What The Devil Really Wants: To cut short...YOU

     We know there is good and evil in this world.  We see it every day play out before our eyes.  More frequently though we  see the evil in the events of the world close enough to us to sicken us daily.  So what does this mean?  And who is behind this? If you are willing to  believe it , it is spritual warfare.  If we are to believe in a God who is for us and not against us but rather against our sin nature (that which we have fallen into by that one decision made in the beginning) then we must also believe there is one who was cast out ( one whom Jesus saw fall like lightening) and fell to this earthly kingdom.  Sound like science fiction? It  Could be a great movie nowadays. Think Marvel!  CG could do great things with this story and hopefully not pervert it like the recent movie, Noah.  And what is the intent of this being but to control the very human spirits and have them be blinded not only to himself but to God.  In the struggle for good over evil we have seen the story played out and we can know the one who overcame the devil by humility and grace and the power of the cross.
     Looking back to the birth of this one we see that the promise was sought out very early even in infancy and King Herod who feared this Messiah tried to cut short his life by killing all of the male new borns.
   It is hard to fathom, but I have met the elderly who have lived their entire lives into their  eighties and know nothing of the Christian heritage nor of the salvation of a personal God who does infact care for them.  How can this be, in a country filled with Churches saturated with the Gospel?  We can be blinded, busy, uncaring or just unbelieving and miss the promise. How can we not care what our eternity holds?  Simple, we are re-directed and hoodwinked into beliving a story too fairy-tale like to be true.  We of course are too wise!
     Too modern to hold to such primitive thoughts!  Didn't Paul of Tarsus meet those on Mar Hill, Philosophers, thinkers and the wise who also knew nothing of the Christian God?  Yes and even some wanted to hear more of "this preaching" that he did.
     There is no other way to  receive this promise other than "by hearing the word" and being filled anew with the Spirit of God.  So if we are ever to believe in God, you better belive in the Devil also, because he is the one who is out to keep you from the knowledge of God and the power over sin and the Devil himself.  Keep us in the dark, or have us believe in anything but the truth.   In essence to cut off your mind and Spirit from the eternity that is the rightful inheritance for you.  He does it every day by violence, mis-direction, lies, keeping you "happy" with the kingdom of this world and it's goods, material wealth if possible.  
  Remember, he tempted Jesus on top of a great high wall and showed him all the kingdoms that could be his if only................you worship    me........................God already had the Kingdoms and everything else but you!    Can u hear the still small voice?

That Labor of Love: The Church, can you find it?

    In Peter's letters to those Christians scattered throughout the known world, he makes a plea to  them to continue in the love with each other as Christ taught them.  To the elders appointed to watch over them he warned them not to "Lord over them" as do the rulers of the Gentiles do.  This is an important point to grasp in matters of the Church and it's government.  Christ said that those who would be first had to be last and servant of all like he himself showed to all those around him.  Though Lord of all he served with a servants heart to everyone. NO EXCEPTIONS>>>>  Understand that so much damage has been done in Church communities through misunderstanding if this principle.  Yes we must recognize those who are gifted and teach and so forth, but there is a danger in ceding totality of power and a danger of idolozing leadership and those in positions of it.  Christ would have none of it.  In our weakness of human abilities we look to those who naturally lead and want to be led because it seems right but inevitably there are going to be unjust balances, accusations, and innappropriate councils, and the like.  All because we can do it wrong.  Remember what Christ said to those who wanted to be seated on his right and left side of him?  Can you drink of the cup I am about to?  In other words those who would be first, there must be a humbleness of spirit and The Lord must be behind the one who gets "raised up" in that position.  Those with grand plans and great visions, be wary of because they might just lead astray from the greater truths of the Gospel.  Those who preach must not for gain, must not for ego, must not for any reason except for the furtherance of the Gospel and it's truth to release those in a certain captivity and into Christ's freedom.
     I spent many years as in a position of servitude with a heart to give but saw many errors that "we" the "led" gave and put  into the hands of leaders an incorrect power for absolute decision making with disastrous effects on families.  It was a stone cast into a calm lake but with ripples outward going and caused much heartache and even accidents and death.  Horrendous and not needful.  It was the heart of the Sheparding movement in the late 70's and 80's and outgrowth from something good but handed to those who knew not how to wield it.  It put on hold " many "brains and logical thinking" that should not have been so!  What many were taught in the name of "submission" to authorities was taken to extreme measures in cases where it should not have been so.  These were cultic practices inserted into Christian churches and served to control issues and people where it needed not to be at all.  Yes we can read all about the out of control issues that Paul wrote to the Corinthinans about but they were real issues that needed to be dealt with quickly and correctly.  And there were those is positions hopefully of an astute mind and character to do so.Things like buying a car or what job should I get? Or who should I marry? Unless of course the girl was 17 and the guy was 80! Were at the very least not issues a Pastor or Elder should deal with.  Paul nevertheless was concerned about authority abuse and rightly so.  How many are deceived into giving away their life's worth to a phony mission call of a man?  How many serve many years faithfully with a pure heart hoping to be in a position of worth only to be bypassed?  Bypassed and forgotten? I would say many. Or like myself..cast off from those within because of suspicion that you were " in the world" too long and came back but of no worth now?  Yet for all of these things that can happen,( and we are judged by them from a human aspect,) Christ does not ever cast us off except for that one sin only that I can find which is blaspheming the Holy Sprit.  
  There is to be sure a labor of love that goes into being a "church" simply the called out ones who want to serve in a capacity that pleases Christ.  To be an effective ambassador for Christ without losing an important part of your self in the doing of it.  Where there are communities there will always be those busybodies or meddlers who want to get in and share what they think they know but instead cause undue confusion with words without wisdom.  Then there the leaders who know it all by the mere fact of their positional standing.  Peter said to test all spirits and see it they are of God!  We also must use our given wisdom to search out those who we trust and are true believers brothers and sisters alike and see if we are comfortable in doing so.  If any council raises a red flag..within, test it.  Is the council given out of love or out of fear that if you do not do what they say you will.......be in trouble?  This is key.  If in love then ok.  
   For sure being in a Christian community will test your mettle, but I think Christ wanted us to be connected in a good way to one another for our sakes because we need to be.  Finding a Church these days is not so easy, one that holds to principles of truth without weakening the Gospel and building up a people and setting them free like Christ.  I find the secular seeping into the Church in many of the faiths represented and it is sad and also a fear in many Churches in holding to past orthodoxy because many cannot commit any more and soon the numbers will dwindle along with donations (tithes) and so the Church can no longer function and it dies. 
      Christ is the cornerstone and must be to any Church that calls itself Christian and it must be alive organic and full of the Spirit of Christ and above all love must be present, forgiveness, grace and truth also must be in practice.  Each of these things will produce a healthy place of worship.  Safe...     
     

History: Repeating again, again, again, until.....God gets what he wants!

Babylon, or Iraq, Iran or Persia nations that have figured immensely in a historical sense are still with us.  We are continuing  millenniums of history right before our eyes.  What Israel fought, we fight.  What we are allied to or tied to in the nation of Israel we are destined to be in a  part of her history just like the nations afore mentioned.  We have become and 'Instrument in the hand of God.'  Though we may say we direct our own course set our own nation on a path that is democratic and a light to all the world in that our freedoms are to be envied, there is still a sickness within like most of the ancient Prophets mentioned and proclaimed against their own land and leaders of the time.  Kings that were corrupt one after another leading that nation into disaster foretold by their Prophets, and heading away from righteousness demanded by the one true God, proved to be their own downfall, smitten by nations greater than them.  Cyrus was in his time such a leader used by God to fulfill his purposes and set the then captive nation free and sent back into their land to worship their god replete with their own customs.  To in effect start all over again and follow a true path.

     We now are a nation struggling to find resolve and peace while in the daily offerings of our media are subject to a brutality of certain people beheading the innocent, people who write for living, people who give aid and comfort in a dangerous part of the world.  The leaders of Iran and Iraq never left their roots.  This ISIS that now pervades our world are another type of people altogether.  Ruthless, souless, footless mauraders driven to kill at whim for their twisted will.  What of this?  And what of the coalitons of nations we are allied with to deal with this type of threat?  One has only to read through several centuries of history and see the coalitions Kings( Israel) made with surrounding nations for their own preservation to see the outcomes.  Most of them paid tribute to foreign lands with their Gods and Paganistic ways  to remain intact. With that the ideas and Gods of that nation generally seeped into the consciousness of Israel and the people.  Evil that was rooted out in the days of Joshua and Caleb and cities that were devastated attested to the obedience of those who carried out such a plan.  It would seem to us looking in as "barbaric" relentless slaughter of innocents within a system of leadership that was reponsible for reprehensible worship of idols and child sacrifice to their multiple Gods.  So do we hold our society above others? Do we adhere partially to what righteousness is? And so suffer what may be our own future distess and disaster?  Is our alliance with Israel a good thing and can it last?  I think anytime a nation goes to the length of support for ideals that are honorable it is a good thing, but with caution because you never know what you are going to get in return with that alliance.  The flood that comes in with fighting alonside and ally  brings in unknown consequences and other enemies to us. Witness the Taliban, Al-Queada, Hamas, what was the PLO and so many others we have either fought in the open or clandestinely through covert methods.  

    We choose to support Israel because of the Judeo-Christian heritage we share. It is by far the most palatable one to accept because it has roots in a Godly morality.  A morality not contrived or made with human effort but given to a chosen people to bless the nations of the earth.  We then must hold to certain standards of morality if we are to continue.  We cannot continue a path of outright 'open morality' while this nation continues to advance immorality in ways that are evident in passed laws and acceptance of  social behaviors that have loosened those moralities like those of cities of Sodom and Gomorah.  There is no just balance in weighing types of sin for sin against one or the other. It is just sin. And will not inherit the Kingdom that God proclaimed on earth.  Any sin will be outside the walls of that kingdom.    Just like nations past we will inherit consequences of behavior.  Just like Israel  that was chosen to be a Royal Priesthood that strayed far from it's original course we can too.  I do hope though we can stem this current tide killings we have seen recently on our tv's and internet and pray we are as a nation an instrument used by God in a correct way and return to those things that will be blessed and not cursed. 

I spend my life with the fallen, the corrupt the damaged:

     Today I will walk another dusty path, driven onward by the Spirit within me. Relentless like the wind.  I travel among the fallen, the corrupt, and the damaged. I spend my life with them day after day.  Sometimes  just want to be alone, very alone with my father.  I miss that.  I know I  am for them and I am one of them.  Born to  be among them ever hearing their pleas, Lord! Lord! It is a daily cry from those who pull at me tug at my clothes as if they want my very being to be a part of them.  I am spent. Only 6 am in the morning and I need refreshing.  So look upward and not downcast at my feet, sore and reddened by the miles I have traveled in the last few years.  My friends are asleep again....they never seem to get it.  Always able to put aside the pressing that I myself feel and never get a chance to let any of it go. I can't. Because even for a moment I know the tempter will try again and again to distract me from my day's missions.
     I sit by the olive trees on the wayside looking down at the town I will visit today.  The sun already red on the horizon beckons another day, it will be hot and dry, people will crowd around me once I begin again to tell them who I am and what I am doing here for them.  Some will understand most will not.  However it goes I  know it will be good.
     I spend my life with the fallen, the corrupt,and the damaged.  ( Line from Battlestar Gallactica season 4)
It will be said to me, "Physician heal yourself!  When it is all over.  Come down...Come down if you are really are who you say you are!"  I see it now more clearly than when I first began, and I am asking if it has to be this way?  Yes, comes my answer from the one who is always with me.
     I rise and pull my tunic tighter, fix my sandals and go and wake my friends.  Today they will see me at my most vulnerable state, for the town I am going into is my own and a "Prophet is not without honor except in his own town or so the scriptures say."    I won't be able to do what I want because of all the unbelief that is within them.  They know me from a child and so I will go anyway.  I cannot forsake them just because of their own selves.
     I have learned that faith comes in the most unexpected places, places I would not even have guessed it possible and it has kept me with a warm feeling all of the time.  Hope is what that feeling is.  And hope for their future, the eternity I want for all men of this world and forgiveness and release from all that they suffer daily.    
    

Unmarked Graves:

     I used to walk in a small cemetary where  most of the graves there were from the turn of the 18 th century.  Revolutionary markers adorned the small pathways flags and flowers distributed throughout the area.  I read with couriosity all of the names that had come before me with a sense of wonder, even those of children and babies that never made it past 5 months of life, and there were many.  Superstitious?  I'm not.
Instead it filled me with a sense of belonging as strange as it may seem.  I always read the end dates, the date of death, and I would try and figure out their life's span and fill in the blanks of their history.  To some walking in a cemetary would give them a cold feeling, or sense of " here is what is waiting for me! and so would only venture in when they absolutely had too.  Me, I'd walk the dog and meander throughout.
     So many movies, books etc. make use of the scary aspect of graves and spiked fences around them.  Death it seems is always the most fearful because we just don't know how it is going to be.  We have in our nature to hold on to life to the very end. Remarkable stories of survival ( 124 hrs the most recent with James Franco) are every where. The human spirit wants to live at all costs.  So death then is something we are afraid of.
     But, the entire Gospel is in direct opposition to that.  Resurrection!  LIFE BEYOND THE GRAVE>It is the good news preached by the one who overcame death, and hell and the grave.  And he took captivity captive! Preaching in hell to those who were destined to stay there forever/ mercy triumphs over judgement.    In the book of Luke Christ was giving his list of "woes" to the Pharisees, one of them concerning umarked graves.
     44 “Woe to you, because you are like unmarked graves, which people walk over without knowing it.”

     In Jewish law it was forbidden to touch any dead thing for the sake of defilement.  So what was Jesus saying?  More or less your a dead thing and you don't know it just like an unmarked grave.  I'm glad graves have markers.  It it somewhere someone you love could be laying.  Just the body though.................... 

Cat:

     It's amazing what tactile sense can bring to us.  {Pleasure} My cat just dedided to impose upon me while reading my morning newspaper.  Pushing his way into my lap he flopped and became my immediate center of attention.  He is orange and big and heavy.  He is a newcomer to my home as I adopted him from and old man who was no longer able to care for him or able to meet the cat's needs.  He is now the Alpha "cat in the house and even rules over our black lab some 30 pounds heavier and taller than him.  Back to sense though.  Having disturbed me now from my reading, he began to purr and nuzzle for that attention he obivously craved from his human.  I responded in kind mindlessly petting him getting pleasure from his orange furr and his motor running quietly inside his throat.  Then he left just as quickly as he came, I guess it was enough for the time being.  What was that all about?   Conscious on his part?  Did he just want spontanaities pleasure in that given moment or me to acknowledge his prescense?  Who knows, but I'll say this it was ok and it returned to me a sense of connection to  one of God's smaller creations.
     Do you remember the comment Data made in "First contact to Captain Picard?
Lieutenant Commander Data: Sir, does tactile contact alter your perception of the Phoenix?

Captain Jean-Luc Picard: 
     Oh, yes! For humans, touch can connect you to an object in a very personal way, make it seem more real.   So, have a pet?  Do so then!

                                                    There you go!.............................................

    

What We All Want: Less friction from those around us and ourselves

     What is today going to bring you? A hurried morning? A harried start to the day's events, kids to school, rushed breakfast, trip to the gas station even though it will make you late to work, make the boss say that thing you don't want to hear?  All these things, the cares of the world biting at our heels before we even have a chance to control it our selves lead to a friction, a heating up of our lives that causes stress.  And that stress, we all wish we could do without!  Watch the news? More bad than good mostly.  Stock market? Up and down as usual, but do we go up and down with it?  That's the rub.  We don't have to.
     But there is a tugging an invisible part of us that want us to throw all of these types of things to the wind and let it carry those cares away for us.  We search for the pleasures of this life while within the trappings of framework we all put ourselves into.  Some of us are planners and so make our lives what we want, some of us are thrust into life's more umpleasant trappings because of poverty, poor health, surroundings and place of birth.  But all of us no matter what place we are in want something better. Joy of living, peace of mind, happiness with relatives (hard to find) accomplishment and the knowledge that our lives are not wasted.
     The cares of this world, will pull us all on a downward spiral and choke out the simple pleasures we seek.
The old adage, "stop and smell the roses" is  beckoning us to slow down and take measure of our lives.  Observe the wonders of the fields and pastures of nature and see the fabulous thousands of flowers arrayed and more beautiful  than King Soloman's robes.  Look at the majestic panorama of nature in all of it's diversity, gaze at the untold number of stars, and galaxies above us.  We can for moments of our life do this.  But it is hard. We live daily constained by a world that was created and formed by those who lived before us!  Passed down to us is a life we try and fit into.  But we were supposed to have life and have it more abundantly.  The words of Jesus.  Abundant means overflow.  MORE than what we have now.  MORE in our future, and eternity that we have when we live a life that is filled with good things instead of all the things that grab us by the throat and choke us.  A little at a time.  I marvel at those I have seen at the end of their life and yet there is still a smile and an energy to them that amazes me.   How did they accomplish this?  Was it generational? The simplicity of yesterday? I think some of it is. Most of it I think comes from within that person who has been transfomed over time and learned something different.  But that is what Jesus wanted all along.  He spoke to so many of our life's failings and those who chose to follow, found a joy in the Spirit of Christ they received in themselves and passed to others along the way.  I follow but still have not mastered the art of letting those cares not get to me, though I'm much better at it after 30 years of trusting God.
     I may not achieve the abundance I imagined in my youth  and time seems shorter  and more conracted than I realized it would be at this stage in my life, but I am less stessed by the things that occurr and the  random events that happen to throw me off course from time to time and that's good.
         I still am ever curious about the events of our time and find my self a news junkie wanting to sort out the happenings of the world that comes into view by the ever present media available to me.  Most of this though is a bit wrenching to take in.
    So I focus on the things that bring small bits of joy throughout the day, weeks and months of my life, and enjoy my children and live vicariously through them seeing their progress in life, remembering mine when I was that age.....................