It’s been a while since I’ve posted… been real busy in my new iteration of life. About a year and a half ago I came off the road and took a local job hauling wood chips. Wow. After nearly a quarter century of being a part time husband and dad, in and out every few weeks for a couple days, it’s a welcome change to be home every night and weekend. Of course it’s also been a challenge as Lynn and I sort through our priorities and relationship issues. We’ve had to re-establish some boundaries and jobs within the house and that’s not always easy, the give and take of any normal marriage.  I’ve also taken some new responsibilities at our church and have started doing an online Bible College to get a degree. You might say I’m busy!

One challenge and blessing (even if it was hard to see at times) is that my Mother in Law has been living with us for the last four years. Now living with anyone requires grace and patience, but mom needed extra from me (and I from her) as she and I never really meshed very well through the years, likely because we’re both bull headed and bossy!

Mom went home to Heaven yesterday. She had had a good Christmas, but had been feeling a bit more tired than usual. While her caregiver was helping her to bed, in the middle of smiling at a joke, she laid down and breathed her last breath. She went easy.

We are sad of course.. but not broken. We grieve for her… and for ourselves. We regret the words left unsaid.. and a few that were said through the years. But we also have hope. Hope that she is with God. Hope that we will see her again. Hope that she is out of pain now.

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.

1 Thessalonians 4:13 (ESV)

Let me tell you about the Hope that we find in Jesus.

Paul, a writer in the Bible said:

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him”

1 Corinthians 2:9 (NIV)

We believe that a life lived with Jesus and in accordance to God’s principles results in a better life. Mom was proof of that. God made her a better person, not perfect of course, but better than she could have been on her own. But that change is more than just changing habits.

It’s more than a self-help program. It requires a deeper change.

Once a man came to Jesus to find out what the secret of life is… and Jesus said this very strange thing:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

John 3:3 (ESV)

The change that Jesus desires for us is so great that it looks like we become a whole new person!

Later in the Bible, Paul said:

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV)

Jesus also told his closest followers:

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.  I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

John 15:4-5 (ESV)

We also believe that when the time comes to leave this world, Jesus will usher us into the presence of the Father God where we long to be.

Once Jesus was at a funeral for a friend and to comfort the grieving sister He said:

“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

John 11:25-26 (ESV)

We believe that this life is not all there is. There is something more and better that is waiting for us on the other side of death’s doorway. Mom knows the truth now.

Let me leave you with the most well-known saying of Jesus:

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.  Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
John 3:16-18 (ESV)

Another trip around the sun is in the books… Birthdays are God’s gift to us!

A time to reflect on and enjoy the people and things He has loaned me. A time to redirect and rediscover where He is leading me.

Last year I was driving over the road and training new drivers, gone from home and those I love most for many weeks at a time. Each hometime was increasingly more difficult to return to the truck. And it seemed as though that would be our life for the foreseeable future.

Then seemingly out of the blue, I was offered a local job that met all my needs (and they are high!). Now I’m home every night and weekend, and able to find my place in community again.

We’re in a new church where I’m able to serve and learn. I’m part of a small group where we’re learning to be God’s men. I’m able to attend other groups and events I’ve missed in the past.

Perhaps most importantly, God is shaping in me a vision and a calling to ministry. Whether official or not, paid or not, I dont know yet. Helping people find God and His holiness and wholeness in Him is what is important to me.

But I have no training, no education in this area, at least officially. So… I’m going back to school. But at 56 it makes absolutely no sense to me to spend tens of thousands of dollars on a degree from a government certified school, when all I really need is the training.

Therefore I have enrolled in a Bible College that seems to fit my needs;

Christian Leaders Institute

https://www.christianleadersinstitute.org

• Online and self-paced, it suits my schedule.
• Inexpensive, it suits my budget.
• Video lectures and intensive reading, it suits my learning style.

The only thing lacking is a serious writing component, but I’ve found several good resources online and will work on my writing through this blog.

I would appreciate any prayers, encouragement, and advice my friends would care to send my way.

God’s peace on you all.

Seemingly every week the media bombards us with a new atrocity to lament, the furor Du Jour. Our leaders wring their hands or rail against this group or that one, while commercial media and social media both throw gasoline on and fan the flames of hatred and divisiveness.

Our great melting pot societal experiment has reduced itself to cliques and enclaves of like minded individuals pointing fingers at everybody else. We are addicted to the high that comes from a mob mentality of societal righteousness and the numbing of the soul that comes from hatred of others.

We need a new Great Awakening, a Cultural Shift, a Societal Healing.

There is a program that has helped millions of people overcome addictions. We must apply it to our culture. Soon.

12 Steps to Societal Wholeness

– We admitted we were powerless over our society–that our culture had become unmanageable.

– Came to believe that only God could restore our society to sanity.

– Made a decision to turn our society and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

– Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves and our culture.

– Admitted to God, to ourselves and to other human beings the exact nature of our wrongs.

– Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

– Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

– Made a list of persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

– Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

– Continued to take personal and societal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

– Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

– Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to others and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

My heart is heavy of late.

Jesus’ bride, the Church, has done so poorly at the primary job He gave her:

As you go about your world,  teach people about the real nature of God, helping them to be imitators of Christ; loving, doing good, and being holy.

There are some 7 billion souls on this earth. About 330 million in my country. Maybe 4 million in my state. Roughly 100 thousand in my county.  5 thousand in my town. 500 Facebook friends. A few dozen in my sphere of influence. And only a couple hands worth in my inner circle.

And so few, at least in my culture, are living as an all in, fully committed, no holds barred, disciple (follower) of Jesus.

Research tells us that for those who claim the name of Christian (in the U.S.) there is statistically no difference in the way they live compared with those who don’t claim Christ. They talk the same. They have the same morals and ethics. They enjoy the same entertainment. They have the same numbers of divorces, affairs, abortions; the same use of pornography. There are the same numbers of liars, and cheaters, and abusers inside the church as outside.

According to research, many people who regularly attend church have a dismal lack of understanding (or acceptance of) basic historic biblical doctrines: Who is God? Who is man? What is salvation and regeneration?

The church is to be a hospital full of healing and new life, a seminary filled with God’s teaching and hope, and a banquet table filled with spiritual meat that builds the soul.

Instead it’s become a first aid kit offering quick fixes that don’t heal, a kindergarten room full of shiny toys, and a buffet where you get to pick and choose what you like.

Is it any wonder then that we have such an ever decreasing impact in the world?

Are we stuck in our (not so holy) enclave,  preaching to the choir, and making Christ a laughingstock or worse, insignificant, to the world?

What can we do to be the Church God wants us to be, and to impact the world for God?

It starts with each one of us. As the man or woman of God grows, so grows the Church. As the Church grows, so grows the world.

5 Steps

Be. Learn. Model. Proclaim. Teach.

Be

Be a Disciple. Make sure you have actually bent your knees in submission and reverence to Jesus and His authority.  Let Jesus change your heart, your spirit, your mind. Part of that means the willingness to give up anything that He has said is wrong for you.

Learn

Learn from the scriptures who God is and what He wants. Find out what the consensus of the historic Church has been in understanding the more difficult parts. If what you learn doesn’t challenge you to be different, you probably don’t understand that part.

Model

This is the hard part. Actually start to act like Jesus. Do the things He said. Love. Forgive. Don’t sin. Be Holy. Find the parts in the bible that describe God And describe what a Christian looks like. Find the representative lists in the bible that teach which thoughts and actions are right and which are wrong, and follow them. As you let Christ lead you in goodness you will soon find He is adding particular things to your list.

Only after were have learned from and modeled Christ will we then be able to effectively do the next two things.

.

Proclaim

When people ask why you’ve changed, why you’re different, then you can tell them about Jesus and what He’s done.

Teach

According to Jesus, even after they’ve seen miracles, many will still turn away disbelieving and unwilling to change. We must accept that. But those  who respond must be taught the whole cycle.. Be. Learn. Model. Proclaim. Teach.

P.S. You’ll notice I haven’t written anything about the role of God’s grace and power in all this. That’s because He is the Author and Perfecter of all:

He draws us to Himself, and saves us by himself, so that we may BE.

He teaches us by His Spirit so that we may LEARN.

He empowers and changes us so that we may MODEL.

He draws others around us so that we may PROCLAIM.

He fills and guides us so that we may TEACH.

While God’s grace enable all these things, they won’t get done if we don’t follow His leading and act.

God’s grace is not opposed to effort.

God’s grace is opposed to earning.

Christmas is about giving.

• A gift is received… not earned. That’s a paycheck.
• A gift is accepted… not ordered. That’s shopping.
• A gift is given… not demanded. That’s robbery.

Quid Pro Quo or this for that has no place in giving. That’s trading. That’s business.

No. The only thing you must do for a gift is to accept it with grace and use it with thanks.

A gift that sits on the shelf is no better than no gift at all. It may even be worse.

• Have you ever given a gift that was ignored or rejected?
• How did you feel as the giver?
• What did it do to your relationship? 

God gave us a gift. His name is Jesus. Not just the baby we celebrate today, but the man he grew into, and the events we’ll celebrate in about 4 months: Crucifixion. Resurrection. Pentecost.

The truest and best gift in all of history is the offer of friendship with God through Jesus.

• The gift is the promise that He will never leave us or abandon us in our pain and trouble. He may not take us out of it, but He’ll take us through it. 
• The gift is the promise that He will make us into new creatures, actually able to live the way He wants us to. He’ll transform us bit by bit into the people He created us to be. 
• The gift is the promise that  He will live in us and we will be in His Presence now… and forever.

But the gift is only good if we choose to live as though it’s true.

The gift only works when we take it and use it.

Jesus’ message of hope seems to have gotten lost in the shuffle lately. Between this church fighting with that church, that tv preacher saying just pray this prayer (or send me twenty bucks) and everything will be fine, follow this list, don’t do that, follow this program, or just love everybody, how can we possibly know what’s right?

 
Jesus makes it simple; just come to Him.

 
To those who’ve been abused and believed the lies of their abusers, He says…
“You’re broken, Come to Me because I love you, and I will heal you, and make you fit for My Kingdom.”

 
To those trapped in addictions, He says…
“You’re broken, Come to Me because I love you, and I will heal you, and make you fit for My Kingdom.”

 
To those searching for their identities in alternate lifestyles, He says…
“You’re broken, Come to Me because I love you, and I will heal you, and make you fit for My Kingdom.”

 
To those full of themselves,  pretending they are their own master, He says…
“You’re broken, Come to Me because I love you, and I will heal you, and make you fit for My Kingdom.”

 
To the self righteous, He says…
“You’re broken, Come to Me because I love you, and I will heal you, and make you fit for My Kingdom.”

 
To those damaged by broken relationships, He says…
“You’re broken, Come to Me because I love you, and I will heal you, and make you fit for My Kingdom.”

 
To those who seek satisfaction in work or money or possessions, He says…
“You’re broken, Come to Me because I love you, and I will heal you, and make you fit for My Kingdom.”

 
To those whose hope is in religion, or a church, or a program, He says…
“You’re broken, Come to Me because I love you, and I will heal you, and make you fit for My Kingdom.”

 
To those who seek lasting comfort in food, He says…
“You’re broken, Come to Me because I love you, and I will heal you, and make you fit for My Kingdom.”

 
To those crushed by hopelessness and depression, He says…
“You’re broken, Come to Me because I love you, and I will heal you, and make you fit for My Kingdom.”

 
To those who fear and lash out in hatred, He says…
“You’re broken, Come to Me because I love you, and I will heal you, and make you fit for My Kingdom.”

 
To those who are just tired of life, He says…
“You’re broken, Come to Me because I love you, and I will heal you, and make you fit for My Kingdom.”

Recently, I was asked by a small group leader to rate my level of confidence in Jesus and salvation with a number from 0 to 100.

 
After mulling it over for a few minutes, I answered 99.99, with the explanation that while I do indeed believe completely that He is real, and that the Bible is true, I must leave open the miniscule possibility that I could be wrong.

 
My friend (the leader) suggested that I read ‘Faith and Doubt’ by John Ortberg. That it would help alleviate some of the doubts about having doubts. He was correct. I’m only two chapters into the book and I feel the weight I have secretly carried from the nagging doubts lifting.
From the book:

“Pascal said…evidence alone cannot clearly indicate that God does or does not exist. However, we must choose whether we will seek him. Not to choose is its own choice. Your wager began the moment you were born. You were “launched.” You will bet your life one way or the other. God either exists or he does not. Heads or tails—no third option. If God does not exist, we lose a life devoted to seeking to love, to live generously, to speak truth, and to do justice. But if God does exist, and we choose not to follow him, we lose everything.”

 
So I would like to change my answer… with an explanation:

 
I will believe in God, Jesus, His salvation, and the Truth of the Bible with every fiber of my being, heart and soul, mind and strength, lock, stock, and barrel….

 
I will live as though Jesus is real and lives within me….

 
I will seek to obey the principles found in the Bible, and follow the teachings found within it…

 
And even if it turns out I was wrong,  I win.

“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

Matthew 7:13-14 (ESV)
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. ”

Matthew 25:31-33 (ESV)
There will be many who think they are Christians that will stand before God and discover to their horror that they have followed their own lie and it has led them to hell.
The lie is as wide as a freeway. The truth is as narrow as a footpath.
Or a single person.
Jesus. Real, historical, biblical, supreme, holy, crucified, resurrected, glorified Jesus.

My bride and I are fast approaching an important wedding anniversary. (Just never mind which one.) As we prepare and plan for our annual celebration, my thoughts wandered to why we’ve made it when so many haven’t.

There are two major celebrations of love during the year, the anniversary and Valentine’s Day. But if that’s the only time you pay attention to your marriage you soon won’t have a marriage worth paying any attention.

So let’s step up the game. Once a month (or so) we’ll go somewhere and ‘commune ‘. Say my favourite fishing spot or maybe a movie. That’s good enough. After all, we’re spending quality time, right?

No? 

Ok, I can schedule once a week, maybe Thursday morning from eight to nine. Aww heck, let’s make it nine thirty, she’s worth it. We can sing love songs, read old letters and feel good about each other. The rest of the week is mine to do with as I please. 

Does this all seem silly?

Of course. It is. 

What makes a marriage strong is time every day, talking with and listening to each other. It’s learning each other’s desires and wants… And seeking to fulfill them. It’s caring about the other as much as about yourself.

It takes time.

Ordinary, everyday time. 

Ok, you ready? Cinch up your seatbelt, hard right turn ahead. 

Life with God is similar to a marriage. It takes time together. 

We’ve just come out of the holiday season. Many people said some flowery words at Thanksgiving dinner, squeezed in a candlelight Christmas Eve service, got all dressed up for Easter morning, and think they’ve done their duty for God.

Some people go out to the lake or the woods once in a while and call it good. After all, I can worship anywhere right?

A lot of people head to church every Sunday, sing some songs, listen to some (maybe) good words, and leave feeling good about themselves and God,  then live for themselves the rest of the week. 

A life truly lived with God takes time.

Time spent listening to Him.

Time spent pouring out your heart to Him.

Time learning to do what He loves and avoid what He hates.

Time spent loving the people He loves. (By the way, that’s the poor, the down, the hurting, your neighbour, your co-worker, the store clerk, other drivers….)

You can’t do that one hour every Sunday or out at the lake. And you certainly can’t do it just three times a year. 

Go. Spend time with God. 

Ordinary, everyday time. 

Two things that truly irk me.
Dishonesty and Avoidance. 
Dishonesty. Shading the truth. Hiding the truth. White lies.  All these say you don’t trust me enough to be straight up fair with you. You feel you need to tell me what you think I want to hear. 
Avoidance. Passive aggressive. Hiding. Silence. All these say you fear me and what I might do if you were honest.
All I can say is that you don’t know me as well as you think you do. And for that I am truly sorry, for I have failed at letting you see who I really am.