Zigzagging

          Have you ever felt that you zig-zag through life? When you were young did you feel rudderless as you tried to find out just what it was you wanted out of life?  I did.  I did a lit of zigging until God put a better rudder within me.  It took many years to do this and along the way my path was strewn with a lot of boulders that got in the way.  The path was never straight as I thought it would be. I was naive at best.  Paraphrasing: " A man sets his ways but it is the Lord who orders it." Something to that effect.  The old soldier who zigged when he should have zagged got shot. Or so it goes.  I still find that it is easy to go my own way and I sometimes find a lot of tugging at my heart when things get out of hand and I want to chuck it all and go on into the woods!  Find solitude and peace from all the requirements that are here and now.  But I am a a family man and I am a Christian so I cannot do that and be irresponsible and do that. I have commitments and they do not just go away.  So when this feeling happens I continue to find out just what it takes to stay the course that God has apprehended me for.
   When he grabbed me he also grabbed my heart and changed it.  So my ways are no longer just that my ....ways. They are now his.  And so like the disciples who were dramatically changed after Pentecost so am I.  And I have found others who say the same thing, others who confirm that I have not gone crazy, fanatical, fundamental, right-wing, cloistered, or what ever we as Christians have been labeled over the centuries we have been around.   lt's just that now we find ourselves trusting one who created everything...and I mean everything we see and that which we don't.  I am one who subscribes to mystery who can't quite figure all things out but along the way small pieces of the puzzle slowly begin to fit together.  Sanity in a world with out sanity. Peace in a world where every day a little more of it is torn down.  Revolutions that happen that stir up thousands upon thousands to discontent and violence because of unjustness.  These things are prevalent in the world.  But the counter to that is the world that Christ preached.  And we do not yet have it.  But we try. Love one another we try, forgive  our enemies it is hard. Love your wife, your children when you have just fought them over something petty. Look the other way at an offense that derails a friendship....hard.  But it is in the very thing that Christ did daily that was to change the world little by little, Us.....though it will never be 100%.  He died violently at the hands of men he then forgave on the cross. 

Is This As Good As It Gets?

     7:00 am
   
      I awoke early and went to the store as I usually do for my morning coffee and donuts.  As I entered the store I arrived at the freshly stocked case filled with just baked donuts with the aroma hitting my nose just before I opened the doors.  I put 2 in a bag and then turned and walked out through the aisles and towards the front of the store. As I walked I looked at all the food, and "stuff" perfectly aligned and in never ending rows.  Item upon item perfectly arrayed in an offering that seemed to go on forever and gave the sense of awe.  I remembered having grown up during the cold war, pictures of Russians standing for sometimes hours and perhaps days just to get bread.
     Suddenly my spirit and understanding caught up with me....What if this is as good as it gets?  And what if there will come a time when this no longer exists?  I confess I am a creature of habit and I enjoy my morning ritual. What if it suddenly goes pffft! and is no more?  We had the banking crisis go global and rock all markets so what if it goes a step further and we cannot get out the next time?  And...   we suffer calamity such as we have not been used too.  With that notion rattling around in my brain, I walked a little more soberly towards the checkout and paid for my donuts.  Half thinking what a strange thing that just happened to me!  Several years ago I suffered a time of joblessness and homlessness and somehow with ooodles of God's grace came out of it.  I came to know during that time what if felt like to have absolutely no purchasing power at all .....zilch#&^%!  So now when I see a person in need I have to stop myself from ignoring and dooooo something!
    Scripture says somewhere in the NT that if you see a brother in need and instead of helping with physical stuff like food and clothes but say " be well" then we are doing essentially nothing for that person. Just like if we do a drive by and leave that person without help.
    I know we cannot solve all that comes to us on a daily basis,  but little by little we can make a difference to someone, an individual, a person with feelings.  Even if it's small.
                                                   
                                                    I really like my coffee &  donuts!>>>>>>>
     

A Crushing Weight: need not crush

     What is it that crushes the spirit out of a man? (woman).  It is the load and weight of our lives lived perhaps without the knowledge of God?  Daily in our world we wrestle with the issues of lives lived sometimes in turmoil from day to day wishing we could go to that Margaritaville of Jimmy Buffet if only to relieve the pressure for a while. Why do we see that some people seem to go through life with all the possibilities at their finger tips and others scratch with those same fingers daily just to survive?        Proverbs is a book filled with the musings of a King one called Solomon who searched out just these same things thousands of years before us.  We are able to survive many types of situations day after day, read stories of death and destruction as long as it doesn't  touch us and keep on going like the energizer bunny until that is it finally reaches the point of breach like a dam and we are flooded with emotions out of control and only then do we seek some one or perhaps God himself to relieve us of these burdens we feel that are unbearable.
   These weights may " seem weightless" only until gravity takes hold like a spaceman returning to Earth, then reality takes hold.  Legs are weak from lack of muscle use and we are prone to falling easier.  Likewise so are we when each of us in our lifetime comes to the realization that we were meant to be supported by our faith in our Creator.  Over and again in the scriptures he woos  us to "taste and see that the Lord is good."  And again "take on my yoke' for it is easy....and lighter than our own.
     Whatever it is that you are dealing with, bills, death, sickness, depression or addictions he our God has remedy for us.  And it is not fiction.  The Holy Spirit himself given at Pentecost still fills everyone who seeks and calls on the name of the Lord. It is that wellspring of water Jesus promised from the Father given unto us to enrich our lives and make it entirely possible to live,love and be free of those bondages we are so easily prone to.  Those weights don't just go away but become like the gas Helium and are so much lighter than before because of the power infused into us as a new creation.  Though we will never be entirely free from the pressures and or circumstances we have thrown at us we can however be safe in the knowledge that he "cares for us so much more than a sparrow." and will come to us with blessings that would surprise you and in ways you would not expect him to.  The growth inwardly will increase exponentially as time goes on as you walk out your faith in him and his ways.
     Those Christians of the underground church in China deal with such heavy matters we cannot comprehend in this country. They i'm sure pray ceaselessly for intervention from God to help them through their lives.  And he does help them.
  Perhaps in the short and intense life of one called Jesus you can look deeper into that particular life and see just what it was about him that was magnetic to some and repulsive enough to others to change the world. Not only for those alive at the time but for every last man woman and child ever born.  It says somewhere that he first descended (into hell) before he ascended and preached a message of hope to those who would listen and led the captivity captive and set them free.  Those in our future will also have available to them the timeless message of the gospel that would set them free if and when they come to the realization that Jesus was the light of men sent into our world  and is not a myth.
                             
                         So today...." If you hear his voice.....harden not your heart, but instead take on his yoke for he says his burden is light.............
     

REALLY!

Martha:  "John I'm sorry but I have some bad news! I'm afraid Andrew is alive! "

John: "What do you mean? His body is sprawled right over there on the floor! He's dead alright!"

Martha: "NO, no that's just his body....look closer."

John:" I am...Sure looks dead to me!  He's not moving and he, well looks kinda pale too!"

Martha: " That's just his body, come on you know! We talked about this last year, right?"

John: "Um, I don't remember, tell me again what this means when my best friend's body is on my living room floor. My parents are due any moment, what am I going to do!"


Martha: "Well, Just wait, you'll see!"

John: "What?"

Martha: "Keep looking !,,,,,here it comes!"

John:   You're scaring me! Should I get out of the way? I mean what's coming?  The reaper? In my house?"

Martha: "No, no, not him, not for Andrew!  He's you know...going to be up there. (whispering)

John:" On my roof? (John looking up)"

Martha: "NO not on your roof silly!  Uuuuuuup There! (pointing higher up!)"

John: "In the clouds, I only thought that when I was little!"

Martha: "NO not in the clouds but getting warmer!"

John:" The Sun?"

Martha: Come oonnnnn! "No not there!"

John:" Ok. Where's Andrew gonna be?  He's dead , hasn't moved an inch!"

Martha: "Don't blink or you'll miss it!  He told me that!"

John:" Hey! Andrew's body...where'd it go?"

                                                  Martha: I told you! He's ALIVE.....!


John: "Tell me again what he told you last year,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,I forgot.....

Zombie Nation!

                                 The Walking Dead cable tv show has nothing!  Get This!

                      And those in the graves shall rise first!  The oceans will give up their dead.....

                        Where, O death, is your victory?
                               Where, O death, is your sting?”[i]

56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

     Have you Seen I am Legend?....wretched twisted humans non recognizable..corrupted by a virus. Seen World War Z?  Instantaneous hideous zombies & people acting out their wretchedness...  all fantasy.....but read on....

     But in Dante's Inferno there is a kind of truth....wretchedness and human suffering for all of the sins of man that has been heaped up upon himself. That's the real zombie nation.  Circles and layers of hell: >The Ante Inferno> filled with those who made no choice either good or evil, Limbo filled with pagans or those without Christ> then further down layer by layer gets filled with those of Lust, Gluttony,Wrath, Heretics, the Violent to others and to themselves,Seducers, Thieves, Diviners & Astrologers and finally those who Betrayed. The very center filled with Satan himself portrayed with three chewing heads himself bound up in ice having been cast to earth for his challenge to almighty God.

     There will indeed be a metamorphosis a change for those that will rise from the dust.  Some to corruption some to the glory promised by a God who does not change and will indeed play out his will on us those he has created and set loose on this earthly little ball hovering effortlessly in space by his will set among the gazillions of other worlds and galaxies uncomprehendingly  grasped by the human mind.

     Those that rise from the grave in Christ will also change from glory to glory.  Paul says in Corinthians. In the twinkling of an eye we will be changed.  We will not rise as we were in death in sickness and frail of body eaten up by time that has consumed our bodies and made them weak from exposure to all of our experiences either in sin our out of it by Cancers, or Parkinsons, or Sclerosis or many of the other sickness we are prone to in this life.  Why did Jesus heal so many? So many kinds of sicknesses are  identified in the Bible that he healed right away.  Those who succumbed to an early death,(think of the woman who was dearly loved who sewed all manner of clothing....and dearly missed she rose, from a healing (Dorcas).  The poor woman whose only son died prematurely...rose again from her faithfulness towards God and she was blessed with oil that did not cease to overflow abundantly even during famine.
    The  Lepers, lunatics, the  lame,the  blind, the paralyzed etc, etc. these living Zombies were changed forever by a touch of Christ and never to suffer again in their bodies except for natural aging were exposed to Christ and healed.
                                             
                                              "Mercy triumphs over judgement"...... that's the message for our change, our own metamorphosis...........no more Zombies!