night. The empirical evidence that the dams of any restraint have been shattered to pieces and our future leaders are lost in the sea of sensuality is blaring as loud as the music.
1 in 6 U.S. females are sexually assaulted. Try watching one news cast without some mention of sexual assault. 62% of all high school seniors have had sex. If there is so much “no strings” sex available why are there still assaults? Regardless of statistical or practical blaring signs that sexual pleasure does not provide permanent satisfaction, the only verdict that matters is that of my reader. Whatever sexual pleasure you have experienced, was it all that you hoped for or did it leave you yearning for more? My answer to that same question drove me to personal honesty and looking for a different source of true satisfaction.
Food or lack of food:
For many every warm memory of family is bolted to the desire for food. The holidays are all about the food and then the new year comes and diets are ranked. Quite simply the number of cooking shows and restaurants making millions off our desires for the most perfect eating experience is astounding. Once all the pomp and fanfare garnish is done our stomachs process the calories the same as if we ate from a 79 cents generic tin can with a rusty fork. I propose we almost think more about food than sex. When working in health care circles I knew of two people who actually died due to not eating. One study estimates 8 million American women and 1 million American men have eating disorders. Dear reader, does the best tasting dining experience satisfy you permanently on the deepest of levels?
Materialism, gambling, perfectionism, fame, physical beauty, reputation, self effort and freedom:
All of these promisers of satisfaction come with the same basic sales pitch. From the ‘outside’ of us, they promise to meet our inside desires. The shiny new toy at Christmas so wrapped with care that brings glee in a child, six months later is abandoned in the corner. The Vegas mantra “Everybody wins, they just don’t know when to stop” now echos through casinos in every state. When I look in the mirror, the first thing I see is what is wrong with how I look. Michael Jordan and all famous people we wish we were are prisoners of same fame we think would set us free.
Beautiful people struggle with trusting the motives of their ‘friends’. There are two sets of rules. One for the good-looking people, and one for the rest of us. Huge problem though, many beautiful people think they are not beautiful because there is always someone younger and prettier coming along because beauty fades. It is called aging. Reputations are just like pedestals, the public desires to be the person on the pedestal while secretly enjoying when they fall. Self effort driven success is always plagued with the fear of the inability to keep it up! Freedom to do whatever I want, whenever I want quickly becomes a despairing prison, trust me.
Pride, being ‘in love’, judging, and alcohol:
I am proud I conquered pride years ago. Romance novels and sappy movies make millions off the ache in our souls for the newness of young love. Yet on a deeper and more boring level, there is a basic, guttural need for someone who sticks with us after the buzz of new love wears off. The only people I judge are those annoying judging people. A 2015 study showed 33% of 15 year olds had drank alcohol, 13.4% of drinkers aged 12-20 were binge drinkers. This is why craters in the front top of the brain can be seen on an MRI of some as young as age 18. I have spent time with a person dying from the agony of liver cancer. I have been hit be a drunk driver twice. As a ride share specialist I deal every week with the stupid and rude things people say and then apologize for because they are “drunk”. They quickly to rationalize for me that they “don’t do this very often”. If alcohol satisfies and is culturally acceptable why feel the need to offer an excuse?
***Religious elitism fleshed out in judging attitudes.***
Growing up I always knew right from wrong and tried so hard to do stay away from the things I knew deep down did not satisfy me. Deliverance from my personal judging attitudes has been the key that has unlocked my door to staying away from what I know in my logical mind does not deliver on any promises of satisfaction. The person of Jesus Christ said, “Take my yoke upon you, let me teach you because I am humble and gentle.” (Matt 11:29) When I was honest with the person of Jesus Christ about my junky lust, He removed all my trashy sin from the past and started teaching me how to follow Him. Millions have been hurt, even abused by religions, denominations and ‘labels’ which have nothing to do with the person of Jesus Christ as revealed by history, the Bible and personal encounter. Many seem to me to be sadly almost forced to keep going back to the unsatisfying lust swill described above because they think there is ‘no other option’ due to pompous pious preachers who may recite sound doctrine but do not live it out in humility and gentleness like Jesus Christ calls us all to do. True humility is hard, but good.
Friend, there are only two options here. The definition of insanity is repeating the same behavior over and over again and expecting different results. When we get done doing that thing we were so sure would make us feel better and we feel blah, empty and un whole instead, while making resolutions to ‘never do that again’. We can be wise and say this way is not working, or be foolish and ‘rinse and repeat’. The person of Jesus Christ who proved himself to be true by his historical actions of real love is the only person offering to teach us in true humility and gentleness. He has and is changing my life. He does not need our help to teach us, He does need our permission. Right now, would you give Jesus access to your life? Say, “Jesus Christ, I am sick and tired of going to things that cannot satisfy me. I am wrong. My way does not work. I give you permission to come into every area of my life and teach me to follow you humbly. Thank you for proving you love me by dying on the cross for me. Help me to keep putting to use your grace and mercy often as I grow in you and find fellowship with other followers of You. Amen”
Ironic it is that in life as we are talking with our friends and doing life together, trying to find meaning in the madness, when anyone has a cool story to tell, they never give a paragraph to summarize their story at the beginning do they? Do our friends really remember our entire story better because we follow literary rules or do they just remember the story because it is relatable? I have written many things over the years which never would have been written had I waited to write the perfect summary or outline or plot lines. I am imperfectly happy to not stop now.
Lust is a small word with a big presence in our world today. Lust is defined in various ways. The dictionary defines lust as sexual desire or longing. The Bible mentions “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.” In recovery lust is defined as misusing anything or any one in a way that takes instead of gives. Since true love is about giving, lust kills love.
Yes, when I ask “does lust satisfy?” I am speaking for myself first, but I hope my ‘confession’ makes my story relatable. We want characters in our stories to struggle just as we all struggle. When public figures of all political parties and Hollywood studios join the long list of pastors who fall in sexual lust every year, I suspect many are ‘tempted’ to lustfully think we are somehow superior because our forms of lust have not been plastered all over salacious, headline hungry, media full of gorgeous glory grabbers lusting after their own fame and fortune.
Lust is about mountains more than misdirected sexual desire. I can lust after anything, anytime. My readers can lust after anything because I know I may be weird and hokey and old, but I know I am a human and there are many humans just like me. A full list of lust objects would fill as many pages as would a list of every thing and idea on our planet. The partial list of lust objects in our world today that resonates most with me are personal because they either affect me or people I love or those in my acquaintance circles. People who are safe for me, know mine and I know theirs. Please resist the urge to speculate outside yourself as that also can be a form of lusting. I know a pastor who only had feelings of same sex attraction (never acted upon) who was outed against his will from a ‘confidential’ support group by another attender and lost his job as a pastor.
The incomplete list of lust objects we will be analyzing for ability to satisfy are as follows: Sexual pleasure of all kinds, food, materialism, gambling, perfectionism, fame, physical beauty, reputation, self effort, freedom, pride, being ‘in love’, judging, and alcohol. Finally, I must save the huge elephant in the room lust object for last, religious elitism fleshed out in judging attitudes.
As I interact publicly and privately with other humans spinning slowly on this big ball in space we call earth, the pursuit of satisfaction on the deepest of levels is so evident it literally drips off the faces of people as we interact. Satisfaction is defined by the dictionary as “The fulfillment or gratification of a desire, a need or an appetite. The pleasure or contentment that is derived from such gratification.”
Inside the definition of satisfaction is the seed of the answer to this basic, yet important question above. Meeting a desire or need is not the challenge of any listed option promising satisfaction. Sustaining the satisfaction is the challenge. All humans get some satisfaction at some point in their lives even though the Rolling Stones beg to differ. On a basic level, food satisfies the need for nourishment of our bodies, yet doing life requires repeated satisfaction of the need for nourishment or we die.
In my experience, the thing we all desire is permanent satisfaction. Only problem is, if the reality of our experience was ‘lack of any needs of any kind’ which is what permanent satisfaction would create, then we would never experience satisfaction, since satisfaction is defined as fulfillment of a need. Do you see the circular logic? For example describing real hunger falls short compared to letting someone go without food for a week to experience hunger. I personally can attest to the insanity of chasing things that I was sure would satisfy only to be disappointed. I can so easily get mad if I don’t get what I want and disappointed and just as mad if I do! Let’s look together at our list of neon blinking billboards promising satisfaction to see how they are performing. I hope my reader gets a fresh perspective on each shiny thing vying for our lust by how they deliver in the dull and messy reality and trenches of life.
Sexual pleasure of all kinds.
Not only does sex and the promise of sex sell, it makes our world go round. Sex inside marriage, outside marriage. Sex inside traditions of the past and outside. Heterosexual sex, homosexual sex, sex with animals, sex with children and of course sex with self. Defining sexual pleasure circles out way beyond just the act itself. Sexual addiction is getting closer to achieving “cool in a brooding troubled kind of way” like alcoholism. The theme of many movies with enticements to lust is often the married man having a tawdry affair only to realize he really loves his wife. The irony is that most married men watching said movie would not even watch without the fantasy or promise of the tawdriness. Producers of this most basic lust ‘cash machine’ love to sprinkle some nobility and real communication into their films after the smut when everyone in the room knows deep down, it is just about arousal, period. Even inside marriage, sexual pleasure can be about taking more than ‘making love’. Conversations by drunk males that include ‘rating’ sexual conquests while looking at their pictures on phones as being “top five” abound in our culture. Words like “I tapped that” or “I killed that” actually are spoken by men about other human beings as if they are just conquests. Cosmo headlines blare, “Sex that rocks!” Go to any bar near a college campus any night. The empirical evidence that the dams of any restraint have been shattered to pieces and our future leaders are lost in the sea of sensuality is blaring as loud as the music.
1 in 6 U.S. females are sexually assaulted. Try watching one news cast without some mention of sexual assault. 62% of all high school seniors have had sex. If there is so much “no strings” sex available why are there still assaults? Regardless of statistical or practical blaring signs that sexual pleasure does not provide permanent satisfaction, the only verdict that matters is that of my reader. Whatever sexual pleasure you have experienced, was it all that you hoped for or did it leave you yearning for more? My answer to that same question drove me to personal honesty and looking for a different source of true satisfaction.
Food or lack of food:
For many every warm memory of family is bolted to the desire for food. The holidays are all about the food and then the new year comes and diets are ranked. Quite simply the number of cooking shows and restaurants making millions off our desires for the most perfect eating experience is astounding. Once all the pomp and fanfare garnish is done our stomachs process the calories the same as if we ate from a 79 cents generic tin can with a rusty fork. I propose we almost think more about food than sex. When working in health care circles I knew of two people who actually died due to not eating. One study estimates 8 million American women and 1 million American men have eating disorders. Dear reader, does the best tasting dining experience satisfy you permanently on the deepest of levels?
Materialism, gambling, perfectionism, fame, physical beauty, reputation, self effort and freedom:
All of these promisers of satisfaction come with the same basic sales pitch. From the ‘outside’ of us, they promise to meet our inside desires. The shiny new toy at Christmas so wrapped with care that brings glee in a child, six months later is abandoned in the corner. The Vegas mantra “Everybody wins, they just don’t know when to stop” now echos through casinos in every state. When I look in the mirror, the first thing I see is what is wrong with how I look. Michael Jordan and all famous people we wish we were are prisoners of same fame we think would set us free.
Beautiful people struggle with trusting the motives of their ‘friends’. There are two sets of rules. One for the good-looking people, and one for the rest of us. Huge problem though, many beautiful people think they are not beautiful because there is always someone younger and prettier coming along because beauty fades. It is called aging. Reputations are just like pedestals, the public desires to be the person on the pedestal while secretly enjoying when they fall. Self effort driven success is always plagued with the fear of the inability to keep it up! Freedom to do whatever I want, whenever I want quickly becomes a despairing prison, trust me.
Pride, being ‘in love’, judging, and alcohol:
I am proud I conquered pride years ago. Romance novels and sappy movies make millions off the ache in our souls for the newness of young love. Yet on a deeper and more boring level, there is a basic, guttural need for someone who sticks with us after the buzz of new love wears off. The only people I judge are those annoying judging people. A 2015 study showed 33% of 15 year olds had drank alcohol, 13.4% of drinkers aged 12-20 were binge drinkers. This is why craters in the front top of the brain can be seen on an MRI of some as young as age 18. I have spent time with a person dying from the agony of liver cancer. I have been hit be a drunk driver twice. As a ride share specialist I deal every week with the stupid and rude things people say and then apologize for because they are “drunk”. They quickly to rationalize for me that they “don’t do this very often”. If alcohol satisfies and is culturally acceptable why feel the need to offer an excuse?
***Religious elitism fleshed out in judging attitudes.***
Growing up I always knew right from wrong and tried so hard to do stay away from the things I knew deep down did not satisfy me. Deliverance from my personal judging attitudes has been the key that has unlocked my door to staying away from what I know in my logical mind does not deliver on any promises of satisfaction. The person of Jesus Christ said, “Take my yoke upon you, let me teach you because I am humble and gentle.” (Matt 11:29) When I was honest with the person of Jesus Christ about my junky lust, He removed all my trashy sin from the past and started teaching me how to follow Him. Millions have been hurt, even abused by religions, denominations and ‘labels’ which have nothing to do with the person of Jesus Christ as revealed by history, the Bible and personal encounter. Many seem to me to be sadly almost forced to keep going back to the unsatisfying lust swill described above because they think there is ‘no other option’ due to pompous pious preachers who may recite sound doctrine but do not live it out in humility and gentleness like Jesus Christ calls us all to do. True humility is hard, but good.
Friend, there are only two options here. The definition of insanity is repeating the same behavior over and over again and expecting different results. When we get done doing that thing we were so sure would make us feel better and we feel blah, empty and un whole instead, while making resolutions to ‘never do that again’. We can be wise and say this way is not working, or be foolish and ‘rinse and repeat’. The person of Jesus Christ who proved himself to be true by his historical actions of real love is the only person offering to teach us in true humility and gentleness. He has and is changing my life. He does not need our help to teach us, He does need our permission. Right now, would you give Jesus access to your life? Say, “Jesus Christ, I am sick and tired of going to things that cannot satisfy me. I am wrong. My way does not work. I give you permission to come into every area of my life and teach me to follow you humbly. Thank you for proving you love me by dying on the cross for me. Help me to keep putting to use your grace and mercy often as I grow in you and find fellowship with other followers of You. Amen”
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Half way around the world, God is the same, so are people.
Half way around the world, God is the same, so are people.
Before Thanksgiving in 2017 I embarked on an international adventure that continued the amazing, undeserved work of God using me in places I would never have imagined possible.
About three years prior on a nondescript Saturday morning while waiting to meet with some friends for prayer I remember having a knock down, drag out, lash out session with my God. “If God is not big enough to handle our anger and frustration then He is not God!”
As I had It out with my God, in gut level, raw, privately LOUD, honesty I held up my hands about eighteen inches apart in front of my face to represent the ‘screen’ of my life and said. “God, you know I will talk to whomever you bring before my face and share the good news that Your Son Jesus changes lives, BUT YOU are responsible for whom you bring into this screen. I put that responsibility back onto YOU God!”
This ‘conversation’ with my God was not fluffy and spiritual sounding, filled with meaningless platitudes. This conversation was about real frustration with real and imagined blockages to my passion to share this, way better than good news, more and more. I felt a burden lift as with force I cast my agenda, reputation and fighting for myself back onto God because He really does care for us all.
I hope and pray as you read about this adventure you join me in praising His Holy Name for being faithful to do His job, in His perfect timing, every time. I hope your trust in God grows as mine has, and you know how much “He knows the plans He has for us!”
Meet my friend from Raipur named Sam:
Of course, growing up Hindu his name is not Sam, but persecution in India against those who share Jesus is growing, so to be safe, we will use my oldest Nephew’s name to tell his part of the story.
Sam’s father somehow became a Jesus follower in a nation of India where the Hindu way is not only the major religion, it is a statistical giant which fills most the room only leaving nooks and crannies and corners for other faiths. His father soon became a pastor and began service to our Savior, not for profit (They lived on about $30 per month at the beginning!) or career aspirations, but simply to serve the one who set him free.
For about four years even though the change in his father flashed like a neon sign, Sam still wanted to follow Hindu ways. In his late teens he relented to God’s tapping on his heart and surrendered his life to Christ. I think the delay for Sam was good because his faith became his own, and also he now can relate better to teens because he had his own struggles at that age. For about seven years he helped plant many churches with his father and other servants of Jesus.
God called Sam to Riapur which is basically in the center of the state, Chhattisgarh which is in the center of India, using another gaudy statistic. There were 0.85 percent followers of Jesus in the 2.5 million people of Chhattisgarh. Since the state became independent in 2000 there continue to be good natural resources to build a good life for it’s citizens. Construction is happening everywhere it seems. Sadly though, since the state is in the center of India, exposure to outside influences in many areas is delayed compared to cities around the edges of India. Thus the ant sized statistic for Jesus followers makes sense.
Sam moved to Raipur and began prayer walking the slums. He came with no support, no sending mission agency, no money in his savings account. He came denying himself a technology job he could easily get with his intellect and acumen. A poor man in earthly things came to spiritually poor Raipur to share the only true source of eternal, imperishable wealth, the Lord Jesus Christ.
While prayer walking he met a man who could tell he was new to the area. He asked Sam why he was there. When he heard Sam’s answer he opened his home and heart. In the slums of Raipur a person’s home can be one room up to four rooms in an apartment looking rough and ruddy cracked cement building accessed by dirt roads on the fringes of the city. No one goes to the slums on purpose, except to go home after working hard all day to earn daily wages of $3 to $5 or to visit family. Sam had an eternal purpose to give, not to get.
In a room smaller than my kitchen, a ministry of authentic faith focused on a reality of Heaven that makes all rooms look like slum homes, was birthed. Sam now encourages and partners with fifteen leaders/pastors in Raipur and villages surrounding the city as far as 200 Kilometers away all serving house churches with no budgets, buildings or the headaches that come with the commercialization bordering on perversion of the authentic work of God in peoples’ lives in sight.
God is not limited in anyway, but especially by geography. For years social media has been one literal screen of my life through which God has allowed me to share my passions for Him with others. ‘Friending’ people and pointing them to my blog and podcasts is a regular practice for me.
Sam saw my profile and read my blog and reached out to me to come join him some time in a land far, far away in Geography, but not in heart for authentic ministry. We even were able to talk on the phone via social media a couple times.
Why me, and why India?
When Sam invited me to come minister along side him he did not know my background or conversations with God about calling. He just liked what he read and wanted help with the growing work God was doing in His people in Raipur and surrounding areas.
I talked to the church to which I belong and got clearance to raise funds while providing a tax deduction, if so desired, to donors. I wrote a letter and was clear that I would only go if and when funds were provided or pledged as confirmation God was giving a green light for me to travel half way around the world to spend a week with a ministry led by a man whom I had spoken with only two times over the phone and used messenger to communicate with.
Response to my prayerfully worded letter was more refreshing than ice cold water on a Raipur style 110 degree summer day. Since I love heat and sweating the same way I love root canals for fun, November where temps are about 85 degrees was always the goal month to visit. Praise God, I was able to book flights to leave the country for the first time since I was a missionary kid and my parents were working with, you guessed it, Asian Indians in England.
Again, Sam did not know my history of being a child of those working with the same culture. He did not know of our similar passion for Acts chapter 2, house church, ministry. All he knew was he liked what I wrote and wanted to connect and possibly partner in ministry. An almighty, infinite God was telling me “Luke, you think that is awesome, you wait to see what will happen when you get there!”
“Raipur, here I come!”
Preparation for my not so little adventure began with getting immunizations and prepping clothes with spray to limit mosquito bites to avoid Malaria. Flights were booked thanks to capable skills of a local relative by marriage who is a travel agent. People kept asking how they could help and pray and that was huge. Thanks also to the max flexibility of the things I do to make doing what really matters possible, getting time away was easy.
On the coldest day my body could remember so far in the year, my body and mind tried to prepare for going from about 10 degrees with wind chill to 85 degrees in two days of travel. I left MSP airport at supper, Friday and arrived in Raipur at about 10:40 AM Sunday with the aid of an 11.5 hour time change back at home my wife was getting ready for bed on Saturday night.
Often on flights I look for opportunities to share my faith, but this flight was just about praying and surviving with a joyful attitude. The first over 8 hour leg of the trip the person next to me coughed every 3 to 4 minutes. Their was also a fussy baby close who had a painful amount of sessions of crying at levels which rattled attempts to sleep. I arrived in Paris weary and warn from sitting similar to as if I had been walking 10 miles in the heat.
I changed clothes into my prepared clothes for Raipur early and freshened up with water as best as possible without a shower. The flight to Mumbai was of course full and an Indian family had one seat of the three that was on the isle so they asked me to switch. I did not want to be the ogre who separated a family for a long flight so I obliged. Soon after take off I regretted my graciousness. The person next to me in my aisle seat, bought and paid for by my desire to serve, was from America, but somehow missed the personal space etiquette lesson most of us learned growing up. He was not blatantly in my space, but my access to the right half of the arm rest we shared was never an option.
I endured another over 8 hour flight squished between the bumps on my left from flight attendants and people escaping to the bathroom for a brief reprieve from the hard work of sitting squeezed into their hot seat shifting body positions between all uncomfortable options, and the constant arm touching onslaught on my right.
Praying for everyone I could think of and listening to worship music while writing with mostly my left hand on my laptop were my only respites. Somehow the hours groaned by and we landed in Mumbai around midnight India time. My flight to Raipur did not depart until after 6 AM so my body was hopeful for some time to stretch out anywhere in utter bliss.
In Mumbai I had to pass bags through customs then re-check my bag for the 90 minute flight to Raipur. I could not claim and re-check my suitcase until I cleared immigration. At midnight the immigration lines just for tourist visa entrants of India made long look short by comparison. Just getting to the tourist visa line required jostling through masses of humanity all pushing to get their way through as fast as possible to lines that everyone knew deep down were not going anywhere fast. About five times I made way for wheelchair passengers being pushed aggressively by airport staff.
All lines to freedom from the mass feelings of impatience with the entire system bulged outside the snake weaved barriers. It took me an hour just to get to the official weave to wait some more. I met a man from Detroit there on business and we sprinkled bouts of friendly conversation into our creeping along that made snails and turtles look like Nascar drivers.
Another hour ticked by and I made it to the immigration counter. I showed my visa to the one of eight, never in a hurry, immigration agents. He spoke everything with the expression of indifference and had a bad habit of waving in non-specific ways while expecting everyone to just know what he meant. I pondered ‘If I worked where the line never ends and people where glaring at me with impatience all night long, I would slow down too.’
I filled out one form that was required and was thankful to have an address for Sam to put on the form. After I fumbled for a while to try to find a phone number for Sam as well. I started to be afraid I was going to have to message Sam at about 2 AM to ask him for a phone number.
I also was keenly aware that I was a stranger in a land far away and little mistakes could prove painful in various ways. Out of nowhere, as if suddenly impatient with my large Caucasian physique standing in front of his counter acting lost, he said “Just write down your cell phone number.”
I complied with a sigh of relief and he stamped my passport and visa and I was in India! I found my baggage claim and was more than concerned as to where my luggage had been for the last eternity of waiting. Once I found the right claim area, I was relieved to find my bag and head to customs.
The line for customs was not short, but it moved faster. While waiting in line I met a man who lives in Mumbai, but is in the US often as a student. He spoke good English and we compared notes about differences between American cities and Mumbai.
Going through customs was only hard because the guard telling us what to run through the scanner and what to carry, kept doing more frowning and waving in ways that were hard to figure out. After customs I had to recheck my bag to Raipur which meant another shorter, but still slow line to endure while watching airline agents chat with each other as if there was not care in the world while going through motions I could tell they could do in their sleep.
After arriving in Mumbai at around midnight with worries about a long layover I actually ordered Burger King whopper made with chicken and limp fries and reached the gate to wait for the final short leg of my trip at around 4 AM.
With no more fresh clothes to change into and my body way out of whack again I needed to retreat to my safe place of prayer to try to rest in the Lord in spite of current discomfort. The authentic Indian soothing music did help and I actually used my sheepskin hat that I had kept in my carry on bag for some reason as a pillow and lay right on the cold, hard, polished floor for a while. Somehow time moved forward like an old tired man which I could relate to.
Finally the boarding call came and I eased the rest of the way into adjusting to being the only Caucasian around as I got on the flight with a sea of brown faces equally adored by God, but trying hard not to stare. The flight to Raipur of course by comparison to my last two ‘space missions to the moon’ was quick.
As I looked out the window as the plane approached I saw flat brown topography that could be almost anywhere on the planet. Buildings were maybe not as shiny and glitzy as in most of America, but I have seen my fair share of non-shiny and non-glitzy places in America too.
Anticipation of what I was going to experience created a slight knot in my stomach. Repeats of earlier bouts of fear about who I was going to meet and what could go wrong started to resurface as I felt the familiar rubber of the tires of the landing gear meet the runway of contact with a city and an experience I had been praying about and thinking about for over a year.
While getting my luggage claimed Sam messaged me to say he had commitments and to take a cab to the hotel he had reserved for me. Approaching the doors to the airport I checked my phone to see if Uber was a possibility and as suspected it was not. Just about the time I started to think about getting a cab, Sam messaged again asking me where I was? His plans had changed and he was able to meet me after all.
I took a few steps while starting to describe where I was in writing and before I typed a word Sam appeared and we greeted like long lost friends. I was surprised he found me so easily, but in retrospect I have an idea I stood out in the Raipur airport on a Sunday morning at about 9:30 AM like a large white cow on a farm surrounded by brown sheep. No that is not a fat joke.
Sam grabbed my bag as if I had no choice but to surrender it. Indian culture highly encourages serving guests well. Later after a meeting with the kids, I started to reach down and pick up a candy rapper the kids left behind and both of my hosts pounced to inform me others would clean up. I appreciated their respect and honor, but also was raised by two great servants themselves, my mom and dad, who modeled service for Christ well. I have learned over the years that being both a grateful receiver AS WELL AS a server/giver is required of true followers of Jesus. Words fail to express my gratitude that Jesus, the greatest of all time, served me and took my place on the cross, yet he also respects my choice to first receive His love then give it away to others.
In a flash we were outside the airport and loading my bags into the back seat of a small car parked and waiting among a sea of cars, motorcycles, scooters and three wheel taxis called rickshaws. The driver whom we will call Buddy helps in many ways in the ministry and lives with Sam and his brother whom we will call Adam.
Driving in India is an adventure all by itself. If you are timid and shy, you will go nowhere. There are only traffic lights at major road intersections and even then they are only obeying if much traffic is coming the other way. Honking is a major part of the sound landscape and used primarily to let all others on the road know where you are so they can adjust to you and also just to say”Hi”. No motorized vehicles in India come without a horn. Other drivers will not move any faster to get out of your way, but they will adjust and get as close to you as possible without hitting you and happily go on their way. At intersections with no signals, the driver simply honks their horn and presses in until a path to where they want to go opens up. It is actually quite pragmatic and efficient. I rarely saw accidents or drivers yelling at each other for honking. Near misses where contact is made with another vehicle even if slight are followed by apologies. The goal is get along and get where you are going, fast. What looks like chaos to the foreigner actually works just fine without any outside help.
Cars, even small cars are not as nimble as motorbikes and scooters, so progress from the airport to my hotel was not lightening fast, but we were focusing on getting to know each other right in the middle of honks and jostles from speed bumps placed strategically as the speed limits in the city are obeyed about as well as the few traffic lights. We arrived at the hotel where I witnessed Sam expertly haggle with the front desk manager for a rate of 3500 Rupees per night. Rupees translate about 62 into one American dollar.
Always making sure food is available is also very Indian. We ate a little at the hotel restaurant. Buddy appeared to have never been inside a hotel, but he enjoyed the conversation about cultural differences and similarities and did eat a little. His eyes always shined with interest and the love of CHRIST. Soon fatigue clawed at my body like an angry bear and I retired to my room to sleep. Nothing was scheduled for the rest of the day so recovery from jet lag was job one.
I slept so hard for 5 hours. If discovered, paramedics would be called to check for a pulse. I survived a few interruptions from the hotel staff asking if I wanted anything. I could not find a do not disturb sign and was unable to explain it to the staff with limited English skills. The buzzer to my room was a high pitched beep that sounded like the beginning of a house fire alarm. The first time I heard it in a near comatose state, it took me a while to figure out what it was, then stumble to the door. Later I figured out there was a ‘do not disturb’ button inside the room like a light switch.
After sleeping all I could sleep, I enjoyed watching some cricket for the first time since I was in England many years ago. I watched some soccer premiere league highlights also. In the past in my life I have glorified ‘being in a hotel’. Now another proof that God is real and changes people was in full evidence. Instead of doing things unhealthy for my spirit and heart, I engaged in a different kind of cycle from about 7 PM Sunday until breakfast Monday. Pray, watch sports or write, pray, play words with friends, sleep then repeat. I am thankful for this new routine which God has worked into my life. Did gateways to unhealthiness cross my mind? Of course, but prayers of surrender to my sweet Savior and rebukes of our enemy were applied liberally just like breathing.
“He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it in you!” I am daily thankful that the work He completes in me is in every area of my life, not just the big, ministry, important looking stuff, but the personal, private areas of struggle as well. God, over time has taken EVERY area in my life where there used to be failure and pain because I tried to assert my own power to solve my problems, and as I continue to give him permission He is reclaiming ALL of it for his glory. Thankfully because He is eternal and all powerful, this working will never stop.
Monday breakfast happened with some minor adjustments to the food choices. I did have some background with Asian Indian culture and food from my past, but being IN India was a whole new level. Sam showed up after I was done and took his favorite coffee and we completed and informal orientation about Life Light Ministries and all that they do.
In Raipur they have 5 different clubs for children weekly. Each club has over twenty children learning to follow Jesus. They also partner with 15 leaders/teams in the areas around Raipur each pastoring and supporting multiple house churches in villages. Some serve over 40 village house churches. Revival is happening in Raipur and resources are needed to fan the flame of the work of God.
Sam and I went to a garden honoring the history of key people in the state of Chhattisgarh. We prayed together and joked and talked about the cultural differences between India and America. We ate lunch and I acclimated more to the spiciness of the food. More than one time he said “That’s India” with and infectious smile.
That evening on the way to a home meeting we stopped by Sam’s place and exchanged the small car for more nimble and efficient transportation in the form of a motorcycle. A simple but neat apartment with no frills was shared by the two brothers in both kinds of blood and the ‘driver’.
With no warning I was on the back of the motorcycle while it weaved and honked its way through crowded bustling streets and then dirt alleyways. When the motor bike stopped seemingly at a random dwelling, I knew we were where we belonged. We walked into the front room doubling as the master bedroom of a small apartment sized area which had another dwelling above and was described as the ‘home’ of our hosts for the night. I have been in many homes in America that this entire home would fit in the foyer.
Sam and I sat, watched and visited as precious, polite and gracious Christians trickled in carefully over the next 20 minutes being vigilant to know who was coming in for safety reasons. I have seen pictures of what Fundamentalist Hindus do when they find Christians meeting. No one gets killed but they get beat up pretty bad. Chances were slim a small home meeting would be attacked, but precautions are still wise. In greeting each other everyone said “Praise the Lord” in Hindi or English and I could tell they were glad to be there. Anticipation was written on their bright eyed brown faces.
After a time of loud and boisterous corporate prayer and singing two Hindi worship songs that were completely unknown to me (I smiled and clapped along with joy). Sam introduced me and poised, ready to translate for me.
I paused for a second to reflect as I looked into the gleaming eyes of these precious followers of Jesus who only had one motive, honor Jesus because he is true and he is Lord. Behind the gleaming eyes are hearts that endure hardship that makes swimming up stream look like a relaxing day at the zoo. So poor they call three room apartments that would fit in one room in America, “a house”. 20 year old TV in the corner. Cracked walls and bare concrete floors that they put mats down on when hosting. Embracing Christ goes against their huge parts of their culture and way of life and literally can cost them everything.
Tears welled up and gushed from my face as I told them I was honored to be with them. I came from far, but God came further to demonstrate the substance of his love to all of us, no matter where we live or what our problems are. My personal Savior flashed my mind back to our talk, actually I yelled and He listened, about Him being responsible for using me. My tears were because I felt deep in my heart He was saying to me. “Luke, see, I am very capable to do my job as you surrender everything to ME.”
While wiping the lakes of joy splashing down my face, I shared the importance of knowing the substance of who God is as opposed to shadow from Colossians 2. One illustration that God brought into my mind while was sharing was the remembrance of my dear Aunt Adell who passed away early in the same year. Funerals should always be great opportunities to assess the substance of life after death. My lips and face quivered as I said “Without the substance of life in her face, no matter how well the funeral home made her up she was not the same, she was not my cherished, sweet Aunt. She looked totally different because the substance of who she is, was no longer inside her body. The substance of who she is, is in heaven, waiting along with my dad and trillions of other saints to greet me when I reach home too.”
I used my arm against the dim light in the simple but heavenly room, turned into a sanctuary that rivaled the Crystal Cathedral in my minds eye, to illustrate what a shadow is. Again I pointed to the truth that the substance of the person of Christ who said He would die and raise again and did just that and was witnessed by many is the only reality with the power to impact not only our eternity, but our current struggles and problems in any country and culture.
We invited people to come forward for prayer and almost everyone in the room came forward one by one. We prayed for marriages, we prayed for alcoholism, we prayed for strength to persevere in following God despite of persecution. The sweet presence of the Holy Spirit enveloped our little room filled to overflowing with a big God. We lingered and enjoyed the substance of true peace that passes understanding.
My fellow warriors for God stayed and fellowshipped for a while and some left with smiles and hand shakes all around. Our hosts offered us food and we of course did not refuse which would have been a great insult. Being familiar with Indian food because of my history as an MK I knew the spiciness to expect. For the next six days I would eat many meals offered by hardworking, precious, diligent servants of God who had nothing, yet offered food to me with joy. I actually started to enjoy the food with a nice kick to it. I told Sam often, “I know it is good when my lips are burning.”
My first day ended with another motorcycle ride back to my hotel. As I rode we waved and honked our way I prayed for a city that God is continuing a great work in and that work started long before I joined the fray that day. We arrived at my hotel without incident and I slept well after reflecting on the wealth in God of these dear people fast becoming my eternal friends.
Tuesday morning started early for me as usual as my body continued to tell me I was in a time zone from a land far away. Being up early gave me extra time to work on writing and invest time in prayer. About ten Sam called and said the place where he wanted to take me was under threat of attacks from Hindu Fundamentalists so we could not go and minister there.
Persecution of the church always mystifies me. How can anyone say that their religion is superior and powerful if they have to resort to violence and threats of violence to keep people following it? Also, I thought Hindus believed in Karma. How can beating someone up for any reason be rationalized as not evil and on the wrong side of Karmic prosperity?
History teaches us over and over, if we are willing to let it, that the human heart needs to be captured by love, not cajoled by fear. Every time our enemy Satan persecutes the church it is just like pouring gasoline on the cliched fire. Somehow, in America, Satan the liar seems to be lulling us to sleep with all our stuff, gadgets, opulence and religiosity. Elsewhere as I saw up close and personal, he keeps resorting to the method of intimidation always deceived himself that it works. No matter, I am thankful that God IS taking everything being thrown at His church and without fail “works it all out for good.”
No matter what the game our enemy plays, my dear friend, please be encouraged God always wins and accomplishes His purposes. Our purpose for the day was for Sam and I to go to the Raipur Zoo. The motorcycle ride there was a little warm, but I survived. We strolled and looked at animals of various kinds and prayed for all we saw as well as for the city of Raipur and the state of Chhattisgarh.
Just before leaving the zoo I needed to use the facilities. The open air restroom was a series of small square rooms with grooves slanted towards one corner. No traditional plumbing. No paper towels. Outside there was water to rinse hands, but no soap. As I rubbed my hands together to dry them and let the heat from the friction sanitize them, Sam recounted how most of his life he used the restroom in the woods and his left hand to keep clean. That is why in his culture people only use right hands to skillfully eat using yummy chapatis (similar to soft taco shells except moister) or simply placing the rice mixed with curry sauce and meat into their mouths.
On the way back to my hotel for a breather we stopped and ate on the second floor of a restaurant. Sam ordered what he wanted me to try and I showed no concern. More lips burning for me, but I was adapting fast. While eating I quizzed Sam on some Hindi words and started practicing them. I also looked down on the busy major road and watched a typical family pull up on a scooter. Father driving, mom in a beautiful Sari and child. I sometimes saw as much as five adults and kids crammed onto one of those scooters. This family skillfully avoided puddles in the uneven dirt parking lot. The mother and child dismounted and the father parked the scooter in no particular spot. They walked towards the restaurant with the air of being a culturally middle class, successful family in the same way an American family would park their car and walk into a mall. Regardless of the primary mode of transportation or the god worshipped, at their core, the predominant mindsets about what brings significance to life in America and India are so similar. Work hard, provide for your family and be successful.
A power nap recharged my battery back at the hotel and soon Sam’s brother and partner in ministry was at my door ready to bring me to share at one of the five weekly clubs that they run in the slums for kids. We will call Sam’s brother Andy. I recognized him from the night before at the house meeting. At that time did not know he was Sam’s brother. More skill in weaving and honking through traffic by Andy who is the primary operator of the kids clubs in Raipur brought me safe to the slums which are nothing like American slums.
We pulled up to one of many three story apartment looking structures made of bare looking cement purely for function of housing as many people as possible, not design. We got off Andy’s motorcycle and he had a fast talking Hindi conversation with someone on the second floor to find out the location for the kid’s club for that night was in a different home.
All the streets in that area were alley width. We walked down about a blog and back on the other side. I felt the usual all eyes on me as the tall white rich American, but I was not intimidated by the stares. I knew my God was with me and with the Almighty on my side I am a majority anywhere I go.
We arrived at the place we were supposed to be even though every entry way looked the same with no visible addresses to my eyes. Every one just knows where those close to them live and seekers have to ask where the party they are looking for is. As we walked up the dark stairs we heard the wonderful sound of children playing. We walked into a room literally about fifteen foot square and there was about 25 kids, all clean and bright eyed, enjoying games with very limited props and space. Two leaders, including Andy who just arrived with me kept all these kids in line and shared Jesus with them. The space we were using was the home of someone who had offered it to be used for club.
I sang the kids a song and taught them how to play ‘Simon Says’. Both Andy and Victor his helper who grew up in the ministry and now is helping lead the ministry are still learning English so translating for me was far from perfect, however my use of many actions and expressive facial expressions helped bridge verbal gaps in communication.
I demonstrated, using pantomime and words easy to translate, how God demonstrates His love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. These bright eyed, enthusiastic, precious kids who acted like they were in a place far away from the slums because of God’s love, captured my heart. I prayed for a few kids for encouragement, took selfies and pictures and in a flash we were done and of course invited to eat in the home where Victor and his mom and dad and two siblings lived on the first floor of where we just had our club with the kids.
While eating with Victor and Andy I practiced my Hindi words for “Thank you” and “You are welcome”. They practiced their English words as well and we laughed with such joy in the fellowship building process. These precious people who have given up everything to follow Jesus are filled with such joy and service, to this day my heart is drawn to sacrifice more for my King. Victor’s father returned from his hard work as a shoe repairman and did not demand a plate of food after working hard all day. He knelt on his own floor and wanted to practice his English. Victor received a phone call and while he was talking his father pointed at his son and said “This is my father!” Then he pointed to his wife and said “This is my mother.”
After Victor hung up the phone we worked through the translation and I realized he was trying to say he was Victor’s father and his wife was Victor’s mother. We laughed so hard we almost cried in the joy of the Lord which requires no translation. I cried as I prayed a prayer of blessing on this two room home of sweet Jesus followers, in the middle of a slum, in the middle of Riapur, in the middle of Chhattisgarh, in the middle of India whose lives have been not only redeemed by the same true God I serve, but have been transformed into ministers of this same Gospel to thousands living right in that area. As we walked back to the motorcycle many kids reappeared and walked behind us all the way back to the bike. Multiple words of goodbye echoed in our ears as we drove away. I knew, Lord willing, I would be back.
Wednesday came and I arose early as usual. Sam picked me up to go meet his fiancé and also do a special house church mid day meeting. Rides on the back of a motorcycle were now memorable events and not fearful at all.
The house of the family of Sam’s fiancé had three rooms, but yet was simple. A Muslim temple was close so even inside their living room occasionally we could still hear their prayers over a loud speaker. In Chhattisgarh, Muslims are a minority so regardless of their level of being ‘radical’ they cause no trouble. Yet Christians are an even greater minority in the same area and they follow Jesus better than most in being able to give up all rights to violently promote their religion even when they often take the brunt of violence for their faith. My interpretation of Jesus words goes something like. “Anyone can love those who agree with them and hate those who do not (enemies). Real, powerful faith that has teeth is shown when we love and bless and treat with respect our enemies no matter what they do to us!”
Love, respect and praying for our enemies under persecution is the greatest proof that the God we pray to hears our prayers and is the one true God. We enjoyed more corporate prayer and praise with a group of 8 from the fiancé’s circle of influence. I shared about how following Jesus can be as simple as my trust in those driving me around Raipur on their motorcycles. The passenger does not need to know where they are going, but simply trust to driver. I said “When we trust the Almighty who made everything and knows all the bumps in the road ahead, our only job is to hold on and enjoy the ride!”
I informally interviewed the fiancé about how she came to faith and how she met Sam. We had another good laugh as she was careful about what she said about Sam in a somewhat public setting. Her beauty and respect inside and outside were a joy to witness. We closed with another time of prayer for specific needs. Alcoholism of family members, employment needs, strength to persevere and salvation for family members were some requests. The passion and belief on God as the only hope for everything in their life oozes from the faces of these dear people with intensity of faith. Of course food and fellowship followed.
That same evening I was whisked away to another part of Raipur, which I could never find on my own, ever, just as every other place God had used my friendly motorcycle captains to get me exactly where He wanted me to be. We went to another home church meeting where the area the husband and wife pastor team used for the church meetings was bigger than the two small rooms and a kitchen that they had lived in for over fifteen years raising two daughters. Every time they meet they are at risk of true physical pain for their faith. I cannot let pass the hypocritical irony that false prophets like Benny Hinn and others can dare to have the audacity to call their multi-million dollar homes a “ministry expense”.
The service with another 25 passionate men, women and children hard after God commenced the same as others. No pomp, no meaningless liturgy, just informal, joyful, honest praise and worship of our huge God. I cannot remember what I shared about, but afterward more prayer sessions for all kinds of needs happened. No one appeared in a hurry to leave. To these people worship of the only true God is a necessity like oxygen, not a status symbol to show off how spiritual they are. Suffering in poverty and persecution for their faith is their reality, not some theory mentioned briefly in pious sounding sermons in posh church buildings where wealthy appearing people leave as soon as possible and the biggest problem they have to deal with is arguing over which of the thousands of restaurants in their city to worship their real god, ‘food’ at.
We knew food would be offered and of course we would eat as a sign of great respect for this dear couple. We walked back into their dining room which was also their bedroom. Their bed filled 65 percent of the room. They put newspaper on the bed and we sat in simple chairs and ate while they watched us. In their culture you serve your guest first and then the family eats later. If you give all your food to your guests, the family goes hungry for the night.
After we ate, Sam wanted me to hear the story of this couple who pastor 12 village churches and have had 3 leaders of other churches come out of their ministry. They live on about $50 per month and the love of Jesus glows and drips off them like dew on a beautiful rose.
Both came from strict orthodox Hindu homes. Because of famine they moved to Raipur. The wife struggled with many physical problems and she met a Jesus follower and they suggested she try asking Jesus to help her. She was instantly healed and turned her life to Christ. She could not read or write, but she began to share her story and invite others to follow Jesus. For three years her husband stayed in his Hindu ways thinking that his wife would come to her senses at some point. She did not preach at him, she just prayed and did what Jesus told her to do.
Finally her husband was dealing with health issues as well and asked for help from Jesus. He was healed and they began serving our sweet Savior together. Right now as I remember the faces of these sweet warriors for the cross, my face again wells up with tears at how our almighty God can take any life, anywhere and turn it into a Jesus follower making machine. We met their daughters and prayed for protection and strength for the entire family. Meeting these two was just the beginning of the amazing humble servants of God I would meet in my time in Raipur. As we returned to my hotel, my heart pounded not from earthly concerns of traffic and staying on the back of the motorcycle, but from heavenly desires of how to best help servants like this continue the work God has placed them in.
Thursday during the day I used the day to recharge and write and pray and relax. In the evening I had another opportunity to share with a different kids club. Andy and Victor helped interpret again and I taught the kids a song and did a game. They have a small stand alone room in a neighborhood which is used for church on Sunday and clubs during the week. More kids took pieces of my heart with them as they interacted with me with no fear and asked for prayer for real concerns in their lives. Again, I could have stayed their all night. On the way back we stopped at a road side food stand and ate some “Mumus”. They tasted like small dumplings with chicken inside. Dipped in chili sauce, they were yummy!
Friday came with no regard for how full and overwhelmed by the goodness and mercy and grace of God I felt. God wanted to flood me to overflowing like Niagara Falls with his uses of me in my weakness. By car we left Raipur at about 9AM to go to a meeting of fifteen leaders of village churches all around Raipur up to 200 Kilometers away. The temperature was bearable, which was good because the cooling air on an older small car could not keep up. We brought Sam’s soon to be ‘brother in law’ along as well.
When we left Raipur the road was wide enough for 2 cars to pass. Of course two wheeled transportation abounded and had to be avoided. Of course honking and jolting and bumping were ever present. At about 10:30 AM we stopped at another road side food stand which was a small shelter and a table and a father daughter team cooking deep fried Indian food. I bought my friends lunch and we were back on our way.
The further we drove the narrower the road got. We turned off what they call a main road and the narrowing continued. Signs I was far, far away from the city, my country, my state and my home were everywhere. Now we were on a narrow single lane dirt road honking our way through villages. Shacks and shanties of poverty were the norm. My enemy the devil planted a thought that ‘the entire time I had been in Raipur was just a set up so they could build up my trust to bring into the middle of no where and make me disappear’. If I went missing here, who could I trust for help to get home safe to my wife? I prayed to my God in my heart and said, “Lord, no matter what happens to me, I know I can trust you. I trust you the same everywhere.”
My feelings of fear left me like feathers blown by a strong wind as we pulled up to the house church where the meeting was to happen. When the small dusty car pulled up I was in the back right passenger seat and there were about fifteen kids and men standing and waiting for me to get out. They tried hard not to stare, but they failed badly. I got out and right away started shaking hands and saying “Praise the Lord” in Hindi. The international language of smiles, nods and touch instantly eradicated any language or fear obstacles. In my spirit, I knew we had a commonality and fellowship in Christ that could not be limited by language, culture or geography.
We reveled in raucous praise and corporate prayer as usual. Sam had asked me to share for 30 to 45 minutes about leadership. I was humbled to be able to address about 13 leadership teams doing ministry in villages in over 100 house churches. I shared from Philippians 2 about how as followers of Jesus in Emptying Ourselves just as Jesus did, were are leaders in reality regardless of title or vocation. Three ways to lead by example of emptying ourselves are: 1) Honest, fervent prayer to God about ourselves first and then others. 2) Prayerful devouring of the Word of God, and 3) Humble interdependence on others in the body of Christ.
Sam shared also for about fifteen minutes and I enjoyed viewing his passion from my chair on the side of the stage, even though I did not understand a word he was saying! Afterwards it seemed like every pastoral team came forward to share a bit about their ministry and received prayer. Their sacrifice to serve God in dirty, poor villages in the middle of India pounded on my heart. Here are just a few stories I recorded notes about to recall for you.
One pastor told me he helps over 40 house churches in villages around his area. Another pastoral team of two young men ages 21 and 22 blew me away. Their eyes danced as they recounted in broken English how God is using them in over 12 house churches in different villages. I thanked them and encouraged them to keep moving forward humbly in their service of our King. I also blessed them for their desire to serve God at such a young age and told them “what you are doing for God is significant!”
Every pastor or team of pastors serves multiple house churches on shoe string finances. They need our help and encouragement to keep doing the work God has called them to. They want to start businesses and schools to meet the needs in the villages. Their was a female who also joined the meeting and asked for prayer for her family and her own growth in God. The Indian culture treats women way better than radical Muslim culture. I was thankful that in the Indian church women can get as much of God as they want without any obstacles from leadership.
After a significant time of prayer ministry, Sam, his future brother in law, myself and the host pastor of the meeting took lunch together. Again the small master bedroom to the side of the “sanctuary” served as the dining room. Following Sam’s lead after lunch I gave our host some money to cover his costs for snacks provided to all those who came before the meeting. He was visibly reluctant to take the money but was respectful and received. After lunch more informal fellowship, laughter and prayer happened and seemingly in a flash we had to part ways bodily. As for me, my heart is knitted with these dear people forever in Christ. As we literally shook everyone’s hand on the way to the car and the same procession of eager faces bid us goodbye, I said “I will be back!” And I meant it with every fiber of my being.
On our way back to Raipur, I pondered the stories and faces of these dear pastors and families and knew they would never leave me. Retracing steps on a trip always seems shorter because of familiarity, but my mind was still taking in the essence of this beautiful people and country. Some pictures of what I saw will stick with me.
Women walking, men walking, children walking by the side of the road was commonplace everywhere. Multiple luckier people shared bicycles, scooters, motorcycles, rickshaws of all kinds all going places to work and make better lives for their families. Women in saris balancing up to 6 bricks at a time on the heads and carrying them up to the second floor of a building construction site. Who needs men or an elevator? A woman carrying so much unprocessed rice (looks like straw) on her head walking by the road I could not see any part of her head. I wonder how she even saw the road?
In my entire stay in and around Raipur I witnessed ONE very old women begging and saw three very elderly men on the side of the road even though social programs are minimal. In my major city in America even with our many social programs to help the poor, I see multiple able bodied individuals with signs asking for help every day. The respectful work ethic of the people I met puts all of the west to shame. I am thankful that God can use anything to point all humans from all cultures to Himself. Even Karma in reality proves itself to be false in the very country that promotes it. If Karma is true, why are all these hard working, respectful, caring people who care for their families still battling such poverty and hardship?
Saturday reminded me early that it was my last full day in Raipur. Prayer and study and breakfast happened in the same blessed routine. At about noon Sam interrupted my channel flipping through endless Hindi speaking overacting programs looking for reruns of American sitcoms. He appeared at my hotel room, it was a good opportunity for me to be the host for a change so I got him coffee using the in room supply. We chatted and chuckled for a while and soon we were off on another adventure on his motorcycle.
We arrived at a larger home at the outskirts of Raipur that almost looked like a superb. The house was still a rental that was attached to at least one other home so could be considered a condo. The pastor of the house church with a white exterior and no door came from the Brahman caste which is the highest, most privileged caste. As we prepared for a non scheduled service he shared how he came to Jesus. He lost his business which was very successful and God used that abject failure which brought shame in his culture to make him wealthy beyond compare in a way better business of spreading the good news about real wealth that is incorruptible.
This man who lost everything and now lives in a rented home which now points people to an eternal home literally shone with joy as he talked about three people who had been baptized in the last month and they are increasing to two services on Sunday soon. While we talked with the aid of translation by Sam 7 people sat and listened with wide eyes. I could feel the hunger for God in the room thick like an invisible fog.
We prayed and sang as usual and I shared from James 4:7 and Ephesians 6 about our need to always submit to God and resist the devil in all we do, especially prayer sessions. Resisting is a constant process. I was honored to pray for two new believers who had just been baptized and were fasting. I prayed for perseverance to keep putting to use the Grace and Mercy of God and step by step follow Jesus.
A lady came forward for prayer for her family to follow Jesus. As I prayed for her she was sobbing and repeating her own prayers in Hindi. We needed no translation as we pounded to together similar to the widow asking the wicked judge for his intervention. The passion and desperation for God to move as only He can is emblazoned on my minds eye. Again the faith and trust of these sweet people in our mighty Jehovah no matter what happens brought tears to my eyes.
We ate with the pastor and as we were leaving the neighbors of the pastor who were there for the service asked us to pray blessing over their home. We obliged and they were loud and boisterous in their praise of God, unconcerned about the racket of righteous praise bringing attention to their joy from outside. As we left we felt the thankfulness in all eyes on us.
After a much needed nap since prayer ministry and spiritual warfare is physically taxing, Sam had Victor bring me to his place for a simple meal. He shares a modest rental with his brother and our driver from the airport. For this meal it was just Victor and Sam and I. We enjoyed comparing cultural differences and laughed often. We prayed for the wildfire spreading of revival in the millions in that state. I prayed for protection and strength for Sam and his brother and all the leaders of churches growing in the area. As Victor returned me to my hotel I knew I would be returning to more ministry with these dear brother warriors for God.
Sunday morning my flight home was at around 9 and I found it ironical that the only two days I was in Raipur that I did NOT do church were Sundays. I am thankful the message of the rugged cross and life transformation is not limited meetings at certain times. Relationship with my Jesus is a day by day, breath by breath reality.
My taxi to the airport did not take credit and I had given all my Rupees to Sam. We both thought I would be able to change money at the airport. We both were surprised that since Raipur is not an international airport no-one could change money for me. Seeing my dilemma the cab driver took $10 American which meant over payment for the ride in the amount of at least 100 Rupees.
As I was trying to find money to change with the driver in tow I had passed a family of five. Upon settling and returning to the entry for departures I passed the same family and their youngest child, about 3, instead of following his family in one line, followed me the big white American in a completely Asian airport. The mom of the child called for her son and soon he corrected his mistake. I smiled and said “I do not think they would let me put you in my suitcase.”
The family chuckled, I do not know if they understood my words, but deep in my heart what I prayed was “Lord, I want to put that dear child, his whole family, all the families in Raipur, all the families in Chhattisgarh, all the families in India into to the suitcase of the reality of the love of God who desperately wants to seek and save all who are lost!”
While waiting for customs check and bag Check I noticed more guards with machine guns as part of their uniforms. I even took a picture of one guard from the back on the sly. I could not help but notice the glaring absence of any anti gun demonstrators in that airport. I felt quite secure sitting and reading peacefully fifteen feet from a person with a tool over his shoulder that could end my life on this earth in a second. Again thoughts of thankfulness waved over me as I know personally the creator of all things who has awesome fearful power that makes machine guns appear puny in comparison, yet because He is good He makes a way for me to be safe from all danger because of the cross!
My desire for American food and home started to build as I left Raipur a different person and arrived in Delhi. Good conversation and sleep happened with still some cramped quarters from Delhi to London. In London I connected with a dear Asian friend and his wife. He has known me since I was a boy and my parents were in ministry in England pointing Asians to our same sweet Savior. We laughed and shared over a late but delicious non curry meal. Need for sleep pounded on my eye lids like a mallet and the bed in their guest room in a very British semi-attached home felt close to home.
The next day he went to work early and his wife took me to another longtime friend of the family for my final night away from my bed and my pillow and my lovely bride of over twenty five years. Pizza and Sprite never tasted so good at the dinner with this friend and another friend in kind. Both are dear fellow followers of Jesus, remember me when I was a kid and love my “mum” to pieces.
Again up early I was able to reorganize my luggage to transport Christmas gifts home to mom. I enjoyed simple cereal for breakfast and walked with luggage to the Underground station. During the sometimes cramped ninety minute underground ride the body language of the so called civilized British passengers, living in the place many in India want to be, was noticeably sadder overall than what I had experienced in India. Soon I was at the London airport, more than ready to go home. Baggage check was mercifully easy and the flight was not full so there was a precious open seat between myself and my neighbor.
Customs at home was a breeze and as I walked into the luggage area that was familiar to me, even though no one was their to meet me because I was to Uber home, tears of gratitude for all those who love me and supported me to take this adventure flowed down my cheeks with no regard for anyone witnessing them.
To give the full essence of how half way around the world the God of the Bible is the same and so are people, my story actually ends the following Saturday of my return. I was doing my part time ride share gig and just happened to pick up an Asian couple originally from India who were in town for their son’s wedding. In a short trip they told me a long story. He decided as a young man to follow Jesus and his family completely disowned him. Being a dummy, not, God provided him a scholarship to Yale and he now teaches at a college in Russia. We rejoiced together that our God orchestrated a meeting in Minnesota between two people from India living in a communist country visiting America and another person who in the same week just returned from visiting India back to Minnesota. We chuckled and promised to keep in touch on the down low as they departed to from my car to keep serving Jesus in earthly anonymity but heavenly glory.
We serve an almighty, big, compassionate and sovereign God. He promised to never leave me or forsake me. I can say that in every step of my adventure His power and love were evident. Not only did He place people in front of the screen of my life that I would never have imagined I could talk to, He changed my perspective on the work that He is doing everywhere.
***** If you prayed for me and helped me financially to go half way around the world, “thank you” does not seem adequate, but it is all I have.****
I hope to return next year if the Lord allows. If you would like to join me in sending more money to Sam so the work that is being done can grow even more and the kids can be helped, the best way is small direct donations to Sam (I have channels set up to get funds through to him without raising red flags). An exact quote from Sam “I have no needs myself, I do a little IT work so I get my two meals a day. My concern is for the pastors and the kids.” Imagine anyone in America defining having their needs met as ‘having their two meals per day’?
While writing this I just happened to see a Compassion International rep at an event and they explained why India does not allow them in right now in their country. Because they were helping over 100,000 kids, India was unfairly and illegally concerned about their own financial sovereignty so the only way to help is small donations through small channels. Contact me if you would like me to forward money to India for you in a way you can be confident that 100% of the money is going right where it is needed.
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Are smooth transitions possible?
Before Donald Trump became president of the United States in 2017 he hosted a show called The Apprentice which was hard to take our eyes off of, like every time gawkers drive by a car accident on the highway. What made the show so compelling was the cathartic process of every week getting to see some poor ambitious wannabe executive or some washed up celebrity looking for last vestiges of publicity for their career, fight to put on a brave face as The Donald said “You’re fired.”
Most walkers of this planet have experienced kinder, gentler words while being forced to transition on a different career path, or the end of a relationship which is rarely completely mutual, or loss when a close friend moves away, or simply moving on in school. Regardless of the words and tone used to explain the transitions of life that rush at us like hail during a tornado, change is never easy. Can change and transition become smoother with the help of someone who never changes in character but changes His methods all the time?
I will spare my reader sob stories about the many changes and transitions in my life because I am convinced we all know the feelings that come with change. All humans know the early morning trance where we try think back to how best we could have changed our behavior to not be rejected in some way. All air breathers play the “if only” game. All wannabe judges replay the final conversations to an imaginary courtroom jury to show how wrong and unfair the words of the other entity were. All writers love to include back stories inside the trances of the hero’s memory to show motivation for the current totally wrong path of action they are taking.
To answer the question that is the title of this contemplation, we must explore the truth that is quoted so much it causes rolled eyes in teenagers and adults alike. “The only constant is change.”
Like the consistent drip of a leaky faucet, change is continual and consistent as gravity. Human skin cells are replaced every two or three weeks. About every seven years our bodies are completely replaced with new versions of ourselves because of cellular regeneration. The lifeblood of retail cash drawers is the constant change in what is the in style. The next greatest smart phone is always clamoring for the spotlight on the horizon. Politicians are the same in always promising a different and better tomorrow of change.
Since there is overwhelming evidence that change and transitions are as permanent a fixture in life as breathing, why do we struggle so much with movement and change? Physically a human finger when cut takes about two weeks to heal, yet emotionally I have talked to people still carrying anger from when they were wronged years ago. One of my favorite sayings born out of my own learning from dealing with transition is “Life is filled with opportunities for me to learn to walk with God through change.”
I submit for my reader to consider, that our struggle with change is actually born out of our idolatry. When things go well, I want to bottle what I did to get good results and repeat so I can guarantee good results always. God instead wants to teach me through various trials to learn over and over to keep placing all my trust in Him alone. God changes his methods of drawing us to himself often, but thankfully he never changes his character, the essence of who he is. “Though heaven and earth pass away, my words will NEVER pass away.” Matthew 24:35
Our grasping for permanence anywhere but our life and death faith in GOD is the essence of idolatry because we are placing our trust in things going just right so our lives look successful through the eyes of those we seek to impress.
Paul blasts these delusional aspirations for a settled, normal, comfortable, affluent life from sight in 2 Corinthians 12:9 by saying “He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect (complete) in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”
I just now noticed the punctuation that Paul used in this verse. He is saying he heard the Lord speaking directly to himself! The main point of what he heard from God was that amazing GRACE is enough to help us navigate all of the changes and transitions of this life, because the essence of the character of God is the only guarantee this side of Heaven. Just as physical movement is a sign of physical life. Movement and change in our circumstances is a sure sign God is IN US and working ON US.
“Some trust in chariots, some trust in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our GOD” Psalms 20:7
Gut wrenching, agonizing, second guessing emotions of oneself brought on by change and transitions can do the complete work of enhancing and increasing my trust in the never changing character of the Name of the Lord MY God if I give God the permission to complete his work in me.
Change and transition in my life wrought these words, which may never have been written by a Psalmist, but since I know personally the good growth that can come as good fruit of all trials I would like to give you my modern, personal version of the above verse.
“Some trust in never failing, never fighting with their spouse, never being fired, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God”
“Some trust in things always being neat and tidy, things always succeeding, things always looking perfect, BUT we trust in the name of the LORD OUR GOD.”
“Some trust in affluence, some trust in influence, some trust in self-reliance, but we TRUST in the name of the LORD JESUS CHRIST our GOD.
“Some trust in perfectionism, some trust in hedonism, some trust in pluralism, but WE trust in the NAME and character of the LORD OUR GOD.
“Some trust in status, some trust in religious trappings and appearances, some trust in their own performance and abilities, but I choose right now to trust in the name of the Lord God Almighty.”
Smooth transitions are directly affected by the size of the God you serve in the same way that being on a stormy sea is smoother in an ocean liner than in a dingy made of toothpicks. My friend, storms of change and transition are going to come in our lives, may our trust in God grow larger each day through the trials and changes so our lives point others to HIM.
A suggested prayer. “Lord, thank you that you are so trustworthy and you are so HUGE, help me to trust you and grow in you above all in my life. Help me abandon those things that do not satisfy. Help me to glorify you in the way I LET you help me stay calm in the midst of changes and struggles of life. Amen.”
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Oh be careful little eyes what you see?
“Oh be careful little eyes what you see. Oh be careful little
ears what you hear. Oh be careful little feet where you go. For the
Father’s up above and he’s looking down in LOVE.”
Kid’s songs are the best. Working with kids is awesome. When I meet people in the public arena and in the course of the conversation I say I minister to kids NOT ONCE has anyone said, “Well that is terrible, you should let them find their own way in life!”
Usually culturally polite strangers say nice things and sound like they almost wish they could be as noble as to impact kids for good, then steer the conversation with lightning speed away to topics more fun like why their favorite sports team needs a new coach.
I am a creative person, I love drama and stories and the creative process of getting down to the real issues of life in simple yet creative terms. I guess working with kids is a good fit. With kids we MUST keep it simple. That is why Jesus said “If you wanna come to me you gotta be like a kid.” Read the Gospels, Jesus said ‘wanna’ and ‘gotta’ all the time, right?
Movies and television are so powerful in influencing minds young and old. As a personal follower of Jesus I have been impacted to tears many times by secular and religious programming. Unfortunately I have also been slimed beyond reason with maximum icky feelings of temptation to lust by lies coming from those same electronic rectangle screen communicators. These lies are always about what will satisfy me now like cool clear water in a desert to thirsty lips, for real.
The song above is cute, but is it accurate and does it work? Is it even possible to be careful what you see? If a person’s eye balls are working and their eye lids are functional and open, can they control everything that comes into their view? Of course one can LIMIT the possibility they will see bad things by where they go and what they turn on and whom they associate with, but it is impossible to filter out all negative, slimy images from our minds.
What I dislike most about the song is the unspoken message that if only I never see bad things, go bad places or touch bad things, then everything will be ok, God will be happy with me and give me everything I want, just like Santa. I agree that being careful from harmful images is a good thing. I agree that knowing that God sees everything is beneficial. With every ounce of passion in my spirit I DISAGREE that I have ANY power in myself to please God in word or deed. The Apostle Paul agrees also because he is the one who said, “The very things I want to do, I do not!”
I may be reading things into the song that are not there. If when you hear the song, you think ‘be careful because you are following Jesus and love him and want to serve him in every area of your life!’, then I am ok, but if you are anything like me in my fallen performance mentality, this just becomes another add on to the very long list of things I must do to prove to God I love him.
I submit to my readers a more doable option. “Be careful how you think and pray about what you see, feel and experience.” Probably won’t work in a song, but I think it is more beneficial.
Every time I receive input into my spirit through any of my senses, my choices are very simple. Choice #1: Interpret the message received from my own thinking and desires for what I think will satisfy me. Choice #2: Invite Jesus whom I follow to use every input to demonstrate to me how much HE loves ME. HE wants to heal ME. HE wants to transform ME into HIS image.
These two choices cannot be more opposed to each other. One blindly adopts the messages of media and input from the point of view of the creators and the person’s grid for finding meaning in life.
The other takes ALL input and shines the light of true, historical truth from God’s amazing Word and filters out “God LOVES ME” messages from everything. To take a brief philosophical trip, all of creation and creativity points to a creator. All of our ability as humans to choose points to a creator who is relational and chooses to make a way for us to be relational back to him even possible. Any philosophy that worships the creation rather than the creator leaves us thirsty for more, again, like someone dying of thirst in the desert who just lifted a canteen expecting pure water and got sand instead. No personal creator, no meaning.
If we learn from everything we see around us to look for the messages about what brings true meaning compared with the ultimate truth of accurate scripture, we can learn to turn every movie, every TV show, every conversation, every song, every painting, every temptation and every failure INTO another step of faith moment by moment.
Way back in the ‘old days’ when I went to Bible college, one of the schools I went to had a rule against going to movies in the theatre. My father had similar guidelines which he made one exception to so our family could see BEN HUR when I was quite young, because it had huge Biblical overtones to the story. Ironical and tragic is the reality that even to this day, over forty years later I can remember being majorly slimed watching a movie on CABLE in my off campus housing while I was going to that same college. No college security came knocking at my door in the middle of the night! What unintentional message did I pick up from the externally driven policies of my college and parents who wanted God’s best for me? “Controlling the external behavior is most important in the life of following Jesus.”
Colossians talks about substance which is Christ and shadow which is the externals that people so often focus on and try to emulate so when others observe behavior they will think the substance of Christ is present and at work.
When I was honest with Christ, well after college about my wicked heart, he took my sin as if for the first time and gave me his righteousness. Now He continues to transform the way I live from the inside out. Not to be seen by men or externally impress, but to obey God who is inside me and allow the Holy Spirit to filter everything for God’s glory.
To illustrate the mind and will transformation that God has wrought in me over time, I would like to break down some recent TV episodes and movies seen, and conversations had, and show you the “God LOVES me” messages I am deriving from them. My prayer is that these illustrations of thought processes help you access more of the true truth of what God wants you to get on the inside while casting off any thought patterns based on lies or externals.
THIS IS US:
My wife and I heard from family that the show was great so we caught up on all episodes using On Demand. The show is enjoyable on many levels and cuts right to the heart of what the desires of most parents are for their kids when they reach adulthood. The audience gets glimpses of the lives of three kids at various stages of growing up and shows how the past is impacting the unique three as adults.
To paraphrase the show without too many spoilers, when Caucasian triplets were delivered at the hospital one did not survive and an African American child which had been left at a nearby fire station was brought in by a fireman. The parents’ hearts were set on bringing home three so they adopted the abandoned child and still got their BIG three. As adults the big three have challenges which make them feel anything but big. Weight challenges plague the woman, Kate, even though she is the emotional rock for her quite different brothers. Her brother who shared the womb struggles to be considered a serious actor and quits a successful but fluffy sitcom which unashamedly prostituted his good looks for ratings while he seeks to reconnect with his childhood sweet heart whom he cheated on and she divorced him. The adopted son becomes financially successful at a job that puts people to sleep when described, but struggles with finding his birth father and feeling his parents treated him different out of guilty trying to make him not feel different.
The title of the show is clear to say that warts and all, the family unit is there for each other and is doing their best to be good citizens and happy. I even pick up a not so subtle message, THIS IS US, “take us or leave us!” I resonate with that emotion, there have been many times where I have felt misunderstood by others who are seeking to put me into their boxes of what they think I should be and this has induced sorrowful rage.
I feel the reason the show has been popular is many relate to the feeling that “We may be messed up, but we are sticking together no matter what.” I applaud the show for elevating the importance of a family unit made up of a man and a women who love each other and want kids to grow up secure and productive. The show is so close to in reality dealing with real life solutions to real life problems. Unfortunately Hollywood philosophy denies the power and existence of the one person who can bring these solutions into reality, Jesus.
Here are some examples that evoked passion from inside me as I talked to my TV and said “Jesus so wants to help with that!”
The daughter starts to date a guy she met at an over eaters support group, he is funny and from the start has the desire to date her. Jokes about the sacrifice of taste for eating healthy are over the top and clever. She resists at first and then decides to take the plunge and date even though she is concerned about not being worthy because of her size. After dating for a while her boyfriend decides to give up on the whole weight loss program. Over a dinner where she is eating like a snail and he is enjoying way too much, big calories in a meal, she drops a blow.
She says, “I can’t do this anymore”.
He says “Why?”
“I got to get my s**t together. I got to lose the weight and being with you when you are eating whatever you want is not working for me.”
Hollywood would not let me within two miles of their writer’s room, but if I was sitting at that table in that restaurant with that couple battling the bulge, here is what I would implore them with.
Many times in my life I have tried so hard to get my s**t together. It never worked, ever. God does not want to improve my life, he wants to replace it with HIS life. His power, His mercy, His joy, His love.
Romans 5:8 says that “God demonstrates his love for us in that while we are yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
So many live in the joy draining lie that if only they lost the weight, were better looking, were more talented, were in a relationship, had happy kids, made more money, were famous, then everything would be ok. Only trouble is, when we get any of that stuff even for a fleeting moment, it never is enough because then we have to worry about losing it.
The demonstrated LOVE of God is perfect and everlasting and only has to be received like a little child to benefit from it in huge proportions.
Later in the show the ex-boyfriend cannot live without this determined women who is considering lap band surgery. He flies across the country to join the family for their infamous unique Christmas celebration and proposes marriage with new promises to stay on the weight loss wagon. After she says yes, in a tacky way only television writers who love easy sex would write, he asks for intercourse. She of course says yes, which everyone in media has so masterfully turned into the norm by repeating the same scenario over and over again to ad nauseam. “Everyone sleeps together and lives together before getting married, right?” Soon after, he collapses with a cardiac event and we do not know if his married life will end before it has a chance to start.
“By their fruit you will know them.” This quote is in scripture and applies to people, but I also think we should apply the principle to proposed options of navigating life. What is the fruit or result of trying to live life as prescribed by this show? I would ask my reader to think, have you done any of the prescribed and promoted behaviors depicted by this show? What has been the fruit or consequence of those things in your life? Does any of it satisfy?
Without being tawdry or giving too much detail, my wife and I have been married for over twenty years and what happens in our bedroom is our business, totally righteous before God and wholesome. We have no regret baggage that comes as a result of rebelling against God ordained protections for all people’s benefit. Our marriage covenant safeguards physical union between a man and a women, but even as great as this gift is, it PALES compared to the real LOVE of God pulsing through my heart. I often must guard against little meaningless spats happening right after intimacy. My dear friend, with all the passion I can muster, please hear me when I say that even good, pure pleasure in this life that honors God’s Word does not come close to satisfying us like the pure, sweet Love and Grace of God can satisfy us. God is the one who said “Taste and see that the Lord is GOOD.”
When I cry out to God in prayer and worship and surrender and invite him to come into all my pain and sin and sorrow and clean me up, He does it every time. He really does satisfy my soul.
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. Are you sick and tired of all the fruit of lies that people have been telling you? Are you tired of working so hard to be smart enough, thin enough, rich enough, sexy enough, spiritual enough, cool enough? Jesus says “Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest!”
‘Love’ that is earned is never secure and never lasts, therefore is it really love?
In the show the adopted brother who becomes successful in the eyes of society, always wonders about his birth father and goes to great lengths to find him using a private investigator. When he summons the courage to confront his parent who rejected him without even knowing him, we get the full picture that the life he would have lived with an addict in need of recovery paled in comparison to the life he now leads.
In a classic confrontation at the front door of his now drug free biological father, the seeking son launches into a tirade about never forgiving his dad for leaving him and brags at the same time about the car he drives. When the telling off is complete and final, the winsome father says “You wanna come in for a few minutes?”
Casually the son agrees as if to negate all the boundaries just set forth in his tirade minutes earlier. Soon, after knowing the reasons why his father gave him up, he finds out the father is dying of cancer and is gay. He invites his dad to live with his wife and two girls as long as he needs.
Dramas and plot lines live and breathe on misunderstandings and assumptions of motives behind actions. Perspective on the actual experience of the person who abandoned him and why, totally changed the son’s emotions and responses to his dad.
As we think about God and his perspective on all that is spinning around on this crazy planet we call earth, are we doing the same thing as we assign motives to why God acts or doesn’t act as he does?
There are three areas of life that I am certain affect all humans and as we scurry around on this big planet like ants looking for food we can benefit from understanding God’s perspective since he is much bigger than us.
Sin, Circumstances and Hell:
No matter what my reader thinks about the above words, please hang in there and consider the difference between our perceptions of God’s motives in these areas and the reality of what God’s motives are and how those motives are proved in his actions, based on the verifiable historical truth of scripture.
From my earliest understanding I always thought sin was all the exciting fun things that I could not do if I wanted people in my family and church to accept me and think I was somebody. I always knew what was wrong because of a rich heritage of being a child of those in ministry and much exposure to protestant church activities. At age seven I received God’s forgiveness for my sin based on the shed blood of Jesus on the cross for me. Growing in my battle against sin and desire to follow Jesus was always present, but success in staying away from all kinds of sin is exhausting.
There are sins of commission which are thoughts and actions, then there are sins of omission which are challenging to even define. Many religious people of all denominations, when faced with the immensity of sinful actions and thoughts and inactions, just default to what appears to be a much easier way called spiritual external performance. The only problem is, that whatever external religious performance we set up for ourselves, we cannot even keep those up very well so we keep lowering even our man made standards. Soon everybody is just living by the unspoken rule. “Do the best you can and try not to sin as much as most of the people that you respect.”
Rationalizations are like opinions and hairs, everybody has them.
“If God did not want me to look at porn, why did he create me so I want to?”
“If God is all powerful, why doesn’t he just reveal himself so everyone can see him?”
“If God is loving, why does he even allow evil in the world?”
“If God does not want me to make idols out of all my stuff, my work, my reputation, my family, then why did he bless me with all that stuff?”
“If all sin is so bad for us, why make it feel so good on the front end and the consequences for doing it so bad on the back end?”
Many think the problem of evil is a major hoop for people of faith to overcome, I propose the problem of sin is a way bigger hoop. If a person goes to church, any church, when they walk in and are asked the standard “How you are doing?” do they say without hesitation, “I am great, I only lusted fourteen times this week, yelled at my wife three times, was jealous of my neighbor’s new Porsche once and gained three pounds, how are you?” Nope, we keep things nice and civil and cultured and talk about our sports teams and hunting trips and job promotions and accomplishments.
Sin is like dirt in snow, once snow gets dirty there in no cleaning it up. The only way to get it white again is to have new snow. God’s showed us his perspective on sin when he said “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.” Isaiah 1:18
I have done much cleaning in my years and nothing is cleaner than when it is brand new. God is the only one who can make a life new over and over again, because he is the only one who made everything and made a way for us to obtain his perfection. That is why we celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus, because he is the only one who can fix the sin problem over and over again. One sacrifice, multiple applications, one amazing GOD.
The simple answer to all of the above rationalizing questions regarding why God allows sin is this. “God is personal and wants personal relationship with you and me.”
Part of being a person is volition, the ability to choose. My favorite statement which I have used many times in sharing my faith is this, “God does not need our help to work in our lives, he does need our permission.”
A key component of repentance is gut wrenching honesty with our creator. Many times I have shared when my personal battle against sin changed. According to Psalms 51, I gave God permission to accelerate his work in my life which started when I was a child. I prayed “God I know you are real and I know you love me, but I cannot love you and obey you unless you help me!”
I also told God I was not going to crank out external religious performance, instead I was going to keep asking for internal healing and power to obey and put that to use from the inside out. Larry Crabb’s book called “Inside out” was instrumental in my growth.
The only cure for sin is the growing internal power and love of all three persons of the Godhead. “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
What always evokes huge emotion in me is the fact that as much of a slap in the face my sin is to God every time I sin. God’s perspective when I confess my sin and receive his forgiveness, over and over again, is excitement because I put to use the provision he went to great lengths to provide for me, personally.
Ephesians 5:1-2 says “Therefore be followers of God as dear children and walk in love as Christ also has loved us and given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling aroma.”
What makes the sacrifice on the cross of Christ so sweet smelling to God, is the truth that it takes our sin away so we can be in relationship with Him forever. Even the most callous parent would never consider the cruel murder of their only child on a cross to save a relationship with immature repeat offenders as a sweet smelling anything!
Romans is so clear that “All things work together for those who love God and are called according to his purpose.” One of the things included in ‘all things’ is even our sin is useful to show us we need the solution only God can provide. Amazing Grace.
What has captured my heart and motivates me to follow Jesus with passion personally, is every time I sin he is faithful and just to forgive me my sin and cleanse me from all unrighteousness. When I confess and engage again and put to use his provision for me my loyalty to Him grows. Loyalty, bought and paid for by forgiveness of sin grows into unbounded boldness. Because of what He has done for me to fix my sin, I will never be silent.
Pray this prayer to make sure your sin problem is settled once and for all. “Jesus, thank you for going to the cross to buy my forgiveness. I confess all my sins of trying to do things my way. Be my Lord and Savior and help me follow you all the days of my life. Amen.”
Circumstances:
Throughout all media outlets and cultural messages the perspective on circumstances is the same. Good circumstance equal a good happy life. Bad circumstances equal misery and discouragement. In business and sales the talk of having a good attitude even in tough circumstances is mainly used to keep people motivated to keep selling and making their employer money. Turning lemons into lemonade was even referenced by the doctor who delivered the triplets and one died.
I agree, attitude is important and so is learning to look for the good in every situation is helpful as well. The reason most references to circumstances and how to navigate the good and the bad in life successfully fall short is the scope of time and space of those circumstances.
Every person from every philosophy will talk about learning from past mistakes and how time allows greater perspective. “Time heals all wounds” is so overused, but I feel many adhere to it. Physically time does heal flesh wounds, but try getting stabbed in the heart and healing without surgery. Still there is the unspoken message that with enough time comes enough perspective to overcome bad circumstances. Time is a huge part of the theory evolution. Time is needed to learn and grow as humans.
Space relates to the place where circumstances happen. Running out of gas in the middle of a city is inconvenient. Running out of gas in a subzero blizzard in North Dakota miles from help is deadly. I am using the word space to define the parameters of any circumstance. For example, finding out a loved one has cancer creates a certain space of the doctors and hospitals and chemo and telling friends what is going on, and so on.
Having been on this planet for a while, I have seen my share of circumstances and every time and space of the circumstance has been different. Understanding the how to navigate circumstances in a different way has been so transforming for me. To be blunt, I had to come to the end of my way of dealing with stuff and learn to invite in God’s way and perspective for handling life.
Real change in my perspective on the time and space of my circumstances has only come in the transformation of my thinking as a direct result of applying true truth from God’s perspective to every situation in my life in prayer.
Applied truth is actual truth. Unapplied truth is just fluffy sounding theory with no teeth or power.
In an episode the father losing the fight with cancer and his doting son separated for so many years take a road trip for the son to reconnect with his culture and get a picture of what his father’s life was like as a struggling musician.
They stopped by where the adoptive dad’s ashes were spread and the father by blood pays his respects and thanks the memory of the man who was there for his son for much of his growing into a success.
“When I was having a panic attack because of the pressure, my dad used to place his hands on the sides of my face and tell me to breathe because everything was going to be just fine.” The son with two dads at two different times recounted.
“He was a good man.” Says the wistful father companion on the road trip.
“The best.” Says the son as he studies the face of his blood line.
“Thank you for raising my son.” Says the biological father with feeling to the place where the remains of that good man have long disappeared into decay.
They go to Memphis and reconnect with the old musician friends of the dad. While cool music is going down on stage an impromptu jam session evolves in the middle of the day. The son who has been drinking calls his wife to say he is having the best time! She says “Are you drunk?”
He says “A little” and laughs with the joy of reconnection with not only his father, but his history and taste and smell of his culture.
While brashly toasting anybody that moves he says “I am sorry, I don’t know how to do this I was raised white.”
The next morning the son awakes with a smile on his face ready to see more of his history through his daddy’s eyes and when he approaches his shivering clammy father in the bed he knows the victory of cancer over his father is approaching at lightning speed and their trip appears to be a one way trip for his dear dad whom he only just found out even existed.
At the hospital his fears are confirmed and he goes to say his final personal goodbye to lose his blood father for a second time. The second loss being much tougher because now he knows what he will be missing. When he was left at the fire station he felt a generic ache. Now he was to feel a specific pain for a second time with his first father.
He puts his hands on the sides of the face of his blood father like his adoptive father did for him and tells him “Just breath, everything is going to be ok!”
I said to my TV “Is everything really going to be ok?”
Next scene we see the son who lost two dads driving home with tears streaming down his face.
Developing understanding and perspective around the time and space of dealing with the circumstance of the double death of fathers adopted and by blood are important to navigate immense pain now and in the future.
I lost my father to sudden unexpected death at age 77 over ten years ago. Dealing with one loss of a father figure is quite enough for a grown man to handle. My father was a huge influence on me in how to best navigate the bumps and bruises of the time and space of circumstances of life from God’s perspective.
As long as I can remember, growing up the rock solid reality of eternal time and space which was bought and paid for by my personal Savior Jesus Christ on the cross was lauded and illuminated. I was most profoundly impacted toward selling out to Jesus, by the time my Dad cried in brokenness over disciplining me in error. God is such a master of using everything to draw us to himself. Amazing.
As we think more about the time and space of the circumstances of our lives it does not take much analysis to realize there is junky pain and the only way out is through. Too often when we try to avoid pain and make everything ”ok” in our own power we actually make things worse. This is exactly why God will never allow us to invent time travel, because we would be skipping ahead to the good circumstances and MISS the good lessons that pain can teach us. When people who go to the gym to work out they are actually breaking down their muscles. I am sure if those muscles could talk they would be saying “Stop the insanity, are you crazy? This hurts!”
I submit that the reality that the only way out is through, is actually a blessing and an opportunity to learn dependence on our loving creator in everything. Romans chapter eight slaps our perspective that this life is all that matters across the face with a wet wash cloth, “In ALL THESE THINGS we overwhelmingly conquer through him you loves us.”
The truth is that some conquer our circumstances here on earth through Christ’s love by healing now. Some conquer through suffering and dying and holding on to their hope of Heaven. Some conquer through dying suddenly. Some suffer from feeling guilty because they have things quite good, but don’t feel they deserve it because of secret sins. The variations of suffering in time and space are as myriad as the number of persons who ever lived, but the ultimate way through the suffering is hope and the fulfillment of that hope, ETERNITY in joy with God.
Eternity must be the string of hope that pulls us forward through our troubles of many kinds. Without eternity in Heaven the mess of life is just a cruel joke because even if someone does learn from their mistakes and troubles, they still just stop existing at some point and crumble into dust once decaying completes its work. The meaningless platitude that so many writers keep puking up on us is, “We live on in the memories of those who care about us.”
Really? What happens when those who care about us die too and they fail to tell anyone else about us how are we going to live on then? Even if we could live on in someone’s memory do we only experience life when they think about us? That is just creepy and a theory that is kind of hard to prove. Jesus came and lived and said he was going to die, then rise again. He did exactly what He said he was going to do and was witnessed by many who had ample opportunity to dispute the written, historical accounts which we can still see right now. This person who proved he has beaten death is offering us the same wondrous future. Eternal hope of heaven through the finished work of Christ on the cross and the resurrection is not a pipe dream or sappy sentiment, it is a rock solid truth that is the best and only real option for when this blink of an eye we call life on earth ends.
The only healthy way through all circumstances is through the love of the one who has already been through and come out the other side, Jesus. Every head ache I have gone through has been because I got impatient and wanted to run ahead of what God was doing. Thankfully God can even use those bumps to teach me trust and dependence and reliance on Him.
Insert again my talking to my television as the characters of this hard hitting and gutsy show waft in the wind of trying their best to put a happy spin on the trauma of circumstances WITHOUT even considering the possibility that there is a personal creator who not only understands all the ick, but went to the cross to make a way so all that ick can actually turn out for good.
Try providing comfort to someone dying of cancer using the theory of evolution or humanism. Where is the evolving first of all? Secondly, how can millions of years of animals and humans living and dying bring any understanding and comfort to the person writhing and dying in pain? Thirdly, how can the belief that humans will eventually figure out a way to solve all our problems solve painful death?
A large percentage of American culture believes in some kind of a personal creator, but do you think the writers of a show that is trying to be real and depict ordinary people struggling with ordinary life would at least represent the possibility of a way that works for millions to overcome unspeakable trauma? Of course they will sprinkle in the obligatory reference to church like the time the father went to church to pray for help to not ‘kill’ his wife because of a fight they just had, but these references are a sprinkled like a garnish on the chef’s plate for appearances but NEVER used for the heavy lifting of dealing with the hard, bitter tasting pills in life to swallow. Looking to the very person who gave up all to save us to also help us to thrive on the inside because our creator not only understands our pain, but paid the ultimate bloody price to remove pain and sin forever and ever in heaven someday is the only way through energy draining agony and despair.
Read the stories of Corrie Ten Boom, Joni Erickson Tada and the Apostle Paul. All went through hell on earth but inch by inch overwhelmingly conquered the time and space of their circumstances.
Here is a suggested prayer to invite God into your time and space of circumstance.
“Jesus, thank you for going to the cross to buy me. I receive your gift of forgiveness and help to go through the circumstances of my life. Help me forgive whom I need to forgive. Help me follow you in the good, the bad and the ugly. Help me grow up in knowing all things are the raw materials of how you use me to reach others for you. Amen.”
Hell:
Why is it important to talk about hell? Why do so many people not want to talk about hell? We need to know well about hell because this motivates us on a grand scale to make sure we don’t go there. We have already looked at why the existence of eternity is the only logical option, because Humanism and the lunacy of thinking that we can solve all our problems outside of an eternal God does not hold up when we consider the facts.
Consider a few facts easily found with a simple internet search, which is so common place now. Please do not quibble about the precise accuracy of these stats, just look at the trends they show.
1 in 4 girls are sexually molested. 1 in 10 boys are sexually molested. Over one million people take their own life each year worldwide. That is 16 out of every 100,000. Global suicide rates have risen 60% in the last 45 years. 12% of all websites are pornographic. 40 million Americans are regular visitors to porn sites. 26.9% of people 18 and older have participated in binge drinking in the last month. Every day in America 28 people die from drunk driving. In 2009, 23.9 million people 12 and older needed treatment for drug addiction. 549,928 people were homeless in January 2016. 15% of Americans gamble once a week. Nearly 700,000 children are abused every year in America. 4 out of 5 of those abused are abused by a parent. Every 62 minutes someone dies as a result of an eating disorder.
Speaking as a human who has had my share of personal struggles with some of the areas that the above statistics illustrate, looking to myself and my fellow humans NEVER helped me fix anything. Big struggles, little addictions, medium sized conflicts win every time when their only competition is the paltry attempts of humans to fix ourselves.
When I was on my way to conduct an after school GOOD NEWS CLUB at an elementary school, I walked by a teacher saying goodbye to excited students boarding the bus to go home. She said “Be kind to each other!”
In my mind, I screamed ‘Why?”
If we all are just a bunch of chance arrangements of cells doomed to decay trying to survive as the evolutionists want to tell us, being kind gets you killed. Does a deer be kind to a lion? Even if we could get enough humanists to agree that it is mutually beneficial for society to be kind to each other, how do we define kind without defining standards of what kindness means and exactly what it looks like? Wait a minute, since the 1960s haven’t we been ramming down everyone’s throats the philosophy that we are free and not held in by ANY stringent boring rules trying to ruin our fun and unlimited liberty to be ourselves? Also, I thought we took religion out of the schools, why is this teacher ordering her kids to follow the idea of kindness which is present in many religions? What if a child created their own religion and what makes them fulfilled and happy is being mean to fellow students? That teacher would be quashing their free speech rights to express what makes them feel alive and free.
In philosophy class, we call this borrowing. As sinful little children we want our own way and to be free to do whatever we want with no stringent rules to keep us down, until someone else doing the SAME THING runs over our toes with THEIR freedom to be who THEY want to be. Then we have the audacity to say they should not do that and be kind, which is code for ‘be the way I think they should be.’
Even if other people expressing their slavery to unfettered ‘freedom’ never impinges on our lives, it is that very unfettered, anything goes freedom, that is imprisoning us in our impulses for pleasure running wild like a locomotive with no one at the controls.
The statistics recited earlier just scratch the surface of the insanity of Hedonism, the worship of pleasure. Just take one person in one category, repeating the same insanity hoping for different results while everything they value is stripped away by their intoxication with all that does not satisfy, but is so sexy and flashy at enticing mankind to keep coming back.
Eskimos know just how to kill a wolf in winter. They take a razor sharp knife and apply blood on the blade so it freezes in layers and stick the knife in the snow, handle down and the menacing, life threatening lancer, disguised in luscious tasting blood sticking straight up. The wolf smells the blood and comes and starts lapping it up. He loves the taste so keeps going until all the blood is gone and he does not realize he is now cutting his own tongue on the sharp knife and enjoying his own blood. The next morning the Eskimo finds and dead wolf laying in its own blood.
Satan is doomed for hell. Because misery loves company, the Bible says he is a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. In the garden he appeared as a snake and tempted Adam and Eve with the ONE THING they could not have in that huge garden. Enticement of pleasure is his number one weapon that schemes to drain the life blood out of you and me. His lies of lust for anything other than God who can really satisfy our deepest longings. (“Taste and see that the LORD is GOOD”)
I promise you that every significant individual represented by the above statistics, when they started doing drugs, or looking at porn, or gambling, or cutting, or anything were looking for satisfaction and pleasure and escape from the pain of life. My story was the same. I wish I could say I learned early to follow God with my whole heart, but then again, if I did I would get some of the glory. I did start following Jesus early, but working out the messy, nitty gritty of complete surrender to my personal Savior is a process that still continues. It is called sanctification.
The ultimate deception layered upon deception gives birth not to death, but eternal torment. Satan is the most skilled, most elaborate and seductive liar. What is our reward for believing his lies? Not only do we spiral out of control in the insanity of doing over and over the things we know deep down do NOT satisfy, if we do not figure out we are being lied to on the grandest of scales before we die, and receive God’s provision of forgiveness for our messy sins, we get what we deserve because we still cling to our way of egotistical insanity.
The deception is rampant everywhere in our culture. When was the last time you heard a sermon dealing primarily about hell? Is hell worse that getting electrocuted? We get way more warnings about making sure we call the power company before digging, than we do about hell. People love to use hell as a swear word, but thinking seriously about Satan and hell is reserved for the farthest fringes of thought and discussion inside and outside the church.
The top lie used my Satan is the lie that he does not exist and neither does hell. To combat this number one lie, we must rip the band aid off and deal with this lie.
Why talk about hell?
The number one reason to talk about hell is there is nothing worse, ever. There are many reasons to believe in the existence of a very real hell. These reasons do not have to prove hell’s existence beyond any doubt. Pascale’s Wager deals with the ultimate survival strategy. In summary Pascale believed in finding the option to living and believing that had the greatest consequence for disobedience and hedge your bets by for sure covering that base.
For years when I have been sharing why I follow Jesus personally, I have said “If the humanist is right and I am wrong, I simply stop existing. If the believer in reincarnation is right and I am wrong, I come back as a toad. If Christ is right and I do not receive his solution for my mortality which he freely, lovingly offers, I get eternal, nasty and violent torment which was NEVER designed for me.”
My dear friend, with all of the sincerity I can muster on the flat printed surface called a page, I beg you to investigate all of the many different views on what will happen once you cease to exist on the earth. If you can find any consequence for non-compliance that is worse than HELL, you are wise to go with that belief system.
When talking with a renowned atheist, he identified Pascale’s wager and actually said “I cannot believe in God just to keep from going to Hell, because I must go where the truth is for truth’s sake and I cannot find the truth is belief in God.”
Now as I reflect on his comment I would like to pose one question to all of us. “Why do we wear seatbelts when we drive? Why do people obey speed limits? If you were flying over Mount Everest in an airplane would you get on a plane that was built in the 1960s and looked like it was going to fall apart wearing flip flops, shorts and tank top?”
Philosophers love to theorize in hypotheticals but in real life we are hugely motivated to take steps and actions to prevent bad consequences. Does a loving parent tell their kid to “just leave me alone and go play on the freeway”? Why are there warning labels on everything we buy? Why do people follow the rules at work? I hope there is some loyalty, but not getting fired also motivates.
In Luke 16:1-14 Jesus told the parable of the shrewd servant who found out he was going to be fired for not doing his job well. While he had in influence he used it to cushion his blow when he became unemployed. Jesus called him wise because he used what he had now to prepare for what was to come.
We need to use all we know now to prepare for what is to come, which we can get ideas about but will only know for sure when we get there. Knowing what the Bible teaches about hell, even if we are still figuring out what we believe, can and must be beneficial to our survival after death. We love to watch TV shows about surviving and love theories that promote ‘survival of the fittest’. Why not do the same for eternal survival? Since by definition eternal survival never ends, the survival is not about existing or not existing. It is about the quality of that eternal existence.
So the way I see it there are basically four options.
#1 Eternal Joy. (Heaven as described in the Bible)
#2 Eternal torment. (Hell as described in the Bible)
#3 Eternal merit based reincarnation.
#4 Existence that becomes Non-existence. (Even those who deny we can know for sure we exist at all must themselves exist to think that thought!) Many think that scripture teaches only Satan and demons go to Lake of fire, but humans who dies without forgiveness through Christ simply cease to exist.
No matter what my reader believes about any of the above possible realities that could be your reality for ever and ever and ever, the competition for which is the most undesirable reality for a smart survivor to avoid at all costs must be Eternal Torment in Hell.
As I share what the verified historical scriptures tell us about Hell, please remember these same scriptures are clear that Hell was never designed to be an option for humans. Hell was created to be the final eternal judgement for Satan and all his demons. It was never created for human consumption. Jesus lived a perfect life and went to the cross to prevent humans from experiencing Hell and provide eternal Joy.
When starting my scholarly pursuit of scriptures about Hell I used the best research tool there is, the internet. Funny that the first two sites I went to were explaining myths and discrepancies in what different preachers are saying the Bible says about Hell. The elaborate illogical tap dance to try to minimize the reality of even the possibility of Hell is not only mind blowing, but sad.
Does a good parent who does not want their child to get hit by a truck in the street and die horribly invest hours of research to coming up with theories that trucks are not as capable to kill their child as some people say they are? I think not. If we water down the horror of Hell, it is still Hell and still exists as the worst option for eternity.
Again, my logical argument is to plead with my reader to analyze all the options for what could happen when you stop breathing and be like the shrewd servant who did something NOW to prepare for the future.
**Hell, way worse than any swear word.**
Strange and ironic, if so many do not believe in Hell, why do we incorporate it into so much of our culture? If something does not exist, how do we know to talk even about it?
One internet search led me to a site that simply listed 100 verses about hell. The same logic applies here as to statistics listed earlier that depict the mess we humans make of things on our own. Even ONE person being assaulted is too many. Even one verse about Hell, if it is true, which I will show you it is, is enough to make ANY prudent person willing to do anything to NOT go there.
The first verse on this website was Revelation 21:8 “But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”
As we unpack this ONE VERSE, please be aware of what came BEFORE this verse. Revelation 21:7 says “He who overcomes (by receiving God’s solution for sin which sends people to Hell) shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be MY son!”
I love how personal that verse is. When my life changed is when I entered into the reality that God in the NOW wants me to get his solution for my sin and when I do He says to ME, “You are MY SON”
The message according to the scriptures is so clear, there are only two eternal options and those options are light years apart in the quality of forever existence. One is beyond the best we can imagine and the other beyond the worst thing we can imagine. Be a joyfully loved SON of GOD for eternity in the best place ever, or cast into a pit, grave, smoldering garbage dump, lake of fire, gloomy dungeon FOREVER.
The historically proven to be accurate Word of God calls Hell a few different things, once I define those different labels for the worst thing imaginable, I hope my reader is more motivated than ever to choose wisely for eternity.
In researching what the Bible says and does not say about Hell. I found four words that show that even inside scripture there are ‘options’. All bad options, but still options a shrewd survivalist would be wise to avoid at all costs.
Two words of the four mean the same thing, one is Hebrew, Sheol, and one is Greek, Hades. Sheol literally means grave or pit, but ancient Israelites believed that the spirit of a dead person separated from the body and took up its abode in Sheol. Greek translated Sheol as Hades. In Greek mythology Hades was the place of departed human spirits, a gloomy underworld where the dead have only a shadowy existence. The parable of Lazarus in Luke 16 shows Hades as an actual place of torment but NOT the final judgement.
The third word is only mentioned once, Tartarus. 2 Peter 2:4 refers to a gloomy place of restraint for fallen angels not for humans. Greek mythology places it below Hades.
The fourth word is Gehenna which refers to a fiery place of suffering. This is where we get the term Lake of Fire.
The article where I got this info has a poignant quote about the Lake of Fire. “Whether understood literally or figuratively, biblical references to Gehenna have little in common with the exaggerated imagery of medieval theology, such as the tortures of Dante’s Inferno.”
Dante’s Inferno scared many with vivid pictures of nine stages of Hell where the worst offenders received the worst suffering, but all still suffer.
While researching this information my mind took a while to get around it all, thankfully it did not take long to realize my original premise still holds true.
Regardless of the number of options for what happens after we die a true shrewd survivalist must choose wisely. C. S. Lewis said “If Christianity is false, it doesn’t matter. But if it is true, it’s the most important thing in human history!
The above definitions add more options to the ugly reality side of the possibilities, but none of them could be considered something to be desired. Again, the reason that if following Jesus is false it does not matter, is the consequences for being ‘wrong’ as a Jesus follower are puny in comparison to what happens if Christianity is true.
Annihilationism teaches that those who die without forgiveness of their sins provided by the cross of Christ simply cease to exist.
Sheol and Hades suggest an intermediate place that is no fun, but is a waiting room if you will before the final judgement.
Gehenna/Lake of Fire is clear in scripture to be the final eternal judgement of Satan and all his demons.
Pascale’s desire, which mirrors mine is to stay as far as possible away from the worst option possible, STILL APPLIES. When sightseeing tourists wind through the mountains of Montana, if there are no guard rails do they see how close they can get to the edge and speed?
The worst eternal option, Gehenna.
The Greek word Gehenna derives its meaning from the Hebrew word describing the Valley of Hinnom. The rocky valley is a deep, narrow ravine that runs southwest of Jerusalem. In Old Testament times it was a place of abominable pagan rites associated with the worship of Molech, including child sacrifice in a section of the valley called Tophet (2 Kings 23:10). After the Jews return from Babylonian exile, the valley became a cesspool and the city dump of Jerusalem. Fires burned continuously. Feeding on a constant supply of garbage, and occasionally the bodies of executed criminals. This is where we get the imagery for the fiery hell of final judgement.
In our day we share a common experience with all other times and cultures of the humanity. All know the reality of fire and the pain of being burned at some point and the healing time required from just one small burn. All know the concept of stinky garbage, refuse, waste. No elaborate description required. All who read or heard the words related to ‘Gehenna’ in any form knew in an instant a feeling of unending, smelly, painful remorse. A person staying as far away from even the side of Jerusalem close to that yuck never had their motives questioned did they? “It is gross, icky and depressing, I don’t want to even go near that part of town.”
While thinking about the varying views on hell, I just happened to hear Sean Hannity from Fox News talking about Dante’s Inferno. Sean is one of the top political radio stars of our day since the recent troubles of Bill O’ Reilly. I suspect the research effort Sean puts into his show is immense. He is motivated to know the facts on any issue so he can grow his radio and television empire. On his 4/18/17 show he was bantering with his producer Linda and a female caller and made some interesting and grieving comments. Here is what was said after he emphasized the fact that many main stream media people hate his guts and he will NEVER go to a correspondence dinner EVER.
Caller: “You are going to get extra stars in heaven.”
Sean: “Listen, I don’t know if I make it to heaven, if anybody is not worthy of it, it is certainly me, but if you are there, I will be happy you made it. Maybe put in a good word for me ok.”
Caller: (Laughs)
Sean: “Maybe I won’t go to Dante’s ninth level of hell, maybe I will just go to the first level of hell which would suck! Have you ever read Dante’s Inferno? (To Linda in studio) There are all these different levels of hell, I forget what the certain sins are, but I am sure I fit into every category, although the whole story of Jesus is about Salvation and that he forgives our sins, but I have never understood the idea that even though you ask for forgiveness and you’re forgiven, why do we keep sinning? Even people that are preachers I know I have asked ‘have you ever stopped sinning?’ they say ‘no, I sin every day’. Then I am reminded that Jesus said to one of his apostles that a just man sins seventy times seven times a day. Then I am screwed, because I am not half as good as these people!”
After bantering in studio about digressing he says. “Why you giving me that cold look?”
Linda: “I think you should be forgiven just for knowing that much about the Bible. I’m sure Jesus Christ is up there saying ‘I’ve risen, I’m here I hear you.’ You are good, he’s only going to send you to the first level although I think once you get to hell every level sucks so what is the difference?”
Sean: “That’s what I think.”
After some more banter Linda says. “Listen, you did your penance, you just went to a red carpet event. You are doing your good deeds. We are going to go to the Holy Land, you can touch the wall. You can talk to Jesus, he’ll be there.”
After more banter Hannity teases Linda about how little she knows about all the religious and political forces in play in Israel.
As I listened to this dialogue in my car and read it while I replicating it somewhat word for word for my reader to digest. My soul groaned with concern for the possible eternal state of the persons loosely dabbling in a digression as if it was an interlude in a conversation where friends tease each other about whose sport’s team is the best in the current year.
I enjoy Sean Hannity for his quick wit and logical pursuit of truth in politics. His research mixed with persuasive style have made him a household name to a vast majority of American culture. Early in the digression which should be re-labeled “The most important conversation EVER!” Sean spoke of lack of understanding related to forgiveness and continuing to sin. If we called his show and accused him of having lack of understanding about ANY political, radio show topic which relates to being a hardworking, successful entertainer, I suspect he would fight hard to prove he did understand. Yet, when talking about the levels of hell and how bad they might suck and what keeps anyone from going there. Sean and Linda seemed content to casually joke about which level they could live with for eternity. This attitude is way more dangerous that letting your child play on the highway.
Jesus who is everywhere had many of his words and miracles documented in not one book, but four (The Gospels), by eye witnesses written and preserved for all of us to study so we can all have high levels of understanding about them said, “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and yet loses his soul?”
Making sure we completely understand how to stay as far away from ANY level of hell, should be our number one priority because at any circle, any definition, interpretation of hell is still hell.
A three second internet search which took no effort yielded solutions to large portions of our influential radio host’s questions.
To synopsize the nine circles of Dante’s version of hell took a little more time, but not much.
Circle One (Limbo): An inferior form of Heaven, this is reserved for virtuous sinners, if that is possible.
Circle Two (Lust): Strong winds of restlessness plague dwellers of this circle.
Circle Three (Gluttony): Sinners in this circle forced to lie in vile icy never ending slush.
Circle Four (Greed): Hoarders and lavish spenders joust in an eternal conflict.
Circle Five (Anger): Wrathful fight each other on the surface of the river Styx.
Circle Six (Heresy): Heretics who mislead others condemned to eternal flaming tombs.
Circle Seven (Violence): Outer ring has murderers sunk in a river of boiling blood. Middle ring has suicide victims become trees and bushes eaten by harpies (big bird like monsters). Inside ring has blasphemers and sodomites residing in a desert of burning sand and burning rain from the sky.
Circle Eight (Fraud): Ten different categories of deception are separated by evil ditches.
Circle Nine (Treachery): Ninth circle is divided into four rounds according to seriousness of betrayal, but all are frozen in an icy lake. Judas is considered to be in the worst spot.
To endeavor to shine the light of understanding on a digression with significance at the highest level I have only simple answers from a simple carpenter who proves his love and ability to provide a solution that is immense and sufficient.
To solve Sean’s question about which sins he has done, the answer is so simple a kid can explain it. ALL OF THEM. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of GOD.” Romans 3:23
I wish I could say with pride that there is maybe ONE of the sins listed above that I have avoided in my heart. In Matthew 5:21 and 27 Jesus is so clear that if we wish bad things on others in our heart it is just like we have killed them. If we look on a woman with lust it is just like we slept with her. Read the entire chapter and you will be overwhelmed like am with the wickedness of our sinful hearts. Even if Dante’s circles are not taught in scripture all of us deserve all of Dante’s circles of hell.
When Sean played the humility card in comparing himself to others and placing himself as lower in deeds, it may tickle the ears of his listeners and sound fun, but it is consistent with what Jesus said is the standard? Jesus sets the standard because he is the one who said he would die and rise again and he did just that and was witnessed by many as ALIVE. Otherwise we are all drowning in an icy or fiery sea of comparing ourselves with others.
Sean references seventy times seven for sinning when that is actually how many times Jesus said we should forgive others. This was mere hyperbole to say unlimited forgiveness which is what GOD gives to US because of Jesus death and resurrection. This same forgiveness is what we are called to give others in unlimited supply as well. I encourage my readers and Sean to become students of the Words of Jesus and the Bible because he proved he is trustworthy and our quality of life forever DEPENDS on it.
Sean references preachers he talks to saying that they still sin as ‘confusing’. This is sad indeed, because either the preachers he hangs around are not explaining the truth of God’s Word in terms easily understood or he is not listening well. In Romans the apostle Paul dealt clearly with this issue. Romans 8:14 says “Those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.” So it is bold and bright as a spot light shining through the darkness that the direction our heart is taking us after sin is very important to God. When we sin, if we are not convicted of that sin until we make it right through the blood of Jesus, we are not being led by the Holy Spirit and we need to be redeemed. If we are being led by the Spirit our sin WILL DECREASE as the Savior of our souls leads us in the paths of His righteousness.
There is no room in God’s plan to fix our vile sin for the rationalization. “Everybody keeps sinning so what is the point?” God does not grade on a curve. Again, if we have truly been redeemed there will be progress in obedience to our heavenly loving father. The progress will wane and lurch and go up and down and for sure feel slower than we want, but heart led progress will happen because the lavish love of God received by faith brings unmatched loyalty.
My friend, the choice is so clear, any description of hell listed so far should be enough to motivate us to get as far away from that cliff to painful oblivion as possible, but there is one more which by itself is enough to stop our hearts cold in our tracks.
Psalms 16:11 says “You will show me the path of life: In your presence is fullness of joy; in the right hand there are pleasures for evermore.”
Of course the psalmist is talking directly to God the father, the Alpha and Omega, the one who runs the whole show. He points to the simplicity of faith in a God who wants us all to be on the path to life. He then sets up the largest “either/ or” proposition of all time and space. If inside God’s presence is fullness of joy and inside the right hand (Jesus Christ, the Son is the right hand of almighty GOD) are pleasures for evermore what is outside?
My research led me to John Piper podcast number 343 from 5/16/2014 entitled “Is God everywhere and absent from hell?” I recommend by reader listens to that podcast.
One line jumped out to me as a summary. “He is present (in hell) in all the ways men do not want him to be present and NONE of the ways believers enjoy his presence.”
Thessalonians 1:7-9 says, “And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power!”
The consistent message of scripture is God sustains all things, therefore he still sustains eternal hell because he is eternal, but those who are in the above description of hell do NOT get the benefit of any of the attributes of God which are reserved for those who have placed their TRUST in God’s solution for sin.
John Piper asserts that the absence of the love and kindness and joy of God in eternal hell is only part of the hideousness of the hell experience, but not the worst. I think it is the worst part, but either way it is bad, horrible, ugly, painful, despairing and dark on the grandest scale. It is like comparing third degree burns over a person’s entire body that never heal to fourth degree burns in the same circumstances. Either option is unworkable to even think about for very long.
In both the above verses we see the greatest of contrasts between the sweet, everlasting, loving presence of an almighty, all knowing creator who is near enough to give fullness of joy and hideous, complete, comprehensive, irrevocable separation from every benefit that once was offered by that same presence.
God’s presence fills the earth right now and everyone gets some benefit from it. Atheists still enjoy sunsets. Humanists still light up when they see the newest cutie newborn pictures on Facebook. Average Americans who try their best to love their country and family and go to church just enough to keep the wackos who promote a radical life of actually following Jesus at bay, still enjoy the blessings of freedom. Even death row inmates enjoy the taste of a good meal because the God who created them invented taste buds. Think of the worst day you have ever had. That day without the presence of God in nature, in your car, in your office, in even the most mundane tasks or conversations would be to infinity the worst ever experienced by anyone, ever.
God’s sweet presence is void from hell. I hope this statement scares you and me way more than warning labels on toxic chemicals. In the Thessalonians passage the first part comforts those who follow Jesus that we can rest in hands bigger than our struggles. I trust Jesus, because he keeps track of EVERYTHING. He fights for all who humbly receive his payment for our sin. At the final judgement He will make everything right. He is patient, but once the door closes, the bridegroom returns, the clock runs out, His judgement is swift. He will be revealed fully from heaven and take vengeance on those who do not know him and do not obey him and punish them in everlasting destruction. The words vengeance and punish sound harsh even to me, but do you see how clear this verse is about EVERLASTING destruction?
Destruction actually is the opposite of Instruction. Instruction moves someone forward to better knowledge. Destruction tears down, eats away, explodes, and inflicts mayhem. Eternal destruction is impossible in our current reality. When a construction company destroys a building to put up a new one, they never say, “We will be doing demolition for eternity on this building.”
If eternal destruction happened on this earth it would be one big trash heap! Eternal anything must come from an eternal source. An orange farmer cannot grow oranges from apple trees. It is illogical in the highest of forms to promote a God who eternally rewards those who believe and receive and in contrast snuffs out into nothing those who do not believe and obey. It is also illogical to promote the idea that fullness of joy is the quality of eternal life for the obedient and yet the smallest crumb of goodness, peace or joy is somehow possible to be salvaged in hell by the disobedient. When someone jumps out of a plane without a parachute, the fullness of the reality of gravity will splat them on the sidewalk. Is gravity mean and vengeance filled? No gravity is consistent with its nature. Same applies to every good parent and God the greatest father to the fatherless.
To experience fully what is meant by the words vengeance and punishment by God of sin and those who do not deal with their sin. I must break down a haunting story from the saga of the children of Israel as they bounced back and forth from loving and adoring God, then falling in love with his blessing and turning their backs on him until they experienced the consequences of their disobedience and came to their senses and came back to Him. Every time, He forgave their wickedness and restored relationship with them. One of the times of judgement in Numbers chapter 21 that grabbed their attention by the throat was poisonous snakes killing people left and right in the camp. God told them to put a snake up on a stick and ANYONE who simply looked UP at the statue when they were bit would live.
In order to live they had to trust God’s provision and look up to him instead of looking down at protecting themselves from being bitten. Two choices only, looking up and trust God to live, look down and trust yourself and this world to die. How long did it take them to look up? A few seconds? No in between ground in the trust game and no long drawn out debate when you are faced with immediate death. Just look up and live. Words like vengeance and punish make much more sense when we look at them through the eyes of relationships. God is the most relational being ever, if we learn to think of him relationally we can only benefit. How many parables did Jesus tell that were all about relationships?
I once met a man who was a staunch Atheist and I believe he was demonically possessed. He told me his daughter was raped. When I said “I am so sorry for your pain.” He told me not to be because the man who attacked her needed to get every bit of the judgement coming to him.
I then said, “But then we all deserve judgement and punishment!”
He said “That is just the way it is.”
I said I would pray for him and his daughter and he said “Please don’t.”
I pray for him anyway, because there is an evil which is way worse than evil, it is called unforgiven evil. Imagine if the rapist came to deep understanding of his evil act and came to this man’s daughter for forgiveness in tears. If she shuns his repentance and taking responsibility for his evil actions and turns him away IT HURTS HER, because where can she go to undo the past?
Jesus said, “Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest!” That rest relationship is only possible as we look UP to receive God’s provision of do over forgiveness. Rejection of the offer of forgiveness from the only one who proved he is worthy to offer it IS the highest of EVIL because it display lack of self-honesty and trust.
In relationships honesty is building block number one. How can we relate to anyone without trust in what they have said? I hear people spouting anger at others for lying to them all the time, when if they have not admitted that their way of staying away from the snakes of life is not working, they are lying to themselves. Satan is called the father of lies for a reason.
Time after time and over and over again, our beautiful, majestic heavenly father has worked to make a way for us to escape our personal patterns of evil that do not satisfy, yet always look like they can. Until our very last breath and very last heartbeat he cries with passion to have us look up to him and receive his solution for our mess. I believe as we get closer to our last breath, the kindest, most loving face alive shines brighter and brighter on us imploring us to look up and live.
In those final seconds of life, I believe all the seeds of truth that have been planted in hearts are brought to bear and one final opportunity is given to look up and live. In those final seconds and heartbeats, after the stark stench of the reality that all of the lust filled shiny promises are proven to be vicious lies, some hearts will still choose to NOT LOOK UP.
God is not willing that any should perish, therefore only those who will, do perish! Again, “God does not need my help to work in my life, he just needs my permission.”
When I read the Thessalonians passage again about vengeance and punishment, I realized I was adding an emotion of feeling good about the vengeance and punishment and assigning it to God. What makes the vengeance and punishment even more horrifying is that God DOES NOT WANT to do it but he must be true to his nature. We see in our society all the time the consequences of people not being consistent with their word. Mommy tells little Johnny “If you jump on that couch one more time I am gonna spank you!”
Johnny keeps bouncing and mommy lets it slide because she does not want to be a mean parent. In an instant, Johnny learns he cannot trust his mom.
Dear reader you can trust God, because he moved heaven and earth and sacrificed his only son on a cruel cross to make a way for you to get the beauty of his love and learn to love him back, BUT if anyone chooses to not receive his solution for our sin, He must be true to his nature and punish all who choose to never bow, to eternal torment. The worst thing about eternal torment is the never ending aching regret about the wrong answer to the right question. Flashes of missed opportunities to respond plague still very active and alive minds on and on and on, in hell.
I suspect that when the snakes where biting that if Moses gave the people a three step plan they had to do to EARN freedom from the poison many would have jumped at the chance and failed miserably. Once again the matchless wisdom and love of the omnipotent, all knowing, everlasting KING are revealed in all their glory. He made a way so whosoever will, may come, but they must come through the humility of trust and dependence in their loving creator.
Pray this prayer so in the final two seconds of your life you do not even have an inkling of worry about what your destiny will be.
“Lord Jesus Christ, Thank you for paying the price for my icky, slimy sins. I choose to look up to you and receive your forgiveness for my sins. Help me to grow up in following you and bring many I love to this same place. Help me to get help at a safe church in saying no to all the things that try to take over my life. Amen.”
Kid’s songs are the best. Working with kids is awesome. When I meet people in the public arena and in the course of the conversation I say I minister to kids NOT ONCE has anyone said, “Well that is terrible, you should let them find their own way in life!”
Usually culturally polite strangers say nice things and sound like they almost wish they could be as noble as to impact kids for good, then steer the conversation with lightning speed away to topics more fun like why their favorite sports team needs a new coach.
I am a creative person, I love drama and stories and the creative process of getting down to the real issues of life in simple yet creative terms. I guess working with kids is a good fit. With kids we MUST keep it simple. That is why Jesus said “If you wanna come to me you gotta be like a kid.” Read the Gospels, Jesus said ‘wanna’ and ‘gotta’ all the time, right?
Movies and television are so powerful in influencing minds young and old. As a personal follower of Jesus I have been impacted to tears many times by secular and religious programming. Unfortunately I have also been slimed beyond reason with maximum icky feelings of temptation to lust by lies coming from those same electronic rectangle screen communicators. These lies are always about what will satisfy me now like cool clear water in a desert to thirsty lips, for real.
The song above is cute, but is it accurate and does it work? Is it even possible to be careful what you see? If a person’s eye balls are working and their eye lids are functional and open, can they control everything that comes into their view? Of course one can LIMIT the possibility they will see bad things by where they go and what they turn on and whom they associate with, but it is impossible to filter out all negative, slimy images from our minds.
What I dislike most about the song is the unspoken message that if only I never see bad things, go bad places or touch bad things, then everything will be ok, God will be happy with me and give me everything I want, just like Santa. I agree that being careful from harmful images is a good thing. I agree that knowing that God sees everything is beneficial. With every ounce of passion in my spirit I DISAGREE that I have ANY power in myself to please God in word or deed. The Apostle Paul agrees also because he is the one who said, “The very things I want to do, I do not!”
I may be reading things into the song that are not there. If when you hear the song, you think ‘be careful because you are following Jesus and love him and want to serve him in every area of your life!’, then I am ok, but if you are anything like me in my fallen performance mentality, this just becomes another add on to the very long list of things I must do to prove to God I love him.
I submit to my readers a more doable option. “Be careful how you think and pray about what you see, feel and experience.” Probably won’t work in a song, but I think it is more beneficial.
Every time I receive input into my spirit through any of my senses, my choices are very simple. Choice #1: Interpret the message received from my own thinking and desires for what I think will satisfy me. Choice #2: Invite Jesus whom I follow to use every input to demonstrate to me how much HE loves ME. HE wants to heal ME. HE wants to transform ME into HIS image.
These two choices cannot be more opposed to each other. One blindly adopts the messages of media and input from the point of view of the creators and the person’s grid for finding meaning in life.
The other takes ALL input and shines the light of true, historical truth from God’s amazing Word and filters out “God LOVES ME” messages from everything. To take a brief philosophical trip, all of creation and creativity points to a creator. All of our ability as humans to choose points to a creator who is relational and chooses to make a way for us to be relational back to him even possible. Any philosophy that worships the creation rather than the creator leaves us thirsty for more, again, like someone dying of thirst in the desert who just lifted a canteen expecting pure water and got sand instead. No personal creator, no meaning.
If we learn from everything we see around us to look for the messages about what brings true meaning compared with the ultimate truth of accurate scripture, we can learn to turn every movie, every TV show, every conversation, every song, every painting, every temptation and every failure INTO another step of faith moment by moment.
Way back in the ‘old days’ when I went to Bible college, one of the schools I went to had a rule against going to movies in the theatre. My father had similar guidelines which he made one exception to so our family could see BEN HUR when I was quite young, because it had huge Biblical overtones to the story. Ironical and tragic is the reality that even to this day, over forty years later I can remember being majorly slimed watching a movie on CABLE in my off campus housing while I was going to that same college. No college security came knocking at my door in the middle of the night! What unintentional message did I pick up from the externally driven policies of my college and parents who wanted God’s best for me? “Controlling the external behavior is most important in the life of following Jesus.”
Colossians talks about substance which is Christ and shadow which is the externals that people so often focus on and try to emulate so when others observe behavior they will think the substance of Christ is present and at work.
When I was honest with Christ, well after college about my wicked heart, he took my sin as if for the first time and gave me his righteousness. Now He continues to transform the way I live from the inside out. Not to be seen by men or externally impress, but to obey God who is inside me and allow the Holy Spirit to filter everything for God’s glory.
To illustrate the mind and will transformation that God has wrought in me over time, I would like to break down some recent TV episodes and movies seen, and conversations had, and show you the “God LOVES me” messages I am deriving from them. My prayer is that these illustrations of thought processes help you access more of the true truth of what God wants you to get on the inside while casting off any thought patterns based on lies or externals.
THIS IS US:
My wife and I heard from family that the show was great so we caught up on all episodes using On Demand. The show is enjoyable on many levels and cuts right to the heart of what the desires of most parents are for their kids when they reach adulthood. The audience gets glimpses of the lives of three kids at various stages of growing up and shows how the past is impacting the unique three as adults.
To paraphrase the show without too many spoilers, when Caucasian triplets were delivered at the hospital one did not survive and an African American child which had been left at a nearby fire station was brought in by a fireman. The parents’ hearts were set on bringing home three so they adopted the abandoned child and still got their BIG three. As adults the big three have challenges which make them feel anything but big. Weight challenges plague the woman, Kate, even though she is the emotional rock for her quite different brothers. Her brother who shared the womb struggles to be considered a serious actor and quits a successful but fluffy sitcom which unashamedly prostituted his good looks for ratings while he seeks to reconnect with his childhood sweet heart whom he cheated on and she divorced him. The adopted son becomes financially successful at a job that puts people to sleep when described, but struggles with finding his birth father and feeling his parents treated him different out of guilty trying to make him not feel different.
The title of the show is clear to say that warts and all, the family unit is there for each other and is doing their best to be good citizens and happy. I even pick up a not so subtle message, THIS IS US, “take us or leave us!” I resonate with that emotion, there have been many times where I have felt misunderstood by others who are seeking to put me into their boxes of what they think I should be and this has induced sorrowful rage.
I feel the reason the show has been popular is many relate to the feeling that “We may be messed up, but we are sticking together no matter what.” I applaud the show for elevating the importance of a family unit made up of a man and a women who love each other and want kids to grow up secure and productive. The show is so close to in reality dealing with real life solutions to real life problems. Unfortunately Hollywood philosophy denies the power and existence of the one person who can bring these solutions into reality, Jesus.
Here are some examples that evoked passion from inside me as I talked to my TV and said “Jesus so wants to help with that!”
The daughter starts to date a guy she met at an over eaters support group, he is funny and from the start has the desire to date her. Jokes about the sacrifice of taste for eating healthy are over the top and clever. She resists at first and then decides to take the plunge and date even though she is concerned about not being worthy because of her size. After dating for a while her boyfriend decides to give up on the whole weight loss program. Over a dinner where she is eating like a snail and he is enjoying way too much, big calories in a meal, she drops a blow.
She says, “I can’t do this anymore”.
He says “Why?”
“I got to get my s**t together. I got to lose the weight and being with you when you are eating whatever you want is not working for me.”
Hollywood would not let me within two miles of their writer’s room, but if I was sitting at that table in that restaurant with that couple battling the bulge, here is what I would implore them with.
Many times in my life I have tried so hard to get my s**t together. It never worked, ever. God does not want to improve my life, he wants to replace it with HIS life. His power, His mercy, His joy, His love.
Romans 5:8 says that “God demonstrates his love for us in that while we are yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
So many live in the joy draining lie that if only they lost the weight, were better looking, were more talented, were in a relationship, had happy kids, made more money, were famous, then everything would be ok. Only trouble is, when we get any of that stuff even for a fleeting moment, it never is enough because then we have to worry about losing it.
The demonstrated LOVE of God is perfect and everlasting and only has to be received like a little child to benefit from it in huge proportions.
Later in the show the ex-boyfriend cannot live without this determined women who is considering lap band surgery. He flies across the country to join the family for their infamous unique Christmas celebration and proposes marriage with new promises to stay on the weight loss wagon. After she says yes, in a tacky way only television writers who love easy sex would write, he asks for intercourse. She of course says yes, which everyone in media has so masterfully turned into the norm by repeating the same scenario over and over again to ad nauseam. “Everyone sleeps together and lives together before getting married, right?” Soon after, he collapses with a cardiac event and we do not know if his married life will end before it has a chance to start.
“By their fruit you will know them.” This quote is in scripture and applies to people, but I also think we should apply the principle to proposed options of navigating life. What is the fruit or result of trying to live life as prescribed by this show? I would ask my reader to think, have you done any of the prescribed and promoted behaviors depicted by this show? What has been the fruit or consequence of those things in your life? Does any of it satisfy?
Without being tawdry or giving too much detail, my wife and I have been married for over twenty years and what happens in our bedroom is our business, totally righteous before God and wholesome. We have no regret baggage that comes as a result of rebelling against God ordained protections for all people’s benefit. Our marriage covenant safeguards physical union between a man and a women, but even as great as this gift is, it PALES compared to the real LOVE of God pulsing through my heart. I often must guard against little meaningless spats happening right after intimacy. My dear friend, with all the passion I can muster, please hear me when I say that even good, pure pleasure in this life that honors God’s Word does not come close to satisfying us like the pure, sweet Love and Grace of God can satisfy us. God is the one who said “Taste and see that the Lord is GOOD.”
When I cry out to God in prayer and worship and surrender and invite him to come into all my pain and sin and sorrow and clean me up, He does it every time. He really does satisfy my soul.
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. Are you sick and tired of all the fruit of lies that people have been telling you? Are you tired of working so hard to be smart enough, thin enough, rich enough, sexy enough, spiritual enough, cool enough? Jesus says “Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest!”
‘Love’ that is earned is never secure and never lasts, therefore is it really love?
In the show the adopted brother who becomes successful in the eyes of society, always wonders about his birth father and goes to great lengths to find him using a private investigator. When he summons the courage to confront his parent who rejected him without even knowing him, we get the full picture that the life he would have lived with an addict in need of recovery paled in comparison to the life he now leads.
In a classic confrontation at the front door of his now drug free biological father, the seeking son launches into a tirade about never forgiving his dad for leaving him and brags at the same time about the car he drives. When the telling off is complete and final, the winsome father says “You wanna come in for a few minutes?”
Casually the son agrees as if to negate all the boundaries just set forth in his tirade minutes earlier. Soon, after knowing the reasons why his father gave him up, he finds out the father is dying of cancer and is gay. He invites his dad to live with his wife and two girls as long as he needs.
Dramas and plot lines live and breathe on misunderstandings and assumptions of motives behind actions. Perspective on the actual experience of the person who abandoned him and why, totally changed the son’s emotions and responses to his dad.
As we think about God and his perspective on all that is spinning around on this crazy planet we call earth, are we doing the same thing as we assign motives to why God acts or doesn’t act as he does?
There are three areas of life that I am certain affect all humans and as we scurry around on this big planet like ants looking for food we can benefit from understanding God’s perspective since he is much bigger than us.
Sin, Circumstances and Hell:
No matter what my reader thinks about the above words, please hang in there and consider the difference between our perceptions of God’s motives in these areas and the reality of what God’s motives are and how those motives are proved in his actions, based on the verifiable historical truth of scripture.
From my earliest understanding I always thought sin was all the exciting fun things that I could not do if I wanted people in my family and church to accept me and think I was somebody. I always knew what was wrong because of a rich heritage of being a child of those in ministry and much exposure to protestant church activities. At age seven I received God’s forgiveness for my sin based on the shed blood of Jesus on the cross for me. Growing in my battle against sin and desire to follow Jesus was always present, but success in staying away from all kinds of sin is exhausting.
There are sins of commission which are thoughts and actions, then there are sins of omission which are challenging to even define. Many religious people of all denominations, when faced with the immensity of sinful actions and thoughts and inactions, just default to what appears to be a much easier way called spiritual external performance. The only problem is, that whatever external religious performance we set up for ourselves, we cannot even keep those up very well so we keep lowering even our man made standards. Soon everybody is just living by the unspoken rule. “Do the best you can and try not to sin as much as most of the people that you respect.”
Rationalizations are like opinions and hairs, everybody has them.
“If God did not want me to look at porn, why did he create me so I want to?”
“If God is all powerful, why doesn’t he just reveal himself so everyone can see him?”
“If God is loving, why does he even allow evil in the world?”
“If God does not want me to make idols out of all my stuff, my work, my reputation, my family, then why did he bless me with all that stuff?”
“If all sin is so bad for us, why make it feel so good on the front end and the consequences for doing it so bad on the back end?”
Many think the problem of evil is a major hoop for people of faith to overcome, I propose the problem of sin is a way bigger hoop. If a person goes to church, any church, when they walk in and are asked the standard “How you are doing?” do they say without hesitation, “I am great, I only lusted fourteen times this week, yelled at my wife three times, was jealous of my neighbor’s new Porsche once and gained three pounds, how are you?” Nope, we keep things nice and civil and cultured and talk about our sports teams and hunting trips and job promotions and accomplishments.
Sin is like dirt in snow, once snow gets dirty there in no cleaning it up. The only way to get it white again is to have new snow. God’s showed us his perspective on sin when he said “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.” Isaiah 1:18
I have done much cleaning in my years and nothing is cleaner than when it is brand new. God is the only one who can make a life new over and over again, because he is the only one who made everything and made a way for us to obtain his perfection. That is why we celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus, because he is the only one who can fix the sin problem over and over again. One sacrifice, multiple applications, one amazing GOD.
The simple answer to all of the above rationalizing questions regarding why God allows sin is this. “God is personal and wants personal relationship with you and me.”
Part of being a person is volition, the ability to choose. My favorite statement which I have used many times in sharing my faith is this, “God does not need our help to work in our lives, he does need our permission.”
A key component of repentance is gut wrenching honesty with our creator. Many times I have shared when my personal battle against sin changed. According to Psalms 51, I gave God permission to accelerate his work in my life which started when I was a child. I prayed “God I know you are real and I know you love me, but I cannot love you and obey you unless you help me!”
I also told God I was not going to crank out external religious performance, instead I was going to keep asking for internal healing and power to obey and put that to use from the inside out. Larry Crabb’s book called “Inside out” was instrumental in my growth.
The only cure for sin is the growing internal power and love of all three persons of the Godhead. “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
What always evokes huge emotion in me is the fact that as much of a slap in the face my sin is to God every time I sin. God’s perspective when I confess my sin and receive his forgiveness, over and over again, is excitement because I put to use the provision he went to great lengths to provide for me, personally.
Ephesians 5:1-2 says “Therefore be followers of God as dear children and walk in love as Christ also has loved us and given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling aroma.”
What makes the sacrifice on the cross of Christ so sweet smelling to God, is the truth that it takes our sin away so we can be in relationship with Him forever. Even the most callous parent would never consider the cruel murder of their only child on a cross to save a relationship with immature repeat offenders as a sweet smelling anything!
Romans is so clear that “All things work together for those who love God and are called according to his purpose.” One of the things included in ‘all things’ is even our sin is useful to show us we need the solution only God can provide. Amazing Grace.
What has captured my heart and motivates me to follow Jesus with passion personally, is every time I sin he is faithful and just to forgive me my sin and cleanse me from all unrighteousness. When I confess and engage again and put to use his provision for me my loyalty to Him grows. Loyalty, bought and paid for by forgiveness of sin grows into unbounded boldness. Because of what He has done for me to fix my sin, I will never be silent.
Pray this prayer to make sure your sin problem is settled once and for all. “Jesus, thank you for going to the cross to buy my forgiveness. I confess all my sins of trying to do things my way. Be my Lord and Savior and help me follow you all the days of my life. Amen.”
Circumstances:
Throughout all media outlets and cultural messages the perspective on circumstances is the same. Good circumstance equal a good happy life. Bad circumstances equal misery and discouragement. In business and sales the talk of having a good attitude even in tough circumstances is mainly used to keep people motivated to keep selling and making their employer money. Turning lemons into lemonade was even referenced by the doctor who delivered the triplets and one died.
I agree, attitude is important and so is learning to look for the good in every situation is helpful as well. The reason most references to circumstances and how to navigate the good and the bad in life successfully fall short is the scope of time and space of those circumstances.
Every person from every philosophy will talk about learning from past mistakes and how time allows greater perspective. “Time heals all wounds” is so overused, but I feel many adhere to it. Physically time does heal flesh wounds, but try getting stabbed in the heart and healing without surgery. Still there is the unspoken message that with enough time comes enough perspective to overcome bad circumstances. Time is a huge part of the theory evolution. Time is needed to learn and grow as humans.
Space relates to the place where circumstances happen. Running out of gas in the middle of a city is inconvenient. Running out of gas in a subzero blizzard in North Dakota miles from help is deadly. I am using the word space to define the parameters of any circumstance. For example, finding out a loved one has cancer creates a certain space of the doctors and hospitals and chemo and telling friends what is going on, and so on.
Having been on this planet for a while, I have seen my share of circumstances and every time and space of the circumstance has been different. Understanding the how to navigate circumstances in a different way has been so transforming for me. To be blunt, I had to come to the end of my way of dealing with stuff and learn to invite in God’s way and perspective for handling life.
Real change in my perspective on the time and space of my circumstances has only come in the transformation of my thinking as a direct result of applying true truth from God’s perspective to every situation in my life in prayer.
Applied truth is actual truth. Unapplied truth is just fluffy sounding theory with no teeth or power.
In an episode the father losing the fight with cancer and his doting son separated for so many years take a road trip for the son to reconnect with his culture and get a picture of what his father’s life was like as a struggling musician.
They stopped by where the adoptive dad’s ashes were spread and the father by blood pays his respects and thanks the memory of the man who was there for his son for much of his growing into a success.
“When I was having a panic attack because of the pressure, my dad used to place his hands on the sides of my face and tell me to breathe because everything was going to be just fine.” The son with two dads at two different times recounted.
“He was a good man.” Says the wistful father companion on the road trip.
“The best.” Says the son as he studies the face of his blood line.
“Thank you for raising my son.” Says the biological father with feeling to the place where the remains of that good man have long disappeared into decay.
They go to Memphis and reconnect with the old musician friends of the dad. While cool music is going down on stage an impromptu jam session evolves in the middle of the day. The son who has been drinking calls his wife to say he is having the best time! She says “Are you drunk?”
He says “A little” and laughs with the joy of reconnection with not only his father, but his history and taste and smell of his culture.
While brashly toasting anybody that moves he says “I am sorry, I don’t know how to do this I was raised white.”
The next morning the son awakes with a smile on his face ready to see more of his history through his daddy’s eyes and when he approaches his shivering clammy father in the bed he knows the victory of cancer over his father is approaching at lightning speed and their trip appears to be a one way trip for his dear dad whom he only just found out even existed.
At the hospital his fears are confirmed and he goes to say his final personal goodbye to lose his blood father for a second time. The second loss being much tougher because now he knows what he will be missing. When he was left at the fire station he felt a generic ache. Now he was to feel a specific pain for a second time with his first father.
He puts his hands on the sides of the face of his blood father like his adoptive father did for him and tells him “Just breath, everything is going to be ok!”
I said to my TV “Is everything really going to be ok?”
Next scene we see the son who lost two dads driving home with tears streaming down his face.
Developing understanding and perspective around the time and space of dealing with the circumstance of the double death of fathers adopted and by blood are important to navigate immense pain now and in the future.
I lost my father to sudden unexpected death at age 77 over ten years ago. Dealing with one loss of a father figure is quite enough for a grown man to handle. My father was a huge influence on me in how to best navigate the bumps and bruises of the time and space of circumstances of life from God’s perspective.
As long as I can remember, growing up the rock solid reality of eternal time and space which was bought and paid for by my personal Savior Jesus Christ on the cross was lauded and illuminated. I was most profoundly impacted toward selling out to Jesus, by the time my Dad cried in brokenness over disciplining me in error. God is such a master of using everything to draw us to himself. Amazing.
As we think more about the time and space of the circumstances of our lives it does not take much analysis to realize there is junky pain and the only way out is through. Too often when we try to avoid pain and make everything ”ok” in our own power we actually make things worse. This is exactly why God will never allow us to invent time travel, because we would be skipping ahead to the good circumstances and MISS the good lessons that pain can teach us. When people who go to the gym to work out they are actually breaking down their muscles. I am sure if those muscles could talk they would be saying “Stop the insanity, are you crazy? This hurts!”
I submit that the reality that the only way out is through, is actually a blessing and an opportunity to learn dependence on our loving creator in everything. Romans chapter eight slaps our perspective that this life is all that matters across the face with a wet wash cloth, “In ALL THESE THINGS we overwhelmingly conquer through him you loves us.”
The truth is that some conquer our circumstances here on earth through Christ’s love by healing now. Some conquer through suffering and dying and holding on to their hope of Heaven. Some conquer through dying suddenly. Some suffer from feeling guilty because they have things quite good, but don’t feel they deserve it because of secret sins. The variations of suffering in time and space are as myriad as the number of persons who ever lived, but the ultimate way through the suffering is hope and the fulfillment of that hope, ETERNITY in joy with God.
Eternity must be the string of hope that pulls us forward through our troubles of many kinds. Without eternity in Heaven the mess of life is just a cruel joke because even if someone does learn from their mistakes and troubles, they still just stop existing at some point and crumble into dust once decaying completes its work. The meaningless platitude that so many writers keep puking up on us is, “We live on in the memories of those who care about us.”
Really? What happens when those who care about us die too and they fail to tell anyone else about us how are we going to live on then? Even if we could live on in someone’s memory do we only experience life when they think about us? That is just creepy and a theory that is kind of hard to prove. Jesus came and lived and said he was going to die, then rise again. He did exactly what He said he was going to do and was witnessed by many who had ample opportunity to dispute the written, historical accounts which we can still see right now. This person who proved he has beaten death is offering us the same wondrous future. Eternal hope of heaven through the finished work of Christ on the cross and the resurrection is not a pipe dream or sappy sentiment, it is a rock solid truth that is the best and only real option for when this blink of an eye we call life on earth ends.
The only healthy way through all circumstances is through the love of the one who has already been through and come out the other side, Jesus. Every head ache I have gone through has been because I got impatient and wanted to run ahead of what God was doing. Thankfully God can even use those bumps to teach me trust and dependence and reliance on Him.
Insert again my talking to my television as the characters of this hard hitting and gutsy show waft in the wind of trying their best to put a happy spin on the trauma of circumstances WITHOUT even considering the possibility that there is a personal creator who not only understands all the ick, but went to the cross to make a way so all that ick can actually turn out for good.
Try providing comfort to someone dying of cancer using the theory of evolution or humanism. Where is the evolving first of all? Secondly, how can millions of years of animals and humans living and dying bring any understanding and comfort to the person writhing and dying in pain? Thirdly, how can the belief that humans will eventually figure out a way to solve all our problems solve painful death?
A large percentage of American culture believes in some kind of a personal creator, but do you think the writers of a show that is trying to be real and depict ordinary people struggling with ordinary life would at least represent the possibility of a way that works for millions to overcome unspeakable trauma? Of course they will sprinkle in the obligatory reference to church like the time the father went to church to pray for help to not ‘kill’ his wife because of a fight they just had, but these references are a sprinkled like a garnish on the chef’s plate for appearances but NEVER used for the heavy lifting of dealing with the hard, bitter tasting pills in life to swallow. Looking to the very person who gave up all to save us to also help us to thrive on the inside because our creator not only understands our pain, but paid the ultimate bloody price to remove pain and sin forever and ever in heaven someday is the only way through energy draining agony and despair.
Read the stories of Corrie Ten Boom, Joni Erickson Tada and the Apostle Paul. All went through hell on earth but inch by inch overwhelmingly conquered the time and space of their circumstances.
Here is a suggested prayer to invite God into your time and space of circumstance.
“Jesus, thank you for going to the cross to buy me. I receive your gift of forgiveness and help to go through the circumstances of my life. Help me forgive whom I need to forgive. Help me follow you in the good, the bad and the ugly. Help me grow up in knowing all things are the raw materials of how you use me to reach others for you. Amen.”
Hell:
Why is it important to talk about hell? Why do so many people not want to talk about hell? We need to know well about hell because this motivates us on a grand scale to make sure we don’t go there. We have already looked at why the existence of eternity is the only logical option, because Humanism and the lunacy of thinking that we can solve all our problems outside of an eternal God does not hold up when we consider the facts.
Consider a few facts easily found with a simple internet search, which is so common place now. Please do not quibble about the precise accuracy of these stats, just look at the trends they show.
1 in 4 girls are sexually molested. 1 in 10 boys are sexually molested. Over one million people take their own life each year worldwide. That is 16 out of every 100,000. Global suicide rates have risen 60% in the last 45 years. 12% of all websites are pornographic. 40 million Americans are regular visitors to porn sites. 26.9% of people 18 and older have participated in binge drinking in the last month. Every day in America 28 people die from drunk driving. In 2009, 23.9 million people 12 and older needed treatment for drug addiction. 549,928 people were homeless in January 2016. 15% of Americans gamble once a week. Nearly 700,000 children are abused every year in America. 4 out of 5 of those abused are abused by a parent. Every 62 minutes someone dies as a result of an eating disorder.
Speaking as a human who has had my share of personal struggles with some of the areas that the above statistics illustrate, looking to myself and my fellow humans NEVER helped me fix anything. Big struggles, little addictions, medium sized conflicts win every time when their only competition is the paltry attempts of humans to fix ourselves.
When I was on my way to conduct an after school GOOD NEWS CLUB at an elementary school, I walked by a teacher saying goodbye to excited students boarding the bus to go home. She said “Be kind to each other!”
In my mind, I screamed ‘Why?”
If we all are just a bunch of chance arrangements of cells doomed to decay trying to survive as the evolutionists want to tell us, being kind gets you killed. Does a deer be kind to a lion? Even if we could get enough humanists to agree that it is mutually beneficial for society to be kind to each other, how do we define kind without defining standards of what kindness means and exactly what it looks like? Wait a minute, since the 1960s haven’t we been ramming down everyone’s throats the philosophy that we are free and not held in by ANY stringent boring rules trying to ruin our fun and unlimited liberty to be ourselves? Also, I thought we took religion out of the schools, why is this teacher ordering her kids to follow the idea of kindness which is present in many religions? What if a child created their own religion and what makes them fulfilled and happy is being mean to fellow students? That teacher would be quashing their free speech rights to express what makes them feel alive and free.
In philosophy class, we call this borrowing. As sinful little children we want our own way and to be free to do whatever we want with no stringent rules to keep us down, until someone else doing the SAME THING runs over our toes with THEIR freedom to be who THEY want to be. Then we have the audacity to say they should not do that and be kind, which is code for ‘be the way I think they should be.’
Even if other people expressing their slavery to unfettered ‘freedom’ never impinges on our lives, it is that very unfettered, anything goes freedom, that is imprisoning us in our impulses for pleasure running wild like a locomotive with no one at the controls.
The statistics recited earlier just scratch the surface of the insanity of Hedonism, the worship of pleasure. Just take one person in one category, repeating the same insanity hoping for different results while everything they value is stripped away by their intoxication with all that does not satisfy, but is so sexy and flashy at enticing mankind to keep coming back.
Eskimos know just how to kill a wolf in winter. They take a razor sharp knife and apply blood on the blade so it freezes in layers and stick the knife in the snow, handle down and the menacing, life threatening lancer, disguised in luscious tasting blood sticking straight up. The wolf smells the blood and comes and starts lapping it up. He loves the taste so keeps going until all the blood is gone and he does not realize he is now cutting his own tongue on the sharp knife and enjoying his own blood. The next morning the Eskimo finds and dead wolf laying in its own blood.
Satan is doomed for hell. Because misery loves company, the Bible says he is a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. In the garden he appeared as a snake and tempted Adam and Eve with the ONE THING they could not have in that huge garden. Enticement of pleasure is his number one weapon that schemes to drain the life blood out of you and me. His lies of lust for anything other than God who can really satisfy our deepest longings. (“Taste and see that the LORD is GOOD”)
I promise you that every significant individual represented by the above statistics, when they started doing drugs, or looking at porn, or gambling, or cutting, or anything were looking for satisfaction and pleasure and escape from the pain of life. My story was the same. I wish I could say I learned early to follow God with my whole heart, but then again, if I did I would get some of the glory. I did start following Jesus early, but working out the messy, nitty gritty of complete surrender to my personal Savior is a process that still continues. It is called sanctification.
The ultimate deception layered upon deception gives birth not to death, but eternal torment. Satan is the most skilled, most elaborate and seductive liar. What is our reward for believing his lies? Not only do we spiral out of control in the insanity of doing over and over the things we know deep down do NOT satisfy, if we do not figure out we are being lied to on the grandest of scales before we die, and receive God’s provision of forgiveness for our messy sins, we get what we deserve because we still cling to our way of egotistical insanity.
The deception is rampant everywhere in our culture. When was the last time you heard a sermon dealing primarily about hell? Is hell worse that getting electrocuted? We get way more warnings about making sure we call the power company before digging, than we do about hell. People love to use hell as a swear word, but thinking seriously about Satan and hell is reserved for the farthest fringes of thought and discussion inside and outside the church.
The top lie used my Satan is the lie that he does not exist and neither does hell. To combat this number one lie, we must rip the band aid off and deal with this lie.
Why talk about hell?
The number one reason to talk about hell is there is nothing worse, ever. There are many reasons to believe in the existence of a very real hell. These reasons do not have to prove hell’s existence beyond any doubt. Pascale’s Wager deals with the ultimate survival strategy. In summary Pascale believed in finding the option to living and believing that had the greatest consequence for disobedience and hedge your bets by for sure covering that base.
For years when I have been sharing why I follow Jesus personally, I have said “If the humanist is right and I am wrong, I simply stop existing. If the believer in reincarnation is right and I am wrong, I come back as a toad. If Christ is right and I do not receive his solution for my mortality which he freely, lovingly offers, I get eternal, nasty and violent torment which was NEVER designed for me.”
My dear friend, with all of the sincerity I can muster on the flat printed surface called a page, I beg you to investigate all of the many different views on what will happen once you cease to exist on the earth. If you can find any consequence for non-compliance that is worse than HELL, you are wise to go with that belief system.
When talking with a renowned atheist, he identified Pascale’s wager and actually said “I cannot believe in God just to keep from going to Hell, because I must go where the truth is for truth’s sake and I cannot find the truth is belief in God.”
Now as I reflect on his comment I would like to pose one question to all of us. “Why do we wear seatbelts when we drive? Why do people obey speed limits? If you were flying over Mount Everest in an airplane would you get on a plane that was built in the 1960s and looked like it was going to fall apart wearing flip flops, shorts and tank top?”
Philosophers love to theorize in hypotheticals but in real life we are hugely motivated to take steps and actions to prevent bad consequences. Does a loving parent tell their kid to “just leave me alone and go play on the freeway”? Why are there warning labels on everything we buy? Why do people follow the rules at work? I hope there is some loyalty, but not getting fired also motivates.
In Luke 16:1-14 Jesus told the parable of the shrewd servant who found out he was going to be fired for not doing his job well. While he had in influence he used it to cushion his blow when he became unemployed. Jesus called him wise because he used what he had now to prepare for what was to come.
We need to use all we know now to prepare for what is to come, which we can get ideas about but will only know for sure when we get there. Knowing what the Bible teaches about hell, even if we are still figuring out what we believe, can and must be beneficial to our survival after death. We love to watch TV shows about surviving and love theories that promote ‘survival of the fittest’. Why not do the same for eternal survival? Since by definition eternal survival never ends, the survival is not about existing or not existing. It is about the quality of that eternal existence.
So the way I see it there are basically four options.
#1 Eternal Joy. (Heaven as described in the Bible)
#2 Eternal torment. (Hell as described in the Bible)
#3 Eternal merit based reincarnation.
#4 Existence that becomes Non-existence. (Even those who deny we can know for sure we exist at all must themselves exist to think that thought!) Many think that scripture teaches only Satan and demons go to Lake of fire, but humans who dies without forgiveness through Christ simply cease to exist.
No matter what my reader believes about any of the above possible realities that could be your reality for ever and ever and ever, the competition for which is the most undesirable reality for a smart survivor to avoid at all costs must be Eternal Torment in Hell.
As I share what the verified historical scriptures tell us about Hell, please remember these same scriptures are clear that Hell was never designed to be an option for humans. Hell was created to be the final eternal judgement for Satan and all his demons. It was never created for human consumption. Jesus lived a perfect life and went to the cross to prevent humans from experiencing Hell and provide eternal Joy.
When starting my scholarly pursuit of scriptures about Hell I used the best research tool there is, the internet. Funny that the first two sites I went to were explaining myths and discrepancies in what different preachers are saying the Bible says about Hell. The elaborate illogical tap dance to try to minimize the reality of even the possibility of Hell is not only mind blowing, but sad.
Does a good parent who does not want their child to get hit by a truck in the street and die horribly invest hours of research to coming up with theories that trucks are not as capable to kill their child as some people say they are? I think not. If we water down the horror of Hell, it is still Hell and still exists as the worst option for eternity.
Again, my logical argument is to plead with my reader to analyze all the options for what could happen when you stop breathing and be like the shrewd servant who did something NOW to prepare for the future.
**Hell, way worse than any swear word.**
Strange and ironic, if so many do not believe in Hell, why do we incorporate it into so much of our culture? If something does not exist, how do we know to talk even about it?
One internet search led me to a site that simply listed 100 verses about hell. The same logic applies here as to statistics listed earlier that depict the mess we humans make of things on our own. Even ONE person being assaulted is too many. Even one verse about Hell, if it is true, which I will show you it is, is enough to make ANY prudent person willing to do anything to NOT go there.
The first verse on this website was Revelation 21:8 “But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”
As we unpack this ONE VERSE, please be aware of what came BEFORE this verse. Revelation 21:7 says “He who overcomes (by receiving God’s solution for sin which sends people to Hell) shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be MY son!”
I love how personal that verse is. When my life changed is when I entered into the reality that God in the NOW wants me to get his solution for my sin and when I do He says to ME, “You are MY SON”
The message according to the scriptures is so clear, there are only two eternal options and those options are light years apart in the quality of forever existence. One is beyond the best we can imagine and the other beyond the worst thing we can imagine. Be a joyfully loved SON of GOD for eternity in the best place ever, or cast into a pit, grave, smoldering garbage dump, lake of fire, gloomy dungeon FOREVER.
The historically proven to be accurate Word of God calls Hell a few different things, once I define those different labels for the worst thing imaginable, I hope my reader is more motivated than ever to choose wisely for eternity.
In researching what the Bible says and does not say about Hell. I found four words that show that even inside scripture there are ‘options’. All bad options, but still options a shrewd survivalist would be wise to avoid at all costs.
Two words of the four mean the same thing, one is Hebrew, Sheol, and one is Greek, Hades. Sheol literally means grave or pit, but ancient Israelites believed that the spirit of a dead person separated from the body and took up its abode in Sheol. Greek translated Sheol as Hades. In Greek mythology Hades was the place of departed human spirits, a gloomy underworld where the dead have only a shadowy existence. The parable of Lazarus in Luke 16 shows Hades as an actual place of torment but NOT the final judgement.
The third word is only mentioned once, Tartarus. 2 Peter 2:4 refers to a gloomy place of restraint for fallen angels not for humans. Greek mythology places it below Hades.
The fourth word is Gehenna which refers to a fiery place of suffering. This is where we get the term Lake of Fire.
The article where I got this info has a poignant quote about the Lake of Fire. “Whether understood literally or figuratively, biblical references to Gehenna have little in common with the exaggerated imagery of medieval theology, such as the tortures of Dante’s Inferno.”
Dante’s Inferno scared many with vivid pictures of nine stages of Hell where the worst offenders received the worst suffering, but all still suffer.
While researching this information my mind took a while to get around it all, thankfully it did not take long to realize my original premise still holds true.
Regardless of the number of options for what happens after we die a true shrewd survivalist must choose wisely. C. S. Lewis said “If Christianity is false, it doesn’t matter. But if it is true, it’s the most important thing in human history!
The above definitions add more options to the ugly reality side of the possibilities, but none of them could be considered something to be desired. Again, the reason that if following Jesus is false it does not matter, is the consequences for being ‘wrong’ as a Jesus follower are puny in comparison to what happens if Christianity is true.
Annihilationism teaches that those who die without forgiveness of their sins provided by the cross of Christ simply cease to exist.
Sheol and Hades suggest an intermediate place that is no fun, but is a waiting room if you will before the final judgement.
Gehenna/Lake of Fire is clear in scripture to be the final eternal judgement of Satan and all his demons.
Pascale’s desire, which mirrors mine is to stay as far as possible away from the worst option possible, STILL APPLIES. When sightseeing tourists wind through the mountains of Montana, if there are no guard rails do they see how close they can get to the edge and speed?
The worst eternal option, Gehenna.
The Greek word Gehenna derives its meaning from the Hebrew word describing the Valley of Hinnom. The rocky valley is a deep, narrow ravine that runs southwest of Jerusalem. In Old Testament times it was a place of abominable pagan rites associated with the worship of Molech, including child sacrifice in a section of the valley called Tophet (2 Kings 23:10). After the Jews return from Babylonian exile, the valley became a cesspool and the city dump of Jerusalem. Fires burned continuously. Feeding on a constant supply of garbage, and occasionally the bodies of executed criminals. This is where we get the imagery for the fiery hell of final judgement.
In our day we share a common experience with all other times and cultures of the humanity. All know the reality of fire and the pain of being burned at some point and the healing time required from just one small burn. All know the concept of stinky garbage, refuse, waste. No elaborate description required. All who read or heard the words related to ‘Gehenna’ in any form knew in an instant a feeling of unending, smelly, painful remorse. A person staying as far away from even the side of Jerusalem close to that yuck never had their motives questioned did they? “It is gross, icky and depressing, I don’t want to even go near that part of town.”
While thinking about the varying views on hell, I just happened to hear Sean Hannity from Fox News talking about Dante’s Inferno. Sean is one of the top political radio stars of our day since the recent troubles of Bill O’ Reilly. I suspect the research effort Sean puts into his show is immense. He is motivated to know the facts on any issue so he can grow his radio and television empire. On his 4/18/17 show he was bantering with his producer Linda and a female caller and made some interesting and grieving comments. Here is what was said after he emphasized the fact that many main stream media people hate his guts and he will NEVER go to a correspondence dinner EVER.
Caller: “You are going to get extra stars in heaven.”
Sean: “Listen, I don’t know if I make it to heaven, if anybody is not worthy of it, it is certainly me, but if you are there, I will be happy you made it. Maybe put in a good word for me ok.”
Caller: (Laughs)
Sean: “Maybe I won’t go to Dante’s ninth level of hell, maybe I will just go to the first level of hell which would suck! Have you ever read Dante’s Inferno? (To Linda in studio) There are all these different levels of hell, I forget what the certain sins are, but I am sure I fit into every category, although the whole story of Jesus is about Salvation and that he forgives our sins, but I have never understood the idea that even though you ask for forgiveness and you’re forgiven, why do we keep sinning? Even people that are preachers I know I have asked ‘have you ever stopped sinning?’ they say ‘no, I sin every day’. Then I am reminded that Jesus said to one of his apostles that a just man sins seventy times seven times a day. Then I am screwed, because I am not half as good as these people!”
After bantering in studio about digressing he says. “Why you giving me that cold look?”
Linda: “I think you should be forgiven just for knowing that much about the Bible. I’m sure Jesus Christ is up there saying ‘I’ve risen, I’m here I hear you.’ You are good, he’s only going to send you to the first level although I think once you get to hell every level sucks so what is the difference?”
Sean: “That’s what I think.”
After some more banter Linda says. “Listen, you did your penance, you just went to a red carpet event. You are doing your good deeds. We are going to go to the Holy Land, you can touch the wall. You can talk to Jesus, he’ll be there.”
After more banter Hannity teases Linda about how little she knows about all the religious and political forces in play in Israel.
As I listened to this dialogue in my car and read it while I replicating it somewhat word for word for my reader to digest. My soul groaned with concern for the possible eternal state of the persons loosely dabbling in a digression as if it was an interlude in a conversation where friends tease each other about whose sport’s team is the best in the current year.
I enjoy Sean Hannity for his quick wit and logical pursuit of truth in politics. His research mixed with persuasive style have made him a household name to a vast majority of American culture. Early in the digression which should be re-labeled “The most important conversation EVER!” Sean spoke of lack of understanding related to forgiveness and continuing to sin. If we called his show and accused him of having lack of understanding about ANY political, radio show topic which relates to being a hardworking, successful entertainer, I suspect he would fight hard to prove he did understand. Yet, when talking about the levels of hell and how bad they might suck and what keeps anyone from going there. Sean and Linda seemed content to casually joke about which level they could live with for eternity. This attitude is way more dangerous that letting your child play on the highway.
Jesus who is everywhere had many of his words and miracles documented in not one book, but four (The Gospels), by eye witnesses written and preserved for all of us to study so we can all have high levels of understanding about them said, “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and yet loses his soul?”
Making sure we completely understand how to stay as far away from ANY level of hell, should be our number one priority because at any circle, any definition, interpretation of hell is still hell.
A three second internet search which took no effort yielded solutions to large portions of our influential radio host’s questions.
To synopsize the nine circles of Dante’s version of hell took a little more time, but not much.
Circle One (Limbo): An inferior form of Heaven, this is reserved for virtuous sinners, if that is possible.
Circle Two (Lust): Strong winds of restlessness plague dwellers of this circle.
Circle Three (Gluttony): Sinners in this circle forced to lie in vile icy never ending slush.
Circle Four (Greed): Hoarders and lavish spenders joust in an eternal conflict.
Circle Five (Anger): Wrathful fight each other on the surface of the river Styx.
Circle Six (Heresy): Heretics who mislead others condemned to eternal flaming tombs.
Circle Seven (Violence): Outer ring has murderers sunk in a river of boiling blood. Middle ring has suicide victims become trees and bushes eaten by harpies (big bird like monsters). Inside ring has blasphemers and sodomites residing in a desert of burning sand and burning rain from the sky.
Circle Eight (Fraud): Ten different categories of deception are separated by evil ditches.
Circle Nine (Treachery): Ninth circle is divided into four rounds according to seriousness of betrayal, but all are frozen in an icy lake. Judas is considered to be in the worst spot.
To endeavor to shine the light of understanding on a digression with significance at the highest level I have only simple answers from a simple carpenter who proves his love and ability to provide a solution that is immense and sufficient.
To solve Sean’s question about which sins he has done, the answer is so simple a kid can explain it. ALL OF THEM. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of GOD.” Romans 3:23
I wish I could say with pride that there is maybe ONE of the sins listed above that I have avoided in my heart. In Matthew 5:21 and 27 Jesus is so clear that if we wish bad things on others in our heart it is just like we have killed them. If we look on a woman with lust it is just like we slept with her. Read the entire chapter and you will be overwhelmed like am with the wickedness of our sinful hearts. Even if Dante’s circles are not taught in scripture all of us deserve all of Dante’s circles of hell.
When Sean played the humility card in comparing himself to others and placing himself as lower in deeds, it may tickle the ears of his listeners and sound fun, but it is consistent with what Jesus said is the standard? Jesus sets the standard because he is the one who said he would die and rise again and he did just that and was witnessed by many as ALIVE. Otherwise we are all drowning in an icy or fiery sea of comparing ourselves with others.
Sean references seventy times seven for sinning when that is actually how many times Jesus said we should forgive others. This was mere hyperbole to say unlimited forgiveness which is what GOD gives to US because of Jesus death and resurrection. This same forgiveness is what we are called to give others in unlimited supply as well. I encourage my readers and Sean to become students of the Words of Jesus and the Bible because he proved he is trustworthy and our quality of life forever DEPENDS on it.
Sean references preachers he talks to saying that they still sin as ‘confusing’. This is sad indeed, because either the preachers he hangs around are not explaining the truth of God’s Word in terms easily understood or he is not listening well. In Romans the apostle Paul dealt clearly with this issue. Romans 8:14 says “Those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.” So it is bold and bright as a spot light shining through the darkness that the direction our heart is taking us after sin is very important to God. When we sin, if we are not convicted of that sin until we make it right through the blood of Jesus, we are not being led by the Holy Spirit and we need to be redeemed. If we are being led by the Spirit our sin WILL DECREASE as the Savior of our souls leads us in the paths of His righteousness.
There is no room in God’s plan to fix our vile sin for the rationalization. “Everybody keeps sinning so what is the point?” God does not grade on a curve. Again, if we have truly been redeemed there will be progress in obedience to our heavenly loving father. The progress will wane and lurch and go up and down and for sure feel slower than we want, but heart led progress will happen because the lavish love of God received by faith brings unmatched loyalty.
My friend, the choice is so clear, any description of hell listed so far should be enough to motivate us to get as far away from that cliff to painful oblivion as possible, but there is one more which by itself is enough to stop our hearts cold in our tracks.
Psalms 16:11 says “You will show me the path of life: In your presence is fullness of joy; in the right hand there are pleasures for evermore.”
Of course the psalmist is talking directly to God the father, the Alpha and Omega, the one who runs the whole show. He points to the simplicity of faith in a God who wants us all to be on the path to life. He then sets up the largest “either/ or” proposition of all time and space. If inside God’s presence is fullness of joy and inside the right hand (Jesus Christ, the Son is the right hand of almighty GOD) are pleasures for evermore what is outside?
My research led me to John Piper podcast number 343 from 5/16/2014 entitled “Is God everywhere and absent from hell?” I recommend by reader listens to that podcast.
One line jumped out to me as a summary. “He is present (in hell) in all the ways men do not want him to be present and NONE of the ways believers enjoy his presence.”
Thessalonians 1:7-9 says, “And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power!”
The consistent message of scripture is God sustains all things, therefore he still sustains eternal hell because he is eternal, but those who are in the above description of hell do NOT get the benefit of any of the attributes of God which are reserved for those who have placed their TRUST in God’s solution for sin.
John Piper asserts that the absence of the love and kindness and joy of God in eternal hell is only part of the hideousness of the hell experience, but not the worst. I think it is the worst part, but either way it is bad, horrible, ugly, painful, despairing and dark on the grandest scale. It is like comparing third degree burns over a person’s entire body that never heal to fourth degree burns in the same circumstances. Either option is unworkable to even think about for very long.
In both the above verses we see the greatest of contrasts between the sweet, everlasting, loving presence of an almighty, all knowing creator who is near enough to give fullness of joy and hideous, complete, comprehensive, irrevocable separation from every benefit that once was offered by that same presence.
God’s presence fills the earth right now and everyone gets some benefit from it. Atheists still enjoy sunsets. Humanists still light up when they see the newest cutie newborn pictures on Facebook. Average Americans who try their best to love their country and family and go to church just enough to keep the wackos who promote a radical life of actually following Jesus at bay, still enjoy the blessings of freedom. Even death row inmates enjoy the taste of a good meal because the God who created them invented taste buds. Think of the worst day you have ever had. That day without the presence of God in nature, in your car, in your office, in even the most mundane tasks or conversations would be to infinity the worst ever experienced by anyone, ever.
God’s sweet presence is void from hell. I hope this statement scares you and me way more than warning labels on toxic chemicals. In the Thessalonians passage the first part comforts those who follow Jesus that we can rest in hands bigger than our struggles. I trust Jesus, because he keeps track of EVERYTHING. He fights for all who humbly receive his payment for our sin. At the final judgement He will make everything right. He is patient, but once the door closes, the bridegroom returns, the clock runs out, His judgement is swift. He will be revealed fully from heaven and take vengeance on those who do not know him and do not obey him and punish them in everlasting destruction. The words vengeance and punish sound harsh even to me, but do you see how clear this verse is about EVERLASTING destruction?
Destruction actually is the opposite of Instruction. Instruction moves someone forward to better knowledge. Destruction tears down, eats away, explodes, and inflicts mayhem. Eternal destruction is impossible in our current reality. When a construction company destroys a building to put up a new one, they never say, “We will be doing demolition for eternity on this building.”
If eternal destruction happened on this earth it would be one big trash heap! Eternal anything must come from an eternal source. An orange farmer cannot grow oranges from apple trees. It is illogical in the highest of forms to promote a God who eternally rewards those who believe and receive and in contrast snuffs out into nothing those who do not believe and obey. It is also illogical to promote the idea that fullness of joy is the quality of eternal life for the obedient and yet the smallest crumb of goodness, peace or joy is somehow possible to be salvaged in hell by the disobedient. When someone jumps out of a plane without a parachute, the fullness of the reality of gravity will splat them on the sidewalk. Is gravity mean and vengeance filled? No gravity is consistent with its nature. Same applies to every good parent and God the greatest father to the fatherless.
To experience fully what is meant by the words vengeance and punishment by God of sin and those who do not deal with their sin. I must break down a haunting story from the saga of the children of Israel as they bounced back and forth from loving and adoring God, then falling in love with his blessing and turning their backs on him until they experienced the consequences of their disobedience and came to their senses and came back to Him. Every time, He forgave their wickedness and restored relationship with them. One of the times of judgement in Numbers chapter 21 that grabbed their attention by the throat was poisonous snakes killing people left and right in the camp. God told them to put a snake up on a stick and ANYONE who simply looked UP at the statue when they were bit would live.
In order to live they had to trust God’s provision and look up to him instead of looking down at protecting themselves from being bitten. Two choices only, looking up and trust God to live, look down and trust yourself and this world to die. How long did it take them to look up? A few seconds? No in between ground in the trust game and no long drawn out debate when you are faced with immediate death. Just look up and live. Words like vengeance and punish make much more sense when we look at them through the eyes of relationships. God is the most relational being ever, if we learn to think of him relationally we can only benefit. How many parables did Jesus tell that were all about relationships?
I once met a man who was a staunch Atheist and I believe he was demonically possessed. He told me his daughter was raped. When I said “I am so sorry for your pain.” He told me not to be because the man who attacked her needed to get every bit of the judgement coming to him.
I then said, “But then we all deserve judgement and punishment!”
He said “That is just the way it is.”
I said I would pray for him and his daughter and he said “Please don’t.”
I pray for him anyway, because there is an evil which is way worse than evil, it is called unforgiven evil. Imagine if the rapist came to deep understanding of his evil act and came to this man’s daughter for forgiveness in tears. If she shuns his repentance and taking responsibility for his evil actions and turns him away IT HURTS HER, because where can she go to undo the past?
Jesus said, “Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest!” That rest relationship is only possible as we look UP to receive God’s provision of do over forgiveness. Rejection of the offer of forgiveness from the only one who proved he is worthy to offer it IS the highest of EVIL because it display lack of self-honesty and trust.
In relationships honesty is building block number one. How can we relate to anyone without trust in what they have said? I hear people spouting anger at others for lying to them all the time, when if they have not admitted that their way of staying away from the snakes of life is not working, they are lying to themselves. Satan is called the father of lies for a reason.
Time after time and over and over again, our beautiful, majestic heavenly father has worked to make a way for us to escape our personal patterns of evil that do not satisfy, yet always look like they can. Until our very last breath and very last heartbeat he cries with passion to have us look up to him and receive his solution for our mess. I believe as we get closer to our last breath, the kindest, most loving face alive shines brighter and brighter on us imploring us to look up and live.
In those final seconds of life, I believe all the seeds of truth that have been planted in hearts are brought to bear and one final opportunity is given to look up and live. In those final seconds and heartbeats, after the stark stench of the reality that all of the lust filled shiny promises are proven to be vicious lies, some hearts will still choose to NOT LOOK UP.
God is not willing that any should perish, therefore only those who will, do perish! Again, “God does not need my help to work in my life, he just needs my permission.”
When I read the Thessalonians passage again about vengeance and punishment, I realized I was adding an emotion of feeling good about the vengeance and punishment and assigning it to God. What makes the vengeance and punishment even more horrifying is that God DOES NOT WANT to do it but he must be true to his nature. We see in our society all the time the consequences of people not being consistent with their word. Mommy tells little Johnny “If you jump on that couch one more time I am gonna spank you!”
Johnny keeps bouncing and mommy lets it slide because she does not want to be a mean parent. In an instant, Johnny learns he cannot trust his mom.
Dear reader you can trust God, because he moved heaven and earth and sacrificed his only son on a cruel cross to make a way for you to get the beauty of his love and learn to love him back, BUT if anyone chooses to not receive his solution for our sin, He must be true to his nature and punish all who choose to never bow, to eternal torment. The worst thing about eternal torment is the never ending aching regret about the wrong answer to the right question. Flashes of missed opportunities to respond plague still very active and alive minds on and on and on, in hell.
I suspect that when the snakes where biting that if Moses gave the people a three step plan they had to do to EARN freedom from the poison many would have jumped at the chance and failed miserably. Once again the matchless wisdom and love of the omnipotent, all knowing, everlasting KING are revealed in all their glory. He made a way so whosoever will, may come, but they must come through the humility of trust and dependence in their loving creator.
Pray this prayer so in the final two seconds of your life you do not even have an inkling of worry about what your destiny will be.
“Lord Jesus Christ, Thank you for paying the price for my icky, slimy sins. I choose to look up to you and receive your forgiveness for my sins. Help me to grow up in following you and bring many I love to this same place. Help me to get help at a safe church in saying no to all the things that try to take over my life. Amen.”
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Weebles or eggs at Easter?
I love to talk about Weebles. One time I was taking a
couple Weebles out of my bag before a kid event at church and a curious
child perked up and said to me, “Are those eggs?” I could see memories
of Easter candy dancing on her face and in her mind.
“No” I responded, “These are better than eggs, these are Weebles!” Weebles are a toy that has been around for years, but kids still light up when I pull them out. What makes them always pop right back up is the weight which constantly works to restore balance.
Every Easter I am so thankful that the true message of Easter impacts my life every second of every day. Not just one weekend per year when secular society throws some crumbs to religion giving it the spot light, just like Christmas.
2 Timothy 2:8, 11 shares a bold truth. “Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to the gospel…” “For if we died with him, we shall also LIVE with HIM.”
The factual event which changed all of life, which was witnessed and written about by many so that every person can beat death and live forever must have a frequent application. Romans is very clear that when I receive Christ as my personal forgiver, my life is in Him and he is mine so when He died and rose again, it is just as if I was with Him, therefore my past no longer can hold me down, because I am now dead to my past. Five seconds ago and five years ago, all are GONE.
My friend, how many times do you fall down in word or deed or resentment? I suspect it is less than me, but does that remove your need for God’s solution? I need resurrection power in my life constantly like breathing.
Eggs are fun to decorate and hide. Plastic eggs are fun to fill with candy. The slimy wheels of commerce crank out all kinds of colorful variations promising joyful goodies. The sad problem is, even though eggs have their uses and they are tasty, when an egg falls over, it will NEVER get back up. Not only that, eggs are so round they cannot even start by standing straight up on their own.
The solid, strong weight in the Weeble is the key. Every Weeble when being manufactured has a weight placed in the bottom. Because of our ego driven sin, when we all started life we were missing our solid weight, the true resurrection. Going through life without this weight was crazy and scary. Receiving the weight of the truth of the resurrection as a personal transaction instead of a public liturgy gives us the ability to rise in reality over and over and over again.
Would you pray right now? “Jesus, I am tired of being an egg, I want be a Weeble and keep rising over and over, because YOU died and arose for ME. Help me keep popping back up fast every time I stumble and fall. Amen”
“No” I responded, “These are better than eggs, these are Weebles!” Weebles are a toy that has been around for years, but kids still light up when I pull them out. What makes them always pop right back up is the weight which constantly works to restore balance.
Every Easter I am so thankful that the true message of Easter impacts my life every second of every day. Not just one weekend per year when secular society throws some crumbs to religion giving it the spot light, just like Christmas.
2 Timothy 2:8, 11 shares a bold truth. “Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to the gospel…” “For if we died with him, we shall also LIVE with HIM.”
The factual event which changed all of life, which was witnessed and written about by many so that every person can beat death and live forever must have a frequent application. Romans is very clear that when I receive Christ as my personal forgiver, my life is in Him and he is mine so when He died and rose again, it is just as if I was with Him, therefore my past no longer can hold me down, because I am now dead to my past. Five seconds ago and five years ago, all are GONE.
My friend, how many times do you fall down in word or deed or resentment? I suspect it is less than me, but does that remove your need for God’s solution? I need resurrection power in my life constantly like breathing.
Eggs are fun to decorate and hide. Plastic eggs are fun to fill with candy. The slimy wheels of commerce crank out all kinds of colorful variations promising joyful goodies. The sad problem is, even though eggs have their uses and they are tasty, when an egg falls over, it will NEVER get back up. Not only that, eggs are so round they cannot even start by standing straight up on their own.
The solid, strong weight in the Weeble is the key. Every Weeble when being manufactured has a weight placed in the bottom. Because of our ego driven sin, when we all started life we were missing our solid weight, the true resurrection. Going through life without this weight was crazy and scary. Receiving the weight of the truth of the resurrection as a personal transaction instead of a public liturgy gives us the ability to rise in reality over and over and over again.
Would you pray right now? “Jesus, I am tired of being an egg, I want be a Weeble and keep rising over and over, because YOU died and arose for ME. Help me keep popping back up fast every time I stumble and fall. Amen”
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Vivid vision from my personal vindicator at Christmas
Sometime during the night after a fulfilling two days of
celebration with both sides of our family, I had a dream that was so
real and profound that the joy of writing it down would not leave me
until it was completed. The line of demarcation between a visions and a dreams moves depending on which theologian you talk to. To me if felt very vision like, but I will let you decide for yourself if God is using it to speak to you personally.
As background let me say the theme of our Christmas celebrations with families of my beloved spouse and myself was a similar theme to life in general. Laughter abounded in joy, but there was also discussion of the challenges of medical conditions and the harsh reality that this world is winding down, just like our bodies are winding down. We can’t eat whatever we want anymore. Our choices have consequences. So thankful for the true message of Christmas that God became flesh to HELP US choose wisely forgiveness first and then step by step following the only one who is worth following. His name is JESUS.
In my dream with vision like properties I was at a testosterone filled, high caliber retreat at some complex in the middle of nowhere. Everywhere I looked there was all kinds of camo clothing and machinery and rifles filled with blanks to allow maximum battle experience for the gleeful men and boys all scurrying around to get the best adrenaline rush out of their experience. Excitement and anticipation were thick in the air like mist in a botanical garden.
With all of this fervor going on around me I felt interest as an observer NOT a participant. I did not feel superior to those involved with manly grunts of joy, I just never have been a huge guns and ammo kind of guy. My dad never had interest in those areas so I naturally mirrored his tastes as I grew up. Sports has always been my thing which, no surprise, was also my dad’s thing.
In the middle of all this activity and cacophony of sound, I was introduced to the organizer of the entire operation. This man was small in stature but large in attitude. He was dressed in military garb but I did not notice his clothes. All I noticed was his tattoos on his neck and his narrow, wiry face with no hat and medium length scraggly brown hair.
Hard authority exuded from this leader of men. This man was the epitome of the phrase ‘dynamite comes in small packages’. He scowled at me with disdain as if he could tell I have never fired a gun in my life.
My response to this huge small man in an atmosphere that awake would be intimidating beyond words, let alone in a nightmare like scenario where anything can and usually does happen, was the part of my dream which now smacks of being vision like.
Without hesitation, without pleasantries of introductions, without asking for permission I took one step closer to this man with a face saying “Don’t mess with me!”. I put my hand right on his chest. I could feel his heart pounding. Into that situation I started speaking words about the wonderful, amazing grace and forgiveness of my God to me and how it has changed my life. I wish I could remember the words that I said, but all I can remember is what the front of his uniform felt like and the look on his face.
I must have spoken for a while about how inconceivable unconditional love is. I must have embellished about the patience of GOD who over and over and over again forgives my sin every time I confess it to him and take steps in the process of turning from that sin. Because the change on his face was epic.
Every few seconds in time to the words I was saying, his face transitioned from hard as nails, to as soft as a child’s hand. From holding on in pain and misunderstanding to letting go in sweet surrender. From darkness into light. From despair into delightful hope.
While I started to wake up, I did not want to leave this conversation. We kept talking as long as we could and the subject must have changed to discipleship. Sadly as I was waking up further, he started to resist instruction in how to follow Jesus daily and grow up in truth and faith.
Awake and laying on my bed as I processed this profound dream with visionary parts (in my opinion) I was impressed with three things.
My boldness: Boldness comes only from a personal encounter with the reality of how BIG God is and how amazing his GRACE is. I often quote the prayer which changed my life. It was deep and theological and important sounding. “God, I know you are true and I know I should obey you, but I CANNOT DO IT unless you help me.” If you look at other people and wish you could be like them? Don’t. Invite God into your personal space. Give him permission and access to everything and he will fill you with HIS boldness beyond belief.
Never judge a book by its cover: As I learn to follow Jesus more and more, in every conversation I am asking Him to lead me to people who are primed to hear true truth. While talking to people I smile and pray for the words to say and the courage to say them. When I get something I ask them if they are open to hear it REGARDLESS of the demeanor of the person. (Asking for permission did not happen in my dream, but I feel scripture supports ALWAYS asking before sharing or praying with someone). Writing is so good for me because I can write something and give it to someone and they can read in their own time without any pressure from me. Ask Jesus to help you smile, love, pray and share in his strength and timing.
Every believer goes through struggle in discipleship (following Jesus): In our world we have instant pudding, instant oatmeal and want instant mature followers of Jesus. Do not be discouraged when those you have shared with commit to Christ and then struggle. Struggle is part of the growing. Keep praying, keep letting go, keep calling on God for transformation of all you love. Add to my prayer. “Lord, I can’t follow you or help anyone else follow you without your HELP!”
Thank you for entering into the strangeness which is my dreams. I hope the life lessons God is teaching us are way past dreams and theory and live in reality right now.
As background let me say the theme of our Christmas celebrations with families of my beloved spouse and myself was a similar theme to life in general. Laughter abounded in joy, but there was also discussion of the challenges of medical conditions and the harsh reality that this world is winding down, just like our bodies are winding down. We can’t eat whatever we want anymore. Our choices have consequences. So thankful for the true message of Christmas that God became flesh to HELP US choose wisely forgiveness first and then step by step following the only one who is worth following. His name is JESUS.
In my dream with vision like properties I was at a testosterone filled, high caliber retreat at some complex in the middle of nowhere. Everywhere I looked there was all kinds of camo clothing and machinery and rifles filled with blanks to allow maximum battle experience for the gleeful men and boys all scurrying around to get the best adrenaline rush out of their experience. Excitement and anticipation were thick in the air like mist in a botanical garden.
With all of this fervor going on around me I felt interest as an observer NOT a participant. I did not feel superior to those involved with manly grunts of joy, I just never have been a huge guns and ammo kind of guy. My dad never had interest in those areas so I naturally mirrored his tastes as I grew up. Sports has always been my thing which, no surprise, was also my dad’s thing.
In the middle of all this activity and cacophony of sound, I was introduced to the organizer of the entire operation. This man was small in stature but large in attitude. He was dressed in military garb but I did not notice his clothes. All I noticed was his tattoos on his neck and his narrow, wiry face with no hat and medium length scraggly brown hair.
Hard authority exuded from this leader of men. This man was the epitome of the phrase ‘dynamite comes in small packages’. He scowled at me with disdain as if he could tell I have never fired a gun in my life.
My response to this huge small man in an atmosphere that awake would be intimidating beyond words, let alone in a nightmare like scenario where anything can and usually does happen, was the part of my dream which now smacks of being vision like.
Without hesitation, without pleasantries of introductions, without asking for permission I took one step closer to this man with a face saying “Don’t mess with me!”. I put my hand right on his chest. I could feel his heart pounding. Into that situation I started speaking words about the wonderful, amazing grace and forgiveness of my God to me and how it has changed my life. I wish I could remember the words that I said, but all I can remember is what the front of his uniform felt like and the look on his face.
I must have spoken for a while about how inconceivable unconditional love is. I must have embellished about the patience of GOD who over and over and over again forgives my sin every time I confess it to him and take steps in the process of turning from that sin. Because the change on his face was epic.
Every few seconds in time to the words I was saying, his face transitioned from hard as nails, to as soft as a child’s hand. From holding on in pain and misunderstanding to letting go in sweet surrender. From darkness into light. From despair into delightful hope.
While I started to wake up, I did not want to leave this conversation. We kept talking as long as we could and the subject must have changed to discipleship. Sadly as I was waking up further, he started to resist instruction in how to follow Jesus daily and grow up in truth and faith.
Awake and laying on my bed as I processed this profound dream with visionary parts (in my opinion) I was impressed with three things.
My boldness: Boldness comes only from a personal encounter with the reality of how BIG God is and how amazing his GRACE is. I often quote the prayer which changed my life. It was deep and theological and important sounding. “God, I know you are true and I know I should obey you, but I CANNOT DO IT unless you help me.” If you look at other people and wish you could be like them? Don’t. Invite God into your personal space. Give him permission and access to everything and he will fill you with HIS boldness beyond belief.
Never judge a book by its cover: As I learn to follow Jesus more and more, in every conversation I am asking Him to lead me to people who are primed to hear true truth. While talking to people I smile and pray for the words to say and the courage to say them. When I get something I ask them if they are open to hear it REGARDLESS of the demeanor of the person. (Asking for permission did not happen in my dream, but I feel scripture supports ALWAYS asking before sharing or praying with someone). Writing is so good for me because I can write something and give it to someone and they can read in their own time without any pressure from me. Ask Jesus to help you smile, love, pray and share in his strength and timing.
Every believer goes through struggle in discipleship (following Jesus): In our world we have instant pudding, instant oatmeal and want instant mature followers of Jesus. Do not be discouraged when those you have shared with commit to Christ and then struggle. Struggle is part of the growing. Keep praying, keep letting go, keep calling on God for transformation of all you love. Add to my prayer. “Lord, I can’t follow you or help anyone else follow you without your HELP!”
Thank you for entering into the strangeness which is my dreams. I hope the life lessons God is teaching us are way past dreams and theory and live in reality right now.
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Life Lessons Learned from the “Amazing Race”
Life lessons I learned from the “Amazing Race”
Recently I was involved in activity at our church based on the television show Amazing Race. I enjoyed writing clues and hiding them and watching the participants rush around to be the first team done. As we closed the event in prayer we referenced the race of life that we are all on and the Hebrews 12:1-2 encouragement to “lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.”
I received from others that they enjoyed the activity and felt thankfully blessed to be involved. The next morning while walking into my work at a health care facility in the midst of my mental “afterglow” good feeling groove, I happened to walk past a middle aged chemo recipient who was sitting on a bench resting to get enough strength to make it to her chemo treatment, but clearly in much pain. What crossed my mind was, “I wonder what her race of life is like”?
If we measure “running a good race” by this world’s standards a person fighting just to stay alive as they make it to one chemo appointment at a time would easily be discouraged. The standards (lies) of this world say those who win the race are the good-looking, talented, wealthy, healthy and mentally tough people. I am so happy that for me to finish the race with endurance it is not about what I DO IN MY OWN STRENGTH but instead what I lay aside with God’s help and who I follow. I am so thankful that EVERYONE can run this race.
God’s word is filled with instructions to put on lots of things: God’s Armor, Love etc. Laying aside weights and sin is also important especially on a long race with endurance.
What is weighing you down? Weights are not sin, but they are things that slow us down and make it hard to run and easy to quit. Pain from the past and un-forgiveness are the top 2 weights in my opinion. We naturally want to hold on to the pain and resentment from the past, but until with God’s help we LAY IT ASIDE, we will never get where God wants to take us! (Prayer and talking things out with others we can trust are keys to laying aside our weights). The Lord’s prayer is very clear “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”.
Other baggy weights which we need to daily “lay aside” are fear, control and perfectionism. All of these weights may not be sin, but if we do not lay them aside we will run slower and eventually they will LEAD to sin. These weights are like the roots of the “sin weed”. If we do not deal with the roots of the sin weeds in our lives they will keep growing up in our lives and slow us down.
I challenge you to do the hard work of letting the Holy Spirit lead you to your weights that lead to sin and with his help lay them aside. I also challenge you to find someone whom you can trust that you can talk about your weights with. In Matthew Jesus said “blessed are those who mourn (get outside what is inside) for they shall be comforted. May we be so healed and transformed by the wonderful grace of Jesus that our insides match our outsides!
AMEN.
Recently I was involved in activity at our church based on the television show Amazing Race. I enjoyed writing clues and hiding them and watching the participants rush around to be the first team done. As we closed the event in prayer we referenced the race of life that we are all on and the Hebrews 12:1-2 encouragement to “lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.”
I received from others that they enjoyed the activity and felt thankfully blessed to be involved. The next morning while walking into my work at a health care facility in the midst of my mental “afterglow” good feeling groove, I happened to walk past a middle aged chemo recipient who was sitting on a bench resting to get enough strength to make it to her chemo treatment, but clearly in much pain. What crossed my mind was, “I wonder what her race of life is like”?
If we measure “running a good race” by this world’s standards a person fighting just to stay alive as they make it to one chemo appointment at a time would easily be discouraged. The standards (lies) of this world say those who win the race are the good-looking, talented, wealthy, healthy and mentally tough people. I am so happy that for me to finish the race with endurance it is not about what I DO IN MY OWN STRENGTH but instead what I lay aside with God’s help and who I follow. I am so thankful that EVERYONE can run this race.
God’s word is filled with instructions to put on lots of things: God’s Armor, Love etc. Laying aside weights and sin is also important especially on a long race with endurance.
What is weighing you down? Weights are not sin, but they are things that slow us down and make it hard to run and easy to quit. Pain from the past and un-forgiveness are the top 2 weights in my opinion. We naturally want to hold on to the pain and resentment from the past, but until with God’s help we LAY IT ASIDE, we will never get where God wants to take us! (Prayer and talking things out with others we can trust are keys to laying aside our weights). The Lord’s prayer is very clear “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”.
Other baggy weights which we need to daily “lay aside” are fear, control and perfectionism. All of these weights may not be sin, but if we do not lay them aside we will run slower and eventually they will LEAD to sin. These weights are like the roots of the “sin weed”. If we do not deal with the roots of the sin weeds in our lives they will keep growing up in our lives and slow us down.
I challenge you to do the hard work of letting the Holy Spirit lead you to your weights that lead to sin and with his help lay them aside. I also challenge you to find someone whom you can trust that you can talk about your weights with. In Matthew Jesus said “blessed are those who mourn (get outside what is inside) for they shall be comforted. May we be so healed and transformed by the wonderful grace of Jesus that our insides match our outsides!
AMEN.
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Lessons Learned From “Physics
Life Lessons we can learn from Physics.
Recently at an extended family function we were engaged in a usual “exchange of ideas” around the breakfast table. We were talking about politics and the economy and my wife’s uncle said something about understanding the “physics of economics”. When I asked him to explain what he meant he stated that the physics of something simply refers to the laws and guidelines which govern a certain area of study. For example the physics of gravity is that if you jump off a tall building without a parachute you will go SPLAT. The whole way down you can be believe with your whole heart that you are not going to die or be seriously hurt, but the harsh “physics” reality is that things will not be good for you when you reach the ground.
Jesus came to this earth and chose to humble himself and live as a man, yet without sin. He taught and exemplified the “physics” of how to have a relationship with, the most high creator of the universe. He lived without sin and was brutally crucified for our sins and then rose again three days later just as he said he would. All he did was witnessed by many and the four gospels were widely circulated in the early church and would not hold up to the eyewitness scrutiny if they were not accurate. Reading the book ‘Evidence that demands a verdict” by Josh McDowell brought me personally into a place of certainty of the truth of Jesus and his claims.
Jesus said some pretty radical things about himself. In John 14:6 he said “I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the father except through me. I always say that talk is cheap. So many people love to talk about all the things they can do and how we can fix our problems on this earth if we all just get along and work together. Jesus did not just SAY he loves us. He put his money where his mouth is and gave himself up to die for each one of us so we can have a REAL relationship with GOD. (Rom 5:8) His resurrection and ascension which was witnessed by many proves what he said was true and that he can back up his promises to be a way for us to come to the father. This truth is just as real as gravity, but in our culture we seem to more willing to speak up if someone was standing on the edge of a cliff and about to fall off and did not realize it, than we are to lovingly passionately challenge others to make sure they go the way of personal faith in Jesus. This means repentance (turning away) from all of the things that we so easily look to for life and receiving his forgiveness, then growing up in him so he has TOTAL control and access to our lives.
In Matthew 22:1-14 Jesus told a parable about a King having wedding and inviting people to a wedding. In that day weddings were a BIG DEAL. Imagine if you got a personal all expenses paid invitation to attend Will and Kate’s wedding when it happened, I think you would make some changes in you life to be able to go wouldn’t you? The king sent out servants to ask those who had been invited to come and none were willing to come? These were most likely friends and family. He sent out more servants and told them to “sell” the benefits of coming to the wedding and these people made light of the entire idea and went their way to their farms and their businesses. They just placed it as a lower priority to invest their time in. Others seized the servants and killed them. These the king sent out his armies and killed them and burned up their cities. Finally he told his servants to go and invite anybody and everyone. No status required. This filled the banquet hall, but when the king saw a guest without a wedding garment (which were given out freely and all he had to do was PUT IN ON) he was speechless when asked why he did not put on a FREE wedding garment and was cast into outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. Jesus concludes by saying “many are called but few are chosen”.
God is not willing that any should perish but he will not MAKE us choose his free gift of forgiveness and transformation.
Heaven is REAL and WONDERFUL multiplied by 1 million. Hell is REAL and TERRIBLE multiplied by 1 million. How you respond to God’s loving, free invitation through his son WILL determine where you go. Do not be deceived, going to church once in a while, and praying when we need things to go well in our business, or hoping that the “one time” when I was young and I went forward at some crusade will “squeek me through the gates of heaven” is NOT having a relationship with God through his son Jesus. How can you have an earthy relationship with someone if you never talk to them or spend time with them and they have no influence in your life? The fruit (result) of being “under the influence” of the spirit is real Love, real Joy, real Peace, real Patience, real Kindness etc. Don’s try to act loving so people think you have the spirit. Be filled with the Spirit (place you cup under God’s drinking fountain) and you WILL love.
Will you say yes to God’s invitation today? Please do. If you have said yes, are you growing more and more into his image as you let him run your whole life?
My friend’s salvation prayer was simply “ok God, you win, I’m yours”. Talk to God from your heart and receive his wonderful invite and you will never be the same.
Recently at an extended family function we were engaged in a usual “exchange of ideas” around the breakfast table. We were talking about politics and the economy and my wife’s uncle said something about understanding the “physics of economics”. When I asked him to explain what he meant he stated that the physics of something simply refers to the laws and guidelines which govern a certain area of study. For example the physics of gravity is that if you jump off a tall building without a parachute you will go SPLAT. The whole way down you can be believe with your whole heart that you are not going to die or be seriously hurt, but the harsh “physics” reality is that things will not be good for you when you reach the ground.
Jesus came to this earth and chose to humble himself and live as a man, yet without sin. He taught and exemplified the “physics” of how to have a relationship with, the most high creator of the universe. He lived without sin and was brutally crucified for our sins and then rose again three days later just as he said he would. All he did was witnessed by many and the four gospels were widely circulated in the early church and would not hold up to the eyewitness scrutiny if they were not accurate. Reading the book ‘Evidence that demands a verdict” by Josh McDowell brought me personally into a place of certainty of the truth of Jesus and his claims.
Jesus said some pretty radical things about himself. In John 14:6 he said “I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the father except through me. I always say that talk is cheap. So many people love to talk about all the things they can do and how we can fix our problems on this earth if we all just get along and work together. Jesus did not just SAY he loves us. He put his money where his mouth is and gave himself up to die for each one of us so we can have a REAL relationship with GOD. (Rom 5:8) His resurrection and ascension which was witnessed by many proves what he said was true and that he can back up his promises to be a way for us to come to the father. This truth is just as real as gravity, but in our culture we seem to more willing to speak up if someone was standing on the edge of a cliff and about to fall off and did not realize it, than we are to lovingly passionately challenge others to make sure they go the way of personal faith in Jesus. This means repentance (turning away) from all of the things that we so easily look to for life and receiving his forgiveness, then growing up in him so he has TOTAL control and access to our lives.
In Matthew 22:1-14 Jesus told a parable about a King having wedding and inviting people to a wedding. In that day weddings were a BIG DEAL. Imagine if you got a personal all expenses paid invitation to attend Will and Kate’s wedding when it happened, I think you would make some changes in you life to be able to go wouldn’t you? The king sent out servants to ask those who had been invited to come and none were willing to come? These were most likely friends and family. He sent out more servants and told them to “sell” the benefits of coming to the wedding and these people made light of the entire idea and went their way to their farms and their businesses. They just placed it as a lower priority to invest their time in. Others seized the servants and killed them. These the king sent out his armies and killed them and burned up their cities. Finally he told his servants to go and invite anybody and everyone. No status required. This filled the banquet hall, but when the king saw a guest without a wedding garment (which were given out freely and all he had to do was PUT IN ON) he was speechless when asked why he did not put on a FREE wedding garment and was cast into outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. Jesus concludes by saying “many are called but few are chosen”.
God is not willing that any should perish but he will not MAKE us choose his free gift of forgiveness and transformation.
Heaven is REAL and WONDERFUL multiplied by 1 million. Hell is REAL and TERRIBLE multiplied by 1 million. How you respond to God’s loving, free invitation through his son WILL determine where you go. Do not be deceived, going to church once in a while, and praying when we need things to go well in our business, or hoping that the “one time” when I was young and I went forward at some crusade will “squeek me through the gates of heaven” is NOT having a relationship with God through his son Jesus. How can you have an earthy relationship with someone if you never talk to them or spend time with them and they have no influence in your life? The fruit (result) of being “under the influence” of the spirit is real Love, real Joy, real Peace, real Patience, real Kindness etc. Don’s try to act loving so people think you have the spirit. Be filled with the Spirit (place you cup under God’s drinking fountain) and you WILL love.
Will you say yes to God’s invitation today? Please do. If you have said yes, are you growing more and more into his image as you let him run your whole life?
My friend’s salvation prayer was simply “ok God, you win, I’m yours”. Talk to God from your heart and receive his wonderful invite and you will never be the same.
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Life Lessons I learned from playing “Oh Phooey” with my dad.
“Oh Phooey” is a card game my parents learned when they were on
away a trip one year. When they learned the game it was called “Oh
H***”. Being responsible parents they re-named the game “Oh Phooey”
when they taught us kids. The game is easy to learn but challenging
because there are many variables that can affect your ability to make
your bid and therefore lots of chances to say “Oh Phooey”
One of my fondest memories of my Dad was his laughing and groaning as he either made his bid or missed it. He always kept score and was great at encouraging all participants in the game while gently teasing whoever was in the lead at the time. I have even had a friend tell me that he thinks one of my “love languages” is games. I agree with that statement.
Lesson #1: “Check your control issues at the door”.
One of the funny things that often happens after someone doesn’t make their bid is they re-play the hand verbally and analyze how they could have played it better. Many of us live life the same way. We constantly re-live past sins and mistakes and chastise ourselves for our failures. I am so thankful that Paul (inspired by God) wrote Philippians 3:13-14. “Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” When I surrender control of my entire life to God and rest in his provision for me through Christ’s death on the cross, I can joyfully live in each moment doing my best at whatever I do as unto the LORD. The surrender process is never-ending. ALL thanks be to God because “he who began a good work in you and ME will complete it” (Phil 1:6) I cannot be in control and let God be in control at the same time.
Lesson #2: “Success and failure are necessary for true joy”
In “Oh Phooey” I can make the correct percentage play and still not make my bid. If I start to whine about that fact, I am quickly reminded that the uncertainty is what makes the game fun! God calls us to be involved in the process of letting him transform us and use us in others lives. He wants us to leave the RESULTS up to him. It is so easy to compare ourselves to others and buy the lies that our failures disqualify us from being used by God in GREAT ways. Paul said the thorn in his flesh HELPED him to stay DEPENDANT on GOD. We need God more that the air we breathe. We need to give him permission to work in us through our scars from the past. PRAISE GOD we can boldly keep moving forward and really KNOW that “ALL things work together for those who Love God and are called according to his purpose” (Rom 8:28). Don’t be surprised by the ups and downs of LIFE.
Lesson #3: “Don’t stay on the sidelines, get in the game”
When I explain how to play “Oh Phooey” I often get the “glazed over” look that says “I think I will pass”. People so easily set their limits on what they will try so tightly they miss out on some really good times. Our relationship to God is the same way. If we stay on the sidelines and don’t engage with God and allow him to work in our lives, we will not receive the wonderful inheritance God wants to give us and we face eternity without God in hell. What makes hell so bad is the complete ABSENCE of GOD. We were created to be in relationship with God. It is how we are built. JUMP in the game and ask God to forgive your sins and receive Christ as your PERSONAL savior. You will never be the same!
If you have made this decision in the past, stay engaged in the game and do not be weary in well doing. Avoid the distractions that life throws at you and keep taking one step at a time as you imitate your heavenly Father!
May God richly bless you with and ever-growing understanding of his great love for you so every area of your life is truly being transformed. Amen.
One of my fondest memories of my Dad was his laughing and groaning as he either made his bid or missed it. He always kept score and was great at encouraging all participants in the game while gently teasing whoever was in the lead at the time. I have even had a friend tell me that he thinks one of my “love languages” is games. I agree with that statement.
Lesson #1: “Check your control issues at the door”.
One of the funny things that often happens after someone doesn’t make their bid is they re-play the hand verbally and analyze how they could have played it better. Many of us live life the same way. We constantly re-live past sins and mistakes and chastise ourselves for our failures. I am so thankful that Paul (inspired by God) wrote Philippians 3:13-14. “Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” When I surrender control of my entire life to God and rest in his provision for me through Christ’s death on the cross, I can joyfully live in each moment doing my best at whatever I do as unto the LORD. The surrender process is never-ending. ALL thanks be to God because “he who began a good work in you and ME will complete it” (Phil 1:6) I cannot be in control and let God be in control at the same time.
Lesson #2: “Success and failure are necessary for true joy”
In “Oh Phooey” I can make the correct percentage play and still not make my bid. If I start to whine about that fact, I am quickly reminded that the uncertainty is what makes the game fun! God calls us to be involved in the process of letting him transform us and use us in others lives. He wants us to leave the RESULTS up to him. It is so easy to compare ourselves to others and buy the lies that our failures disqualify us from being used by God in GREAT ways. Paul said the thorn in his flesh HELPED him to stay DEPENDANT on GOD. We need God more that the air we breathe. We need to give him permission to work in us through our scars from the past. PRAISE GOD we can boldly keep moving forward and really KNOW that “ALL things work together for those who Love God and are called according to his purpose” (Rom 8:28). Don’t be surprised by the ups and downs of LIFE.
Lesson #3: “Don’t stay on the sidelines, get in the game”
When I explain how to play “Oh Phooey” I often get the “glazed over” look that says “I think I will pass”. People so easily set their limits on what they will try so tightly they miss out on some really good times. Our relationship to God is the same way. If we stay on the sidelines and don’t engage with God and allow him to work in our lives, we will not receive the wonderful inheritance God wants to give us and we face eternity without God in hell. What makes hell so bad is the complete ABSENCE of GOD. We were created to be in relationship with God. It is how we are built. JUMP in the game and ask God to forgive your sins and receive Christ as your PERSONAL savior. You will never be the same!
If you have made this decision in the past, stay engaged in the game and do not be weary in well doing. Avoid the distractions that life throws at you and keep taking one step at a time as you imitate your heavenly Father!
May God richly bless you with and ever-growing understanding of his great love for you so every area of your life is truly being transformed. Amen.
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Accidents happen!
It seems to every time I have a story for someone about and
accident I avoided or an accident that I endured, they always have 2 or 3
stories of their own. In a group, that is a sure fire way to start
a lively conversation. Recently my wife and I went through this ordeal
with our good car and after almost a month of being without our car, our
great body shop person put money in our pockets as well as saving us
our deductible and returned the car to us looking great! We all like to
hear the stories of how bad and inconvenient circumstances end up
turning into really amazing blessings. The most amazing of these
stories is also the oldest. Mankind since the Garden of Eden has been
not just “making mistakes” or “having accidents”, but pretty
consistently trying as hard as we can to push God out of every area of
our lives. It seems to be “human nature” to want so badly to do things
on our own, that we push God aside and then we are mystified when chaos
insures. We take God out of our public schools and then wonder why kids
think it is logical to open fire on each other with automatic weapons! Yet into this chaos God still can make things amazing if we let him. What always blows my mind is that even though my sin is not an “accident or mistake”, but willful disobedience, as long as I humbly come to God and thank him for and receive for myself the sacrificial death of his son Jesus on the cross for my sin. I can be forgiven
and called a SON of GOD. That is quite the amazing turn around, from
being a sinner (way in the hole, like a trillion dollars) to being a
forgiven SON and HEIR to eternal life! (priceless to the positive!) That
is the deal of the lifetime that you would
never see on TV deal shows! I believe the song says “Something
beautiful, something good. All my confusion he understood. All I had to
offer him was brokenness and pain, but he made something beautiful of my
life.” The requirement to get this great deal is to admit we have been
wrong and sinned and humbly ask for what we could NEVER earn
ourselves. Once we do this the entire focus of our lives changes to
doing whatever God wants, wherever. I am so happy that because I have
received this “deal” I am already wealthier than anyone on this earth
because God is in the business of making miracles out of my messes!
Today, will you receive the greatest “deal” and give God all your sins and receive his forgiveness? Surrender you life to him. His resources are limitless and you cannot out give him.
Today, will you receive the greatest “deal” and give God all your sins and receive his forgiveness? Surrender you life to him. His resources are limitless and you cannot out give him.
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Life lessons I am learning while playing pool
Life Lessons I am learning from Playing Pool.
When I tell people I like to play pool they often ask me if I am any good. I usually answer that the word “good” depends on the perspective. Compared with the average Joe who just picks up a cue every once in a while I am GREAT (I think?), but compared to the people I play against on a regular basis, I have lots of room for improvement.
What I love about pool is the combination of mental challenge and physical execution. It really is a game of a fraction of an inch!
What I also like is that there are many life lessons we can learn from pool which will help us to really WIN in the areas that REALLY matter!
Lesson #1 “Keep your eye on the ball!”
A wise player whom had just beat me badly told me he practices keeping his eyes focused on certain items even when he in not playing. He said it is easy for our eyes to drift right before shooting our shot. As we think about living life, how easy is it for our focus to drift from what really matters. In Hebrews 12:2 it says “looking unto (fixing our eyes on) Jesus the author and finisher of our Faith”. Faith (trust in something) is important because without it we cannot please God, therefore having faith would be the most important thing! What we learn is that God through his son Jesus is the starter (author) and the finisher of our faith. Our job is to be a grateful responder and receiver of his gift. When someone gives you a gift, they authored and finished the gift and freely offer it to you because they like you! Why would you not say thanks and receive it. John 3:16 say “God so loved the world he gave his only son that whoever believes in him (receives the gift) will not perish, but have eternal life”
Lesson# 2 “Pride goes before a fall (or a miss)”.
What I struggle with all the time in my pool game is I will be scared and really focused because I have a hard shot to make. I will stroke it pure and make the shot and leave myself great for the next shot… I start thinking “I am the greatest player ever to pick up a cue”… then I miss an easy shot aargh! Pride is tricky because I can even be proud of my ability to stay humble really well!!?? Paul wrote one third of the New Testament and he went through the same struggle. In Romans chapter 7 he said “the things I want to do, I don’t and the things I don’t want to do, I do” he calls himself wretched (beyond hope) and says who can save me!? Then he says “I THANK GOD that there is now NO CONDEMNATION to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh (I can do it), but according to the spirit (God can do it through me!)” When we are humbly in touch with how really bad we are on our own, we are in the perfect place to receive the gift that only God can provide. 1 John 1:8-9 says “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. (BUT) If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness”.
Lesson #3: “It’s all in the follow through”.
We learn in pool that any spin you put on the cue ball will affect the object ball in the same amount. One of the challenges is learning to follow through in your stroke so you get only the spin you want and none of the spin you don’t. The life lesson for this applies in so many ways, but the most important one is “knowing” the truth never has saved anybody. In Ephesians 3:17-19 Paul is finishing a prayer for the believers in the church in Ephesis and he says “that Christ may dwell in your hearts through FAITH; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height… to know the love of Christ which PASSES knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God! So many people know about God, but do not actually KNOW God personally. Faith is the follow through. Faith says “I cannot do this”, I need help that only God can give. I want to be rooted and grounded in Love and be filled with the fullness of GOD. God does not need our help to work in our lives, he does need our permission. Will you give God permission to save you and fill you with his fullness? Revelation says many will say to God, “Lord, did we not cast out demons in your name?” yet he will say to them “depart from me, I never knew you” A personal faith relationship with God through his Son Jesus, is the MOST important thing to follow through on. Once we have put our faith in Christ, we keep learning how to walk more and more in step with him in everything he wants us to do. HOPE is such a great thing. I hope you find your hope in the personal GOD who is not only beyond this world, but created the whole universe and still wants to be intimately involved in your life and fill you with his fullness. Simply talk to him and say “God thank you for sending your only Son to take the place for my sin. I receive your gift of forgiveness and give you permission to take complete control of my life and help me to follow you in all I do.” If you prayed that prayer I look forward to playing pool with you in HEAVEN!!
When I tell people I like to play pool they often ask me if I am any good. I usually answer that the word “good” depends on the perspective. Compared with the average Joe who just picks up a cue every once in a while I am GREAT (I think?), but compared to the people I play against on a regular basis, I have lots of room for improvement.
What I love about pool is the combination of mental challenge and physical execution. It really is a game of a fraction of an inch!
What I also like is that there are many life lessons we can learn from pool which will help us to really WIN in the areas that REALLY matter!
Lesson #1 “Keep your eye on the ball!”
A wise player whom had just beat me badly told me he practices keeping his eyes focused on certain items even when he in not playing. He said it is easy for our eyes to drift right before shooting our shot. As we think about living life, how easy is it for our focus to drift from what really matters. In Hebrews 12:2 it says “looking unto (fixing our eyes on) Jesus the author and finisher of our Faith”. Faith (trust in something) is important because without it we cannot please God, therefore having faith would be the most important thing! What we learn is that God through his son Jesus is the starter (author) and the finisher of our faith. Our job is to be a grateful responder and receiver of his gift. When someone gives you a gift, they authored and finished the gift and freely offer it to you because they like you! Why would you not say thanks and receive it. John 3:16 say “God so loved the world he gave his only son that whoever believes in him (receives the gift) will not perish, but have eternal life”
Lesson# 2 “Pride goes before a fall (or a miss)”.
What I struggle with all the time in my pool game is I will be scared and really focused because I have a hard shot to make. I will stroke it pure and make the shot and leave myself great for the next shot… I start thinking “I am the greatest player ever to pick up a cue”… then I miss an easy shot aargh! Pride is tricky because I can even be proud of my ability to stay humble really well!!?? Paul wrote one third of the New Testament and he went through the same struggle. In Romans chapter 7 he said “the things I want to do, I don’t and the things I don’t want to do, I do” he calls himself wretched (beyond hope) and says who can save me!? Then he says “I THANK GOD that there is now NO CONDEMNATION to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh (I can do it), but according to the spirit (God can do it through me!)” When we are humbly in touch with how really bad we are on our own, we are in the perfect place to receive the gift that only God can provide. 1 John 1:8-9 says “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. (BUT) If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness”.
Lesson #3: “It’s all in the follow through”.
We learn in pool that any spin you put on the cue ball will affect the object ball in the same amount. One of the challenges is learning to follow through in your stroke so you get only the spin you want and none of the spin you don’t. The life lesson for this applies in so many ways, but the most important one is “knowing” the truth never has saved anybody. In Ephesians 3:17-19 Paul is finishing a prayer for the believers in the church in Ephesis and he says “that Christ may dwell in your hearts through FAITH; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height… to know the love of Christ which PASSES knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God! So many people know about God, but do not actually KNOW God personally. Faith is the follow through. Faith says “I cannot do this”, I need help that only God can give. I want to be rooted and grounded in Love and be filled with the fullness of GOD. God does not need our help to work in our lives, he does need our permission. Will you give God permission to save you and fill you with his fullness? Revelation says many will say to God, “Lord, did we not cast out demons in your name?” yet he will say to them “depart from me, I never knew you” A personal faith relationship with God through his Son Jesus, is the MOST important thing to follow through on. Once we have put our faith in Christ, we keep learning how to walk more and more in step with him in everything he wants us to do. HOPE is such a great thing. I hope you find your hope in the personal GOD who is not only beyond this world, but created the whole universe and still wants to be intimately involved in your life and fill you with his fullness. Simply talk to him and say “God thank you for sending your only Son to take the place for my sin. I receive your gift of forgiveness and give you permission to take complete control of my life and help me to follow you in all I do.” If you prayed that prayer I look forward to playing pool with you in HEAVEN!!
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Holiday lessons about substance
Lessons on how to have Holidays with substance!
One of the struggles of the human condition is, when we get what we think we really want or need, we feel just a little hollow and let down. Garage sales this year are filled with toys that once upon a time were the subject of hours of pleading and bargaining with parents by children. Marketing budgets and creativity do a very good job of enticing us with promises of things that will make everything ok. Delivering on those promises is impossible, but we keep on thinking, maybe this NEW shiny thing will do the trick?
In Colossians 2:16,17 Paul says “So let no one judge you in food or drink, or regarding a festival, or a new moon or Sabbaths, which are a SHADOW of things to come, but the SUBSTANCE is of CHRIST.” In Paul’s day external religious activity was how people kept score of who was somebody and who was nobody. In our day we could say, “let no one look down on you based on what you eat or don’t eat, what you wear or don’t wear, what you drive or don’t drive, where you work or don’t work, how you look, how you act, how you say what you feel.”
Shadows can be seen, and appear real until you touch them and realize they are created by a substance that has light behind it.
Imagine a husband returning from a long trip to his home, his loving wife meets him in the sun filled courtyard. He rushes to her and bends to the ground and kisses her shadow on the ground? This is absurd, but I must admit how easy it is, for me to slide into thinking and acting this way.
Do you KNOW Jesus, the substance of him, the reality of him? He really did come to this earth as a baby, not so we could do Christmas programs every year and sing beautiful carols and support our retailers. He came as a baby to show you God’s love, to live a perfect life and die a brutal death to cover your sins and mine. He rose from the dead and he was taken up to heaven where right now he is standing and praying for all of us that we would really KNOW the substance of him.
In Philippians 3:7-11 Paul says “But what things were gain to me these things I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish (garbage) that I might gain Christ and be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law (external shadows), but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may KNOW him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed (pressed into) to his death. If by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”
When you reach heaven, none of the shadows of your accomplishments, stuff, family, pain, anger or striving will be able to access the power of his resurrection. Your personal encounter with Christ where you confess your sin and receive the gift of his forgiveness is the ONLY THING that can give you access to all that God deeply wants to give you. The presence and working of the Holy Spirit in your life is your sign that you are God’s child. Hell is real and was never created for humans, but if we do not open the wonderful gift of salvation that God has made available to us, we will go there.
In the still moments of this Holiday season, would talk to God and thank him for his unspeakable gift of forgiveness and unconditional love? Surrender every area of your life to his loving hands. I promise, because of the substance of who he is you will never be the same.
One of the struggles of the human condition is, when we get what we think we really want or need, we feel just a little hollow and let down. Garage sales this year are filled with toys that once upon a time were the subject of hours of pleading and bargaining with parents by children. Marketing budgets and creativity do a very good job of enticing us with promises of things that will make everything ok. Delivering on those promises is impossible, but we keep on thinking, maybe this NEW shiny thing will do the trick?
In Colossians 2:16,17 Paul says “So let no one judge you in food or drink, or regarding a festival, or a new moon or Sabbaths, which are a SHADOW of things to come, but the SUBSTANCE is of CHRIST.” In Paul’s day external religious activity was how people kept score of who was somebody and who was nobody. In our day we could say, “let no one look down on you based on what you eat or don’t eat, what you wear or don’t wear, what you drive or don’t drive, where you work or don’t work, how you look, how you act, how you say what you feel.”
Shadows can be seen, and appear real until you touch them and realize they are created by a substance that has light behind it.
Imagine a husband returning from a long trip to his home, his loving wife meets him in the sun filled courtyard. He rushes to her and bends to the ground and kisses her shadow on the ground? This is absurd, but I must admit how easy it is, for me to slide into thinking and acting this way.
Do you KNOW Jesus, the substance of him, the reality of him? He really did come to this earth as a baby, not so we could do Christmas programs every year and sing beautiful carols and support our retailers. He came as a baby to show you God’s love, to live a perfect life and die a brutal death to cover your sins and mine. He rose from the dead and he was taken up to heaven where right now he is standing and praying for all of us that we would really KNOW the substance of him.
In Philippians 3:7-11 Paul says “But what things were gain to me these things I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish (garbage) that I might gain Christ and be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law (external shadows), but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may KNOW him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed (pressed into) to his death. If by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”
When you reach heaven, none of the shadows of your accomplishments, stuff, family, pain, anger or striving will be able to access the power of his resurrection. Your personal encounter with Christ where you confess your sin and receive the gift of his forgiveness is the ONLY THING that can give you access to all that God deeply wants to give you. The presence and working of the Holy Spirit in your life is your sign that you are God’s child. Hell is real and was never created for humans, but if we do not open the wonderful gift of salvation that God has made available to us, we will go there.
In the still moments of this Holiday season, would talk to God and thank him for his unspeakable gift of forgiveness and unconditional love? Surrender every area of your life to his loving hands. I promise, because of the substance of who he is you will never be the same.
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Life Lessons we can learn from Tiger
What Lasting Life Lesson can we keep learning from Tiger?
Before Accenture dropped Tiger Woods as their spokesperson they used to have a slogan. “You can learn a lot from a Tiger”. In light of Tiger’s recent troubles I would like put forward some valuable truths that we can all learn and put into practice that will help us learn as much from his mistakes as we learn from his successes. I once heard it said that the only thing better than learning from your own mistakes is to learn from other people’s mistakes.
I just want to say I have always enjoyed watching the ability of Tiger to give 100% effort on every golf shot and live in the PRESENT with incredible mental toughness. I have also prayed for him on many occasions while rooting for other golfers to push him better when he is on his game in clutch situations.
Life lesson #1 to learn from Tiger: Be careful what you put your trust in.
The year Zach Johnson won the Masters, immediately after they got done interviewing Zach and he talked about feeling extra close to God since it was Easter Sunday and tearfully kissed his child and wife, the TV coverage went to Tiger trying to hit it close on hole #18. When his shot was not close he was visibly agitated and started swearing. Tiger was raised in Buddhism. In Matthew 7:24-27 Jesus says that those who hear his words and put them into practice (act upon them) are wise and like the person who builds their house upon a ROCK, but those who do not put them into practice are like a person who builds their house upon the SAND. When the storms of life and temptation come they WILL be washed away. Notice that the key ingredient is the obedience to the truth not just mental agreement to a series of beliefs. We all know plenty of people who agree to the truth of Christianity who have also cheated on their wives. But I also KNOW many whose behavior is truly being radically CHANGED by their intimate relationship with God through Jesus Christ his Son. Like my dad used to always say “when you are building a building, if the foundation is off by the slightest margin the entire structure will be affected”
Life Lesson #2 to learn from Tiger: The truth will set you free. (We are as sick as our secrets) I John 1:7-10 says: “If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from ALL sin. If we say we have no sin, deceive ourselves and the TRUTH is not in us. If we CONFESS our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to CLEANSE us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and his word is not in us.” One thing I know about sin is that it does not start on the outside with the BIG BAD STUFF. It starts on the inside with pride, control, selfishness and lust. If I do not keep getting those “seeds” of sin outside into the light, they will progress toward sin in my life. I would never trade places with Tiger to endure the temptations he endures, but I know that he did not start out thinking “I think I will cheat on my wife” he probably nibbled on the “seeds” of resentment and pride and started to believe the lies that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. We all can learn from Solomon and David who both at the pinnacle of their “careers” realized the “greener grasses” were actually poison. (Read Ecclesiastes and Psalm 51). American Indians learned the easiest way to kill a wolf. Take a sharp knife and freeze real blood onto it and bury the handle in the ground. The wolf starts licking the blood and likes it so keeps licking. Soon he is cutting his tongue and licking his OWN blood but doesn’t realize it. The next day you find a dead wolf in the snow! The god of this world (Satan) is so tricky to try to get us to just take a little lick of what we think will satisfy and he entraps us. Speaking the truth and getting the ugliness into the light is the ONLY cure for this. I have often talked about my safe support system where I can speak the ugly truth and explode the lies that left unchecked would leave me lying dead in the snow. Jesus said blessed are those who get outside what is inside (mourn) for they shall be comforted.
Life Lesson #3 to learn from Tiger: Don’t play the “if only” game. (Lust is not just about sex, it is thinking that ANYTHING other than God and his love can satisfy me) As I mentioned before Solomon was the Tiger Woods of his day. Money, Fame, Wisdom, Charm, Multiple wives and concubines etc. (He had entire cities just for his chariots!) In Ecclesiastes he catalogues his pursuit to find meaning and finds it ALL to be VANITY. He finally concludes with this statement in Ecclesiastes 12:13,14 “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: FEAR GOD and keep his commandments. For this is man’s ALL. For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil. I heard many radio people saying “we just have to accept that nobody is perfect and we all just do the best we can” as if to say, when celebrities mess up it lets the rest of us off the hook. This is just as logical as people enjoying when preachers fall because they can keep excusing their own sin and rebellion. God is the judge and he does not grade on a curve. He is not willing that any should perish, but he cannot forgive us our sin while we are still condoning it and rationalizing it away. If we confess our sin and agree with him that he is the ultimate authority, he will forgive us and we can experience TRUE peace and LOVE that pass understanding! This is what I pray Tiger experiences soon. We cannot truly get this amazing gift of forgiveness unless we are willing to let go of all our “if only” desires. The verse says Godliness with contentment is great gain! Is it possible for us to be REALLY content regardless of our circumstances?
Romans 8:37 says “In ALL these things we overwhelmingly conquer through him who loved us” This follows verses that talk about all kinds of persecution and death. Verse 38-40 Paul says “for I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height nor depth any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” We are the ONLY thing that can separate us from God. God does not need our help to work in our lives he does need our PERMISSION. Will you right now surrender to him and give him complete permission and access to your life? He will transform you with his amazing love.
May this day be your best day ever because you have turned your life over to God’s control. If you have already received God’s gift of forgiveness and salvation, I beg you join me on the journey of transformation that comes in finding a safe place to get outside what is inside so God can heal us from the inside out. “Taste and see that the Lord is GOOD”
Before Accenture dropped Tiger Woods as their spokesperson they used to have a slogan. “You can learn a lot from a Tiger”. In light of Tiger’s recent troubles I would like put forward some valuable truths that we can all learn and put into practice that will help us learn as much from his mistakes as we learn from his successes. I once heard it said that the only thing better than learning from your own mistakes is to learn from other people’s mistakes.
I just want to say I have always enjoyed watching the ability of Tiger to give 100% effort on every golf shot and live in the PRESENT with incredible mental toughness. I have also prayed for him on many occasions while rooting for other golfers to push him better when he is on his game in clutch situations.
Life lesson #1 to learn from Tiger: Be careful what you put your trust in.
The year Zach Johnson won the Masters, immediately after they got done interviewing Zach and he talked about feeling extra close to God since it was Easter Sunday and tearfully kissed his child and wife, the TV coverage went to Tiger trying to hit it close on hole #18. When his shot was not close he was visibly agitated and started swearing. Tiger was raised in Buddhism. In Matthew 7:24-27 Jesus says that those who hear his words and put them into practice (act upon them) are wise and like the person who builds their house upon a ROCK, but those who do not put them into practice are like a person who builds their house upon the SAND. When the storms of life and temptation come they WILL be washed away. Notice that the key ingredient is the obedience to the truth not just mental agreement to a series of beliefs. We all know plenty of people who agree to the truth of Christianity who have also cheated on their wives. But I also KNOW many whose behavior is truly being radically CHANGED by their intimate relationship with God through Jesus Christ his Son. Like my dad used to always say “when you are building a building, if the foundation is off by the slightest margin the entire structure will be affected”
Life Lesson #2 to learn from Tiger: The truth will set you free. (We are as sick as our secrets) I John 1:7-10 says: “If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from ALL sin. If we say we have no sin, deceive ourselves and the TRUTH is not in us. If we CONFESS our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to CLEANSE us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and his word is not in us.” One thing I know about sin is that it does not start on the outside with the BIG BAD STUFF. It starts on the inside with pride, control, selfishness and lust. If I do not keep getting those “seeds” of sin outside into the light, they will progress toward sin in my life. I would never trade places with Tiger to endure the temptations he endures, but I know that he did not start out thinking “I think I will cheat on my wife” he probably nibbled on the “seeds” of resentment and pride and started to believe the lies that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. We all can learn from Solomon and David who both at the pinnacle of their “careers” realized the “greener grasses” were actually poison. (Read Ecclesiastes and Psalm 51). American Indians learned the easiest way to kill a wolf. Take a sharp knife and freeze real blood onto it and bury the handle in the ground. The wolf starts licking the blood and likes it so keeps licking. Soon he is cutting his tongue and licking his OWN blood but doesn’t realize it. The next day you find a dead wolf in the snow! The god of this world (Satan) is so tricky to try to get us to just take a little lick of what we think will satisfy and he entraps us. Speaking the truth and getting the ugliness into the light is the ONLY cure for this. I have often talked about my safe support system where I can speak the ugly truth and explode the lies that left unchecked would leave me lying dead in the snow. Jesus said blessed are those who get outside what is inside (mourn) for they shall be comforted.
Life Lesson #3 to learn from Tiger: Don’t play the “if only” game. (Lust is not just about sex, it is thinking that ANYTHING other than God and his love can satisfy me) As I mentioned before Solomon was the Tiger Woods of his day. Money, Fame, Wisdom, Charm, Multiple wives and concubines etc. (He had entire cities just for his chariots!) In Ecclesiastes he catalogues his pursuit to find meaning and finds it ALL to be VANITY. He finally concludes with this statement in Ecclesiastes 12:13,14 “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: FEAR GOD and keep his commandments. For this is man’s ALL. For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil. I heard many radio people saying “we just have to accept that nobody is perfect and we all just do the best we can” as if to say, when celebrities mess up it lets the rest of us off the hook. This is just as logical as people enjoying when preachers fall because they can keep excusing their own sin and rebellion. God is the judge and he does not grade on a curve. He is not willing that any should perish, but he cannot forgive us our sin while we are still condoning it and rationalizing it away. If we confess our sin and agree with him that he is the ultimate authority, he will forgive us and we can experience TRUE peace and LOVE that pass understanding! This is what I pray Tiger experiences soon. We cannot truly get this amazing gift of forgiveness unless we are willing to let go of all our “if only” desires. The verse says Godliness with contentment is great gain! Is it possible for us to be REALLY content regardless of our circumstances?
Romans 8:37 says “In ALL these things we overwhelmingly conquer through him who loved us” This follows verses that talk about all kinds of persecution and death. Verse 38-40 Paul says “for I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height nor depth any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” We are the ONLY thing that can separate us from God. God does not need our help to work in our lives he does need our PERMISSION. Will you right now surrender to him and give him complete permission and access to your life? He will transform you with his amazing love.
May this day be your best day ever because you have turned your life over to God’s control. If you have already received God’s gift of forgiveness and salvation, I beg you join me on the journey of transformation that comes in finding a safe place to get outside what is inside so God can heal us from the inside out. “Taste and see that the Lord is GOOD”
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Life Lessons that really Last!
It seems to me that people are making lots of money selling the
next best system to make people healthy wealthy and wise. The only
problem is that since the beginning of time, we have kept coming to the
conclusion that if we do not have the relational aspect of our lives put
together we have nothing really to stand on. Relationships that really last have to be with people who really last, otherwise they are as finite as the person you are “relating to”. Solomon in Ecclesiastes tried everything
to be satisfied and nothing worked. He concluded “fear God” (be in
relationship with God.. reverence God) and keep is commandments.” This
is what truly LASTS.
Lasting Life Lessons by Luke is about tapping into the many lessons there are out there in life that point us to the LASTING relationship we can have with the creator of the universe. It really is the most amazing thing to get those little tastes of how amazing God really is.
Lasting Life Lessons by Luke is about tapping into the many lessons there are out there in life that point us to the LASTING relationship we can have with the creator of the universe. It really is the most amazing thing to get those little tastes of how amazing God really is.
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