Thanksgiving Forever!

Another Thanksgiving has come and gone, but shouldn’t we continue to be thankful for the blessings of this life?  We say there are lots of things in life that we’re not thankful for, but should that stop us from being thankful?  I once worked for a man who had a saying something like this: ‘Work is being in a constant state of discontent, interrupted occasionally by brief periods of celebration for a job well done.’

I think this comment by my old boss can actually be applied to life. Yes, life is sort of a constant state of discontent, interrupted occasionally by brief periods of celebration for a life well lived. As you know, the colonists that came to this country seeking a new life lived hard lives and endured many dangers.  Some died while coming to what is now America, as they attempted to fulfill their dream.

At that first organized time of thanks in 1621, the Plymouth colonists shared a fall feast with the local Indians they connected with during their colonization of America. As the land soon to be America continued to be colonized and organized, other groups and eventually other states celebrated times of thanksgiving on their own. This continued for a couple of centuries before President Abraham Lincoln, during the Civil War, proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day to be held each November.

In 1620, the small ship named the Mayflower began a journey carrying about 100 passengers, as it left England. Those passengers were seeking religious freedom and the hope for prosperity in the New World.  It took the Mayflower about 66 days to cross the Atlantic and we can only imagine the dangers they encountered during this voyage.  The aim of this voyage was to land near what is now New York City, but they ended up landing near Cape Cod. They missed their landing site by a few hundred miles, but were certainly glad to see land of any kind. A month later they continued across the bay to the mainland and settled in the place they called Plymouth.

It was very late fall when they first landed and they experienced a very harsh winter. Disease and overexposure to the elements burdened them and most of them stayed on board the Mayflower during this time.  As spring approached, only half of the original passengers and crew were still alive. The survivors finally left the ship and began to settle the area. They were greeted by an Indian, who surprisingly did so in English. You may remember the Indian, Squanto, who had been captured by an English sea captain and escaped some time later. This surprised the Pilgrims, as you can imagine.

Squanto helped the Pilgrims in regaining their health and stability, by teaching them how to grow corn and other crops, and fish the local streams.  In November, at the end of their first year in America, the Colonists harvested their first corn crop and the celebration of thanks began. The relationship the Colonists had with the local Indians lasted more than 50 years. Unfortunately, it is one of the few significant positive relationships between the European settlers and the Native Americans.

The actual celebration feast lasted three days as the colonists invited the local Indians to join them. The Indians probably contributed more to the celebration than did the Pilgrims.  The Indian cooking methods and spices made the event very elaborate.  After the celebration, it was back to work and most likely to a “state of discontent” for the Colonists as they continued to forge their way into their new life, occasionally taking time to celebrate their blessings received through their good works.

Communication with God

Communicating with God is probably the most difficult task for us, His children. In order to be successful in the message receiving and sending process, we have to be intentional about building our information base in Him through reading and following His Word in the Bible. Jesus came to us as God’s Word and we must take Him seriously.

The law and the prophets of the Old Testament add to our base of understanding, and Jesus clarified and simplified God’s expectations of us in His Gospel. Coaches of sports teams usually tell their players that the most important thing in their training for success is working hard on the fundamentals of the sport. As Christians seeking a relationship with God, we must work hard on the fundamentals of our faith.

God’s Word in the Bible is our training ground as we seek to turn a one way conversation into a two way conversation. God communicates to us through His Spirit, but if our fundamentals are not developed, the sending and receiving with God is full of interference.

There are several instances in the life of Jesus where the disciples and others around Him actually heard God communicating with His Son. As in John 12:30, “Jesus said, “This voice was for your benefit, not mine.” Jesus is in constant communication with God, He wanted us to know that communication on some level was possible. For us, that is the work of God’s Holy Spirit.

Even when we think we’re interacting with God in our prayers and our listening, we can still mess things up. Going back as far as Abraham we have been tempted to do God’s work for Him. In Genesis 15:4, God promised Abraham a son, but Abraham and Sarah took things into their own hands and instead of waiting for a spirit planted son in Sarah, they engaged Sarah’s slave Hagar to sleep with Abraham and give birth to a son.

In ignoring God’s promise, Abraham and Sarah created an issue that lives with us in today’s world. After they were gifted by the birth of a son together as God had promised, the Ishmael vs. Isaac tension began and continues to play out in our world today. Yes, even Abraham and Sarah took a break from the fundamentals of faith and got off of God’s track for them.

Our challenge is to build up our fundamentals in faith and wait for Gods friendly nudge in the direction of His Will for us. We can recognize it as His Will for us when we don’t see it as something we can control and carry out without His help. It is like going out on a weak limb for Him with the confidence that He will not let it break.  

I can remember many times in my life when I felt led by God to help someone in a particular situation they were in. Most times I have taken the risk that my action would be accepted for what it was and not viewed as my having a personal ulterior motive in doing it. Even when we feel led on a path for reconciliation in a personal matter, we must only do that which feels God led and not cave into the, “Oh, I can fix it” posture.

God’s leadership in our lives flows through His Holy Spirit. As hard as we try to hear what He is telling us, we humans can sometimes misunderstand His communications. This should not stop us from seeking God’s leadership in our lives. We’ll miss the mark occasionally, but our batting average will stay high as long as we don’t give up and we keep working on those fundamentals of our faith.

We must keep attentive to those Godly nudges through His Spirit. If we feel we are being led and not trying to lead, most times that limb we crawl out on will be sturdy enough for God’s work. In 2^nd Timothy 3:16-17, we are reminded: “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

Being Saved

There is a story of unknown origin to me, about four men who went fishing. In the story one of the men walks out on an old and decaying pier. As the man is making his way out to a good fishing position, the pier collapses. He begins thrashing about screaming that he cannot swim.

Two of the other three men on the bank also cannot swim and they frantically urge the one member of their group who can swim to save their drowning colleague. Seconds turn into minutes and still the man just stands there seemingly uncaring.

The other men became angry and could not understand why the one person who could save their friend just stood there watching. As the exhausted and drowning man was going down for the last time suddenly the man jumped in and pulled his friend to shore.

As the drowning man was recovering on the side of the river, the other men fussed at the rescuer and asked him "Why, why did you almost let our friend die?" He replied. "I knew that I had to wait until he knew that he could not save himself. He had to want to be saved before I could save him."

I went rafting on the Ocoee River in Tennessee some years ago and felt like the fellow in this story. I fell out of the raft, got my sandal caught in between some rocks and started taking on water. I was able to pull my foot out of my trapped sandal and continued to be carried down the river over several sets of rapids.

About the time I thought I was going to drown, I was washed close to another raft and was pulled aboard by the raft members. My stomach was full of water and it had begun to run over into my windpipe. What do these two stories tell us about being saved, our salvation?

The words of the lifesaver of the first story, "I knew that I had to wait until he knew that he could not save himself. He had to want to be saved before I could save him," probably best describes how God views us in our lives concerning our salvation or being saved.

In Matthew 19:25-26, Jesus explains: “When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, "Who then can be saved?" Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."In Ephesians 2:8-9, St. Paul goes further in saying, “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.”

In going down the rapids of the Ocoee River, taking water into my body, I had faith that somehow I would be rescued by someone. It was my mistake that I came out of the raft, but it was another raft crew 100 yards down the river that was able to save me just before I completed my drowning on this life-threatening journey alone.

The lessons learned from these water-danger stories are instructive to our lives in this world. It is not that things will always come out favorable for us in the normal and the threatening times in our lives, but that faith in God passes all understanding and we are His no matter the outcome.

In a revelation from God’s Holy Spirit during a personal life threatening surgery, I came to understand our eternal relationship with God. I saw that no matter if I lived or died, I would be with Him always. In seeking Him in my life I’ve found a peace that denies any physical worldly harm that may come to me, as separating me from God. This is being saved and this is our salvation.   

Experiencing God's Grace on His Time

All of us can remember how impatient we were as children waiting for Christmas day to come so that we could see the gifts that were left for us under the Christmas tree. After I found out that my parents, not Santa, were responsible for these gifts, I would search the house ahead of Christmas hoping to get an early peak at my presents. My curiosity just wouldn't let me wait until the appropriate time to receive my gifts.

As adults our patience has not improved much. We look for the quick fix or the easy solution. We even look for our material gifts, like those under our childhood Christmas tree, before their time. Credit cards have helped us in this. Seeking to know God our Father takes time and discipline.

Our days are too full to devote much time toward getting to know Him better. If God is our help we say, "I need you right now Lord." We are so impatient that we decide to use our own personal strengths or gifts so that we can be on our way. We can't wait for God.

In James 5:7-10 we learn, "Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near."

God's time is not a tick-tock of the clock. God's time is measured by whatever is necessary with no minimums or maximums. Einstein's theory of relativity may describe God’s time more than we think. With God everything is relative. He is not on a time schedule. His time allows for the need to be fulfilled in its appropriate time. For us this might be a lifetime.                                              

Understanding God's time is trusting. On God's time our watches simply say, "TRUST ME." Trust-me time is always right. Natural world time is speculative.

Much of our worry in this life has to do with our view of time. When we worry we are not trusting; we do not have faith in God. We must set our watches on Trust-me time. We won't even have to move them forward in the spring and back in the fall.

Many times I have tried to turn things over to God so that I am not haunted with the worries and concerns of life. About the time I think I have fully turned things over to Him, I wake up in the morning with a pile of concerns I have been mulling over all night. I don’t seem to be able to understand the difference between what I can do and what God needs to handle for me.

I’ve found that the crazy part of all my worry is that my concerns are for things I don’t have the ability to change, make happen or make go away. These are things that are completely out of my control. As soon as I realize my worry is about things I have no power over, I feel a peace and a surrendering to God.

We do have a personal responsibility for many things in life. God needs our help in order to help us. Just as we need to listen to God to understand the things we have no control over, we have to listen to God to understand the things He wants us to do. It’s a bit of a tightrope walk for us, but if we don’t continually seek and listen for His guidance for our part and His part, we are lost.

The opening words in Ecclesiastes, Chapter 3 (NRSV), instruct us and guide us, “To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven." Trust God and be patient.      

All Hallows' Eve (Halloween)

It’s that time of year again when the pumpkins, ghosts, skeletons, lanterns and the like start popping up all around us. This all leads up to the “trick or treat” experience that all the children love as they go door to door to get candy with the subliminal threat of a trick if it is not received.  
                            

Just like the Christmas and Easter holidays get a bit distorted with material things, our conventional Halloween night somewhat distorts the real celebration of All Hallows Eve and All Hallows Day. In the Christian Church these are referred to as All Saints’ Eve and All Saints’ Day.

Going back some 800 years, much of the Christian Church has celebrated All Saints’ Day on the first of November.  This has been a celebration of known and unknown Christian Saints. This celebration has broadly included folks like you and me who have lived their lives in proclaiming Jesus Christ as Lord.

At some point, soon after the creation of All Saints’ Day in the church, the celebration of All Hallows Eve began as it is the night before All Saints’ or All Hallows Day.  The terms Hallows and Saints are interchangeable and both mean “holy ones”.

The celebration of Halloween (Hallows’ Eve) in our present society and culture takes on a secular or non-spiritual nature as well as a religious celebration. It has been practiced in the Christian Church for a long and fruitful period of time as our dead “holy ones” are remembered.

As with many of our celebrated Christian Holy Days, like Christmas and Easter, All Saints’ Day and Eve have a connection with past Pagan festivals. In this instance, remembering their dead. The people of many past cultures have remembered their dead. These cultures have had various understandings about death and have celebrated death in many ways.

For many years, Christians have dealt with death on All Hallows’ Eve and have proclaimed Christ's victory over death as they continue to live their lives in the hope of everlasting life in Christ. Early Christians would gather and worship in remembering the saints' victories over evil. Some would act this out with displays of Jesus’ overcoming evil.  It was customary to use costumes and masks in these demonstrations.

Thoughts of death and evil are a struggle for us humans. As with many negative aspects of life, we allow our sense of humor to help us. Many comedians have made us laugh with witty comments about things we fear. Our Halloween celebration with the scary costumes, images and trick or treating is a way we deal with death and evil. That is, by addressing them straight on and having fun and a laugh over the things we fear.

In our humorous attacks on death and evil, we have a confidence and a hope in Christ’s victory over darkness in the world. In a nutshell, we do not glorify evil in our celebration of All Hallows’ Eve (Halloween). Instead we lift ourselves up to the Lord in knowledge of the eternal life we are given. This gift of eternal life assures us a safe passage over death and evil through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

And now we can joyfully celebrate Halloween as we see the close relationship it has with the Easter story and Christ’s victories won for us as He died for us on the cross. Happy Halloween!

Being Touched by God

Many people over the years have experienced near death events that brought them closer to the God they believed in or had questioned the existence of.  Most all of these experiences have been discounted as some unreal episode during a physical and or mental disruption caused by accident or illness.
                                                                                                                                                          
I happen to be one of those people and I have no doubt that it was a real heavenly event. In my certainty of what I experienced, I have not needed support in what I felt. God is my support. Quite recently, a neurosurgeon named Dr. Eben Alexander experienced something very much like I experienced that shed light on what I went through.

Dr. Alexander went into a deep coma for 7-days as a result of a rare form of brain attacking meningitis. As he tells his story today, there was little chance of his survival and scientifically speaking his brain was totally shut down in a way that ruled out any way he could have imagined anything. He describes his experience as moving to a different level of consciousness far removed from brain function. It was in that state that he experienced God. He tells his story in his book title, PROOF OF HEAVEN: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Afterlife.

My story is much like Dr. Alexander’s story, but without the scientific approach.  After over a year of thinking I was having bad sinus headaches, the reality of my real illness came closer and I began to experience intermittent double-vision. As the fact of my brain tumor was being revealed and my diagnosis determined, I began a journey on which the ultimate revelation was unfolding.  

First, I was lifted up in prayer by the Christian Community I was so fortunate to have been a part of for many years. Second, I was intentional about letting people know of my situation and not trying to keep it a big secret. Through all of this, God revealed Himself to me through His Spirit.

I felt an overwhelming love and forgiveness. Even though I had been told all my life that I was forgiven through Christ's atonement, I never really felt it until then. I felt as if I had been brushed clean with a wire brush using the strongest cleaning compound.

God communicated to me through His Spirit that He loved me and I felt totally secure no matter what the outcome of my illness and surgery. Being with Him was the comfort and He gave me a glimpse into His Eternal Kingdom. I lost my fear of death and all worry about my family disappeared as He showed me the love that He has for them as well. 

God Showed me through His Spirit that I'm already in Eternal Life and I need not draw a line between life and death. Yes, I can begin to experience His Kingdom right here and now. This is only a snapshot of His revelation to me. There were many images that helped build this newfound reality. The impact on me was that all doubt was removed concerning God's existence and I now can freely celebrate His Kingdom and my part in it, as I seek His Will in all things.           

Marcus Borg comes very close to describing what I experienced during my brain surgery event. He says, "Enlightenment as an archetypal religious metaphor belongs to a mystical way of being religious...........Such an experience leads to seeing everything differently. It is not simply an intellectual or mental 'seeing', as when we say, 'Oh, I see what you mean.' Rather, enlightenment as a religious experience involves communion or union with what is, an immediate 'knowing' of the sacred that transforms one's way of seeing." Borg goes on to say, "The language of enlightenment connects to John's emphasis upon knowing God. For John, such knowing is the primary meaning of 'eternal life', not a future state beyond death, but an experience in the present. To know God is eternal life: 'This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God.'" [Marcus J. Borg, Reading the Bible Again for the First Time, (c) 2001 by Marcus J. Borg. Part Three, The New Testament, 8-Reading the Gospels Again p. 214.]

An Aquifer and a Gentle Man

All baptized Christians have something in common with Jesus through baptism and in baptism. We have all been baptized with water that was first in the form of rain. How did it make it to our baptism?  The ground absorbs  rainwater and it is captured in places called aquifers. 
                        

These aquifers are underground layers of water contained porous rock, gravel, sand or silt. This water can be accessed by use of a well and it may naturally flow to streams and rivers.  A portion of rainwater, of course, stays mostly on the earth’s surface and makes its way via ditches to larger streams and rivers. At some point man retrieves the water for personal, business or baptismal use.

The Jordan River, in which Jesus was baptized, is fed by rains falling on the neighboring plateaus and into aquifers. The waters then flow downward to streams. The Jordan River is quite shallow and eventually disappears into the Dead Sea.

The water in which John baptized Jesus was probably a bit saltier than our water of baptism. It came from thermal springs and contained gypsum, which gave the water a high degree of salinity, leaving a salty residue on the land when used for irrigation.

And now we move to the “Gentle Man”, Jesus. His cousin John the Baptist, son of Elizabeth, was certainly busy with his followers baptizing them in the waters of the Jordon River. God’s plan was certainly played out in the life of John, as some of his disciples became disciples of Jesus. John seemed to know his role in preparing the way for his cousin Jesus. He lost his life in doing so.

In Matthew 3:1-3, we hear, “In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea……For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying: “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; Make His paths straight.’”

John even had Sadducees and Pharisees coming out to be baptized in repentance. He scolded them and told them to do something worthy in order to earn repentance. They probably just wanted to see what he was up to and cover their bases.

John made it clear to all as we are told in Matthew 3:11; “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”

The gentle Jesus, Son of Man, finally came to John to be baptized by him. John was very reluctant and told Jesus that he had it backwards. John said that Jesus should be baptizing him not the other way around. Jesus then reminded John that he should do the baptizing in order to fulfill God’s plan.

God’s plan was fulfilled as Matthew 3:16-17  continues and tells us: “When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him.  And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

Through His baptism, Jesus continued to live into God’s plan for Him as the Son of Man and the Son of God. Let us live into our water of baptism and the righteousness that God has chosen for us.

And then religion broke out!

We seem to talk to God more often when we are having difficulties in our lives.  It’s just hard for us to find time to even think about God sometimes. Our biggest challenge in life is to include God in all we do in this world. He is sending His Spirit to us continually, but if we don’t focus on it, we miss the message.

A friend of mine told me about a trip his father once made on a major airline. It seems that as the plane was beginning to lose altitude as it came close to the destination, the pilot could not get the landing gear to deploy. A three hour circling of the airport began as the pilot tried to get the landing gear to deploy and the airport began to prepare for a potential crash landing. My friend’s father said that, “religion broke out all over the cabin.”

Since I don’t have any idea about the spiritual life of any of those passengers, it’s not for me to comment on their individual devoutness. The story, however; does make us think about our devoutness and if we’re giving God the attention He expects from us, His children, in the seemingly normal times of our lives.  

James 5:13-15 informs us in saying, “Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.”

I have learned to try to include God in every moment of my life.  God’s revelation to me during my 1993 brain surgery event changed me forever.  To borrow from Marcus Borg’s book title, I was “Meeting Jesus again for the first time.” The Spirit of God came upon me like never before. I wonder if any passengers on the plane with the landing gear issue felt a peace as they prayed to God. I would hope so. I can certainly understand how “religion broke out”, so to speak, in a situation like that.

Regarding my friend’s father’s comment, maybe religion should have broken out all over the cabin. It’s easy to joke about it after the fact and safe landing. St. Paul tells us in Philippians 4:6-7 “Do not worry about anything, 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 your minds in Christ Jesus.”

During my revelation experience in my 10-hour brain surgery, everything seemed to be positive in the presence of the Lord. One particular part of scripture seemed to echo in my thinking. That echo was Psalm 91: 11-12 as it kept informing me: “For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.  On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.”

As regards our seeking God in all aspects of our lives, we have to overcome our own inertia. You’ve probably heard the general description of Newton’s Laws of motion: ‘things in motion tend to stay in motion and things at rest tend to stay at rest.’ So it is in our lives in being in motion or resting when it comes to connecting with God. We must be intentional, active and repetitive in seeking God in our lives.

Our Faith in God should “break out” in and around us all the days of our lives and as Psalm 23:6 tells us: “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.”

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.”