Practice what we preach

It was a time when I thought I was at the foot of the Cross. I slipped up and didn't practice what I preach. I apologized to the person and asked God for His forgiveness.

I was helping an elderly friend with his broken down car. The folks fixing his car were working on it for two weeks. My friend is hearing impaired, so I took him over to the car repair place several times to communicate with the fixers as to what was being fixed and when it would be ready. Finally they said the car was ready and my friend asked me to drive him to pick it up.

When we got there, I got into a discussion with the manager about the work done and their warranties.  Thinking I was helping my friend, I allowed myself to turn things into an argument. To make a long story short, I blew my top and talked very loud and condemning to the manager.

Before leaving, I did however; shake the manager's hand and apologized for getting so upset. I used my anger to handle the problem instead of God's peace and love. I repented and returned to the Lord.

In Matthew 23:1-5 we are reminded: Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples,  saying: “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat.  Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do. For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. But all their works they do to be seen by men.”

Even when we seek to include the Lord in all things, we can be diverted by what the natural world would suggest we do.  That includes straightening people out when we think they are working against us or someone we love. We forget the old idiom, “You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.”  It is easier to persuade people using polite arguments than it is being confrontational.

In Romans 2:21-22 St. Paul tells us, “You, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal? ²² You who say, “Do not commit adultery,” do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?”  We must be careful in our ministry to others, and not suggest something in life for others to practice if we don’t practice it ourselves. 

The only perfect man that has ever lived, Jesus, has become the Christ, and has gone to His Father.  He taught us so much while He dwelt among us, but he knows that we are not capable of perfection.  We will sin no matter how hard we try to avoid sin. His command to us is to repent and return to the Lord.

When we seek the Lord our God in all things we will be the first to know when we sin.  We will be our biggest critic while God is so forgiving of us. In my angry moment I described above, I knew immediately I had stepped over God’s line in my behavior.  I became depressed and concerned. When I turned from worry and depression to repentance, I felt God’s forgiveness and I was reconciled to Him.

I knew that in order to continue to serve the Lord, I had to take His forgiveness, forgive myself and the fellow I had become angry with. It is so easy for us to jump to conclusions quickly in our world. One of the ways this can occur is to become too wrapped up with all the local, national and world news that we contact each day. So many opinions about so many things make it difficult for us to truly understand what is going on around us. It can overflow and put us in a critical bent about all of life.

In Matthew 6:33 we are reminded, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”     Pray for me a sinner.

Good and Evil: Where is the line?

Good and Evil are sometimes so close that we have a hard time knowing what to do in life. We can only seek and trust God to show us the way to go. A close friend's daughter is a missionary to the African country of Senegal. She is presently  home for two months on vacation before returning to Senegal. She is sharing her experiences with several church groups while she is home.

Obviously, she is exposed to many things she does not see in America. On her blog she tells about seeing little children with bowls or containers all around the markets and other public places begging. The containers are used to hold the money they beg for on behalf of Islamic leaders and teachers to whom their parents have given them away to.

The leaders exist on the money collected by the children. If a child comes back to them with no money, they are severely beaten and not fed. My friend's daughter chooses to give money to each child that asks. Her goodness overcomes the evil, as the children will be saved from beatings and starvation.

So it is in our lives in this World. We are constantly challenged on how to react to things around us. We are in conflict to judge or not to judge, complain or not complain, help or not help, forgive or not forgive, sin or not sin, give or not give. This human predicament is only resolved through a close relationship with God in our daily living. He will guide us if we allow him to do so. This is our ultimate choice: to trust Him or not trust Him. 

Albert Einstein was one of the smartest people on Earth in his time. I never thought that he would’ve been a believer in a creator God. I read some of his quotes recently that changed my opinion of him. In regard to good and evil Einstein said, “God did not create evil. Just as darkness is the absence of light, evil is the absence of God.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. put it this way, “I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.”  Reverend King’s thoughts give us hope in this world. Good will prevail. Evil may do damage, but good will triumph.

God did not want a bunch of robots as His children. He gave us ‘free will’ so that we might choose to love Him as He loves us. You might say He put the ball in our court.  If we were created robots, it couldn’t be said that we have a choice in things and we would basically be perfect without knowing it. It is in our Godly dealing with temptation that we become true children of God in this world.

There is a danger for us in this world when we don’t always recognize evil for what it is. Joyce Carol Oates describes it in this way, “And this is the forbidden truth, the unspeakable taboo - that evil is not always repellent but frequently attractive; that it has the power to make of us not simply victims, as nature and accident do, but active accomplices.”

Another take on good and evil by Kahlil Gibran in The Prophet states, “And one of the elders of the city, said, speak to us of good and evil.
And he answered : You are good in countless ways , and you are not evil when you are not good .”

Putting Shakespeare’s words in contemporary language he tells us, “Inside the little rind of this weak flower, there is both poison and powerful medicine. If you smell it, you feel good all over your body. But if you taste it, you die. There are two opposite elements in everything, in men as well as in herbs—good and evil. When evil is dominant, death soon kills the body like cancer.”

God’s warning to Adam and Eve in Genesis 2:17 was ignored by them, “The Dead Fall Of ManSin, Effects OfDecaySuffering, Nature OfGarden Of Eden, TheLife, HumanRestored In Jesus Christ.Sin, God's Judgment OnWicked. Punishment Of Perfection, Humanbut of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” And that’s what we’ve been dealing with from that time. Good luck.

His Spirit is Everywhere

St. Paul reminds us in Romans 6:14, "For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace."   It's so easy to let the world distract us from what we should be focusing on. When this happens we lose the opportunities for God's Grace.

We should have a sense of urgency about getting right with God and not think there is always time to fix things and make us right.  We should not feel that we can ultimately control things on our own. Sometimes we think that God is such a great Father that He'll put up with us for awhile and give us some time to get it right.

We should not underestimate our worth to God in this life for we are important to Him. We should act like this is our last day in this life and not put off seeking God. And how do we get God more into our daily lives? We must surrender to Him in all things; then wait and watch for His leadership in our lives through His Grace.

In Acts 19:1-7, we follow Paul on a journey to Ephesus. There he found some disciples and he said to them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?" They said, "No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit".

As the conversation went on, the disciples said that they had been baptized by John. Paul explained that John had baptized them into repentance and to believe in the one who was to come after him. When Paul later baptized them in the name of Jesus, the Holy Spirit came upon them.

We have much in common with these disciples, even though most of us have heard of the Holy Spirit. Living our lives in Christ is difficult for us as we try to connect with how he wants us to live. Our calling seems so obvious, but we have a hard time living into it. When we are baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, we get a special gift in the Holy Spirit. Unlike most gifts, however, we're not sure what to do with it.

That's when we need to remember that in order to benefit from the gifts of the Holy Spirit, we must surrender our control in all things and trust in the wonderful communication gift we have with the Lord, through the Spirit. The Lord will guide us through His Spirit, but we must learn to listen for this communication with all of our senses. The more we can do this, the better our life in Christ.              

In many old primitive cultures, ascents to the tops of major mountain peaks were not made by people, even though it was possible. Those high peaks were thought to be where God(s) lived and were forbidden to humans. If only we could look up today with our binoculars and see our God on the mountaintop. Or maybe, since we imagine God as creator of the universe and beyond, we will one day be able to see God somewhere out in the Universe with one of our fast-improving telescopes fixed to a rocket.

God saved me a mountain climb and lots of rocket fuel when he visited me in the hospital during my brain surgery some years ago. His presence through His Spirit was so powerful that He convinced me that He did exist and that I would spend my time in His Kingdom for eternity.

As we live out our lives here on His Planet Earth gift to us, we don't need telescopes or binoculars to connect with Him. He is at our side in every moment that we live. We must be sure that we turn our attention to Him in every moment, so we don't miss an opportunity for a blessing in all aspects of our lives.

The Dying and the Dead

We can learn so much from the dying and the dead. When my mother was stricken with what proved to be terminal cancer in her retirement years, I asked her to teach me how to die. Actually, what she really did was to teach me how to live. Understanding that we will die someday in this short natural life of ours and what lies ahead for us in God’s Eternal Kingdom is important. But, living this natural life, in Christ, is important as well. 

My mother had been teaching me how to live all of my life by her actions and by her stories. The irony is, that by life lived, we better understand our relationship with our Creator and what He expects from us in preparation for joining Him in Eternal Life. That’s where the dying and the dead can inform us in the joy of life lived as the threshold to God’s Kingdom.

We have all lost family members and close family friends to death in their old age.  When we lose someone in their youth it seems to hurt even more. Our time for mourning their death soon disappears as we focus on their life lived.  In their dying and death we celebrate their life lived which begins to refresh our memory of how we should follow their example of the joy of living.

We learn from mourning the loss and celebrating the life of someone in their youth in a different kind of way. Their innocence teaches us about how we used to be and about the ‘what ifs’ of life. The authors of a study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology write, “its how we reflect on the past that provides insight into who we are and why we are here."

Some dying or deceased family and friends can specifically encourage us with their lives when they’ve lived as St. Paul tells us in Romans 12:2, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”  Those who have gone before can teach us in their absence.

We can look at the lives of those who have passed and see that each is a bit different. Each has something unique to share from their life.  While we seek the way in our lives, we want to give meaning to our life, but we don’t have to be a carbon copy of everyone else. Like those who have died, each of us, with God’s help put together our story as we borrow from those before.  When all is said and done, we have our own life storybook, just like ones we borrowed from.   

The thing we should always remember is that lives lived before ours and our present lives are very dependent upon the gift of God’s Grace, which gives us faith. Old and new natural lives live under the same conditions of seeking God’s guidance.  Some lives turn out better or worse depending on this understanding. Proverbs 3:5-6 enlighten us in saying, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”

We learn from each other’s successes and mistakes. One of the most rampant forms of mistakes in the world involves the flesh. St. Paul speaks of this kind of sin in a very revealing way in 1 Corinthians 6:18 in saying, “Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his [or her] own body.”

In all human lives, dependence on self is not the way to go. St. Paul goes on to say in Ephesians 2:8-9,  “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

Seeking God in our lives is the best plan as Jeremiah 29:11 states, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

Born Into Royalty

In our fascination with the British Royalty, we are connecting with something that we can never achieve or obtain. Isn’t it funny how we are drawn to entertainers and others that are celebrities in this world? We seek what we can never have. We experience celebrity vicariously as if it was us in the limelight.

The recent anticipation of the birth of the third person in succession to the British Throne captured all the headlines for days. It was not just in the headlines, however; but hour after hour of live television coverage of the waiting game. Finally, George Alexander Louis was born to Prince William and Duchess Kate.  We can’t imagine how we could be born into royalty as a Prince that would one day be the King of a great country.

The attention we pay to these types of people and events is sometimes way ahead of our attention to the Royalty of our God that we are and will be a part of forever. In 1 Peter 2:9 we read, “ But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light…”

We should recognize and seek our part in God’s Royal Priesthood with abandon as we live our lives.  As St. Paul has reminded us, nothing can separate us from Him, except maybe ourselves. While Royalty in this natural world is interesting and full of pomp and circumstance, it cannot compare with the royalty of Our Father, His Son and His Spirit.

Isaiah 33:22 reminds us, “For the LORD is our judge, The LORD is our lawgiver, The LORD is our king; He will save us..” That’s the kind of Royalty that is available to all of us. Isaiah 62:3 continues in saying, “ You shall also be a crown of glory In the hand of the Lord, And a royal diadem In the hand of your God.”  Can you imagine that we can be a crown for the Lord, a trusted member of His Royal Priesthood?

In the Revelation to John 17:14 we hear, “They will wage war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will triumph over them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings—and with him will be his called, chosen and faithful followers.”  For us, God’s children, it is up to us to accept the gift of light from Him in all aspects of life.  No matter what the circumstances, we are in His light.

Isaiah reveals to us in chapter 60:1 & 19,  “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you…
The sun shall be no more your light by day,
nor for brightness shall the moon give you light;
but the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory.

We can enjoy the fascinating things of this natural worldly life to a point, but we must never forget our source for all things and the obligations of our gift of royalty from God. Luke reminds us in Chapter 12, verse 48, “For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required….”  By seeking God in all things we are more powerful and more productive than any worldly royalty.

The worldly royalty and political leaders are gifted just as we are with the ultimate royalty of God.  It is when we or they ignore our Heavenly Father, who is King of kings and Lord of lords that our trouble begins. We all have a responsibility to stand up for God as members of His Royal Court and follow His leadership in helping each other.

We can congratulate each other on our gift of royal priesthood. The question becomes, what are we going to do with it? We are challenged to perform for the Lord, because the virtue of royalty that we have been given, cannot be hidden from each other. Unlike worldly royalty, our God given gift of royalty must be shared.

God the Father & Coach and His Team

In reading quotes from Thomas Merton recently, I was reminded of the simple fact that God is inside of me in my spirit. As my creator, he is intimately with me and interested in me. He loves me as a work that he intentionally created. The "free will" that He gave me upon my creation allows Him to stay on the sideline while I play the game of life.

Like most sideline coaches He runs out on the field sometimes in enthusiasm or dismay. I must learn to understand His joy and His dismay and react properly to both. As He continues to coach me through His Spirit like a worldly coach, I must seek to understand what He envisions for me in the game of my life. For me to reach my potential is important to God, my coach.

He sent His Son to help me know the rules of the life game and the way it should be played. If I ignore the fact that I can't play the game without His coaching, then I am alone and out of my league. There will be no championships. Unlike our worldly coaches, God resides in us and leaving the locker room doesn't separate us from Him. God is a package deal in that He is also our Cheerleader.

God uses those around us to be conduits of His love and grace.  We tend to underestimate our value to each other. We don't think that these folks around us can be of any use in our lives. Many are annoying and opinionated. Many just don't appeal to us and don't seem to have anything in common with us. Even the folks we are drawn to, seem a little superficial and we are afraid to open a deeper relationship with them.

Those who have placed themselves in Christian Community know the blessings received when things go wrong in their lives. God continues to use each of us to bless others when we turn to Him and recognize our role. God does His work, but we have to do our work in order for things to jell.

Christian Community is a means of raising the spiritual experience and connectedness of individuals and groups of individuals. Community is one of the ways of living that helps us in seeking God in our lives, and in so doing allowing God to use each of us to communicate His Love, Grace and Will to His Children.

There's no way out of this life we've been given. We can fight it to the end, but we are children of God. Continued denial that we are His children is a painful way to live life. We are His Eternal Children and if we choose to ignore His Light, we place ourselves in darkness. In order to live our lives in the best way possible no matter the bumps in the road, we must give up our fear of death, enjoy our gift and give thanks for God's Love & Grace. The icing on the cake is the eternal life that is ours with our Father Creator.

We make it such a rough walk as we move away from the innocence of our childhood to the challenges of our natural world adulthood. Trust in God is swallowed up by our egos and our need to be in control. The many false masks of success are all around us and we try to put on our mask, which is demanded by the natural world playwrights.

Trusting in God always wins out over the other options. We are home-schooled by God our Father and as our teacher He will give us our grades. Our goal as His children is to earn grades that are accepted, authorized and accredited by God.

If Dogs & Cats Could Talk

Wouldn’t it be something if scientists could come up with some sort of electronic chip that could be inserted into a dog or cat and broadcast what the animal was thinking. Maybe inserted at the base of the tail since wagging tails seem to be their present way of communication. Dogs and cats observe a lot during their lives, most of which is human behavior. They see us at our best and at our worst.

Oddly enough their present form of communication is a blessing to us. In our empty nest home, my wife and I were encouraged by some friends to get a dog. It had been several years since our last dog died and we hated to go through that again. Since we acquired our new puppy, our lives have been much more enjoyable. It’s been like having a baby in the house again.

Our daughter-in-law had a health issue recently and part of her rehab facility’s treatment was regular visits with a sweet lovable dog. It has really helped her deal with the issues that she’s facing. Surely these animals aren’t angels sent by God, are they? They certainly have an angelic effect on those around them.

We have to wonder if they have souls, but many theologians would tell us no. Maybe like creation is described in Genesis, with man over all the animals, places us on a superior level with God. Dogs can learn to do complicated tricks and acts, like leading the blind or searching for illicit drugs, but reasoning is another story.

Dogs and cats certainly develop knowledge of us as they observe our actions and specifically in the way we treat them.  They seem to understand the negative nature of their master when they are reprimanded and maybe the negativity of their owners and those around them when those humans are in disagreement through argument and anger.

Some say that plants and animals have souls, but not like ours. They believe that a soul is a principle of all life. Human souls however; are rational while animal souls are not. While some theologians say the difference is that Humans are rational because they are spiritual, many times our observations of animals reveal a better spirit than we humans possess. Others say that animals lack a moral sense, but again, they outdo us in morality, or at least don’t consciously know that they do bad things. Maybe there is no dog or cat heaven, but many of them deserve heaven more than many of we humans do.

A biblical comparison of humans and animals makes us think about how much food for nourishment our Lord and Master provides us. In Matthew 15:27 we hear about the Lord-seeking lady: “And she said, Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.” Are we that hungry for the Lord?  

Now let’s look at Ecclesiastes 3:19-22, and really get confused: ^“For the fate of humans and the fate of animals is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and humans have no advantage over the animals; for all is vanity.  All go to one place; all are from the dust, and all turn to dust again.  Who knows whether the human spirit goes upwards and the spirit of animals goes downwards to the earth?  So I saw that there is nothing better than that all should enjoy their work, for that is their lot; who can bring them to see what will be after them?”

Thinking back on just what a blessing pets can be to us, God knew what He was doing when he gave us animals that have been domesticated. Maybe domesticated is the key word here. Maybe God wants us to be His domesticated children at home with Him. He gave us free will that allows us to make bad choices in life. We can be wild in our living when we don’t seek God.  Maybe animals aren’t perfect.  Wild animals without masters live a different kind of life than do domesticated animals. When Man rejects God’s domestication in His Word, Man becomes wild and without direction. Thank God for His forgiveness.

A Town's Personality

Eleanor H. Porter, was a writer, and is remembered for her series of books for young readers, beginning with Pollyanna (1913). She is quoted as saying, “What men and women need is encouragement ... Instead of always harping on a man's [or woman’s] faults, tell him [or her] of his [or her] virtues ... The influence of a beautiful, helpful, hopeful character is contagious, and may revolutionize a whole town.”

I’ve shared the story about my great grandmother before in this column, but it bears repeating: As the town ladies gathered for tea after the funeral of the town nuisance, not a good word was said about this man’s life. No one could find anything good about this man. After all the other ladies were through beating up on this dead fellow, my great grandmother spoke up and said, “Well, you know he was a good whistler!”

Don’t we wish we lived in a town full of people like my great grandmother? A town’s impact on us and our families can be a blessing or a curse and most times both. Especially in smaller towns where everybody knows everybody, pain can be dealt relentlessly. There was a boy in a town that was not serious about his schoolwork in the 4^th grade. His teacher still makes negative comments about this boy some twenty-five years later, even though he has become a good local businessman and community supporter.

Some folks in our communities make bad choices in their lives. We are all susceptible to making bad choices in our workplaces, our families and in the things we chose to do in between. There are few or maybe none of us who have not made bad choices in our lives. Even though we all make bad choices sometimes, we tend to rate and organize bad choices according to our personal severity rating. Of course, there is a commandment that some of us have added to the Ten Commandments. That added eleventh commandment is, ‘Thou shalt not get caught.’   If we can live up to this self-added commandment, we think we are alright in the bad choices we make.

Oddly enough, those who have not been caught in bad choices in life can be very unforgiving and hateful to those who do get caught. This is where we are called to be a Christian community and must come together in Christ’s teachings. Our relations with one another are sometimes overlooked by us as we live God’s Word through Jesus.  Commands and teachings about dealing with other people make up a large part of the teachings of Jesus and His apostles. The Old Testament is also full of ways we should behave and treat each other. In dealing with parents, children, spouses, family, friends, co-workers, or even enemies, the Bible's advice is spiritually sound and effective for promoting peace and harmony.

Even though this commandment seems pretty clear and was taught in books of the Old Testament, the people of Jesus’ time just like many of us today, had trouble understanding what is meant by ‘our neighbor’.  They and we tend to pick and choose who we consider our neighbor.

Jesus gave us the “Greatest Commandment” that should certainly be clear to us. Unfortunately many Christians don’t practice it fully. Jesus was asked by one of the scribes, “Which is the first commandment of all?”  Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.  And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment.  And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’  There is no other commandment greater than these.” Mark 12: 26-31.

The love Jesus talked about here is a mirroring of God’s love. The Greek word for this is Agape Love. God loves all of His children and does not want us to differentiate as to who we think our neighbor is. We are all neighbors. When we read and think about these two commandments, we should realize that the first commandment…”you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength…” sets up our ability to fulfill the second commandment, “‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’  There is no other commandment greater than these.” God gives us the strength to love everybody, if we give Him our heart, soul, and mind. With Him there is no picking and choosing.

The following is a list of ‘neighbors’ as contained in Matthew 25: 35,36,40;   “…for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in;  I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me….Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.”

Begotten Not Forgotten

Have you ever thought about how complicated the fact of your existence is? Other than the fact that God created man, how many variables are there that led to the birth of each and every one of us? A guess would be that thousands of things had to happen in sequence for the spirit of each of us in these bodies to have ever been realized.  If we use the alphabet to represent our ancestry, we get a small example of what it took for us to be alive.

Let’s look at an imaginary man named Mr. Al Phabet. He exists in this world because his ancestor Z married U and one of their offspring P married E and one of their offspring Y married W and so on for thousands of years. In addition to who mommies, daddies and their offspring were in our ancestry, the circumstances and time of all the conceptions leading up to our own make a difference in how we came to be who we are. In the Gospel of Matthew we learn the lineage coming through the centuries up to Jesus:

Matthew 1:1-17:  “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham: Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot Judah and his brothers.  Judah begot Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez begot Hezron, and Hezron begot Ram.  Ram begot Amminadab, Amminadab begot Nahshon, and Nahshon begot Salmon. Salmon begot Boaz by Rahab, Boaz begot Obed by Ruth, Obed begot Jesse,  and Jesse begot David the king.

David the king begot Solomon by her who had been the wife of Uriah.  Solomon begot Rehoboam, Rehoboam begot Abijah, and Abijah begot Asa. Asa begot Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat begot Joram, and Joram begot Uzziah.  Uzziah begot Jotham, Jotham begot Ahaz, and Ahaz begot Hezekiah. Hezekiah begot Manasseh, Manasseh begot Amon, and Amon begot Josiah.  Josiah begot Jeconiah and his brothers about the time they were carried away to Babylon.  

And after they were brought to Babylon, Jeconiah begot Shealtiel, and Shealtiel begot Zerubbabel.  Zerubbabel begot Abiud, Abiud begot Eliakim, and Eliakim begot Azor.  Azor begot Zadok, Zadok begot Achim, and Achim begot Eliud.  Eliud begot Eleazar, Eleazar begot Matthan, and Matthan begot Jacob.  And Jacob begot Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus who is called Christ.

So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations, from David until the captivity in Babylon are fourteen generations, and from the captivity in Babylon until the Christ are fourteen generations.”

Wow! Do you think God’s hand is in all of this for His purposes?  Can you imagine how involved it would be if you could do something like this lineage leading up to Jesus, for each one of us alive today? Think of all the people of the past that have inspired and changed the world through their lives. Could we have done without them? What if somewhere in the linkage something went a different way and they were not born to us?

The question becomes, is this a random thing in how we have come to be or is this according to God’s plan? Are all of us His children even if He didn’t set out a plan for our existence? Maybe this is all God’s plan on God’s time and we are all eternal spirits whom are God’s children when we turn to Him and recognize Him. Without Him we lose our purpose and His purpose.

Jeremiah 29:11 reflects God’s message in saying, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

Proverbs 3:5-6 reminds us, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”

In Romans 8:28 St. Paul says, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

In summary maybe we can believe that God is in charge and brought us to this life for a purpose that is His desire for us. We cannot fully know how He managed to get us here and why He chose us to complete His work in our time. We can be sure that He does not force us to fulfill His purpose for us. We can see within ourselves and all around us how His children ignore Him quite often. Seeking Him is our sure bet to be who we should be according to His purpose for each of us.

Remembering Can be a Beginning

Many of you know about and might have seen the long running Musical show, The Fantasticks. The show’s original “off-broadway” production is the longest running stage production in American history – 42 years continuously. It has been performed in high schools, colleges and local theaters across the globe.

The music was created by Harvey Schmidt and lyrics written by Tom Jones. There is a special tune used to set the mood of the story that is performed at the beginning and at the end of the show. The tune entitled, “Try to Remember,” sets the stage for the story and gets us older folks thinking about what our lives once were. It is a story of our vitality and foolishness in youth that moves to cynicism, disappointment and boredom as we realize what our lives could have been if our dreams had been achieved.

The “Try to Remember” tune reminds us about the young September time of our lives as well as the December time of our lives. It begins, “Try to remember the kind of September when life was slow and oh, so mellow…………when grass was green and grain was yellow……..when you were a tender and callow (naïve) fellow.”

The story is a reminder for older folks, like me, recognizing that some change is doable even in our later years. For youth it is a warning and for those in between it offers a chance to change complete direction. The song goes on, “Try to remember when life was so tender that no one wept except the willow………when life was so tender that dreams were kept beside your pillow…….when life was so tender that love was an ember about to billow. Try to remember and if you remember then follow.”

As we move into our December years, the tune tells us, “Deep in December it's nice to remember although you know the snow will follow……….it's nice to remember without the hurt the heart is hollow………it's nice to remember the fire of September that made us mellow. Deep in December our hearts should remember and follow.”

Psalm 25:7 speaks to us in saying, “Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for the sake of your goodness, O LORD!”  It is the rare person that lives life near perfection from childhood. I’d guess no one is near perfection if I had a guess. Of course we know a man who lived among us as perfection and we try to follow His example as we live our lives. I guess “try to follow” are the key words here.

In 1 John 2:16 we see what the world offers that we sometimes take for the taking, “For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.”  While most people experience flaws in their early life, is that a necessary thing? God’s answer is no, but he forgives us our sin and gives us a chance to turn around when we seek Him in our lives.

Matthew 7: 24-27 wraps things up for us as we know we are forgiven, but we know the result of our folly: “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.  The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock.  And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall.”

Choices, Loving & Forgiving

"Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious and it does not cease to bear fruit." (Jeremiah 17: 7-8) One would think that everyone knows when they make a choice in life that is bad. Our farmers know when and how to plant. Yet, our prisons are overflowing, society and politics corrupt, marriages and families are breaking apart. Why do we keep putting our roots down in the desert?

We know there is no hope of bearing fruit in the desert soil, but we keep trying to control the uncontrollable. Our history is full of stories concerning bad choices; poor human planting places. We just can't trust in the Lord in all things. It's like playing the lottery with a one in a million chance when we decide to test the dry soil one more time. What is it about our minds that allow us to continue to repeat bad planting times and places?

Jeremiah goes on to say in 17: 9-10. "The heart is devious above all else; it is perverse--who can understand it? I the Lord test the mind and search the heart, to give to all according to their ways, according to the fruit of their doings." We all slip away from the Lord in our lives and we all deserve a chance to return to the Lord and live a Godly life, even if our natural world punishment puts us in jail or prison.

I have been involved in Kairos Prison Ministry Int'l, Inc. for many years. A significant part of this ministry has been 3-day retreats held inside a prison with 40 some inmates per retreat. Our team-cooks prepare and deliver six terrific meals and lots of home baked cookies for the inmates and the team inside the prison over the 3-days. Our team bonds and trains in our specific retreat format beginning 2-months before the retreat with meetings (that include much prayer) totaling approximately 30-hours.

The team recruits lots of outside prayer partners as we prepare and for support during the time we are with the inmates. The team brings its love for God and for each other into the prison and directs that love to each of the 40-inmates. We never ask any inmate what he is serving time for. Many of them have never felt loved in their entire lives. They are shocked and blessed that our team members are willing to give up time with our families to come to prison and love them in the name of God through Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

By following Jesus' call in Matthew 25: 31-46 where He says, "I was in prison and you visited me..........Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me", our team provides a blessing and is blessed in doing so. Christian communities are building inside prisons all over our nation and the world.

God knows no barriers when He seeks to love and be loved by His children. While many in the world want to take God out of everything, many inmate lives are changed and the recidivism rate for those who participate in the retreats drops significantly compared to the general prison population. Jesus' Great Commission to, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations", includes the least of His children.

A Man’s Letter to his Mother

Dear Mother,                                                        
I have come to know that I’m really going to die someday.  I hope that this doesn’t come as a surprise to you.  I know that you must have anticipated my dying when you and God brought me into the world.  You never told me that I was going to die, but I’m not mad or upset.  I realize it is something that I had to find out for myself.  Besides, who wants to talk about dying all the time? 

The illness that brought me to this place of thinking is mostly over, but I’m not over what it changed in me.  It made me realize down deep inside that I am not in control.  That God is in control of my life – my birth, my living, my dying and my salvation.  He is in control in the sense that He created me and that I am His when my life on earth is over. 

As for earthy living, He is in control only to the extent that I let Him control my life.  That’s right; I have veto power over God until I die.  If I trust myself more than I trust God, I can tune Him out of my natural life.  There is a gamble, however, if I choose to take control.  What happens to me if at the most critical moment, I weaken?  At the point when I must be sharper than ever before, what if I slip?  What if I can’t quite put things together?  What will I do?  The answer is clear.  I must seek God’s Grace with faith in His love and power. 

When we experience God, and He shows us the way and we see His light, then we have truly experienced death.  Death is seeing God, and this is a miracle, a surprise.  And so, this is the irony in the way we humans look at death.  The very thing that we fear as we work to prolong life turns out to be the greatest joy of all.

So we, in our lives can experience death years before it comes.  We can do this by giving up control and having faith that God will redeem all that might happen to us.  Of course, we must do our best to live our lives in our realities, by following the example of God’s Son our Savior Jesus Christ and all the Saints.  And we can experience God and His love and thus taste the beauty of death – that time when we become one with God forever. 

We are here in the natural life for a very short time.  In God’s eternal kingdom the length of our natural life is not important, nor is the way that we die.  Death is merely the doorway to a nearer presence of God.  If we can make our reality here on Earth more peaceful and joyful by seeking to know God, it makes perfect sense to do so.  Through God we are connected with all mankind, past, present, and future.  As a husband and parent now, I know that I must not fear my children’s death or my wife’s death whether or not it precedes mine.  I must not fear your death or my own, Mother. 

Above all Mother, I want you to teach me how to die and help me teach my children, your grandchildren.  Your love of our Lord is shining so bright that all of us may now experience with you the miracle of coming into the presence of God.  Armed with God’s love, our earthly reality no matter how long, will be a joyful experience.  God is patient.  He will wait for us.  And we will be joyful in Him, for he lives and reigns forever and ever. 

Faithfully, Your Loving Son.

The Ups and Downs Racetrack

Wouldn’t it be lovely if our lives were always happy and on the up side of existence? There is, however, no guarantee that our lives will not have bumps and crashes.  We get to experience some of these bumps and crashes vicariously as we take in the news from around the World each day, knowing that in many cases it could be us in the news.

As we live out our lives, there is always the potential that things can get better, stay the same or get worse. Whatever the nature of our lives, there is always the potential for change. These changes can turn on a dime. Life can change course very quickly. Depending on the circumstances, it can be either good or bad, but either way it can be rapid.

There are basically two kinds of “down changes” that can happen to us. One is due to something beyond our control. The other is due to choices we make in living out our lives. Either way, life can be painful at times. We have little or no control over the one kind of down change, but we can have something to say about our choices in life.   

Aerosmith singer and songwriter, Steven Tyler, had some insight about this up and down life in his tune, Dream On. In part he wrote:
“Every time that I look in the mirror
All these lines on my face getting clearer
The past is gone
It went by like dusk to dawn
Isn't that the way
Everybody's got their dues in life to pay…”

Tyler continues in his tune by talking about life and the questions people have about where we come from and what happens when life ends:                                                                                               
“Yeah, I know nobody knows
Where it comes and where it goes
I know it's everybody's sin
You got to lose to know how to win….”

Tyler talks about information he’s sought in life and how that effects life’s outcome:                          
“Half my life's in books' written pages
Live and learn from fools and from sages
You know it's true
All the things you do, come back to you…”

There seems to be a spiritual tone of seeking in Tyler’s lyric. He actually wrote this tune when he was 17 years old and touched it up later.  It is pretty deep thinking for a person that young and you wonder if he is possibly seeking God in his life.

In his closing verse, Tyler refers to ups and downs in life and then mentions the Lord in writing: 
“Sing with me, sing for the year
Sing for the laughter and sing for the tear
Sing with me, if it's just for today
Maybe tomorrow the good Lord will take you away…..”

We can look at scripture for a deeper understanding of the things Tyler was commenting on and seeking to understand. Of course Ecclesiastes 3:1-9 certainly informs us of the ups and downs of life as it begins in saying: 
“To everything there is a season,
a time for every purpose under heaven.” It then goes on to name about every up and down you can think of e.g. “A time to be born, and a time to die….. A time to break down, and a time to build up….” And so on.

In Philippians 4:12-13 St. Paul tells us: “I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”

In 1^st Corinthians 13:7 we are reminded:   “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” And in Romans 12:12 we hear: “ Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.”

Our challenge is to trust in the Lord in all things and be patient and accepting in all that happens to us in our lives, even though Ecclesiastes tells us in part that we must live out our lives with: “…..a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away….”

God Can Guide Us in Right Directions

Stop the World – I Want to Get Off is a musical originating in England that opened on Broadway in the early 1960’s.  It concerns a circus clown named “Littlechap” that sought to advance monetarily and in importance to become ringmaster one day. This would carry him to great cities in Europe with the circus. His rise to ringmaster would show the World that he was better than the average man.

In his mission to prove that he was a better man, he met a wonderful lady that happened to be the boss’s daughter Evie. He loved her dearly, but as he traveled around the world in his work, he would find other Evies in other places, thus being unfaithful to the real Evie. It was, however,due to his marriage to Evie, the boss’s daughter, that he became a more important man than he would ever have been had they not married.

His seeking to be more successful and important in life, along with his desire to use his stature and self proclaimed suaveness, to find other Evies in his travels ended in his later life in disappointment, but in an awakening. He finally realized that his distorted focus in life was not really what would make him happy and that he had what he really needed in the real Evie.

We all are capable of making bad choices in life. If we’re fortunate we wake up, like Littlechap did, and realize what’s really important in life. God is present for us and in us, if we will just let Him help us with our choices in life.

Our lesson in life is that no matter what we view as important or what desires we think we must fulfill, they will ultimately bring us down if we leave out God in acting out our lives on Earth. When we hit the bumps of life, no matter what we face, our God is there to console us and to heal us.

In Nehemiah 8:10 we hear, “Then he said to them, Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

So, we should enjoy life and be happy while we can, always remembering those less fortunate than us. We must remember the Source of our strength and not hesitate to seek the Lord in all things.

2 Timothy 1:7 comforts us in saying, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”

  We will face problems, but He helps us get through those problems.  If we are hurt, he will heal us. If we find ourselves in trouble and depression, God has the power to heal our broken hearts.

Psalms 42:5 advises us, “Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him, for the help of His countenance.” Philippians 4:13 instructs us, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

We must get to the point in life where we do seek strength from the power of God through Christ and the Holy Spirit. Our choices in life will be better guided and we will be comforted by Him when we are in need. Seeking God’s help in determining what is import in our lives is a must and He will help us curb the desires that lead us nowhere.

God, Nature and Us

The scenery that God has placed around us can serve to help us connect with Him spiritually. From the sky to the dust of the Earth, God touches us with His creative stage setting where we act out our lives. William Shakespeare once said, “And this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.”

We are after all created, as God’s Word tells us in Genesis 2:7, “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.”  We came out of the same dust that God used to create the scenery around us. Just like the plants in nature, we have a calling to become more as we emerge from the dust.

Anais Nin told us about this tenuous part of our development out of the dust in saying, “And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” Blossoming for the Lord is our calling, but we can choose otherwise. We can overrule God in all things if we are that foolish, but what sensible person would want to overrule the one who created us, is with us every moment, who knows the number of molecules in our natural body and especially loves every molecule that makes us whole. He loves His created children. And while He’s in our being, He’s managing every particle of mass in the universe!

As children of God, Psalm 103:13-17 informs us in saying: “As a father pities his children, So the Lord pities those who fear Him. For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass; As a flower of the field, so he flourishes. For the wind passes over it, and it is gone, And its place remembers it no more. But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him, And His righteousness to children’s children…”

We are all connected with all who have gone before us and all who will live after us. While we are in this natural world, we are called to seek the spirits of those who brought us to our place in history and use them as our springboard to leave a better world to those who will follow us.

Psalm 1:3 tells us this about the Godly man: “ He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper.”

An old Greek proverb speaks to us about life in saying,” “A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.”

So, let us get the fertilizer of Christ-Jesus He left us in the Gospels and mix it in the water of our Baptism, and we will be prepared to flourish in our gardens of life. In concert and love with our brothers and sisters in Christ, we can plant our share of trees for the shade of future generations, always remembering those who passed on the shade of our time. 

Looking Inside Ourselves

Evaluating ourselves is a tough job.  We are naturally a bit prejudice, but more than that we are blind to much of who we are or at least a little fuzzy in our vision. 1 Corinthians 13:12 reminds us, “For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.”

Yes, we can look in all directions, but the most important view we should take in living our lives is inside ourselves. That is the place where the truth will be revealed to us. In James 1:23-25 we discover, “For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.  But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.”

You probably remember the Wicked Queen Ravenna in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. She was so full of herself, but met her match at her mirror when the mirror revealed the truth:

“Queen: “Magic Mirror on the wall, who is the fairest one of all?”

Magic Mirror: “Famed is thy beauty, Majesty. But hold, a lovely maid I see. Rags cannot hide her gentle grace. Alas, she is more fair than thee.”

What the Queen couldn’t see inside herself, the mirror revealed. What can we do to help ourselves understand what is really inside us?

Our spiritual condition is very important in understanding ourselves. In seeking God through His Son and the Holy Spirit, we come closer to understanding who we are and who we should be. We look inside ourselves not to see who we think we are and where we should go, but we look inside ourselves to seek our Creator God.

God can be found inside us.  Most times we think that our God is in a faraway place, but as our eternal source and creator, He is always right here with us, inside us. So it seems, our battle is within us. We seek the material and other attractive things in our lives that are outside us in the world, but we refuse to look inward. When we truly look inward we don’t see what we want, we see what God wants for us. He is so close, yet we think of Him as if He is in a faraway place.

We tend to seek all the things we can gain in our lives that we think will make us happy. Whether it’s money, status or pleasures we seek, when our focus is on them, we lose our life as a true child of God. The questions become for us: Can we dare look inside ourselves in order to connect with God’s Spirit? Are we willing to let the outside go and move our search in life toward ourselves?

In Luke 17:20-21 we get this understanding, “Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation;  nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.” Can we take this a half step further and claim that we are presently living in Eternal Life?

As we’ve learned, God’s time is not like our time. His clock is not ticking like our clock is ticking. There is no beginning and no end to Him, His Son or His Spirit. God is Eternal and as His created children, we were born into Eternal Life with Him. That’s why we need to look inside ourselves for the secret of life. When we fail to look, we give up our life in Him.

In our moving to an inward look we can take heed of St. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians 4:6-7: “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”