GLIMMERS JANUARY- MAY 2011

January 1

Dear Fellow Pilgrim,

This year we will begin a journey together to share the thoughts of God informed by His word and His Spirit. Meditate upon the following scriptures and see how they inform us that we have access as believers to the mind of God. In other words, He instructs us through our thoughts with His wisdom, His words, and the immediacy of his inspiration. (1 Corinthians 1, 2, 14:26-39; Ephesians 1; Philippians 1:9-11; Colossians 1:21-29; I Thessalonians 1:4-10; James 1:5-7; I Peter 1: 13-15; 2 Peter 1:3-11; I John 1:5-7; 2 John 9-11)

Now, let us consider a practical matter. Get yourself a book to use as a journal. A spiral notebook is good for carrying with you and making instant notations and observations. A larger book would be better for use at home with your daily devotions.

Start making notes of random thoughts. Do not limit yourself in form or substance. Make no effort to judge what you write. Give yourself permission to be creative and honest. Even use quotes of others that speak to you. After all, glimmers of light are random and so you should feel free to write about those things which stimulate you.

Hopefully when you later read what you have written you may be surprised to learn that God is beginning to open your mind and you heart to hearing His voice. When you find something you would like to share remember that your shared insights are welcomed for consideration in this publication.

Derrel Emmerson



January 2

You are sitting at your table today having a morning cup of coffee and toast and with your bible open before you. Suddenly you look across the table and see Jesus. When you are over the shock the two of you begin to talk. You say something to Him. He speaks to you. What would he say in response to you? Those questions may be enough for today. Pray before you go any further. Ask him what he would say. Write down the words that come to you as a conversation.



January 3

A Morning with Jesus

The smells of cooking oil still saturate the atmosphere of our dining room. We had fondue for Christmas Dinner so we could enjoy some time about the table with our family. As predicted our grandchildren majored in spearing and cooking the “Little Smokies. “ (Tiny wieners) Happily they gladly left the lamb and beef chunks largely to the adults in our family. But, I digress.

Outside an unusual Georgian snow reflects the bright sun and the room is dazzling with light. In fact, I am almost blinded as I sit for my coffee and open my Bible. I am thinking of the challenge I gave to my readers yesterday to imagine Jesus sitting across the table from them and I ask my question. My question is a simple one because it just happens that my life is not presently complicated. (Perhaps that is good. I should begin with the basics and if I am wary enough concerning the wiles of the devil and twisted human logic I will keep things basic always. However, that is usually too much to ask and I often fall down by making life more complicated than it really is. But, I digress again.)

Oddly I look across the table but cannot see Jesus. He is not there. He won’t come no matter how much I think I want Him to. I try to imagine him but he does not appear. I remember that I have done this before with the same results. Once, I even tried to make it happen with fasting and intense prayer. Thankfully he was merciful and forgave me for my unbelief considered at the time as belief. I make a note. I must let my reader know I am aware I set up an artificial scenario for their writing. Jesus lives in the hearts of his people. His appearances physically are rare and unique. We are wrong to conjure Him up so we can see Him with our eyes. Let Him come as He will come. In the meantime we have full assurance He is with us: within those who believe; among us all and fills those spaces we called voids with His fullest awareness.


“Well, Jesus, how what would you have me do today? “ I sense that fullness in my chest when I am aware He is near. Sometimes I sense nothing but He still manages to break through. I wait. Nothing. “Well, I am sure you hear me, Lord. What would you have me to do today?

“Why do you always have to do something? I am with you wherever you go. Isn’t the immediacy of my presence enough? Go out and see what happens…wherever you are. I am with you.” Then there was silence.

I will reflect on that.




January 4

Now that you are over your shock of seeing (or perhaps not seeing) Jesus across the breakfast table you might settle down think on what you believe he has said to you. What did He say? Did He tell you to do something? Where did He take your thoughts? What stood out in the scriptures which you read today or in the words of some book or conversations you have had? Or, is it enough to realize that this union with Christ is a partnership, tutorship and a friendship. He is expressing Himself in you and through you, in and through others, guiding you to the places where there are answers or insights. Why does this day have to be complicated with you trying to figure out just how you will measure up to some task? Walk it out and He will merge with you on the way the same as He met those disciples on the road to Emmaus.

You are the means by which Christ lives today. You just have to present to Him as He is to you. Go. Be somewhere (anywhere that seems right today) unless you hear Him give you the specific co-ordinates. Wherever you are be sure to recognize when He is working through you, speaking through you and might possibly have something to say to you through the words of another. This is the journey of faith.



January 5


The world teaches us to “push the envelope.” So being the naïve sheep we are we set out on a journey to get out of our “boxes”, to “push the envelope”, to try to be the best, and all the other gnat knit we are goaded into doing. It is no mystery, therefore, that we end up going down some extreme path including addictions, fads, fetishes, fantasies, isms and idiocies.

I know it is important to expose ourselves to new experiences and to never settle for mediocrity. That is well taken. If that is what we mean by ‘pushing the envelope’ I have no quarrel. However, I sense that most people mean something entirely different. They seem to be often looking for thrills, for some reassurance they are alive all the while often missing what is in their present lives yet to be fathomed. They seem to want to drink life to its fullest like guzzlers speeding across a lake of Champagne chugging down their beers. They never seem to notice the effervescent lake on which they are sailing.

Life does not always have to be a thrill, or a novel experience, or something we can boast about when we are gathered with friends. It may just be living in the moment, observing, reflecting, contemplating, worshipping and knowing the thrill of life from the roots up like some rose sucking up water and blooming for blooming sake!

When I read the words of some of our spiritual predecessors, or see the great works of art of other generations, I think they had something we may be missing. They had something or rather discovered something which bloomed out of their planted-ness, their lack of travel and mobility. They seemed to live the ordinary until they could peer into their situations and see the deeper profundities God had hidden there.

Writing these words I remember the following:

Flower in the crannied wall
FLOWER in the crannied wall,
I pluck you out of the crannies;-
Hold you here, root and all, in my hand,
Little flower-but if I could understand
What you are, root and all, and all in all,
I should know what God and man is.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)

To see the word in a grain of sand
and heaven in a wild flower,
hold infinity in the palm of your hand
and eternity in an hour.
William Blake

January 6

Meditation as Worship

The whole notion of contemplation or meditation is scary to many orthodox Christians because they have been warned against passivity, of opening themselves to spirit voices or illusions through their imaginations. That point is certainly well taken because this is often the result of Eastern Mysticism which does encourage this passivity and has often resulted in the belief of idolatry, many gods, the invasion of spirits and even, if not taking an individual in that direction, in the practical disavowment and eventual disintegration of the individual personality. Eastern religions provide a kind of peace that results in a stifling of self, a kind of strangulation or dullness of the senses by mantra or centering on nothingness, and results little in making changes in the personality or in the societies where such religions are prevalent.
I had an eureka moment I came across this comment by C.S. Lewis today which I think well expresses what Christian devotional mystics are like :
“The stillness in which the mystics approach Him is intent and alert – at the opposite pole from sleep or reverie. They are becoming like Him, Silences in the physical world occur in empty places: but the ultimate Peace is silent through very density of life, Saying is swallowed up in being. There is no movement because His action (which is Himself) is timeless. You might, if you wished, call it movement at an infinite speed, which is the same thing as rest, but reached by a different – perhaps a less misleading – way of approach.”

In other words, the Christian should not be timid to enjoy God in silence. Meditation becomes a reflection upon His word and His presence as the soul actively mentally and verbally worships the very one who is ever present and ever available.

Editorial Comment:
What is really encouraging about finding this clarifying quote is that I have been praying about clarification on the differences between eastern mysticism and the Christian tradition. Today, on a convenient impulse I was “led” to pick up the book from which I got the quote today as I went out to the auto shop to get my oil changed. Some may seen it as coincidence but the fact is my whole life has been filled with such timely coincidences so much so that the probabilities are astronomically against this being an isolated situation.


January 7

I am brought back to reflections on the entertainment of Jesus in my private devotions. I sense that when I am alert to Him, he speaks. Knowing the nature of His character becomes my safety from getting off the path. I know what is like His character through the scriptures so that if I find myself being taken down exotic paths, being led to do things contrary to His nature, or hearing over powering voices I am already lost. His spirit is gentle. He woos. He does not force or take over. He respects the creature, namely ourselves, as individuals who are unique and can only journey with Him by following, not being compelled.
Since God is active and present the whole Christian life is personally becoming increasingly a matter of receiving the grace of his presence and counsel and not so much achieving or acting.

January 8
Imagination is the result of worship or being touched by the Spirit and not necessarily as the means of worship as the novice often supposes. To imagine Jesus as present is not to make Him present. He makes Himself present. He comes and we receive His counsel as the Paraclete (helper, counselor or teacher) who leads us into all truth. Thus the whole exercise of seeing Jesus across the table from you, as we began this New Year is misleading. He is the indwelling Spirit. We do not ascend as to some lofty place , or grovel or dig into the silence in order to know Him. He is near us, as the scripture says, even in our mouths. Our very salvation is verified by our confession which is spoken only by the power He gives us through faith.
5 Moses writes this about the righteousness that is by the law: “The person who does these things will live by them.” 6 But the righteousness that is by faith says: “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) 7 “or ‘Who will descend into the deep?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8 But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim: 9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ( Romans 10: 5-9)

January 9
There are two sides to Jesus: the peacemaker and the warrior. He said to His disciples and us numerous times that He came to give us His brand of peace. That means security and prosperity of soul. Such peace comes from aligning ourselves with God’s word, His character and His purpose. When we are so aligned we find that security and prosperity.

Jesus also said I came not to bring peace but a sword:
32 “Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. 33 But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.
34 “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. (Matthew 10)
It is clear from this that there is a place of decision before we can have the true peace which God offers us in Christ. It is possible to walk in a false sense of security. In order to break with that false sense we must make a decision to change our direction, or ways or to separate ourselves from any love which keeps us from finding what we seek even in our false peace. It cannot be found on this side of the “river of life.” It is to be found by walking on the other bank of that river. Without letting God disturb us and severe us from the ever present danger of natural humanity we cannot enter into true prosperity and security. To know when we are in that danger or on the verge of the discovery of His peace we must listen and pay attention to what He says.

January 10

Believers and others often expect God to speak in volumes as a visitation of whole codices. We want things spelled out completely. However, there is one variable, indeed multiple variables, in the affairs of humankind. There is the matter of people making choices that would change the content of what God might speak.
For example, He is not likely to grant to us the full meaning of the universe. If He did we would not understand it anyway because our experiences are limited. The way we have experienced God’s wisdom and guidance has been because our circumstances demand answers. For example, Moses was on a journey through the desert with a myriad mob. He had a need to know how He would lead them. It was at this moment of crisis that set up a situation when Moses had to hear something so that order could be maintained. This is when he got the commandments which in essence went into every area of social life a people would need.

If these insights were already operative in previous cultures or not it is beside the point. God, being the great revealer, has given revelation in every culture that is common to all. Some get it more perfectly than others but essentially how to live is the product of revelation and not abstract logic. As humans, we only learn when we have a need to learn. We cannot cogitate in a vacuum and understand the truth. Therefore, God does not operate in our vacuum. He can only reveal what we have the capacity and need to understand.

If we expect God to speak we need to be ready to understand the truth that comes to us on our journeys. God’s truth is absolute, abstract and circumstantial. However, it is only through the circumstances of our lives that we can perceive the significance of the absolute and abstract will of God. We learn as we grow and grow as we learn. God is the only one that does not change in his ways or character.
We simply cannot live without revelation. Such revelations are associated only with the present moment and become reasonable to us only as we receive them. That is the genius of Jesus saying to us, “follow me” or that the Counselor (Spirit) will lead us into all truth.

January 11

As time goes on, the term “glimmers” seems even better as an apt phrase describing the way God reveals himself. He comes as light strikes the water: here a sparkle, there a sparkle and, depending on where you stand or the movement of the water, he sends His truth forth striking the planes of all the earth to reveal what we can see.
We do not really see light or dark as singular abstractions. I mean if all is dark we would be immersed in it: senseless and lost. If light is all we see we would still be immersed in it: senseless and lost. It is only when light strikes our world that we can see but what we see is what light reveals and that only because of the contrast of dark and light. This is what inspires worship and awe. This is what makes us think we know or see something. Indeed, He is the light that lightens and somewhere, sometime today I can expect Him to show me something. Without Him there would be no knowing.

January 12

I am thinking of home, a term so long used as if we know what is meant by it. We way, “I am going home “or “I want to go home.” Yet, home is illusive.
I call the place I grew up “home. However, it is only my boyhood home. Since my boyhood I have been a dozen places I have called home but which are not now. Home is linked with time but has the tug of incessant wistfulness.

This, I think, can easily be solved. Home is not a place but a state of mind. It is where the heart is, as the saying goes. It is not in the past. Nor, is it necessarily in the present. The longing for home does not go away just because we are with those with whom we like to share life. Being anywhere, with those we love, does not dispel the longing for home. Yet, the tug goes on and will go on as long as our state is tentative, founded on promises and grounded in this world. Home is more than likely part of our innate memory of Eden where things were secure or the pull of heaven which is the state for which we were meant.

January 13


Considering His Beatitude,

In bringing forth my platitude,

My sorry lack of latitude,

Relates to my poor attitude,

And negligence of gratitude.


Bob ( of ) Batters
“God’s Bread man”*

* Editor’s designation for a very intuitively open fellow

January 14

A phrase comes to me from some reading I did a number of years ago. It was a large pamphlet, I believe, called “The Latent Power of the Soul.” The premise was that Adam had powers similar to Christ’s powers on earth. However, sin entered in and destroyed all of that. Since this spoiling of creation and our spirituality we are damaged and function or malfunction spiritually.

When we operate by own devices we are capable of tapping that soul power for all kinds of things: creativity, personal persuasiveness of personality; imagining; feats of strength and genius; and even powers of mind over matter. This explains, said the author, why humans have been able to demonstrate amazing gifts without any reference to spirituality or to God.

The author’s premise of his insight was that the latent power of the soul results in what the Bible calls “the works of the flesh,” the sinful nature (Galatians 5:19), or works of the law within our members. (Romans 7:23) It explains why people with good intentions do the right thing in their own powers and end up with human catastrophe. It explains why so many political, social and humanitarian efforts go awry; such are not in the life and power of the Holy Spirit. (Galatians 5:22-23)

There is no doubt about the power of the spirit of man or of his genius and creativity. However, at least the human spirit is still an imitator of the Spirit of God. Man as a being was created in God’s image and as such bears the image of God, as trademark on a cloned product. God even created man with powers of undisclosed powers and achievement, yet there are limits. Those limits will be established when God knits up the raveled edges of time and creates a new heaven and new earth. The scriptures admonish us, with good reason, to not think too highly of ourselves and to walk humbly with our Creator.



January 15

Regarding New Years Resolutions:

“We don’t need to turn over a new leaf; we need only need to turn over a new life.” Billy Saville, Church School Teacher, Parkway Church, Cumming, GA

January 16

There is nothing that is more a turn off than when we see someone clumsily trying to impress others. We all do it. There is no reason for us not to put our “best face forward.” Hopefully, most of us are aware of the effort and keep it in perspective.
God has given us the way we get the attention of others. We make ourselves visible as did He in Christ. We open ourselves to Him in such a way that we allow Him to makes us givers, encouragers and healers.


January 17

Re: Wrong Use of the Word Awesome
“Pizza is not awesome! “

Bill Ford, Pastor of Parkway Church, Cumming, GA

Awesome should be reserved for God and His works alone. Everything else is a copy, an imitation, perhaps something very interesting.


January 18

11 If you speak, you should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If you serve, you should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen. (I Peter 4:11 NIV)

We may be uncomfortable with expressing those things that are part of our thought life. However, it is clear that the scriptures tell us to speak as the very words of God. It appears there are several presumptions behind this:

1. We should say nothing that is not in alignment with the spirit of the word of God;
2. We should be so informed concerning the word and mind of God that we can with confidence and authority stand by what we speak;
3. That we are confident the Holy Spirit will temper our words as we speak;
4. That we are conscious at all times that words have power to create or destroy;
5. That we have confidence that the Lord speaks through us;
6. That we recognize that in our daily lives and concerning the commonest of things we are to be a spokesman for God;
7. And, that the believer has a different mission, different authority and different source for their thoughts and speech.


January 19

Thoughts on the News

When birds fall from the sky people try to understand how this could be. When fish die in waters they wonder how the death of birds and fish are connected. For everything, they say, there is a cause and effect. If we really believe that why don’t we continue to search for answers when our lives are falling apart, when things that we thought once worked do not work anymore, or why doing things our way does not work? Why don’t people continue to search when they don’t have answers in matters of faith and life? Perhaps it is cowardice, or denial, or a failure to link effect with cause.

January 20

If we understand the law and its practice by well meaning people we would flee from it and find a better way. The law tries to change the heart but cannot touch it. The law enslaves the way a carrel fences in cattle. It may confine activity but it does nothing to quiet the restless masses. Until the beast within is calmed the law only confines, instructs and constrains.
We need the Holy Spirit who brings us the grace of forgiveness, constraint, instruction and power with liberating power.

***

“If chickens knew who Frank Perdue is they would not eat his free food.” Glenn Beck

January 21

I really enjoy the discovery channel and those which give me information and understanding of history, science and anthropological information. Today I heard one of my favorite pop scientists discuss the creation of the universe. He continued by concluding that we are made of the matter of stardust, with which I may agree, to saying, “We are children of a supernova!” Now that is a leap of absurd logic and philosophical rhetoric! It is just too much! If this scientist were also a poet I might give him some license for exaggeration. However, he has declined that privilege by calling himself an astrophysicist. He needs to consider his blind leap of faith and tell us what it means.

It is simply absurd to go from the fact we are made of the same matter which was birthed to the stars to saying we are children of the stars. That is like saying the lesser has spawned or created the greater. It is like saying that the animate was created by something that is inanimate. It is a dismal of the fact that this wondrous, thinking, imaginative, “creative,” creature defined as human was conceived by an interaction (intercourse) of the stars.

January 22

At the turn of the year, New Year’s Eve I believe, we were regaled with news stories of the mysterious flock of birds which presumably fell from the sky and fell to earth dead. Now, every one is trying to get to the bottom of this mystery. The reasons for the phenomenon range from the possibility that the birds were frightened and began to slam into objects which killed them to mysterious diseases or some conspiracy of nefarious men.

This type of phenomenon happens often. Birds have been known to fly into danger often. It is a major problem in the air transport system that birds will fly across runways and swept up into the engines of jet aircraft. Likewise they fill themselves on poisoned grain, or nets in areas where there are vicious parasites and eventually and suddenly die. Are these things are but the symptoms of the cause.

The cause in all cases it would seem to me to rest on a fact of nature. Birds move in flocks. They go where their leaders take them and they blindly move with the flock. It the leaders take them to fields of benevolent plenty or into zones of safety we take their patterns for granted. We know birds move as flocks following as they obey an instinctual pecking order. Birds live or die according to the kind of leadership they follow. The phenomenon is not an aberration. It is not a sign. It is a lesson from nature and perhaps natures God.

January 23

I know I don’t know God well enough. I know I do not even understand His ways. Worse, I don’t even begin to know Him as much as is possible. I don’t need more of Him. I need to abandon myself to Him and receive all He has for me.


January 24

The average pay for a stage hand in one of the New York union is $249,000 per year. One person with seniority and benefits at one theatre made $1,000,000 last year. (2009) This resulted from the extortion of one labor union which held the industry hostage and nearly destroyed several investors and entrepreneurs. Another fact, I learned today, one cannot get into this union or theater group from the outside. One almost has to be born into it or recommended by someone in the union. This is significantly a different scale for the musicians and performers who have trained hard for their positions. It is like the divine right of kings or the inbreeding of royal families. It is an elitism of the common man but it is an elitism which is what the common man used to revolt against.

I have been thinking, hopefully in a godly way, about how people revolt against the concept of the chosen people or of the elect as declared in the bible. Don’t you think it would be better to consider oneself a part of the elect, after getting chosen, than not see the privilege of position after having been granted it? Don’t you think it would be better to be part of an elect where all have equal standing than of one which is arbitrary within its ranks? Don’t you feel that it would be better to be part of an elect which serves a benevolent master than one who rules by extortion?

January 25

If any given words give you life: edify, encourage and make you stronger they are probably the words of God to you and they will likely encourage someone else. If on the other hand they discourage, tear down or weaken they are probably words from another source: the devil or the degenerate aspect of your nature.
3 But he who prophesies speaks edification and exhortation and comfort to men. (I Corinthians 14:3)

January 26

“It has always fascinated me that the promise (of God to Abraham) came before the law (laws of Moses). “ Bill Ford

This suggests to me that the law was given to help in the realization of the promise. In the beginning it is the promises of God upon which we rely. In the end it is the promises of God upon which we rely. All in all Christ is the fulfillment of the promise and declares it so when He said, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.”

Derrel Emmerson

January 27

The Law

The law was to be the school master of our souls. (Character) It teaches us what perfection in life and behavior might look like. However, it also teaches us something else as we try to put it into practice by sheer discipline. It tells us something about ourselves. It tells us we are not capable of living to any measure of perfection. We need help. That is where the Spirit of God enters the stage of our life drama.

January 28

Editor: The following was sent to me by Peggy Andrews, a sister in Christ. Thanks Peggy!

Psychologist seeks treatment for a problem identified by St. Paul. (Read Romans 7:7-21)
Researchers treating religious, moral obsessions
January 2nd, 2011 @ 4:19pm
By Associated Press
LOGAN, Utah (AP) -- A Utah State University psychology professor is studying a treatment for a disorder that causes an obsession with morality and religion.

Michael Twohig, an assistant psychology professor, is focusing the study on people who have excessive immoral thoughts, confessions or religious activity. Their obsession can be debilitating, forcing them to spend hours every day just trying to strictly adhere to their values.

"What we try to do with people is help them see that trying to regulate these thoughts is part of what makes them so out of control and so disturbing." -Michael Twohig

The underlying faith does not play a role, Twohig said. Some of the people who suffer from the disorder, called scrupulosity, don't even attend church regularly.

The treatment being studied at USU involves medication and cognitive-behavior therapy. The goal is to teach patients how to live within their religious and moral code without worrying about every thought.

The study began in April and is ongoing. Treatment lasts 10 weeks. So far, two people have been successfully treated.

"What we try to do with people is help them see that trying to regulate these thoughts is part of what makes them so out of control and so disturbing," Twohig said.

Researchers do not try to change the morals or religious values of a patient, Twohig said.

The disorder can cause people to pray for hours or confess sins they only imagine they committed, said John Dehlin, a doctoral student in psychology who's assisting Twohig.

"(They) have this very severe desire to follow their religion (or moral beliefs) with integrity and exactness," Dehlin said. "Their conscience is kind of heightened."

The researchers are studying a new treatment because current treatments only work about 40 percent of the time, he said.

The most common treatment is to repeatedly confront patients with their obsessions. Many patients suffering from scrupulosity drop out, however, because hearing about sin -- even if it's a sin they only imagine committing -- violates their religious or moral beliefs.

***

Twohig has identified a type of person who is obsessed with the law, the core of religion which breeds perfectionism. Religion does bind. Christ sets us free. There are “religious” Christians who are bound by trying to avoid wrong and to do good things. If they were not Christians they would be bathing incessantly, washing their hands constantly, rearranging the furniture, avoiding side walk cracks (so as not to break their mother’s back) and going to psychologist which some religious ones are doing anyway. Obsessed persons …..????The with obsessed persons who have chosen religion as a hopeful cure. They are usually those who say they are “trying to be a Christian.”

January 28

I have been trying to form some illustration in my mind which will compare eternity or infinity to the reality we can observe and experience. There is no such illustration. We might begin to get our minds around it if we were to say eternity or infinity is like extracting one electron from a single atom and dropping it in one of the oceans and then trying to find it again. Come to think of it we might have to take an infinite amount of time to find that electron again. Hey! This is a bigger problem than putting Humpty Dumpty together again or breathing life into a rock.

January 29

“The bible does not exist merely to answer the question,’What does this mean to me?’ It exists to tell us what it means.’ “ Bill Ford

***

We will be better off when we read the Bible to understand it first than to make life applications based upon the lack of a view of the whole. The isolation of any scripture is dangerous because each piece has a context and every small context has a larger context. When we see that context the Bible will begin to speak to us and its messages will be a great deal more encouraging and sobering than any shibboleth we may get for life today. This approach will bring us a lot closer to the one Who inspired it.

January 30

We find the Life when we say yes to Christ but we find the power of living when we learn to say “no” to all that pulls us away from Him.

January 31

When we think we know something the mystery is taken out of it. However, thank God this is an illusion because our knowledge is an always partial as all knowledge is co-dependent on other bits of knowledge. When we learn one thing new it opens up the need to adjust all else we know.

It is wonder and mystery which causes us to seek answers. Wouldn’t it be a shame to come to a place where there is no mystery? Most probably humans would be reduced once again to the Stone Age where people beat each other’s brains out with rocks when they have exhausted the effort to outclass each other with ideas and competitions.
Thank God the things that really count are clear to the simple because there are many of us. As long as there are those with common sense, a way familiar to many of the simple, the world will go on. When the trumpet is blown the humble, another sub-group to the simple, will be the ones leading the whole pack through the clouds.

February 1

A friend, Dee Woodward, passed this to me recently. It is a quote form a larger piece called “A Wonderful Resolution for the New Year!” After advising us to consider our days as a blank page in a Diary the writer says:

“Have pages on Understanding and tales of overcoming hardships. Fill your story with enthusiasm, adventure, learning and laughter. …Follow your dreams. Work hard. Be kind. Do what you can to make the door open on a day that is filled with inspiration in some way. Remember: Goodness will be rewarded. Smiles will pay you back. Have fun. Find strength. Be truthful. Have faith. Don’t focus on anything you lack. Realize that people are the treasures in life and happiness is the real wealth…”
If I were to make this in a single statement I would say, “Be an encourager and a life bringer.” This is what it means to let your light shine which hopefully is His light shining through you.

February 2

The Gift Remains

Many a family has Christmas gifts which they put out every Christmas, unopened, the same ones as last year, and setting as mute indicators that someone is missing who is expected. Hopefully, the loved one for whom they are meant will return someday and discover that in all the years of their absence they were loved and remembered.
This is the way with God, the Father. All he is, all he has, and all his love is waiting for those who will return, come home and discover what they missed was there all along. Salvation is this way. It is there for the receiving. The fellowship of God is this way. We only appropriate what has always been there. The gifts of God are this way. He waits for us to discover that he withholds no good thing and when we are ready to come to Him we will discover what he has for us.

February 3

" But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. (Matthew 5)

It is dangerous to ever assume that we are blessed because we deserve it. I believe that is the reason for the saying that he “sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. “ If we are blessed, we are blessed. Give thanks to God!

February 4

‘You really shouldn’t say ‘I love you’ unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget.’ Jessica,age 8, Internet
‘Love is what’s in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents
and listen.’ Bobby,age 7, Internet

February 5

6 The wolf will live with the lamb,
the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling together;
and a little child will lead them.
Isaiah 11:6

‘If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate,’ Nikka – age 6, Internet

‘You really shouldn’t say ‘I love you’ unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget.’ Jessica – age 8, Internet

February 6

The following story reveals intuitive sensibility. In such cases the best thing to do is what this child did. Words do not accomplish much when there is pain like this:


A four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife.

Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman’s yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there.

When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said,
‘Nothing, I just helped him cry’ Internet

February 7

In the shadows of a tragedy whenever we question why the bad people didn’t die and the good people did we reveal a dark side of ourselves. We imply we have already made god judgments on who is fit to live. Perhaps this is why Jesus reminded us when he said, “There is none good but the Father.”

February 8

A Friend’s Experience of Joyous Beauty

On awakening and looking outside the Sunday after Christmas, I marveled at the scene in my slightly seedy Urban Renewal neighborhood: Graceful tree branches and unruly bushes were flocked with snow. Everything out of place or ugly had been transformed. The soft, wet snow was still gently falling, creating a surreal, comforting silence. I drove slowly down the streets to carol-sing worship; and when the sun came out later, snow wafting from the trees spangled the blue air. Who needs Jared’s, Kay’s, Sykes-Libby, Borsheim’s, or Tiffany’s? Diamonds were all around and free – not for the acquiring, but for the admiring, and more than enough for everyone… Janna Steed, United Methodist Minister and Author

February 9

The cross of Christ teaches us that submission can be the attribute of the strong.

February10

It is not enough to have a different opinion to avoid being overcome. We must have a true, active and passionately held belief. Our goal is not to survive. It is to transcend.

February11

Editor: The following is a lyrical yet factual interpretation of the Early Church to which I have returned and believe worth sharing. This classic statement would make this wonderful church of Christ, which we call ‘primitive’, the model, if not the only model, of our tradition as Christians.


Preface to the Book of Acts
“The Young Church in Action”
J.B.Phillips

“It is impossible to spend several months in close study of the remarkable short book, conventionally known as the Acts of the Apostles, without being profoundly stirred and to be honest, disturbed. The reader is stirred because he is seeing Christianity, the real thing, in action for the first time in human history. The newborn church, as vulnerable as any human child, having neither money, influence nor power in the ordinary sense, is setting forth joyfully and courageously to win the pagan world for God through Christ. The young Church, like all young creatures, is appealing in its simplicity and single-heartedness. Here we are seeing the Church in its first youth, valiant and unspoiled -- a body of ordinary men and women joined in an unconquerable fellowship never before seen on this earth.

Yet we cannot help feeling disturbed as well as moved, for this surely is the Church as it was meant to be. It is vigorous and flexible, for these are the days before it ever became fat and short of breath through prosperity or muscle-bound by over-organization. These men did not make "acts of faith," they believed, they did not "say their prayers," they really prayed. They did not hold conferences on psychosomatic medicine, they simply healed the sick. But if they were uncomplicated and naive by modern standards we have ruefully to admit that they were open on the God-ward side in a way that is almost unknown today.

No one can read this book without being convinced that there is Someone here at work besides mere human beings. Perhaps because in their very simplicity, perhaps because of their readiness to believe, to obey, to give, to suffer, and if need be to die, the Spirit of God found what surely He must always be seeking - a fellowship of men and women so united in love and faith that He can work in them and through them with the minimum of let or hindrance. Consequently it is a matter of sober historical fact that never before has any small body of ordinary people so moved the world that their enemies could say, with tears of rage in their eyes, that these men "have turned the world upside down"! (Acts 17:6)



February 12

“Mary who gave birth to Christ also called him ‘Her Redeemer.’” Bill Ford, Pastor
Here is an image. See Mary standing in profile. There is the side view of a woman becoming great with child. Her lovely belly bulges out. Inside there is movement. There is a life there sharing her body. No one can tell this woman a miracle is not taking place any more than one can tell any woman growing with child something miraculous is not taking place. There is promise in her and it is becoming a greater reality every day. Soon that promise will emerge full blown so all can see.
This is the way it is with everyone who receives the Spirit of God. A miracle has happened. Promise is being born. There is continual enlargement.

February 13

I am starting the book Slaves by John MacArthur, I want to quote you part of the second page, it is awesome:

As one historian explained about the early martyrs,”They would reply to all questionings about them with the short but comprehensive answer, 'I am a Christian.' Again and again they caused no little perplexity to their judges by the pertinacity which they adhered to this brief profession of faith. The question was repeated, 'Who are you?' And they replied, 'I have already said that I am a Christian; and he who says that has thereby named his country, his family, his profession, and all things else besides." J. Spencer Northcote, Epitaphs of the Catacombs or Christian Inscriptions in Rome during the First Four Centuries.

Following Jesus Christ was the sum of their entire existence. At the moment when life itself was on the line, nothing else mattered besides identifying themselves with Him.

For these faithful believers, the name "Christian" was much more than just a general religious designation. It defined everything about them, including how they viewed both themselves and the world around them....

This world meant nothing to them, other than serving Him in it. They were His. And serving Him was the only thing they lived for. Peggy Andrews, Chantilly, VA

February 14

After reading the biography of John Adams by David McCullough and learning more of Thomas Jefferson’s issues with Adams I have come to take a more sober view of Jefferson. I see him now as the man with historical image but lacking in some substance. Incredibly intelligent, curious, and investigative Jefferson did all the things he did often with little wisdom, at the cost of others and in large degree he rode on the coat tails of others to gain the fame he captured.

Jefferson’s Sally Henning’s affair was sad (unfortunately common) and his vanity drove him to deep debt. He deserves historical note, as this article gives him, but there are others like Adams who also do and probably surpassed him in wisdom, virtue, fidelity, and contribution. Jefferson glittered more and Adams plodded more. I am often convicted, as one who uses form over substance at times, that the plodders like Adams make the gears work. Such persons in our lives should be validated.


February 15

I have been thinking of a book I read years ago called “The God Players” by Earl Jabay. The premise of this book is that everyone in some way tries to play God. The author uncovers those methods exposing the fundamental idolatry of humans who live largely in a “fabricated” reality that does not correspond God’s ways.
I am thinking that the reality in public society seems to be controlled by people who are God players. They love to use the term expert. They are more moral, smarter and more informed than the rest of us who grapple with everyday problems responsibly and very often successfully every day. Such experts have thrown away the notions there is a higher wisdom than their own. They believe they can fix anything and disdain the concept that there are laws which when violated cause social problems. The have determined to use any means, any amount of money and any adjustment of reality to prove their point.

I think of the attitudes of modern experts as often being truly Pharisaical. Both lived according to constructed rules. Both believed they were superior and knew better. Both bring death to their cultures. It is good for us to give attention to the tendencies we have to control circumstances, what others think and just about everything beyond our control. As the saying goes it takes wisdom to know what we can change and what we cannot. And, wisdom is divine.

February 16

A walk through the mall or observation of local drivers let us know vividly that the place known as “here” no longer exists. There is no more here. We are rapidly approaching a time when those who are in a place are not here but “there”...that is, somewhere else via the aid of their cellular phones and other devices. Christians would do well to have small groups which teach people how to be truly present and aware of those within our physical reach. Such groups could advertise themselves as “learning to love groups.”

February 17
“I think that if God forgives us we must forgive ourselves. Otherwise it is almost like setting up ourselves as a higher tribunal than Him.” C.S. Lewis, Letters of C.S. Lewis, 19 April 1951

***

“I really appreciate the notion of transcending. It makes me think of Jesus prayer ‘Father, I pray not that you would take them out of the world, but keep them from the evil one.’ That is transcendence.

In working with people for over 40 years, I have come to realize that most of us are guided by visions and voices. Visions of what we think life should look like and voices with either limiting messages containing "can't" or controlling messages containing "must". The problem for most of us is that the visions and messages do not come from God. Transcendence involves replacing visions and voices from below with those from heaven above. “ Dan Juraschek, Personal Director and Minister


February 18

We will do well to listen to the metaphors used around us. Metaphors and symbols (and humor) are often closer to the truth than the statements people use. In that vein I have always believed much of the Bible, especially the OT, was creating a language of symbols and metaphors. Look at the Tabernacle. How can one understand it without interpreting the symbolic meaning of the various articles, colors, practices, garments, etc.? The Bible tells us that these were “shadows” of the greater reality which is Christ. They speak a truth which is more profound than all of our axioms and theological treatises can ever explain.

***

16Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:

17Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ. Col 2:16-17

***

3For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices: wherefore it is of necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer.
4For if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law:
5Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount. Hebrews 8:3-5

February 19

The reality is that there is nothing more to be done from God’s side. However, there is a great deal to be done from our side. We need to learn who this is who has moved into our psychics and souls. Our relationship with God becomes one of discovery and embracing fully the one we have received. (After all, He is not moving out!)
As we grow, we will find our perceptions changing and where they are not changing Christ will press us to take another consideration of what our relationship means of how rich and how deep and how wide our relationship can be.
God doesn’t need to change at all, as certainly He cannot. However, but we soon learn we have to make some huge adjustments. That means among other things that all our doing should be in response to His Spirit within us. Likewise, all our scriptural study, fasting, praying and worship have nothing to do with changing or moving Him. They are only the ways we stay tuned ourselves to understand His will.

February 20

“God made us; invented us as a man invents and engine. A car is made to run on petrol, and it would not run properly on anything else. Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other. “ C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity.

February 21

God does not promise us a perfect world if we live by His commandments. The Bible is realistic about this. He promises us a new world. In the meantime we see evidence of that world in this one. He promises us the best world we can have in this “mine field” of our present one. He promises to lead us through to the Kingdom (nation) He has prepared for us.

February 22

Perhaps one of the reasons many of us like history so much is that it is finished. It has no predictability issues. We can pour over it with a false sense of security that we have certain omniscience. In truth our notions of the past are no more conclusive than our present.

Knowledge of History is most valuable when it informs our present, provided we are willing to learn. It can fire our faith if we recognize that our Creator has set human societies in motion according to sure and certain laws.

February 23

Trying to build without learning the lessons of the past and correcting the errors is like trying to build on salted ground where no good thing can grow.

February 24

6 “I the LORD do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. 7 Ever since the time of your ancestors you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD Almighty.
God reminds Israel He does not change. Then He continues to say: That is why you have not been destroyed.

I have often heard preachers use the unchangeableness of God to underscore his judgments. That is applicable. However, in this passage the unchangeableness of God is used to underscore His mercies and His love.

God’s mercies and love are, in fact, the essence of His righteousness because He wants nothing less for us than what is truly the best for us. When we live according to His righteousness things go well for us. We enjoy the good life. We share in the order and symmetry of the universe.

Praise God for His unchangeableness. In Him, there will always be a tomorrow. In Him, there is mercy abundant for those who err and repent.

February 25

Do unto others is probably most often viewed as a prescription against reaction. For example, before you retaliate you need to think how you would like to be treated. In truth, Jesus meant this in a far more positive way. For example how many of us have received a gift we did not want? Sometimes such gifts are passed on to someone else. However, do we consider if someone else might want the gift? Or, do we use that person as a way to get rid of something that we don’t want cluttering our lives.

Another way of looking at this maxim of Jesus is to become actively involved in doing all we can to spread abroad the kinds of things we would like to see happen to us.

February 26

The longer I live, the more faith I have in Providence and the less faith in my interpretation of Providence” Jeremiah Day

***

There is no such thing as human wisdom; all is the providence of God” John Adams

***

“Providence has hidden a charm in difficult undertakings which is appreciated only by those who dare to grapple with them” Anne Sophie Swetchine
***
Providence protects children and idiots. I know because I have tested it.” Mark Twain
***
“I think when you view the unlikely story of the birth of this country it shows that providence played a major role in history.

…I think it is also a lesson in the virtue of true diversity - of thought, of perspective, of personality, of intellect, of style, etc - in shaping this country. If we had only a bunch of Washingtons - it would have resulted in failure. The same is true if there were only a bunch of Jeffersons, Madisons, or Adams. The key was that they had real public debate and discourse while we have political maneuvering.

Plodders like myself appreciate plodders but I also know things would be much different if we only had plodders. It is important that guys that thrive in the limelight see the value in the plodders, the analyzers and the principled and seek their wisdom and advice. Unfortunately we see little of this today because the most successful politicians are so narcissistic that they think they have all the bases covered based on their own intellect and greatness.
I read the Franklin biography a few years back - it actually took me about 5 years to finish it. What is very clear from reading these histories is that all these leaders were flawed which gives me hope that I can contribute something as well.” Derek Emmerson, Geneticist (and the editor’s son :<) )

February 27

“If you believe in a God who created how can you not believe in miracles? “ John Burkhalter, Bible Teacher

Knowing how something works does not diminish the mystery or beauty of it. I know generally how watches work but they are still a wonder to me. Even if they have been built with knowledge of math and how gears and levers work they are a wonder. The working and existence of gears and levers in themselves is a wonder. Why do we think knowing some few things about the universe makes God irrelevant?

February 28

‘We live in an interesting age. In my day, we would read the law and based on it, try to adjust our behavior. In this day, we look at our behavior and feel we need to adjust the law.’ Dan Juraschek, Minister of Christ

Making others uncomfortable may sometimes be a virtue howbeit it is not the sociable thing to do. There is a time for discomfort and it is when “fire” encroaches and we have to “empty the theater.”

March 1

I wonder if there is a moderate heaven for those of moderate belief, who have a relative morality and who want to worship God in a modest manner? Is not God energized, righteous and beautiful? It would seem if He is all those things then our social sense of moderation would take a back seat to a life of lavish service to Him.

March 2

The central message of Jesus is that he was sent from God to be received. Everything else falls into place from there. We don’t understand everything before we receive Him. We gain understanding after we have received Him and that clarity dawns upon us like the sun.

March 3

Sooner or later we have to depend upon God. Ahead of everyone there are some mysterious and fearsome places we do not want to walk alone.

***

“Every kite eventually runs out of string.” Tony Sutherland, Minister Through Music

March 4


Here is a quote from Goethe that is from a book I am reading:

"One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words." Dolores Hayward]

***

I am not too sure of Goethe’s world view but this reminds me of a time when I spent three days fasting, praying and reading in hopes of tuning my heart to God. In the process I got hungry, weary and mentally waterlogged. It was on a walk down a country road while throwing a few acorns and observing the sights around me that I actually had the breakthrough. My senses were opened to His presence. Perhaps the efforts were necessary to prepare me but the moment of His visitation was without effort.

March 5

‘When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You just know that your name is safe in their mouth.’ Billy – age 4
‘Love is what makes you smile when you’re tired.’ Terri – age 4

March 6

“Vague is in vogue. If you speak with clarity you are a bigot.” Bill Ford, Pastor

***

We might add that if you seek clarity you are a “klutz.” Can we say he or she is clearly vague or vaguely obvious? Can we postulate that someone is clearly clouded or absolute but neutral? We can in a world where euphemisms are common.

***

And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one. Mathew 5:36-37

March 7

How easy it is to become attached, indifferent and numb. Yet, this is what it means to be lost. To be “saved” is to be connected, aware, caring and involved.

March 8

I hope none of us believe we have discovered all of the laws of the universe or have a full understanding of everything humanity has explored already. If we do believe we know all there is to know we need to check out ourselves on the humility meter as often as we use the bathroom scales. I do not believe miracles defy law. They could represent, in fact, a law which is undiscovered. After all, if we know anything about God it is that he is coherent. At the same time perhaps miracles do represent a law which some are not willing to declare as a law. Let us just call it the Law of Intervention. The creator always has the option, I believe, of interaction with the “machines” he has created.

March 9

There was a day when those who ministered as pastors in our churches were required to have a good theological education. Today there is a general disdain for that among some Christians and churches. What is desired today is a good business education or savvy.

It is true that in the study of Theology, as in the study of anything, one can lose sight of real life issues. However, replacing the old model with businessmen is an equal mistake. The gospel is neither theory nor business. It is simply presenting an informed message of Christ and trusting in the persuasiveness and grace of the Holy Spirit. The hungry heart will respond.

March 10

There are some people who when proven wrong go to great lengths to embrace the new truth. Forgetting their failed prognosis and position of yesteryear they join the new parade following the newest and most popular piper. This is the vanity of having to be a winner even when one is substantively wrong. I heard someone speak of such people with some insightful analysis that put the finger on this condition in this society of “winner” driven compatriots. He said, “Is there any success these people do not own?” What happened to the virtue and posture of humility which opens the way for change and growth?

What did Jesus say? Ah yes, “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth!”

I know we always think of the accumulation of the symbols of “territory” and “territorial symbols” when we hear these words but could they mean more? Can it be that this means also that there is a world of growth, knowledge, understanding and wonderful life experience to be gained by those who are meek?

March 11

We think much of how we grieve for those departed or over some earthly loss. We seldom think of how our loving Father may be grieving over the loss of a single soul or even of this fractured world cursed by sin and cut off from original intent by the great chasm of separation.

***

I have felt the anguish of loss and have learned to contemplate how losses brings me into empathy with God who calls me homeward that both of our sorrows be assuaged.

March 12


“A Christ supplemented is a Christ supplanted.” Bill Ford, pastor

***

We cannot avoid conflicts for long. They are always present. Even as we speak one word there are ten silent voices questioning or opposing our opinions. When there are conflicts everyone has an opportunity to learn, to grow and overcome some nefarious emotion.

***

When people say that ____ and ____ are divisive it is partly true. However, it is also part of a lie. It is like saying guns kill when we all know that it is people who kill. Neither issues nor guns do the killing. People with the will to do good or evil decide the outcome of disagreements.

March 13

We need to remember when we try to characterize things that when the Bible teaches that on judgment day everything will be laid bare in His presence it also includes every euphemism we use.

***

The following was handed to me in church by a friend. We must remember the heart is not the seat of our thinking but a way of speaking of the total embrace of something both intellectually and with trust. The word that defines this embrace is “soul,” I believe. ed

I often say my prayers
but do I really pray
and do the wishes of my heart
go with the words I say?
I might as well bow down
to gods of wood and stone
as offer to the living God
a prayer of words alone.
For prayers without the heart
the Lord will never hear
nor will he to those words attend
whose hearts are not sincere.
Paulline Wonn

March 14

There may come a time again when it is illegal to be a Christian on Government owned soil …that is, if the Christian is considered a symbol of Christ. Perhaps we should consider our words twice before we say we are His hands and feet.

***

It is now a fad to attack Christian symbols. I recommend Christians make themselves a public symbol. They should go everywhere with their arms spread widely…you know, like on the cross embracing the world?

March 15

“Do you not know that I must be in my Father’s House?”
The boy Jesus, the scriptures say, “grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man.” This is an indication of his identification from the beginning with humanity. Yet, there was this divine part, this elemental, substantive, “genetic” link with God. How did it work? Did He know from the beginning where He had come from? Did He have some kind of memory? How is it that he linked the Temple in Jerusalem with His Father in Heaven?

These questions are intriguing but unanswerable. We can only speculate on the evidence. In the scene in the temple we learn that Jesus was compulsively drawn to the temple and the discussions among the teachers of Israel. He was swept up in the event to the point that He either lost all track of time or deliberately vested himself in these discussions believing his parents were somewhere around and would find him. What mattered is that he took advantage of this priceless opportunity. Each of us also needs to pay attention to the still small voice of God and follow the leadings of our hearts.

March 16

Glory

From the Hebrew word Kabod which means “weight,” Fausset, Andrew Robert M.A., D.D., “Definition for ‘Glory’”, Fausset’s bible dictionary, 1878
The weighty importance and shining majesty which accompany God's presence. The basic meaning of the Hebrew word kabod is heavy in weight. Holman Bible Dictionary

I scratch my head.
“Someone told me,
‘glory is not a mystic cloud.’
“Glory,” Bob offered, “is:
weighty, heavy, the original clump.”
I glance at a bust of Plato
flaking chalk dust on the floor.
“Then, glory must be substance;
the densest of all things.
You know, it may be matter
compressed until it explodes
and spreads throughout
whatever we call space.
I know! It is seen in its effects!
It is the iron on the soul
from which we forge
our weapons
or plowshares,
our spaceships
or statues;
all which point
to whatever is beyond the stars.”


March 17

Passion is not necessarily the white heat that melts iron. It is also the steady red burn that drives engines.

March 18

“In Paul’s day the heresy was that Moses had to complete what Christ did. Actually, it was the other way around. Christ had to complete what Moses set forth.” Bill Ford

It is interesting how we can take the grace of Christ which frees us from the law and then turn it around so that the grace is voided and we go right back under the law. Paul called this state of mind a bewitching. (Galatians 3:1) It is as dark as sin.

March 19

We know we are on the right track with God when we approach Him in the same intimate way Jesus did. To Jesus God was Father and Jesus taught us to pray “Our Father who is in the heavens (atmospheres.)” We have singularized the heavens to mean a heaven that is far away but actually the whole prayer means God, as our Father, is very, very, very close. What is closer than the atmosphere in which we live?

March 20

Intimacy with Christ is a comfortable relationship. Instead of talking to ourselves we talk to Him. After all, every one of us talk to ourselves in our thoughts and He is that close. We just might add that when you do talk to Him in public you would be better off doing it softly.

By the way, there are a lot of people who talk to their alter egos in the streets of our cities. The difference between them and Christians is that they argue with their invisible friends while Christians are more amicable. I say this as one who has overheard some of those street conversations.

March 21

It becomes clear when we live long enough that we will actually begin to see that there is a positive, real and visible difference between those people who are people of faith and those who are not. This should be enough to make an unbeliever have second thoughts about the direction and allegiance of their life.

March 22
“Relationships of integrity are never easy. Don’t let conflict scare you. Trouble is essential: Sandpaper for the saints; spiritual spit-and-polish. Your leadership demands conflict. ‘It was clearly fitting that God should in bringing many sons to glory, make the leader who delivers them perfect through sufferings.’ (Hebrews 2:10 NEB) The Christian life is suffering for you and suffering for others too. Don’t be afraid of obedience that causes others pain. Oswald Chambers said, ‘Whenever we step back from identification with God’s interest in others into sympathy with them , the vital connection with God has gone, we have put our sympathy, our consideration for them in the way, and this is a deliberate rebuke to God. It is impossible to intercede vitally unless we are perfectly sure of God, and the greatest dissipater of our relationship to God is personal sympathy.’ Effectiveness with others is first, foremost, and forever the work of prayer. Then your truth-think, produces truth-talk; you speak the truth with love. Sympathy and love can become opposites. We are the salt of the earth, not the sugar.” Howard Butt, The Velvet Covered Brick: Christian Leadership in an Age of Rebellion Harper and Row Publishers, 1973, p. 117

March 23

Many people seem to think God is playing a cosmic game of “I gotcha.” It takes a huge and misguided ego to believe this. God is not in the game of winning. He is a winner. He takes no delight in finding someone in fault, or lost, or mired in some cesspool. The cross proves this thesis. The cross is all about rescue and helping us to become winners, too. He is that distant figure at the end of the road waiting and watching for us to make the first step to return home.

March 24

The basis of our praise of God is that God is gracious: we have experienced that grace; we are grateful for it; and He has performed great deeds even before we knew Him. His graciousness is, after all, not all about us.

***

“I can’t sing but I can’t not sing…there is something that takes a hold of me and I have to.” Bill Ford. Pastor.

March 25

Christians often want to leverage scripture for political and power broker purposes. We must be careful about this. Jesus came on a donkey. Redemption is redemption of the heart of man. Whenever Christians play the power game and get caught up on dominion theologies they become power brokers. Remember that Christians can be every bit as corrupt as those who are brazen enough to overtly use power for personal gain. I suspect that Christians who are tainted by the love of power can easily be the greatest of the deceived. The histories of the nominal Christian churches demonstrate this. Also, remember Jesus chose the path of suffering, commended his disciples to that path and demonstrated through the cross that it is God who establishes the victory and brings the kingdom for which we earnestly long.

March 26

Misguided Call to Worship

The Secret Thoughts of the Elite

O Come let us worship and bow down, let us kneel when it is a reasoned and pre-prescribed rite. Let us worship and sing unto the Lord but let our song be in perfect pitch and have a classical sound and be in a form only professionals may sing. Look to the Lord with visible reverence and never make a noise to Him no matter how joyful. Be still before the Lord and ponder how lovely you look to Him.

March 27
Biblical hope for the Christian is founded on an expectation for a reward already secured by Christ for all who hope in Him. The world version of hope has no promise. It only offers the agony of a search with mixed results and no eternal assurance for the fulfillment of our highest and purest dreams.

March 28

Jesus did not come to give us a little “nip and tuck.” Bill Ford, pastor

***

Joshua Slocum in his narrative Sailing Alone Around the World (1900) gives an account of buying an “antiquated sloop” called The Spray and thinking he would renew it. It ended with him rebuilding the ship and replacing nearly every vital piece with new wood. In effect, the old boat was only good as a pattern, a facsimile of what he ended with and on which he completed his voyage. He said with resignation, ‘The Spray changed her being so gradually that it was hard to say at what point the old dies or the new took birth, and it was no matter.’

When we are able to see ourselves in a true light we would not think we can merely shellac over this well worn veneer of our image. A ship worthy of making a voyage through eternity needs new wood and a new face until it has become a new vessel entirely. It is the only thing that can happen when we understand the quality vessel like the one God intended.

Thank God, he has a plan for making us totally new!

***

Polite is not the “pap” of prophets.

***

Ed. “Pap is “worthless or oversimplified ideas; soft diet; a diet that does not require chewing; advised for those with intestinal disorders …’’ Certainly “polite” is not the “pap” of prophets and we need the prophets to offend us once again until the truth takes fire in our hearts.

March 28

“Our heart does not have a handle on the outside.” Billy Saville, Church School teacher

***

May we be faithful to those things we do understand; faithful still when we don’t understand; and true to walk in what know to be a better way because it was spoken by one who demonstrated its power through His death and resurrection. No one requires we know everything about the universe before we pursue astronomy or everything about the human body before we pursue medicine. Why should we have to know everything to be a follower of Christ? All we have to decide is whether He is trustworthy according to all we know of and from Him. The rest is a journey and just as He described Himself when He said simply, “I am the way….”

March 29

“This is my life verse: ’But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.’ (2 Corinthians 4:7) I say this because of three reasons. First, it was revealed to me to be so. Second, it is entirely true when it is applied to my life. Third, it has relieved me of a great burden to be perfect and shown me that at my best I am but clay and that Jesus is the only value I have.

My life song is, Blessed Assurance because every time I sing it I am reminded why I have a story to tell.” Derrel Emmerson (Just so you are sure who is speaking this one.)

March 30

“Friends, the devil comes as an angel of light. A snake is a good pitchur for evil because both ends look the same.”

March 31

At the time of this writing I have been spending several days, an inordinate amount of time reflecting on the death of someone I have not seen for many years. My relationship to them was a minor footnote but hearing of their death has kicked me into praying for their family, dreaming about them and wondering about their lives.
I puzzle about all of this. Is this what the scriptures mean when they say “your old men will dream dreams?” Am I now, as I grow older, fixated on the fragility of life? Is this phenomenon an effort to tie up some loose ends? Is there some guilt at play there for not having kept up better with that soul now gone? Is God trying to tell me something? Why am I so intrigued by this person’s passing? I believe the answer to all of these questions is not singular. The answer is that all of these questions serve to explain my obsession.

There are seldom single answers for anything in our lives. We would like it that way but as we continue through the fact of living we find that there is interplay of emotions and motives that make it impossible for us to judge ourselves. We must learn what we can in the moment from any personal insight and cast ourselves completely upon our God whose understanding is full and whose mercies are everlasting.

3 I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. 4 My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. 5 Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God. (I Corinthians 4:3-5)

April 1

“Neither we nor the Pharisees of old can depend on our heritage or ancestry for salvation. It is about faith.” Bill Ford, pastor

***

“God has no grandchildren.” David du Plessis

April 2

We live in an interesting age. In my day, we would read the law and based on it, try to adjust our behavior. In this day, we look at our behavior and feel we need to adjust the law. Dan Juraschek, Minister of the Gospel

***

“I sense we are living in a lawless society. We make laws. Plenty of them. However, we do no enforce the ones we have. We have a Federal government which runs on litigation against the states who are trying to enforce the laws of the land. Now states are suing the Federal Government to perform its duties. We have executives who do not perform their constitutional duties. We have legislators who will not take their seat to debate the issues. We have government workers who refuse to work if they cannot get the pay they demand. We have courts which have turned the laws of the land upside down and which cannot agree on the clear language of the constitution.

There are people in such societies as ours who cannot wait for the conditions to get ripe when they can sweep in and attempt to fill the power vacuum. Finally, there are criminals who are increasingly emboldened to commit their crimes once committed under the cover of darkness in broad daylight. When government and society becomes lawless everything is arbitrary and order is greatly threatened.

These are all signs of the conditions in Israel in the 8th century when it was overrun by their enemies; Rome before the Barbarians swept in; Europe when the Islamic hoards swept across the lands of the Mediterranean; and every nation that has been run by oligarchies that foment chaos and finally end in the rule of dictatorships.

What is the good news? We are ripe for a Great Spiritual Awakening! “

April 3

I wonder about crazy stuff. Is someone a perfectionist who gets work done early or is procrastination a sign of perfectionism? The answer is, “Yeah and maybe no!” Come on! Smile a little today. Believe me; wondering about things like that is like being stoned to death with popcorn!”

April 4
God informs our prayers and moves in us to pray. In fact, the scripture says so:
22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies…
26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. (Romans 8: 22-23; 26-27)

How often do you awaken in the morning with a groaning spirit?

April 5

Something I read in A. B. Simpson this A.M., "All of God's gifts are dependent on two things: faith without sight, and grace without works." Bob Batters


April 6

You know the story of the laborers in the field - there is a human tendency to think that because we are given something, somehow we were/are entitled to it - we deserve it. This tendency smothers gratitude and leads to our devaluing the actions of those who love us most. (Including God) It’s the old "expectation overrides gratitude and robs joy" problem. I think that is why we are told to "give thanks". It is not natural and because it is not we are bound more to disappointment than to joy. Dan Juraschek, Bible Teacher

April 7

Tyrants Toy
By de

Nero dribbled spittle
while playing on his fiddle
and the people were spurned
when poor Rome burned.

But people are wise
to see through the guise:
That tyrants always start the fire;
And , that they always play the lyre.

April 8

Christians validate belief only when they reach deep inside and find that part of themselves that says “Amen” to God’s Word. True belief relates to our thoughts but has a corresponding passion. Intellectual belief gives us direction but passion drives our actions. If we have a shortage on anything in our churches it is usually not just Biblical knowledge. The deficiency rests rather on the fact that we do not incorporate our doctrines into our daily thoughts and that passion does not motivate our worship, our studies, our daily morals, or our service.

April 9

G T Chesterton on Hypocrisy
“Really to be a hypocrite must require a horrible strength of character. An ordinary man, such as you or I, generally fails at last because he has not enough energy to be a man. But the hypocrite must have enough energy to be two men.”

***

“…Instead of calling things dogmas when he accepts them as dogmas, he only calls them dogmas when he does not accept them. Other people’s dogmas are dogmas but his dogmas only truths.”

***

“The divine punishment of hypocrisy is fatigue.”

April 10

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

“When Jesus came He was the exact expression of all that God always had been. He was not God updated, God 2.0,– the new nicer, kinder, more user-friendly version. He was the exact representation of God, and He was full of grace and truth. Notice the combination: grace and truth.

Today there is much controversy about grace, and that is sad, for there was never a more charming, more loving, more attractive word. Fighting over grace is like fighting over sunshine: no matter how much you know about it and argue about, you are dead without it. Is sunshine light, or is it heat? Is grace forgiveness or is it empowerment for holiness? What futility!

So here is my premise: grace and truth are forever united in Christ. We can no more walk in real grace without truth than we could walk in the light of the sun without the heat of the sun.

Some teachers and preachers try to make a harsh distinction between grace and law, as though the law (revealed by God to Moses) was a bad thing. But what if the law was actually an expression of God’s grace? What if the law he gave expressed his care and concern for the people who received it? It had to. Can a good God give bad gifts? Could keeping the Law save them or make them righteous? No. But it was still God’s gracious provision for his people. The Law had the effect of setting His people apart, focusing their devotion on God alone, and giving them a way to live safely.

Once we see that God has always been a gracious God, we can better understand how grace and truth perfectly combine in Jesus. And, if we are in Christ, that same combination will characterize our lives. The grace/truth combination will constantly secure us and motivate us. It will change the way we see God, ourselves, and every other person.” Michael Constantine, Missionary

April 11

Love is a feeling in its fullness but it is a decision in its founding.

April 12

Nothing has intrinsic and true value as long as we remain outside of Christ.

***

“Union with Christ has got to result in a transformed life, a transformed heart and a transformed mind. “ Bill Ford, pastor

***

An atomic explosion is a gigantic metaphor when a wild particle escapes the force which holds all things together and follows its own path. Understanding the principle behind this phenomenon should make us hate the song, “I Did it My Way.” It should also make us wonder what Frank Sinatra would sing now.

April 13

It might be said of some Christians and Christian ministers that “He/she has never been prompted by the Holy Spirit to engage an issue they were compelled to confront. Of this there is one thing we can say. It is not Biblical peace. Biblical peace makes for that which will prosper and bless others. It is active and giving. In other words, we must actively engage apostasy and evil as well as “light a candle in the darkness.”

***

The church should never avoid controversy, or be afraid of having schisms. When we try to avoid arguments we only avoid the truth and never have to learn how to love through our differences. The name of this methodology of life is niceness.

April 14

The Bible was written, collected and canonized by collaborative action of prayer men who agreed upon what were the inspired words true to the character of God as He had revealed himself. Even as we think of this we need to remind ourselves that this book is a unique report of how people were encountered by God while they went about such mundane things as living a complacent life in pleasant surroundings, sheep herding, threshing and doing housework. They were not seekers. They were the sought. They were people who merely told what they had almost stumbled over while they went about their business.

This is the Christ we worship, who condescends to those of “low estate” and walks right into our lives when we seek Him not. He presents Himself and says, “Come, receive, open the door of your heart and I will come in.” He never uses force because he does not have to. He uses appeal. When we see Him for who He is we cannot wait to embrace Him and his teachings. Religions that cajole, force submission, demand blind obedience as well as all world systems based on power and domination are the opposite of who Christ is.


April 15


The Temple of Jerusalem

***

Be careful how you say you are giving your mite. If everyone gave their mite as the widow whom Jesus commended did then we would give everything. (Luke 21:1-5) Billy Saville, Church School Teacher

April 16

Slavery is not something of past centuries. It is a world wide phenomenon and exists even in the United States of America. It has many forms; both extreme and subtle. Even as we speak there are people in bondage, perhaps in our city, who are being used and held against their will. There are missing children who are in slave sex rings. There are those who are captured by cults and social activism groups and misguided ideologies. There are individuals being dominated by bullies; others forced to labor for nothing; some being forced to work without a choice. This speaks nothing of how sin, obsession, addiction and ideology have an iron grip on the souls of individuals. These types of slavery cannot be stamped out by an edict. They can only be addressed as issues of the heart. This is where Jesus, the Savior, enters the human cultures.

April 17

I was recently watching a TV program on the world’s most dangerous airports. Without a doubt the terrain in all of these airports push the limits for men and machine. One of those airports is located near Gibraltar. As I listened I heard the commentator say, “It is the location of Gibraltar that makes this airport dangerous.” Somehow the comment strikes me as a peculiar way of commenting on that airport.
To be perfectly clear, is it the location of Gibraltar that makes this airport difficult or the location of the airport that makes it difficult? It is a small thing I know but this statement is like a thousand things people say every day that indicates the problem is not with their judgments but somehow with nature. With that kind of logic we can dismiss all diseases caused by humans, all disasters of nature like bursting dams and all issues of morality. Is it a shame that nature’s God has conspired against us or do we work against nature’s God?

April 18

We should understand. There are some people who are repelled by God. They simply cannot approach Him without some inner loathing. Such people and God are like poles of a magnet which repel each other. The unrepentant want to be God’s themselves and that cannot be.

April 19

“When we merely say that we are bad, the ‘wrath’ of God seems a barbarous doctrine; as soon as we perceive our badness, it appears inevitable, a mere corollary (result) from God’s goodness.” C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain

***

We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2Corinthians 5:20b-21)

April 20

One day as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple courts and proclaiming the good news, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, together with the elders, came up to him. “Tell us by what authority you are doing these things,” they said. “Who gave you this authority?” (Luke 20:1)

The Pharisees tempted Jesus to the very end. It is clear that they had no doubts as they questioned him. They believed he was a guilty imposter from the beginning and the only reason they even questioned him was to trip him up. If they could get one statement from him that would incriminate him then Jesus would could be a candidate for the Roman court of judgment.

The Pharisees understood that their own judgments would not satisfy the general population. The people generally believed Jesus to be an authentic prophet if not the Messiah. That fact alone should have been enough to let the Jewish leaders know that they would not hold the confidence of the population which they dominated. However, because of their arrogance of power, the Jewish leaders conspired to have Jesus arrested. They wanted Him eliminated from the spheres of Jesus’ influence over the population where Jesus had received a glad reception.

There is a real danger for leadership which assumes to have a higher knowledge than those who generally operate on common sense. Common folk are not tainted by ideological presumptions. They make judgments that are often almost childlike but leaders will be wise not to presume that childlike perceptions are naïve. Children sense the cynical jaundice of evil. They are repelled by it and not attracted as were those who flocked to hear Jesus.

What Jesus taught was reachable, winsome and hopeful to those who were being crushed by their leadership of synagogue, temple and Praetorian. His removal would only set the stage for the greatest revolution of all time which began in the human heart and spread throughout all the known earth. In God’s economy “might” does not make “right.” The only redeeming power is in the message of Love which Jesus practiced, preached and established through His death on behalf of a lost world as the mightiest force in human civilization.


April 21

14 When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. 15 And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. 16 For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.”
17 After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, “Take this and divide it among you. 18 For I tell you I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”
19 And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”
20 In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.] 21 But the hand of him who is going to betray me is with mine on the table. 22 The Son of Man will go as it has been decreed. But woe to that man who betrays him!” 23 They began to question among themselves which of them it might be who would do this. (Luke 22:14-23)

A table, bread and the cup are the places where we meet with Christ. The table is the commonplace. The bread is the common food and drink completes the meal. The table is where friends gather. The bread is shared sustenance. The drink is the flow of friendship feasting together on foods which sustain, nourish and transform themselves into our very flesh. What could be better to describe the miracle of being joined with Christ than the miracle of eating? He gives, we receive and we are joined. This is simple yet a living memory that where two or three are gathered in His name He is in the midst of them.

If God does not meet us in the ordinary He does not meet us at all. It is to the ordinary places that He comes; not in sanctuaries built with hands to which we must make pilgrimage but to tables where He comes requiring no long arduous efforts to places superintended over by an elite few. We take bread and invite Him. We drink the cup and grace flows into our bodies as we corporately share of the loaf and the cup. He knits us together in a shared life and that is the point of the table.

April 22

If the cross of Christ reveals anything it reveals how orderly, moral and religious people have a problem of ‘badness’ as much as anyone else in the world. In fact, it is this surface civility, morality and religion that is often used as a mask, contributes to blindness of character or provides a reason for gross evil often against what is really good.

The Pharisees and Sadducees were peaceable, moral and extremely religious. Yet, they hated John the Baptist and Jesus who were the epitome of godly character. They challenged John the Baptist and would have stoned him if it had not been for fear of the people. Furthermore, they could not discern Jesus’ essential godliness. Jesus, therefore, continually pointed out their sins which were whitewashed over by religiosity. In the end, it was these religious guides that demanded the Romans kill Jesus by crucifixion. (They demanded, by the way, a means of death which they taught was barbaric and which they would never have executed themselves.)

If there is anything that does not pass the muster for avoiding the wrath of God it is the arrogance of the presumption of being beyond reproach, better than others in goodness, the arbitrator of righteousness, the judge of all others and the solitary discerner of good and evil. The simple word for these attitudes is arrogance and they are the clothes of a naked emperor.
The cross of Christ first exposes and condemns the self-assumptions of personal justification. And when Jesus is embraced as the lamb sacrificed once and for all for the sins of the world we find absolution forever through Him. He is the prescription for self-righteousness which drives the engines of destruction and pain among human beings. He comes as God to offer forgiveness to carnally motivated libertines and the rigid self-righteous, sometimes pious, moralists. Both need to stand in the shadow of the cross and absorb its judgment that we may ultimately discern its glory.

Everyone would do well to come to the same conclusion as did the priest in the movie Rudy. He said, “There is a God…and I am not Him.” Understanding who Christ is and our condition compared to Him cannot be more succinct.

44 It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, 45 for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. 46 Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last.
47 The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, “Surely this was a righteous man.” 48 When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place, they beat their breasts and went away. 49 But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.

***

If, “All the world's a stage, and all the people players",

Jesus Christ is the grand finale,

And all that's left is to applaud His perfect execution.

Bob Batters


April 23


THE DAY OF SILENCES

On the Christian calendar this was the day of silences. There was silence in the hollow cavern where the body of Jesus lay, battered, bruised, torn and loosely shrouded in hastily gathered grave cloths. Among the disciples there was silence as the few who gathered whispered among themselves and spoke of safety and secrecy. In the streets and among the residential areas of Jerusalem there were muted conversations associated with the reverence of the Passover as people remembered their heritage and history.

In spite of the silences among the city there was not silence in the Temple. It continued to operate as a gigantic slaughter house devoted to the rituals of humanities self atonement. Trumpets continued to blow announcing the change of watches for morning and night. Sheep continued to bleat outside the temple grounds cuing up for their slaughter before the altar of sacrifice.

If all the people had only paused to listen in the silences they might have heard, as God would later shout, that atonement had been completed on Calvary’s hill. Gone were all the useless exercises of self-justification. Gone were the delusions that by harder work, obsessive compulsive life style, and Moralism one could solve the issue of guilt and become righteous. Jesus took care of that on our behalf on the cross. It was finished.

Listen in the silence. Receive. This is God’s word then and now: there is forgiveness of your sins through faith in Christ; you can enjoy a life of favor and blessing in Him; and you have no reason to fear anything because “neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:39)

***

THE SIX TRIALS OF JESUS AND SEVEN


ANNAS
CAIPAS JEWISH
SANHEDRIN

PILATE
HEROD GENTILE
PILATE

GOD’S JUDGMENT WITH THE RESURRECTION: THE FINAL WORD

With thanks to Billy Saville, Bible Teacher


April 24

THE DAY OF RESURRECTION

1 After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. (Matthew 28:1)
Jesus was in the grave, so the women thought. It was after the Sabbath, the last day of the week, the end of the perfect seven governing their lives. That is significant. It was the end of a cycle by which the days are counted. It represented the last day of creation, the old one, when God finished his work and rested. So, as Jesus lay in the grave, they had rested and waited as a farmer rests and waits until the seed sprouts and bursts into a new harvest.
They went to the grave and unknown to them, the planting place. A seed had fallen to the earth and died. Now, they would discover that seed had burst into life as Jesus promised:

“The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. Matthew 12:23-24)

When the women arrived at the grave site they would learn Jesus was not there. He was risen. The seed had sprouted which would set the course for producing many seeds. The seed of God emerged from the earth, miraculously risen, which would change the face of all the earth in a new beginning on the first day of the week of a new creation.

It is difficult for those of us living in this age so greatly affected by the gospel of Christ with His message of the Kingdom of God come to earth to understand the great impact of that good news. Yet, a cursory observation leads any historian to recognize that Christ has impacted history with his message of love.

Barbarism, the dark side of human nature, was not identified until Jesus came. Barbarism was a way of life in ancient times, a time of “tooth and claw”, an “eye for an eye,” the way of vengeance and retaliation. Now, even those who reject the gospel of Christ hold others accountable for their barbarisms.

Even the ignorant and arrogant critics of Christian people hold them and others to the standard which Christians have preached. Thus, the Kingdom of God marches on with its message of hope, of love and of universal human active charity. No philosopher, no religious leader and no pundit has been so successfully persuasive as was Jesus who rose from the grave on the first day of the week, the day of new beginning of a new age of benevolence and hope. The Kingdom of God with the new creation moves on to culmination and the expectation of a new Heaven and a new earth is buried in the rhetoric, the work, the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus, the Christ.

Thus, ended the last day of the old creation and the first day of the march of God’s new creation as the women came to the empty tomb touched by the glory of God.

***

The BORROWED Tomb


It was a borrowed tomb where they laid the Lord,

That dark Good Friday night,

'Cause He gave it back on that Easter morn,

When He rose at dawn's first light.


Now Golgotha's there for all to see,

And Jesus' borrowed tomb,

A monument to the victory of LIFE,

And death's everlasting doom.


Bob Batters



April 25

The following was submitted by Lauren Reichart on March 7, 2011. Her theme, “it is all about Jesus” is very appropriate on the day after Easter. I have made a few editorial minor changes for clarity. ed

Recently I attended a women's conference whose focus was on "Missions". Carrie Hamilton shared of her experience going to Haiti with CMDA last summer. It was awesome! She shared about medical mission’s need for a pharmacist. She told how God informed her husband of that need, who then told his wife/her about the opportunity. She received encouragement from others, like her 5 year old daughter, to go, despite missing her very first dance recital. (There are sacrifices, even for a 5 year old). Then she shared about stepping out in faith and trusting God for certain provisions, like getting a passport in time, stock-piling medications, and raising most of the funds for the trip. Then, fighting back tears, she spoke of seeing God specifically use HER to minister to women and other's there. God did a work in her heart there that is still evident today! Plus, God is still using what He did in her life, on that trip, to influence people today. The effects are longer-lasting than the trip itself and still speaking life until eternity comes wherever it goes.

Later, we had a bible study on the Great Commission verse, Matthew 28: 18-20.
After that there was some discussion on what it means to "go"?
One older woman said that "go", to her, means to influence her family.
My question is that if it meant to influence your family, weren't the disciples, (who had families), already influencing their families? I'm sure they were. So, that is probably not what Jesus meant by "go". Jesus was talking to people who knew Himself. "Go" means to take Jesus to people that don't know Him yet. Tell others about Jesus. I suppose that could be your family, but it's bigger than that. (i.e. Jerusalem, Samaria, and the Ends of the Earth).

One woman said that "go" could mean to go across the street. Another said that "go" may mean that we should always be pushing against those boundaries that keep us from going. Interesting!

Here is what I'm getting at...for those that do "go", at that moment in the conversation, they could very easily have felt puffed up and self-righteous for going. Then there are those that haven't, and most assuredly they felt defensive, and condemned for not going. Here's my point...that neither one is the right response to the "go" command. The ultimate point and motivator will always be what Jesus has done for us! We should be broken over our sin that drove him to the cross for which He suffered greatly. That is what should compel us to "go". Neither self-righteousness, nor condemnations are good motivators for anyone. We are to "go" because of something internal, a drive that comes only from Jesus; a heart of thankfulness to Him and compassion for others.

The focus should never be on our obedience or works, even if we do "go". We still are sinners and no amount of righteousness will make us any better. For those that don't "go", if we are in Christ, we should not feel condemned for not going. Our not going does not make us worse Christians. We were already in need of saving, so not going, is not going to make it worse for us. If we are Christians, having placed our faith in Christ for salvation, then we are completely saved and acceptable in His sight, regardless of whether we go or not.
Does this resonate with anyone? Whenever our focus is on what we do or don't do, the focus is off, because it's on US. The right focus needs to be on Christ and His "going" (leaving heaven/the Father's side) for us. As a wise old unremembered guy in history past, said, "The only thing that we contributed to our salvation was the sin that made it necessary!"

The bottom line is that it's not about what we do or don't do, about our going or not going. It's about Jesus!
Amen.


April 26

Today, in Malaysia where we live, there is renewed emphasis on Paul’s' words in Romans 5: ". . . we will reign in life through Christ Jesus." I wonder if anyone ever asked you, "Did Jesus reign in life?" If he did, what did that look like?" We must answer that to understand what reigning in life means to us. Mike Constantine, Missionary Teacher

***

“Reigning with Christ” is often preached with bravado and we are urged to confess it and possess it. I confess, I need to change more than many, but I need to change more than I need to appear to be something I am not. That is the heart of confession and it is the beginning of every fulfillment for “reigning with Christ. Christ was the truth and lived in the truth.

For us truth begins with recognizing that if we have any treasure in us at all for others to share it is a treasure in earthen vessels. Reigning for Christ was being one with the Father. Reigning for us is being one with Christ and the certainty of that to God is always, by nature, not fully understood by us. That would mean we must settle with the working definition; reigning with Christ is living in and bringing the life of faith, hope and love to the world.

‘Reigning with Christ’ is more than an outward appearance. The disciples of Jesus, even after Pentecost, lived with confidence and demonstrated the power of God. Yet, they were assailed. They often lived in poverty and oppression. They were pressed to share their goods with one another. In the latter writings of the New Testament it is clear that they had to be reminded to persevere, to maintain their hope and to trust in the ultimate judgments of God. Reigning with Christ, therefore, seems to be a state of heart. Under any circumstances the believer can give thanks to Christ with whom they reign in heavenly places. (Ephesians 1:3; l: 20; 2:6)” de

April 27

Comment on Touching God

In the work place, one positive comment is worth more than six criticisms. That is because there are few ways to get something right, and infinite ways of missing it. While I have deep respect for the mystics and ascetic practice, one picture of the beauty of God's handiwork far exceeds the emptiness of self denial. Dan Juraschek, Bible Teacher and Personnel Director

April 28

The Christian’s tradition, and the chief one, is the New Testament Church, not denominations or loyalty to the practices to which we are accustomed. Jesus is astoundingly available to meet people of faith under whatever cover their local church, denomination, or ritual practices provide. Since, Christ is Emmanuel, God who is with us, He may even be found in the noisy, fast, decaying lanes of our city streets.

April 29

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace (making), forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22

Many seem to think that when they have achieved victory in one area of their lives they have arrived at a spiritual height. Notice Galatians did not say the fruits of the Spirit are but it says, “the fruit of the Spirit is…” The fruit of the Spirit comes in a bunch. As grapes on the vine each berry grows in relationship to every other berry. Otherwise, the fruit would be deformed. Life in the Spirit means we cannot not major in forbearance and be short on joy. We cannot major in goodness and be passively good. We cannot be only kind and never confrontational as love requires. Additionally, as we grow in one expression of the virtue of God we gain new insights and understanding which push the goal of being like Christ even further. In all ways, we are dependent upon abiding in Christ to bring forth fruit.

April 30

Richard Lovelace, I believe, called us to "live orthodoxy,” not dead facts. That is what I want. My wife, Diane, said this morning that it seems we live on three levels, all at once: the level of cosmic reality, the level of daily conformity to His desires, and the level of intimate connection with the Father through Christ. All are true, all intertwined or combine, all make up what we are where we are, by the grace of God. Amen. Mike Constantine, Missionary to Malaysia

April 31

A day for random thoughts.....

The Bible says, we overcome Satan partly by not loving our lives unto the death.

And, one of the names for Jesus is, "The Balm of Gilead" .

So, I guess He wants us to be and bunch of suicide balmers !

OUCH! I apologize.
“Bob” Batters, Biblical Humorist and Imaginaire

May 1

Puritans and Fairy Tales
or
A Proposed Proposition for a Christian Doctrinal Thesis

In reading the prayers of the Puritans I come to see that the old fables and stories we learned in our childhood uncovered a landscape of the human soul. The Puritans describe the condition. The fairy tales allude to them with imagery. Both reveal a consciousness of the darkness of the human heart, our fears, our enslavements, our challenges and our aspirations. Back of every Puritan prayer is the awareness that they were dependent upon the cross and that their freedom lay in a substitute (Christ). These prayers are concerned with the same things with which many of the more troublesome fairy tales were concerned. Furthermore, the fairy tales are noted for their “happy endings.”

Take for example the story of Hansel and Gretel. They were lost in a deep forest having been rejected by an evil stepmother and reluctant father who did not have the courage to stand for truth. He betrayed them while believing he could save them by concession. He compromised with the wicked one and agreed to send them into the forest. The children tried to save themselves by dropping bread crumbs but the “birds of the air” came to devour them and cut them off from home. They ended at a gingerbread house that promised to be a sweet refuge only to find it was the house of a wicked near blind witch who held them captive and fattened them so she could devour them. They escaped by presenting the blind witch a substitute “chicken bone” so that she opened the cage to inspect them for their plumpness and they locked her in her own cage and found their way to a new life of safety.

The stepmother seems to represent the supposed nurturing world which is fundamentally against humankind because of selfishness, lust, malice and desire to control. The reluctant father, representing the reliability of others, betrayed them in order to compromise and bring calm in a household of conflict. The children used what they had available to leave a trail of salvation but the minions of the devil came along and intercepted their efforts.

Finally, they found a supposed refuge in what “appeared” to be a haven but was dominated by a devilish witch. That haven (a gingerbread house) looks good but betrays them just as the promises of the world betray us. The children become captive to this household and are locked up in bondage for their efforts. In the end they escape by presenting a representative “bone” of their fingers to confound the evil one by making her think they are starving. This bone is their substitute, bone of their bone and may represent Christ as their substitute. When this substitute delivers them they are able to lock the witch (devil) in the cage which the evil one had prepared for them. Ultimately they find real freedom, become victors and live in safety.

What does all of this mean? It means that deep down in our hearts we are aware of our predicament. We know we cannot fight this vast and real evil in the world and escape without a savior. Jesus, bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, comes as the Lamb of God to release us and give us the new life for which we long.
It is something to think about.

May 2

The Passionate Turtle

I see the turtle as passionate
with steady fire brewing under
that shell of his. He sets out,
plodding his way along,
eye always fixed on the goal ahead,
unrelenting,
planting one foot in front of the other,
tucking his head when danger interposes
and never,
never,
never
forgetting the other side of the road.
Ed. Note: I owe thanks to Kathy Mossberg for the lovely whimsical title of this poem in response to a comment we made in this publication that passion is sometimes “the steady red burn that drives engines.”

May 3

OSAMA BIN LADEN IS DEAD. According to our press he was killed on May 1, 2011, his death is confirmed and he was buried at sea in a clever move to keep people from going to his grave and worshipping him as a martyr, as if that will stop fanaticism.
Today, as I write, they are gathered in Times Square to remember those who died in the Twin Towers due to a plot conceived by Bin Laden. They are there to weep, to celebrate, to rejoice and to remember. One commentator said this is the “place where the lives of three thousand families were drastically affected.” Not so. Every family that touched one of those three thousand was affected. That number of families can be easily doubled for every individual and probably tripled to say nothing of the ripple effect throughout their communities and nation. It also does not address all those families affected by the war which Osama Bin Laden precipitated. We should never forget this.

Justice is not served, really. This is not a solution, really. This does not end the pain, really. Bin Laden’s death only reminds us faintly that there is a bad end to bad deeds and people who set out to harm others. Ben Laden’s judgment is in a higher court and if we don’t believe that this day is not a day to celebrate. It does not erase the pain. It does not measure up to being really instructive to the enemies of the human race outside an evil radical belief system. Bin Laden’s death ends nothing. It only gives a brief moment of relief in an otherwise long battle against evil which is often so real it is palpable even in our communities.
What is amazing is this. Considering how far reaching a single act of evil is, the human race goes on building, hoping, and dreaming good dreams. I can only answer how this can be with one word. It is Providence. Evil is potent but the good is even more powerful.

May 4

I have heard people admit that they are bad-tempered or that they cannot keep their heads abut girls or drink, or even that they are cowards. I do not think I have ever heard anyone who was not a Christian accuse himself of this vice. At the same time I have very seldom met anyone, who was not a Christian, who showed the slightest mercy to it in others. There is no fault which make a man more unpopular, and no fault which we are more unconscious of in ourselves. And the more we have it ourselves, the more we dislike it in others.

The vice I am talking of is Pride or Self-Conceit: and the virtue opposite to it, in Christian morals, is called Humility. …it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice; it is the complete anti-God state of mind. Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis.

May 5

ed: The following thought was contributed after a reader read our comment on GLORY on March 16.
That definition of, “Glory” is tremendous. The word, “Weight” is so expressive.

If I understand this correctly, that when a star nova’s, this huge mass the size of our sun could implode and end up the size of a softball. The resulting weight of the new mass, although smaller is immense, and the resulting vacuum sucks everything into the black hole, (a vacuum within a vacuum if you will).

Now if you take God, who fills all in all, and you shrink Him down smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller until He fits into a man, now that’s what I call a

Super Nova.

Maybe that’s why we call Him, “Jesus Christ, Super Star”.
And He says, “If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto men unto Me”
Bob Batters

May 6

A cartoonist is a “pencilist” or penman with a paint, ink or crayon box. They see the world in large, comprehensive, and round ways much as the prophets, poets, comedians and commentators. As such the cartoonist is a “generalist” who sees the reality behind life including truth, humor and absurdities. The writer of maxims is a cartoonist in words, who knows what ways guide the social, and often moral, universe.

May 7

If you Need an Artistic Title
My Favorite: Jonah at Nineveh
Because he was:
A pompous crustacean where death had reigned; a cold fish; a hard-shelled curmudgeon; or a colorful shell that was empty of compassion.
Personally, I don’t need a affected artistic title. This is just the shell of a lobster tail lying in some dried flowers on my back porch. I just think this is appealing. It was good eating, too.

By the way, this playful titling reminds me of college days when some modern artist displayed their art work rendered in wood. The pieces were abstract with pompous titles. One day I passed the display and wag had placed a wooden coat hanger among the displays. Underneath was a hand inscribed card that titled the piece, “Hanging Around.”
Smile a little today.
:<)

May 8

The newly created or born again Christian is not necessarily a disciple. A disciple is a follower and, may we say, a devoted follower. If we are not disciples of Christ our claim to rebirth is empty: misinformed; a sham; a matter of treating God like a ticket master. That is an insult to Him and a denial of the incarnation and atonement. To be His disciple is to take his teachings seriously and put them into action which requires a real death to self will. We may feel one thing and still be obedient to Christ because our love and respect of Him takes precedence over all our desire to do otherwise. Is this sincere? You bet it is! It is letting our sincere love of Christ rule over our conflicted selves. That is the only way to wholeness.
There is one more thing we should keep in mind as a disciple follower of Christ. A follower does not have to think of all the things Christ requires. He or she must only consider the next step.


May 9


“The Age of Reason was in some ways the age of innocence. It had more illusions than the ages of faith.” G.K. Chesterton

May we add, the illusions of human reasoning continue. When people believe in the essential intrinsic goodness of human nature, they will always create illusions. We must see that we are flawed and cannot be patched or mended. We need a great physician who does not mend but creates a new, focused and motivated heart for activated benevolence. Such a physician is, thankfully, willing to enter and to heal.


May 10

The following was handed to me in church by someone. I am sorry to say I forget who did so. However, let us appreciate the sentiments and many thanks dear sister. (I do remember it was a sister in Christ, I hope!) ed

Often I say my prayers
but do I really pray,
and do the wishes of my heart
go with the words I say?
I might as well bow down
to gods of wood and stone
as offer to the living God
a prayer of words alone.
For prayers without the heart
the Lord will never hear
nor will He to those words attend
whose hearts are not sincere.
Pauline Wonn

May 11

To say people often have life changes in near disaster is akin to saying the sea lulls us into a state of euphoria and restfulness. It is a given that God can only get our attention when we are ready and it can happen on a sunny day or in the midst of a Tsunami.

May 12

We probably do not recognize it enough but the people to whom we relate and love are more companions to us in our minds, hearts and imaginations than in ‘real time.’ Our thoughts, affections and images of them are what make the ‘real time’ good.
This means, living or dead, they are always a part of us. In ‘real time’ they travel with us in the in the same compartments as on a train. At all other times they travel with us as passengers who are in another car in the same train. We are linked in time and eternity. Living or dead, our loved ones are either travelling with us in the day car or the sleeping car. We are both encompassed by God who is eternal and will end at the stations where we speak the language and love the customs.


May 13

‘And His disciples came to Him and said, “Explain to us the
parable of the tares of the field.” And He said, “The one who
sows the good seed is the Son of Man, and the field is the world,
and as for the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom;
and the tares are the sons of the evil one; and the enemy who
sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age;
and the reapers are angels. So just as the tares are gathered up
and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age.
The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather
out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit
lawlessness, and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that
place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. THEN THE
RIGHTEOUS WILL SHINE FORTH AS THE SUN in the
kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.”’
Matthew 13:36b-43

Don’t be fooled with doctrines. There is a hell!
Jesus tells us what is going to happen at the end of this age.

Read God’s Word daily. Let it sink into your spirit.
If you hear a sermon, don’t just accept what you hear.
Go to God’s Word and make sure it lines up with Scripture.

Too many churches today try to ‘tickle’ your ears.
The only way to discern truth – is to know the truth.

Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life;
No one comes to the Father but through Me.”
John 14:6

Study to show yourself approved!

This is from a devout Catholic friend of Kathy and Rich Mossburg. Both heaven and hell are insights into divine justice. Mercy is never excluded. It, however, must be received and being in the position of receiving is an attribute of humility which is a prevailing attitude of those who have understood and responded to the wondrous magnificence of God’s love. Ed


11 One thing God has spoken,
two things I have heard:
“Power belongs to you, God,
12 and with you, Lord, is unfailing love”;
and, “You reward everyone
according to what they have done.”
Psalm 62:11-12


May 14

Passion: a deep, intense, abiding desire to see that the Father’s will is accomplished. It is Deep, because true passion does not rest on the surface to be washed away by the next wave. It is Intense, because when the object is God there is always intensity, though not always emotion. It is Abiding, for this passion comes from the Life that Abides in us. Mike Constantine, Teaching Missionary to Malaysia (Italics are mine. de)


May 15

C.S. Lewis says we cannot arrive at any fact by reason alone. Reason will ultimately tell us, he says, to “go and look!” In other words reason always points us to experience before we believe anything. He relates this to the phrase “O, taste and see that the Lord is good.” We might add that when we speak of the God of Abraham and Jacob, whose faith Paul alluded to in Romans, we speak of the living God whom they encountered, not conjectured about. The Christian always appreciates that this is always the true orthodoxy and not the orthodoxy merely of creedal reiteration. God’s children are authentic intimates not a rabble bearing credentials.

May 16

Light
I light a lamp but not to see by.
I light it to bring shadows to the fore,
to give a contrast to an otherwise dull scene,
to bring a glow,
to reduce my fears of predators lurking
under some table or hiding in some closet.
The moment things are exposed
I need a light that blinds the beast
and grants me fire in my hand
the way truth lightens the way
to the Golden city and
the land with no night.

Written with thanks to Abraham Moses Jesus Edison and other prophets who saw possibilities in the globe. :<) or TIC

May 17

I visited the Colorado Springs Center for the investigation of the Shroud of Turin last fall. It was clear that some very devout people are motivated to get beneath the threads scientifically. However, they presented a very good case for the Shroud’s authenticity from a scientific point of view. There were no dyes used in the image. There is no surface pigment. The carbon 14 test was done on a corner which was later found to have been a repair weave discovered later. There are pollens on the shroud found only in the Palestine area. There is a history of the shroud linking it to a more authenticated early face cloth, nearly identical to the image on the whole shroud and the weave is similar to other materials of Jesus’ historical era. Finally, the shroud can be tied ritually to early practices of the church at celebration of the Lord’s Supper. There is some speculation that the image on the shroud, which is a 14 foot (folded over back and front) negative, and was imposed there by the burst of light at the resurrection of Christ.

What does this mean for my faith? Very little. I believe the testimony of hundreds of people who saw the resurrected Christ, were changed by that seeing and who were radicalized from cowards to energized and changed martyrs. Faith in relics is tenuous. Faith in the life giving power of Christ has gone on from generation to generation and has made all the difference in the welfare of man.

May 18

People will tell you that theories don’t matter and that logic and philosophy aren’t practical. Don’t you believe them. Reason is from God, and when things are unreasonable there is something the matter. Father Brown, “The Red Moon of Meru” by G.K. Chesterton

May 19
God met Moses on Mt. Sinai to encourage him in the huge task set before him.

God was in the Spirit, and Moses was in the flesh.

Moses met Jesus on the Mt. of Transfiguration to encourage Him in the huge task set before Him.

Moses was in the spirit, and God was in the flesh.

They were friends.
Bob Batters

May 20

The “white Knight”, who plays the savior, is capable of being manipulated by anyone who has a need. There are many who have fallen from grace by this perverse symbiotic relationship.

May 21

Experiencing Jonah

Whose lair is this? It is not mine.
I would not choose this pit
and flail at those who
brought me here.
I am tired of the slimy slides
and the bat black voids
through which I am pushed head first.
I was dragged into this hell kicking
and screaming and lie here now lantern-less,
sucking the humid back draft of my own breath
and feel the cold draft of death coming from the path ahead.
I long to be birthed, even to pass out of the Leviathan on fetid bile
or to pass in whatever tangle of mass required to drop into a bright blue world.

May 22

We are often content to let things go by and say ‘it is over my head.” Some things are. Those are the ones over which we should not unduly fret. There is much, however, that should lodge in our hearts and be the subject of prayer for understanding or at least find a resting place with the doves under the eaves of our hearts. This would include answering the question seriously of “how shall we now live?”

May 23

The statement that one should “forgive and forget” has certain logic. The only thing it can reasonably mean is that we should forgive and continue acting in a loving way to our enemies. However, the ability of forgetting is the property of God who does not need in any way to learn from the lessons of life. We who are human should forgive. We should love. We should never forget.

Remembering the places where we were betrayed, where we failed, where someone else caused injury or damage is an aspect of discernment. We remember precisely so that we ourselves will not unknowingly repeat the same mistakes. We remember the pain of sins against us precisely so that we can count the cost and be confronted by truth and possibility in future dealings with fickle human beings. At all times, remembering or not, we should always be the agents of love. If you are going to pick up a hot item you should know it is hot first.

May 24

The cooking channel features people who droll over refined and delightful delicacies. They wax eloquent on the nuances of various delectable dishes. Philosophically children of the Epicureans, they are essentially hedonists with style. They don’t anyone to think of them as so, but they are the same as the common folk who feast on alligator and ribs. Only the epicureans wear Gucci and Calvin Klein instead of tank tops, flip-flops and Levis. This proves there are common concepts behind everything we do and that we are all bound together under the skin.

“Moderns do not have the moral courage, as a rule, to avow the sincere spiritual bias behind their fads; they become insincere even about their sincerity.” G.K. Chesterton, December 27, 1919, The London Times

May 25

I struggled for years with what I considered irreconcilable opposites: strength and gentleness; confidence and meekness; and pride and humility. Then, at last, I came to see them as necessary opposites of what we call real virtues. For examples: the truly gentle person is strong; the only person who can step down from a loftier place is a confident person; and the only humility we know comes from having seen the ugliness of our pride.

One might even say that if someone is born gentle they must learn to be strong or their ‘gentleness’ will only be weakness and cowardly. If one has a ‘natural humility’, pride hovers near in a vicious form because no one is more dangerous than a ‘humble ‘person who is encouraged by the praise of others that he/she is humble. Likewise, a meek person is teachable and in learning he/she becomes over confident. These conditions are knee benders and descriptive of the human dilemma of being virtuous without a guide like the Holy Spirit who must constantly tinker with our moral and spiritual gyros.

May 26

Forgiveness is given with an open heart, without condition, or it is not given at all.
Forgiveness is received with an open heart with the condition of repentance or it is not received at all.
Forgiving is not a pardon; only God can do that. Forgiving is clearing the channels of grace so that the one forgiven and the one forgiving can receive the maximum of God’s grace.

May 27

15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”
18 The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” Genesis 2:15-18

In the desert of the Sinai there is a mountain purporting to be the one from which Moses witness the battle between Israel and one group of their enemies. On this mount he was supposed to hold up his arms. As long as his arms were in the air Israel prevailed. Aaron and Hur held up his arms when he grew tired. Therefore, the victory was won.

Years later that site became the residence of Christian hermits who committed themselves to prayer and mystical experiences. That mountain is littered with holes that were once their shelters. They sought in solitude that which could not be found without community around them. Their visions and dreams were sometimes bizarre to say nothing of their own personal presences.

We may all think from time to time it would be good to get away from people and everything. However, there are down sides to that. The greatest is that we were not meant to be alone. We are made for relationships and the impulse to run from human contact is going in the wrong direction. The desert hermits of the early centuries of the church found that out. This is why they began to form communities, convents and monasteries.

Into the Wilderness

“Without people I am only surviving. This is not living. Later, as tears ran down his face he said, “I would really like to talk to someone I love before I do something that is dangerous. “ Still later, when he was recued he went from crying incessantly to laughing incessantly saying in conclusion, “I get to go home now.” Quotes of Ed Wartle, Wilderness Explorer

May 28

You may not know it but a notable Radio Commentator named Harold Campy, who is also known as “The Bible Man,” made a prediction that judgment day would come on May 21, 2011. Campy has a fall back position for sometime in the autumn but I forget what that time is. You might be interested in reading what one pastor, Dan Wolfe, wrote to former parishioners. It is good counsel, so I send it in its entirety to you for your reflection. D. Emmerson

Brothers and Sisters:

Greetings and love once again to each of you. I am trusting and praying that you are doing well and walking strongly after Christ and His ways. I am thankful more and more for Jesus and His word to us. In a day of extremes, we have a sure word and a faithful Savior and Lord.

I have often meditated recently on how many times Jesus tells his listeners, "Haven't you read what is written," or "Remember what is written," or to the devil himself, "It is written." Jesus had great confidence in the revelation of God's word that pointed directly to Him.

This has been an interesting past week, when once again, Harold Camping predicted the end of the world as we know it. There was a lot of talk and mocking that went out. There were even many people who believed it, and others who were fearful. There were all kinds of reactions.

It is very sad that Mr. Camping deceived so many people because of Biblical illiteracy. Jesus Himself said that "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father" (Matthew 24:36). I remember having to calm down an irate person in 1994 when Mr. Camping made his first prediction. That person left the church because I warned everyone not to be shaken by his prophecy; that it would not take place. No one knows except our Heavenly Father.

However, I began to think and pray about the other side of the issue. That issue being the coming of the Lord and how we as believers should view it. The truth is, the Lord is coming one day. This is a word that should be taught and preached. Jesus taught us this and so did the early apostles. In fact, you can make a case that the New Testament people were all looking for the imminent return of the Lord. There was something in Jesus' words that challenged everyone. Those who saw Jesus going up into heaven were spoken to by the angel who said He would come back in the same way. Jesus said His return would be like "a thief in the night." Many people will be surprised. Jesus said to "watch and pray," so that we will not be caught unprepared (Parable of the Ten Virgins). I believe that we can very lax about this clear word.

Peter says in the last days that mockers will come and laugh and scorn the word about the Lord's coming. "Where is this coming he promised? ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation (2 Peter 3:4). So, even believers can lose heart. Peter answers this argument in two ways. First, the creation hasn't always been stable; it was totally destroyed in the days of the flood. His second answer is that God's time is different than ours. A thousand years might seem like one day to Him because He is in the eternal realm.

He tells us that history one day will be consummated and judgment will come. Many centuries passed from the time of the predictions of Jesus' first coming until He appeared. The first prediction is found in Genesis 3. This was a long time ago.

But then he goes on to give us what I believe is a strong admonition for how we focus our lives in the light of the coming of the Lord. He says: "Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of the Lord and speed its coming (2 Peter 3:11-12).

When believers think about Jesus' coming; when they pray for it; when they talk about it, there is a motivation that works in us, a deep desire to be ready.

This was the Lord's word to us. He decried complacency. He urged watchfulness. John says in his letter, "But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure" (1 John 3:2-3) (Italics mine). This great hope that we have makes us want to be set aside for the Lord's purposes and glory. It challenges us to live a pure life. It focuses us on eternal perspectives. Professor Moffatt (Scottish Theologian of a past generation) said it like this: "It is impossible to give up the hope of the advent without ethical deterioration."

However, I know even as I admonish us to keep this focus, that there are many in the church at large, who focus only on the second coming and keep looking at every set of circumstances around us to tell us it will soon be over. I believe those folks can get extreme and lose their focus on laboring for Christ now. The best way is to keep one eye on our great hope of His coming and the other on the practical labors of occupying and serving Christ until He comes. We shouldn't lose our balance and be extreme. But neither should we neglect this great truth because of the strange deceptions that circle around it.

May we heed Jesus' clear warnings and keep ourselves ready with holy living, as we occupy and seek to extend His kingdom while awaiting that great day. It is surely closer after 2,000 years, but we leave that day and hour in His hands alone.

Your brother in the Gospel,

Dan


May 29

In the movie Dominick and Eugene a main character, Dominick, is mentally challenged but has a huge heart. He worked as a garbage man and helped put his brother through medical school. One day his dog is struck by a car and killed. Grieving he goes to church and kneels before a crucifix of the Christ. As he leaves, being comforted by a priest, Dominick says of the crucifix, “If I were God I wouldn’t let that happen to my boy.”

In one comment Dominick gets the gravity of the cross. While he did not understand the redemptive aspects of the cross, he did understand the cost. When we look at the cross we need to understand both the gravity and the meaning of the sacrifice which flows from the cross to us. That is what “amazing grace” is all about. It costs God to offer redemptive love to the world and it costs us to keep that message going forth.

19 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, 20 and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.
21 And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled 22 in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight— 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.

24 I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church, 25 of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, 26 the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. 27 To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28 Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. 29 To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily.

May 30

Cave Painters
We paint on the walls of our caves
to bring life in this dark place
while the thunder of hooves
drives the wild inside to be tamed.
De

May 31

One makes a serious mistake approaching life with reason, logic or abstraction alone. In reality we experience things first and use logic to make abstractions later.
Only that which is proven by human experience is worthy of considering as a guiding principle. That is why we should look back to history instead of forward into the abyss of human conjecture and idealization.