Hanging together or separately

Benjamin Franklin stated at the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, “We must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately." While this may not have been an expression of religious faith, it certainly inspired some sort of faith and understanding of being one and together.

The potential power and effectiveness of our Christian Communities is awesome. Working together with God’s guidance is life changing and life building. God did not intend for us to be at odds with each other, but to be uplifting and comforting with each other. We are His tools for seeking the best for His created children. The more we realize this, the better life on Earth will be. It takes all of us to help God realize His Will for us, His created children.  

In 1 Peter 4:8-11 we see our calling: “Above all, maintain constant love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another without complaining.  Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received.  Whoever speaks must do so as one speaking the very words of God; whoever serves must do so with the strength that God supplies, so that God may be glorified in all things through Jesus Christ. To him belong the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.”

We sometimes have a lack of confidence in the gifts God has given us. He intends for us to use them for Him, but we don't think that we are worthy. We cheat others and ourselves when we don't appreciate and make the most of our gifts. God has given each of us so much. He created us for a reason. He gave each of us special gifts for a reason. He wants us to love one another and to come hand-in-hand to Him.

St. Paul says it so well, "Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good." (1 Corinthians 12:1-11)                                                    

God is not interested in just the few working for Him; He wants all of us in on the action. The meek and the poor can well minister to the great and the powerful. St. Matthew shares Jesus' words with us when he said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven… Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth." If this is true for these, then everyone else needs to get with the program and use the gifts that God has given for His work. Each of us is called to be a Christian leader.

God is not selfish with His word and His strength. He's willing to work with us on a "rent-to-own" basis. Using our gifts from God, we may speak His words as though they were our own and we may serve others having His strength within us. With the salvation He has given us through the life and the blood of Jesus, we gain forgiveness of our sins and ownership in His eternal kingdom.  

So we must hang together and not be separated in the Lord. In Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 we hear: “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up the other; but woe to one who is alone and falls and does not have another to help. Again, if two lie together, they keep warm; but how can one keep warm alone? And though one might prevail against another, two will withstand one. A threefold cord is not quickly broken.”

St. Paul wraps things up in Philippians 2:3-5:  “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.  Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,”

Hate rules out love

As we look around our world today and study past history, we see much of humanity filled with hate for one another. While there is much goodness and love in this world, hate seems to take the spotlight. In many cases, the hate has gone on for hundreds and even thousands of years between the same people. Unfortunately, hate exists in our nation’s communities. Yes, in the good old U.S.A. How does this happen?

I have always thought that hate was not inherent in us; that hate is learned. I was reminded recently of a quote by Nelson Mandela. He summed up and confirmed my thoughts. He expressed the following: “No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”

We can justify our hate by retrieving a past history with a type of person. This is an immediate judgment of a person without even knowing them. We can find so many ways to decide there’s something we just don’t like about a person. Hate or dislike should not be our first action. If we can let love be our first action, we will allow the other person to express their inner self in a way that might surprise us. Our lack of love can produce a false negativity.   

In John 4:20 were hear: “If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.” And in Proverbs 10:12: “Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses.” And then in 1 John 2:11: “But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes. “

Peter warns us in 1 Peter 2:1-10: "Rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice, and all guile, insincerity, envy, and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation--if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good."

In one statement Peter just wiped out my average day. As much as we focus on Christ, we still stumble in our lives. It's hard not to be angry, deceitful, insincere, hypocritical, envious and slanderous as we go about our daily lives. Even with the best intentions, we slip into these evil ways. I know that I have been a blocker of good communications by the way that I have reacted to others. There are those little demons that I have allowed inside me that pop out at all the wrong times.

I have been a poor example to my brothers and sisters. Just when my correct action or reaction would mean so much to someone, I give in to my sinful nature and in doing so fail to witness as I should for the Lord. My movements toward my natural life nourishments overpower my taste for the spiritual milk of the Lord. The Saints must have had tremendous patience. My lack of patience keeps me from acquiring a taste for the good that is the Lord. I have my own agenda, not His.

Charles Swindoll wrote that ten percent of life is what happens to us and ninety percent is how we react to it. Every day we are challenged to react properly to the things that happen to us. Whether these things are good or bad, we must always seek the Lord's guidance in all things. Satan is waiting in the wings, ready to pull us back from our desire to taste God's spiritual milk. Our patience is short. Benjamin Franklin's words always bring me up short as he wrote, "Patience keeps the dear school, but a fool can learn in no other."

We must confess to the Lord that we have followed too much our own take on life, and pray that He will help us to seek Him in everything that we do. We must ask for His help to have His patience in our lives. His patience with us is a wonderful sign of His love for us. Allow Him to teach us to love our brothers and sisters as he has loved us, and to be patient as we await His guidance.

St. Paul sums things up in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7: “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

Believing at home and away

God wants us to connect with His eternal kingdom while we are still in the natural world. By sending us His Son Jesus the Christ He is making that connection for all people forevermore. It is hard for us to think eternally. We have so many immediate distractions in the natural life that we fail to realize what God is offering us. We can start to experience heaven on earth by coming to the Father through the Son and the Holy Spirit.

God gives us this anticipation of eternal life with Him in order that our lives here on earth might be more fruitful for Him. While no human has ever seen God except His Son, the Son of man, it is through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus that the promise and the vision of the everlasting kingdom comes to us. When we need this vision and assurance most, it comes to us through prayer. It comes to us by our faith and our hope. Our love for one another helps God reveal His promise of eternal care and comfort and joy to us.

In Revelation 21:1-7 we are told: "See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away."

God, through Christ and the Holy Spirit uses the faithful to help carry out His work among His people. It is not always easy for me to love my brother or sister, but as I seek God and learn His ways and His promise, I see how He loves me a sinner and I learn how to love. We can more readily experience life and love with God if we learn to love one another as He loves us. This brings heaven so much closer to us. God did not create us to live as individuals. He created His people as unique individuals for the purpose of coming together in love to worship Him.

As mortals we tend to seek things and experiences as if our time is running out and we've got to get it all in before we die. This is a very fatalistic way of viewing and experiencing life. This is why we fear death. By seeking God's eternal kingdom through our living the life in Christ within the Body of Christ, life itself is connected to eternity for us and we have no deadlines or quotas. "The home of God is among mortals!"

We are tested many times in wanting to see things before we believe. In John 4:46-54 we learn about faith in this story: "Then Jesus said to him, 'Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.' The official said to him, 'Sir, come down before my little boy dies.' Jesus said to him, 'Go; your son will live.' The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started on his way."

The royal official that approached Jesus in Cana where our Lord had turned water into wine had a sick son in Capernaum. The man begged Jesus to go and heal his son. This is when Jesus brought the man up short by saying, "Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe." The man was looking for Jesus to perform a miracle and to do this by going to the place where his son lay ill.

Jesus then said to him, "Go; your son will live." He believed the word of Jesus and went on his way to Capernaum. When he arrived he found that at the very hour that Jesus had said to him, "Go; your son will live," the boy's fever left him. Now the man and his whole household believed. Jesus did not make the trip to Capernaum, but the boy was healed. He was healed by faith.

So often we try to direct the Lord in our prayers and wishes. We look at healing and other needs through our own eyes and not through God's eyes. We are sometimes too specific in our prayer and lay out the details of the work that we want God to perform. We predetermine which outcomes that we will accept. We pray, but we lack faith. We think that Jesus must make the trip to Capernaum in order for the boy to be healed. We look for "signs and wonders" so that our belief can be confirmed.

Jesus saw that the man loved his son enough to humble himself and beg Jesus to heal the boy. The man was a royal official of much higher social and political ranking than Jesus. He believed that Jesus could heal his son. This belief was all that he needed. He did not need to presume anything other than this. Jesus did not need to go to the boy. He simply said, "Go; your son will live."

The Hidden Face of Grace

My brother does a lot of vertical climbing on the high elevation mountains in the Rockies. He was with a team of four a few years ago, just 400 feet from a 14,000-foot mountain summit. While setting the belay for their shared rope at the next higher point on the mountain, the lead climber knocked loose a boulder that was 3 to 4 feet in diameter. My brother heard it coming and quickly found a cleft in the rocky vertical face of the mountain. He pulled in all of his body except the knee of one leg. The boulder hit his knee gashing it open. The incident could have knocked all four climbers off of the mountain (all were connected by rope) had my brother not gotten far enough into a cleft.

Badly injured, the only way for my brother to go was up to the top. Climbing down this vertical side of the mountain was not an option. His team came to him in the cleft and nurtured him. When he had become stable enough, the others literally pulled him with them to the summit of the mountain. Once at the summit he had to be taken 4,000 feet down the hiking trail from the summit to a base camp where he would be protected from the life threatening exposure that he would have experienced had he stayed on the summit.

The next morning as my brother sat on the ground at their base camp treating his wound, a lady hiker came briskly trotting by and stopped to see what was wrong. She was a long distance runner and her husband was head of the rescue unit in the village at the foot of the mountain. She quickly jogged down the mountain to get help. Twenty-three hours after the accident, a rescue helicopter arrived at the 10,000 ft. elevation base camp to fly my brother to a hospital.

In a life threatening situation like my brother and his climbing mates experienced, there is no room for wondering if our Lord will be with us. We connect with Him automatically. These men were literally hanging off of the edge of the Earth and had to protect and deliver their climbing mate to safety.                                                                                                      

In Exodus 33:18-23 we are told: "And he said, 'I         proclaim before you the name, The LORD...But,' he said, 'you cannot see my face; for no one shall see me and live.' And the LORD continued, 'See, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock; and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by; then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back; but my face shall not be seen.'"

My brother may not have seen God’s face, but he certainly felt the hand of God holding him in that cleft of a rock. This was a gift of Grace that truly saved all four men and gave them the skill and courage to move to a safe place. The early morning mountain jogging lady was a face my brother was happy to see, and he knew who sent her. He was far from any kind of population in this rarely traveled area. And the lady’s husband just happened to have a helicopter.

Psalm 34:1-8 informs us in saying: “I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the Lord; let the humble hear and be glad. O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together. I sought the Lord, and he answered me, and delivered me from all my fears. Look to him, and be radiant; so your faces shall never be ashamed. This poor soul cried, and was heard by the Lord, and was saved from every trouble. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them. O taste and see that the Lord is good; happy are those who take refuge in him.”

We cannot see God face to face, but be assured that He will make all goodness pass before us. His goodness is His glory. He has given us a rock to stand on that is Christ Jesus and a cleft where we may find protection. He has shown himself to us through our life teams and others who find us in trouble. We will be able to see Him one day in His kingdom, but until then let us rejoice in the goodness that He brings to us through Jesus and one another. Let us share the good news of goodness!

Normal is as normal does

The computer-internet-social media experience for my generation and those younger has certainly helped maintain relationships with friends, classmates and teammates.  One of my contacts is an old high school football teammate who is 69 years of age and I’m 70. My friend Chuck has lived an extraordinary life of teaching, coaching, writing and being a great father and husband to a lady he says is his joy.

We played together on an undefeated (28-game win streak) football team in the Washington, D.C., suburbs. In the early sixties, school desegregation had already been implemented several years earlier, but racism was far from being eliminated or is it today.  God chose to make Chuck and me different colors in His many flavors of created children.  Chuck was a grade below me in school and in our football connection, through the encouragement of others, Chuck and I had a wrestling match one Saturday in the gym to see who was toughest. It turns out that we both won the wrestling match, for this was the beginning of a relationship of love and respect that continues today. The icing on the cake of this relationship is a joint love of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ

I must say that Chuck is a much greater stimulator of conversation in the social media than I am. About the time I think he has run out of questions and comments, here he comes again with more thought provoking stuff that reaches out to all of his many friends, students, classmates and teammates. Discussions about his spirituality are frequent and usually elicit many comments and questions from others.

Recently, Chuck began a long discussion that started like this: “Are you normal?  I am not. I have always had a cross section of heroes and friends. Most people my age, and I am just 69, their heroes are from their ethnic background. My heroes cover every racial and ethnic group and age category. I have often wondered why I am so strange and different.” This was just the tip of the iceberg of his comments, but it got me thinking about just what is normal. It made me think of a quote from Maya Angelou. She said, “If you are always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be.”

I remember reading a book entitled Same Kind of Different As Me that dispelled the idea of being normal. The awkward friendship between a white man and a black man that begins over coffee eventually evolves into the two sharing their lives with one another, even going on road trips together.  Denver Moore is a poor, black man who is bitter and penniless that ends up graciously loving those who hate him. Ron Hall, a self-absorbed affluent successful art dealer ends up serving at a local homeless shelter and inviting the poor into his home. This true story of friendship calls us to evaluate our lives with love and compassion. In the parallel stories of these two men we see completely different men, both from the South, both searching for life’s meaning in different ways.

There is no “Normal” in this life we live. Each of us is created by God with our one of a kind set of attributes. We should use them to seek God’s Will for us in this world. Each result is different not normal.

We are informed as to how God uses our unique differences in St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians 12:12-25, which says in part:--  “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.  For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many.  If the foot would say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body.  And if the ear would say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body.  If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?  But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.”

Science is moving closer to God

We have Holy Scripture and church doctrine that help us to understand the existence of and our relationship with God. Jesus, as God’s Word, took God’s message to a new level. Even with scripture and church doctrine, we can enhance our understanding and relationship with God in other ways as well.

We can get a glimpse of God in the beauty of nature that is around us and we can get an understanding of our Universe through science that seems to support our faith more as new discoveries are made. Seeing God’s gifts of plants, animals, land, sea and ourselves can help confirm our faith.  Understanding the universe better supports our faith and describes what a magnificent plan and gift God has given us.

Chet Raymo, a noted writer, scientist, educator and naturalist, decided in his early twenties, to explore more of nature on Earth and ponder the new discoveries in science relating to not only our Earth, but to our universe. He is Professor Emeritus of Physics and Astronomy at Stonehill College, in Easton, Massachusetts. His weekly newspaper column Science Musings appeared in the Boston Globe for twenty years. In Raymo’s studies of the universe he said, “In science I discovered a universe of wonderful dimension, complexity and beauty. It was a universe that folded inward to embrace the helical dance of [our] DNA, and outward to enclose the enigmatic quasars and spiraling galaxies.” Raymo goes on to say, “The questions I then asked were these:        1) What is the relevance of traditional religion in the world described by contemporary science?    2) Is scientific knowledge a satisfactory ground for the religious experience? 3) Can the language of traditional religion constitute an appropriately modern language of praise?

In one period of his life, Raymo spent 8 consecutive summers on the peninsula of Dingle in Southwestern Ireland.  This piece of land was full of signs of creation in the rocks, flora & fauna. Dingle’s unpredictable weather and difficulty in entry has kept out industry and sightseers. In his book, Honey from Stone - A Naturalists Search for God, Raymo explains his search for a connection with God through nature. His book title is taken from a quote by St. Bernard of Clairvaux: “More things are learnt in the woods than from books; trees and rocks will teach you things not to be heard elsewhere.  You will see for yourselves that honey may be gathered from stones and oil from the hardest rock……”

In addition to his reconnections with nature, Raymo makes a comparison involving Earth and the Super Nova’s, Quasars/Black Holes, Galaxies and stars in general. For instance, a Quasar is a very distant semi-star powered by a black hole with a mass two billion times that of the Sun. Quasars are believed to be powered by swallowing up other mass in the universe. A super-massive black hole would have to consume the material equivalent of 10 stars per year. The brightest known quasars devour 1000 solar masses of material every year. The largest known is estimated to consume matter equivalent to 600 Earths per minute. There is a very distant quasar powered by a black hole with a mass two billion times that of the Sun. That is humbling information for us tiny Earthlings.

Raymo compares these Black Holes with the DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid) of all living things on Earth as it encodes the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms and many viruses. In making the connection between far away stars and our own DNA, Raymo talks about our kinship.  This kinship is confirmed in the Public Television series, COSMOS, first presented in 1980. In this series it is demonstrated that the elements created and contained in “star dust” are the same as the elements in our personal DNA Codes. Our bones, tissue, muscles contain these “star dust” elements. For instance, when a Super Nova millions of miles from Earth explodes at the end of its existence, the dust that is created and spread through the universe contains the elements we are made of.

For us Christians, science can only tell us what it discovers about the universe made by our Creator God. Science helps us understand just how great God’s gifts to us really are. The descriptions of Creation in the Bible tell us what science is just finding out. Science is not needed to prove what is already known to us. It only serves as detail concerning what God has already told us: “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:19).

There's one thing I know I should do

Several years ago, I began a habit of taking the tune from a onetime popular song and writing my own lyric. I have chosen tunes that I’ve been drawn to and penciled in my own, usually spiritual, lyric. This habit exercises my brain and challenges me to express my faith in a new way.

 I’ve often noticed that hymns we sing in church are many times one person’s lyrics put to another person’s tune. Certain tunes have been used by new lyric writers a number of times. So over time, many have used this way of expressing their thoughts and faith using a tune already in place.

The tune that has recently caught my attention is “Dedicated to the One I Love”, written by Lowman Pauling and Ralph Bass. It has been performed by many artists over the years. While my lyric doesn’t rime with the original lyric, it fits the rhythm and format. It goes like this:

“When I ignore you O my Father,
I know it saddens You, my Father.
And things don’t go my way my Father.
And in the darkness, there’s no song. 

But the times when I go to bed My Father,
And I whisper a little prayer to you my Father
Then you make the stars to shine above
And Your Love and light they flow to me.                                      

Life can never be exactly like we want it to be,
but I should be happy knowing you love me.
There's one thing I know I should do, especially for You. I should let You handle all my needs.

When I ignore you O my Father,
I know it saddens You, my Father.
And things don’t go my way my Father.
And in the darkness, there’s no song. 

There's one thing I know I should do, especially for You. I should let You handle all my needs.”

It is not only necessary for us to turn to our Creator Father in all things, it is mandatory in living the gift of life He has given us. We must not throw away His gift. The verses of Psalm 8 sing to us the characteristics of our God and Father: 

“O LORD our Governor, how exalted is your Name in all the world!

Out of the mouths of infants and children your majesty is praised above the heavens.

You have set up a stronghold against your adversaries, to quell the enemy and the avenger.

When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars you have set in their courses,

What is man that you should be mindful of him? The son of man that you should seek him out?

You have made him but little lower than the angels; you adorn him with glory and honor;

You give him mastery over the works of your hands; you put all things under his feet:

All sheep and oxen, even the wild beasts of the field, The birds of the air, the fish of the sea, and whatsoever walks in the paths of the sea.

O LORD our Governor, how exalted is your Name in all the world!”

We must take God seriously, for we owe this life to Him. Those who go other ways are missing the most beautiful parts of life. Man has achieved great things, but there is no other Creator. He is One.

Who's in charge?

We are challenged in our lives each day as to who is in control. The tension of deciding whether we’re in charge or God is in charge haunts us. We feel like we must do something on our own, but most times we end up taking charge of everything. In Zechariah 7:8--8:8 we hear about the condition of man several thousand years ago: "Thus says the LORD of hosts: Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another...But they refused to listen, and turned a stubborn shoulder, and stopped their ears in order not to hear. They made their hearts adamant in order not to hear the law and the words that the LORD of hosts had sent by his spirit through the former prophets.”

This stubbornness sounds very bold. It's hard to imagine people being so reluctant to follow and listen to the Lord. But when we are distracted from the Lord are we not doing the same thing? Are not our ears deaf and eyes blind to the Lord when we simply put Him on hold while we get on with the rest of our lives? Whether intentional or just through neglect and laziness, when we turn off the Lord in our lives we are no better than these are.

We treat God as a last resort. We think, "I'll do it my way and if all else fails I'll call on God to bail me out." If we know that He is the answer, why do we wait? Are we embarrassed to call on Him? This reminds me of relationships that I have observed over the years between leaders and their subordinates. I have been on both ends of this myself. There is something unpleasant about having to report bad news. No one likes to tell their superior that things are not going so well. We come up with all sorts of schemes to convince ourselves that we can hide our problems and fix them before we have to come clean about them.

Our relationship with God is similar. We just hate to admit to Him that we can't do it on our own. Somehow we have come up with the notion that He wants us to be strong and independent, showing no weakness. Nothing could be further from the truth. God knows everything about us. He created us and follows our every move. How can we possibly think that we can keep anything from Him? He knows it before it's done. He is always holding out His hand for us because He knows that we need Him. He doesn't expect us to do it without Him. But we still refuse to listen; turn a stubborn shoulder; and stop our ears.

For whatever reasons that we have for not seeking the Lord in all things, we must reject them and turn to Him now and every day hereafter. We must have a sense of urgency about getting this right with the Lord. We must surrender our egos when He is concerned. We must not be afraid to share the bad news with the good. He already knows. He is simply waiting patiently for us to take His hand. He is always there for us. We are not alone. God expects us to trust Him with everything. He sees it not as weakness, but as strength. He wonders why His children are slow to come to Him. We must listen to His Spirit, "Render true judgments, [and] show kindness and mercy to one another."

I wrote this psalm many years ago in my attempt to understand the Lord in my life: “Jesus, on Your cross You have blessed me. God has lost all His memory, of my life lived in Sin. Oh Your death brings forgiveness and a promise I see, Yes Your light shines - New life begins. Save me, from my many temptations. When I look at my sad self, I see I've not begun, to turn to You, as I know that You want me to. Help me seek You, in my life.

Every time I turn to things that aren't desirable for me. Your angels fly over to watch and warn me, I know You won't ignore me. Your light is the light I must search for. I must look for the new life that brings peace and ends Sin. Oh Your light shines and shows me that my darkness will end, and eternal life begins.

For all my days in my old ways, You will not make me accountable. For when I seek You and turn my life on over, there's nothing insurmountable. You find it so easy to love me
even though I've strayed far from all the ways that You've shown. You have touched me and now I know the promise You keep. I will never be alone.”

Was that me or God?

I got a call from my church one morning recently to tell me that my longtime friend and church-mate had passed away.  I was asked to go to her home and check in with her family. When I got there, she was still in her bed as peaceful as could be. Her daughter said she thought her mom was ready to go and be with God.  After visiting a bit with her daughter and the hospice folks we gathered around her bed and prayed some prayers. I told her daughter that I would help in any way needed, including her mom’s funeral.

The day before the funeral, our pastor told me the part I would play and that the family had asked for me to say a few words about my friend. I thought this request would be easy to carry out for my dear friend and that I could just about do it off the top of my head right then.

I went home that afternoon and began thinking about how I would present that which was already on my mind. Nothing much changed my feelings that I could get up in church and share what I already knew and felt. So off to bed I went, seeking a peaceful night and praying for God’s guidance in my mission for my friend and her family

Just after midnight, I began dreaming and seemed to be in and out of a full sleep. As my mind turned in this state I was in, I began thinking about a folk song that was sung by a folk group trio I used to go and hear perform back in the early 1960’s. The group was the Journeymen and the song was, Run Maggie Run – (Chase the Rising Sun). I knew every word of the song and its melody. It kept going through my mind and the next thing I knew, I was altering the lyric and putting in my thoughts about my deceased friend. After an hour or so of this song racing through my mind and my adding my special lyric, I thought I’d better at least get up and type some of this down on my computer. It was about 2:00 a.m. and I carefully rolled out of bed so as not to disturb my wife.

As I cranked up my computer, I started writing down my lyrics for this tune. While I used the tune for the base of my message, I used a slightly different format and a couple of extra verses. I had actually contacted an old work mate the day before, that had taken classes from my friend in the local technical college and easily worked some of her comments into my soon to be poem remembering my old friend. My poem named, An Ode to Bobbi, was ready to go and I read it to the family and our congregation at her funeral. It goes like this:

“I sat out one morning beside my garden spring, heard my old friend Bobbi died and I began to sing. I began to sing, I began to sing, heard my old friend Bobbi died and I began to sing.

Me and my friend Bobbi laughed together all the time, Bobbi always cheered me up, as an angel she’ll be fine, as an angel she’ll be fine. Yes she’ll be fine, yes she’ll be fine, she’ll be there to cheer us up; as God’s angel she’ll be fine.

Bobbi taught good business skills to some young workmates of mine, said she was a no-nonsense gal, very professional all the time, very professional all the time. Said they learned a lot from her, they didn’t know it all, said she was a sharp dresser, like she’s going to a ball, like she’s going to a ball.

Bobbi’s sense of humor enriched many lives around; God can use that funny girl to be His Heavenly Clown, yes to be His Heavenly Clown. So, Run Bobbi run, Run Bobbi run, get everything together with God and someday we’ll be one. Run Bobbi run, Run Bobbi run, get everything together with God and someday we’ll be one.”

Fitting into God's Creation

St. Paul’s life was certainly not free of pain and suffering for the Lord. His optimism in the Lord is an example for us as we live out our lives in faith.  Paul was not always connected to our Lord Jesus.  Many of us have struggled with worldly distractions before turning our lives over to God through Jesus and trusting in Him and His Son.  St. Paul says in Romans 8:26-34: "We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose."

It takes a strong faith to forge ahead for God when we are encountered at every turn by forces that would see us fail. God promises that no matter what or who our foe, the happenings in our lives will be positioned together to work for good. How do we receive ownership in this? We must love God, listen for His call and take action on it no matter what is in our way.

Diogenes Laertius, the ancient Greek philosopher, wrote this dynamic description of  Earth and Man in his “Time is the Image of Eternity”: "Eons before man, the perpetual ebb and flow of the ocean's tides carved an ever-changing face on the spinning globe. From the ocean's depth came man and inhabited the Earth. Like the tides in which he was born he brought changes...As the seas raged against the Earth, ocean and land now fused now torn, so man met conflict. Struggle and peace became the alternating tides of history. We cannot mourn the ebbing tide, as soon the flow will rush to land.

So man has learned, eternal conflict is perpetual growth. Today's struggle is tomorrow's strength. We are part of man's perpetual renewal of strength. This strength is knowledge, accumulated for us in the course of time. So we become in our time an image of eternity mirroring all mankind. But unlike the tides controlled by the stars, we are not bound to fixed limitations. The future, a constant tide, ebbing and flowing, is ours to determine."

While this is a beautiful piece, I always take the liberty to mentally add some things that would have made it complete for me. First of all, what Diogenes is describing here is God's created Earth. The future is ours to determine good in this world.  If we love God and accept His calling according to His purposes, as St. Paul said, we will please Him and good will flow. We will, however, always have difficult challenges. At the end of our very short stay on Earth, we will lose the gift of 'free will' and God will take us to His chest. We should try to seek God every day in anticipation of that day.

It is only through great discipline that we can fend off the evil that engulfs the world and tempts us. The pressures are great for the strongest. In our faltering we give in to the secular culture. We set the bar low. As long as we don't get caught or called into judgment by the secular world, we're safe. We fool ourselves, but not God.

History is full of witnesses to the power of God over darkness, over evil. Many have testified to close encounters with God, which have moved them away from evil and changed their lives. The unbelievers put more stock in the last lottery ticket they bought than in the way of the cross.

God is at work in those who believe in Him; those who accept His grace and pray to Him. When we doubt the power of God it is usually because we cannot believe that He can work miracles through us. Our spiritual self-esteem is bankrupt. We are like the Tin Man, the Scarecrow and the Lion. We fail to realize that we possess the very qualities that we seek. We fail to understand that the only true and gentle power is the power of God. That power dwells within us. Our challenge is to recognize it and use it.

Will they know we are Christians?

I recently met with a couple of Christian friends for lunch. We asked the Lord to bless our food and we talked for about an hour about things going on in our lives and where our personal ministries for the Lord were taking us. Our waitress was very nice and took an interest in the spiritual things she heard us sharing.

As she was waiting on us, checking our need for refills and the like, we included her in our conversation. She shared about things going on in her life and her trouble in surviving on a very low hourly wage plus tips. We asked her how many hours she worked a week and what was her busiest day. She said that Sunday was her busiest day, but she disliked it the most of all her work days.

We were shocked by her answer as to why she disliked Sunday work. She said, “Lots of church people come to lunch here after their Sunday church services. They are the most rude and demanding customers I have all week. I am exhausted by the end of my Sunday shift.” In her case, a strange meaning is communicated in the words of the tune, “They will know we are Christians.”    

Going to church on Sunday does not always make us behave like good Christians when we go through the doors of the church and into the world. No matter what we might think we are doing in our activities at church, we can only be a Christian if we allow Christ to dwell in and among us.

In 2^nd Corinthians 13:5-8, St. Paul gives us a litmus test to check our action acidity in saying: ^“Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?  And I trust that you will discover that we have not failed the test.  Now we pray to God that you will not do anything wrong—not so that people will see that we have stood the test but so that you will do what is right even though we may seem to have failed.  For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth.”

We find guidance in scripture to help us prepare ourselves for daily living and interaction with others. The Holy Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is certainly a blessing to us in seeking God’s Will in our lives. As we have God’s forgiveness and deliverance from our sin, we don’t have to look back, but forward in our interaction with our fellow man. Seeking God’s Will in all that we do makes us ready to take Christian action in all of our environments with the Grace of God and His Spirit flowing into and through us.

We can make our own litmus test to see if we are preparing for and fulfilling that which we are called by God to do in this world. While we may fool ourselves, our Father recognizes immediately if the Spirit of Christ is in us. As for ourselves, we must examine our thoughts and actions regularly to be sure that they conform to God’s Will. In 2nd Peter Chapter 1, we are reminded of our gifts from God and our Savior Jesus Christ and that they are great and many.

And thus in 2^nd Peter 1:5-9, we hear: “For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.  For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.  But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.”

So as the song tells us that we should be one in the Spirit and one in the Lord, then “they’ll know we are Christians by our love.” This works in restaurants and at all times and places in our lives.

Seamless Life in Christ

I have a good friend and church-mate that has worked to collect and save all sorts of things about our local church’s history. He has a great interest in the details of our past history, which goes back to 1888. He recently treated our members to some excerpts from an old church newsletter that presented information about activities of church members some eighteen years ago.

Among the excerpts was a quote from an Anglican priest named George Carey, who eventually became the Archbishop of Canterbury. As such, he was the leader of the Church of England and a provider of unity for the worldwide Anglican Communion, although he had no direct authority over it.

The quotation mentioned above, is from Carey’s 1984 book title, The Church in the Market Place. In reading the quotation, I was led to ponder on the disposition of Christ’s church in this world today. He begins, “How it must break Christ's heart that his people are so scattered and divided! Oh, for men and women of love and faith to thread together the 'seamless' robe of Christ that rigidity, arrogance and intolerance tear apart. 'The nearer we come to Christ, the nearer we come together,' once said the Theologian Moltmann. It is about time we discovered that unity in him."

In thinking about now retired Archbishop Carey’s comments back in 1984, it has led me to ponder on the many ways we Christians can let the busy work of our churches get in the way of where God is leading us to fulfill His Will in us and through us in this world. In managing our churches, we sometimes lose touch with God’s mission. While prayer, study and Christian action should be driving us, many times we let disagreements and bossiness get in the way of our outreach and internal ministries.

As practicing Christians we should always trust in God. He will always surprise us when we have doubts about our ability to do something in His name. He is always there beside us and we should look for Him to do our work together with Him.

As we all know, prayer is very important and is very powerful. Whether it is prayer for the sick and needy, prayer for a church project, prayer for church outreach ministry or our own personal prayers for self, family and friends, prayer drives all things. My personal experience in prison ministry has accented my awareness of prayer. In forming a forty person team to spend three days in a State Prison with a group of 42 inmates, prayer is the fuel. Having spiritual talks, discussions, artwork and other sharing with inmates requires prayer.

We have some fifteen talks and meditations during the three days and there is always a small group of us praying in a remote room for the speaker during his talk. The prayer team prays with each speaker before his talk and after his talk. Lunch and supper are prepared off site and brought into the prison to share together each day. Team formation and preparation for such an event takes many weeks prior to the prison retreat. An effective ministry such as this runs on continuous prayer. Local and connected people all over the world participate in prayer for and during this ministry.

All of a churches inward and outward ministry must be Spirit led. Reliance on the gifts of God’s Spirit is necessary in all things. Even with today’s sophisticated ways of communicating around the world on the internet, we must rely on the Holy Spirit as our way of discerning what God expects of us and where He is leading us. We must be so much in tune with the Spirit, that we will intuitively think and do what is right in the different aspects of our lives.

Choosing Our Paths

We are fortunate to live in America, where we have some choice as to how our lives will develop. God gave us free will and free countries like America allow us lots of room to exercise our free will. While we have no specific guarantees from God or our country, we can make many choices about paths we will follow and how we will relate to the rest of humanity. One size doesn’t fit all and there are many takes on life among us.

My Brother Chuck’s life experience is one of those lives a bit different than most. He is seven years younger than me, so I had a front row seat as to how he developed from childhood. From the time he started walking, my brother was interested in nature. Back in those days, we had a milk man that delivered our milk to an insulated box on our front porch. To the milk man’s surprise, he would sometimes find frogs and lizards in the milk box when he opened it to place our milk bottles. These creatures were gifts from my brother Chuck. He put them there for safe keeping.

As Chuck continued to grow, he selected other ways to connect with nature. He had a wonderful butterfly collection as well as a leaf collection. He had an interest in sports and hiking and after high school he went to our local junior college. He happened to have a professor that had a retreat cabin in Wisconsin, some 900 miles north of the college. He gave Chuck the keys to the place and told him to go visit and check out the condition of the cabin for him.

Chuck asked a neighbor friend and classmate to go on the excursion with him. After a cold and snowy winter, the guys decided to check out other parts of the U.S. That led them to Colorado and what would be home for both of them the rest of their lives. They each married and raised families there. Brother Chuck ended up in the Log Home construction business to support him and his family, but had lots of time for recreation. His list of activities included: kayaking, mountain climbing, vertical rock and ice climbing, bicycling, and fishing to name a few. He continues all of these today at age 63 and has expanded his explorations to many parts of America, Canada, Costa Rica & Mexico.

While being a good citizen during his life, Chuck has lived a bit differently than most of us. Other than his many recreational likes, he has approached life in a way apart from the worldly interferences that distract many of us. He has avoided the pressures of society and work as much as possible. He rarely listens to or watches the news. He refers to them as the talking heads and sees the media and politics as a distraction to his life enjoying nature.  

I stumbled upon an excerpt from Henry David Thoreau’s book, Walden -or- Life in the Woods, the other day and it made me think of my brother Chuck. This book was required reading for many of us in our schooling years. Thoreau lived for two years in a self-built cabin in the forest near Walden Pond, in Concord, Massachusetts. His reason for doing this is well explained by him in the quote below. While most of us have not been led to choose the lifestyle of Chuck or the direction suggested by Thoreau, they both reflect our need for more balance and enjoyment of life.

Thoreau writes in his Walden book: “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan- like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion. For most men, it appears to me, are in a strange uncertainty about it, whether it is of the devil or of God, and have somewhat hastily concluded that it is the chief end of man here to "glorify God and enjoy him forever."

Let’s enjoy God’s created gift of the Earth more and more. After all, He put us in charge! Genesis 1:28.

Realizing Our Amazing Gifts

We humans tend to take our God Given Gifts for granted. A friend of mine recently gave me some booklets with excerpts from the writings of Daniel G. Amen, M.D. The quoted book title is CHANGE YOUR BRAIN—Change Your Life. Dr. Amen is a clinical neuroscientist, psychiatrist and brain enhancement expert.  He has authored 22 books and is the medical director of the world renowned Amen Clinics.  

Like much of Science, Dr. Amen’s writings about personal issues of humans and just how complicated our brains are, can be used to better understand our God given gifts. Our lives are not accidents of nature and as our brains are described by Dr. Amen, we are unique in the universe.  While Dr. Amen practices forms of spirituality that are not acceptable to most Christians, his knowledge of the brain can certainly be used by all to better appreciate our great gift from God.

He has stated the following: “The brain is the most complicated organ in the universe. There is nothing as complex as the human brain. Nothing. It is estimated that we have 100 billion neurons or nerve cells and trillions of supportive brain cells called glial cells. Each neuron is connected to other neurons by up to 40,000 connections between cells. You have more connections in your brain than there are stars in the universe. Also, even though your brain is only about two percent of your body’s weight, it uses twenty-five to thirty percent of the calories you consume. Your brain is the major energy consumer in the body. Of the breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks you had today, almost a third went to feed your brain.” Dr. Amen also states that, “Our brain consumes 20% of the oxygen you breathe and 25% of the blood flow in your body.  

In Dr. Amen’s pamphlet BRAIN HEALTH—Master Questionnaire, he lists some fifty things that impact humans mentally. While few if any of us are impacted by all these conditions, we might all have been impacted occasionally or briefly by them. I don’t have room to list all fifty in this column, but here are a few: “lack attention to detail, are easily distracted, are restless, are negative, feel sad, feel bored, have low self esteem, feel socially isolated, feel upset when things do not go your way, worry, hold grudges, have a short fuse and lastly, wait for something bad to happen.”  That’s thirteen of the list of fifty. Dr. Amen’s work is excellent in helping folks with their brain health.

While I see the value of Dr. Amen’s work, reading some of his writings strengthens my faith in God and His ability to create us children with such complicated parts. The abilities of our brains make us different from all creation. We had to be created like this to be able to fulfill His charge for us to manage His created Planet Earth.

Genesis 1: 26-28 explains it this way,  “ Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’  So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’”

We are special in this world; however, we must realize our God given gifts and use them to understand His creative intent in putting us in charge of what He created. We matter to God. We don’t need to let Him or ourselves down.

Our Place in Creation

Once we decide to let go and let God act in our lives, we come to understand life in many different ways. We find God in the smallest pieces of creation that we missed in our past. When we seek to understand God in our lives, we are humbled by how limited we are in all of man’s achievements compared to God’s creative power. That which man has been able to understand about God’s created Universe is as small as a mustard seed compared to His work in creation.

Although the abilities of our minds to understand creation are limited, it is still a great gift we’ve been given by God that puts us above all creatures of the Earth. God has given man the sense to be drawn to those things that are a mystery to us, and the desire to unwind what we can’t understand. The danger in all of this is to become inebriated with what we can achieve and think we are on a level with our creator.

When man gets to the point where he thinks himself an expert on what is true in this world, he sets himself up for a calamity. He is ignoring the fact that it is God who is helping him find solutions. God acts quietly in our lives behind the scenes and has a helpful and generous plan in all things.

As human beings in our small part of God’s creation, we sometimes let our egos take charge and think that we have control over things. This is a trap we set for ourselves, that keeps us from fully enjoying all living humans and the gift of nature that God has given us. Much worse is a person not connected with our Creator God and thus is doomed to a life unfulfilled and meaningless. When it’s all boiled down, we are called to live our lives for others, and make this world a better place.

Our inborn need to be curious and question things of life is another gift from God. When we observe the Cosmos around us and think about life and the possibility of eternal life, our minds race in the processing of these marvelous jewels around us. We are humbled by these things and are drawn closer to God day by day as we attempt to unravel the blessings of life.

The more things we can ponder in this Godly creation, the closer we come to knowing God. Discoveries of science shouldn’t make us feel more in control, but more humble and connected with God’s Eternal Kingdom. Science and religion can go hand in hand when science is used to better understand God’s creative power and love for us little specs on Planet Earth.

The problem with misused science is that it gives man the ability to build weapons of mass destruction to be use to kill each other. So much talent and intellect is used in these efforts that could be used to bring peace to the world in appreciation of the gift all mankind has been given.

As true worshippers of God, we must live out the goodness and righteousness God expects of us. We are called to love one another and when followed by all religions, the world will be an even more beautiful place. Just thinking about these things won’t move us very far in reaching our desired condition for the world.

Of course there is evil in this world as God has given us free will. We can use our religion, our attempt to seek God in all aspects of our lives, to reach out to others and live our lives for them. There is work involved here, but we are not in it alone. When a difficult job seems easy, it’s because God is somewhere nearby.  

God is patient

We should be thankful that God does not operate like the folks in the fairs and carnivals that take your good money to play a game that is almost impossible to win. The phrase they shout at their clientele when ninety-nine percent of them can’t win the game is, “Close, but no cigar!”  This phrase goes back one hundred years when these fair and carnival workers would offer special cigars as prizes to those that could win the game.

God has a different kind of operation with us. He wants one-hundred percent of us to win His prize. That prize is salvation and an eternal relationship with Him as we live this natural life and pass on to a closer presence to Him. In John 5:24 we hear Jesus tell us, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. 

When in the Temple, Jesus addressed the Jews that doubted His relationship to God. He told them of the children of God and in John 10:28 He says, ^“And I give them eternal life and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.” Peter refreshes our spirit in 1 Peter 1:6-9 saying, “ In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials,  that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen, you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls.”

As a struggling Christian growing up, I had some notion of being with God after death in my natural life. I remember things that my mother and other relatives would say about death when we lost someone. When I was fourteen, I came home from school one day to hear my younger brother tell me, as I got off of the school bus, that our dad had died of a heart attack. He was thirty-nine years of age. With my dad and other family members who have died, I have always had a sense of spiritual connection with them. This was a beginning of knowing that any suffering that I might endure would somehow be eased in a spiritual afterlife.

In my experience of a life threatening brain tumor removal at age forty-nine, God revealed some wonderful things to me. He allowed me to look into eternity with Him from my hospital bed. I then realized that I was already on the fringe of His eternal kingdom. His forgiveness of my sins, which I was already feeling, and my faith in Him had opened His kingdom to me. I had the distinct feeling that no matter what the outcome of my surgery, that I would be blessed. And in seeing this as my gift from God, I could see the same gift for all of those I might leave behind.

I had a vision of Eternal Life as I was experiencing God’s Love & Grace during my surgery. I envisioned Eternal life to be like the ocean. The ocean waves moved toward the shore around the jetties and onto the beach. The shallow water of the beach is where I saw myself in this natural life, however; God’s Eternal Kingdom washed upon me at the beach. It revealed to me that we are already at the edges of Eternal Life and it washes over and around us. If we don’t realize that the surf on the beach is God’s spirit washing over us, we are stuck on the beach and don’t enjoy His Kingdom.

I will never be the same. I am sure of what lies ahead for me, so the troubles of today are easy to bear. I want all of my brothers and sisters in the Lord to be as happy as I am.  In Mark 12:32-34, when Jesus responded to a Scribe’s question as to what is the first commandment of all, the scribe said to Him, “’Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth, for there is one God, and there is no other but He. And to love Him with all the heart, with all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.’  Now when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, He said to him, ‘You are not far from the kingdom of God.’”  Now, that’s not a close, but no cigar statement, but a close and keep on reaching for God statement. 

Fear Not - Listen Much

Jesus spoke to Peter as Peter's fear caused him to sink into the water. Seeing Jesus walking on the water Peter asked to come with Him. Jesus commanded him to come but the strong wind frightened Peter and he began to sink. Jesus said, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?" (Matthew 14:22-33 NRSV). How often do we cry out to come to Jesus and get faint hearted and distracted before we get there?

A reading from scripture or a meditation might inspire us. The Sunday morning sermon may cause us to say, "What a coincidence, the preacher is talking about the very thing that I need to do in my life to resolve my situation." The unfortunate thing is that many times we falter as we try to respond to the inspiration. Like the strong wind that distracted Peter, things can distract us and keep us from fulfilling the message that God sends to us through a life event.

In matters of Faith there is no such thing as being "in over your head". In the natural life there are times when we're put down or rejected because we've tried to move beyond our skills and talents. God's only requirement is that we turn to him and have faith in him. Smart or dumb, rich or poor, the fare is faith.

I often tell a childhood story about my inability to catch a baseball that was hit high in the air. I would become unfocused and nervous as I waited for the ball to come down. I just couldn't keep my eyes on the ball. By the time the ball was near to the ground my quandary was that either I would miss catching the ball altogether or it would hit me in the head. Instead of being a part of the game I was reduced to being a target.

It's so easy to take our eyes off of Jesus. During a spiritual mission in my home church community a number of years ago, Canon Bryan Greene of England told a group of us, "Don't think that salvation is in doing the busy work around the church. That will get you nowhere." He told us that there is only one thing that we should do. He said to us, "Keep your eyes on Christ!"

Many would like to blame their times of struggle on someone else. Our parents seem to be easiest to blame for our problems, however; in Ezekiel 18:1-4 we are told: "...The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge...this proverb shall no more be used by you... "

The Lord goes on to say, "Know that all lives are mine; the life of the parent as well as the life of the child is mine; it is only the person who sins that shall die". It is comforting to know that God does not hold us responsible for another's sin. Our children are not accountable for our sins and we are not accountable for their sins. This the Lord revealed to Ezekiel.

On another level, however, we must be responsible for what we are teaching and modeling for our own and future generations. We are called to share the Lord with our children and all those that we contact. We are called to live and share the life of Christ. Many times and in unique ways a child can teach the parent something about the Godly life. It is ultimately, however, the individual's responsibility to keep God's law.

Living and sharing the Gospel is what is important in life. It is what God is calling us to do. What does our lifestyle communicate to our children, to our friends and neighbors? This is where the work is. Our own personal discipline to keep our eyes on Christ is the key. It's no coincidence that disciple and discipline share the same first seven letters.

And the Good News is that through Christ's crucifixion and atonement for our sin, we can start anew. When we turn to the Lord and dedicate our lives to Him, our loving and guiding creator, Ezekiel reminds us that God does not remember our sins. Let us never turn back to our old and sinful ways.

And I pray: ‘Heavenly Father, help me to live and reflect Your essence. Give me the strength to discipline my life in You. Prepare me to be Your influence in the lives of all those I touch. Give me the courage to take a stand for You and make it my own. Give me the courage to be bold in the world for You. In the name of Your Son our Savior Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, I pray. AMEN’