“By Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name” (Hebrews 13:15).
In the month that lies before you, you’ll have countless opportunities for sacrifice. Think of that person at work whom you struggle to love. What if you visualize yourself placing that relationship upon the altar as an offering of praise to God?
Your marriage needs to be offered up as a sacrifice every day. So does the way you spend your free time. If you begin to make a list of the things you could offer up in sacrifice, you might never stop writing. The truth, you see, is that when your life becomes a temple, a home for Jesus, you begin to see His face in the face of all those who surround you. You begin to treat them as you would treat Him. You begin to realize that all ground is holy ground, because God is there. You begin to see every situation as a potential act of worship, a time to magnify the name of the Lord.
Earlier this week I sat supposedly to read in the fast-food break area at Cosco’s over noontime while Loretta was shopping. Soon, most of the seats were taken. I then became preoccupied with which gentleman or couple might allow me to join them so my 4 seats would be open for others, but then the rush was over and empty seats prevailed.
But not before I found people watching much more captivating than even a favorite book. I was reminded of Jesus in Matthew 23:37 when he said while looking over Jerusalem, “How I wish I could gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings.” The exiting shoppers possessed a variety of facial expressions, demeanor, health challenges, language, actions, quite revealing interactions with presumably their spouse, or children, etc., all of which provided an abundance of character clues possibly to be developed into imaginary captivating short stories; all from a 20-30 second quick study on this holy ground, as they exited the fastest check-out counters I’ve ever witnessed.
Notice though, I didn’t mention any spiritual evaluations. But actually, don’t we Christ-Followers, actually begin with that first? For me at least, compared to ten years ago, today “the image of Jesus weeping over Jerusalem and the mother hen and her chicks,” is now front & center, especially when I’m out in public, sometimes even in church. But please don’t take that personal, for as you should realize by now, I have a vivid memory of past events, though not always of last week. And though I struggle now just remembering names, make no mistake, 46 years ago while I was sitting in the east balcony contemplating my miserable lack of joy and peace while listening to Pastor Bill invite all of us home under God’s protective and empowering “abiding,” make no mistake, my SHELTER was SCARCE in a congregation of abundance! Ask me about my journey if you’re curious; I’ve got nothing to hide. After all, it is His-Story.
Again, please consider this Solitude-Service-Struggle cause or effect situation to gain Shelter during the coming chaos. And then ultimately, the ONE that encapsulates them all: SACRIFICE. Worship in the midst of these six S words! And when that happens, be prepared to throw open the doors of your life, sharing your overflowing well of joy and peace.
BOTTOM LINE:
The world is waiting to see the person you will become when you live every moment in the wonder of worship!
Prompted from David Jeremiah’s 2002 devotional Sanctuary: Finding Moments of Refuge in the Presence of God June 20.
II Corinthians 10:4 “The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in in God for pulling down strongholds.”
We know the ultimate victory has been won at Calvary, but it will be implemented in the future. The sentence has been passed, now it needs to be enforced. The enforcement is in the hands of the church. And the tool that enforces Satan’s defeat is the tool of prayer. “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (II Corinthians 10:4-5). One person praying on earth can move angels in heaven.
Christians need to learn the power of prayer against Satan, for he will be defeated in his work. We are not engaged in the warfare if we are not praying against Satan. The judgement that was effected at the cross and is enforced through prayer will be completed. Satan is doomed. Satan is on a leash and he is only free on earth to the length of his chain. He cannot go beyond God’s permission.
Bottom Line:
But if we don’t enforce his judgement in our own lives, we will be victims instead of victors.
David Jeremiah’s devotional Sanctuary: Finding Moments of Refuge in the Presence of God. 2002. June 18th reading
My two cents:
Let’s begin by reading verses 4-5 from the Message: The tools of our trade aren’t for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massive corrupt culture. We use powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ.
I personally am convinced tonight while reflecting on this reading that I have lazily lived in the darker corners of his Spirits empowerment of prayer paralyzing me from smashing our cultures warped philosophies and bringing every such thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ… Yes, I was aware this sentence has been passed, but I didn’t naively realize it needs to be enforced for me, in effect, in & thru my personal prayer life. That assuredly, is a quantum leap for my simple understanding, but perhaps, it’s related to “working out our salvation with fear & trembling” (Phil 2:12).
I’m thinking the word “enforced” in the past two decades has become quite distasteful both in our culture and even the church, especially as it relates to the expansive cultural arenas characterized by “good being now evil, and evil now being good,” largely effectively silencing truth being espoused, while providing a platform and megaphone for the opposition.
So, when David Jeremiah here states above in his first paragraph, that “The enforcement is in the hands of the church and that the tool that enforces Satan’s defeat is the tool of prayer,” capped off none the less by my grievously ignoring the Spirit’s empowerment to live in a continual prayerful state, I’m first of all, really concerned about the “state of our (actually His) union,” and secondly, greatly motivated to ascertain His clarity. All of which doesn’t quite neatly line up with our default desired signature greeting at heaven’s threshold “well done, good and faithful servant,” (Matt 25:23) as he states in his final sentence, “if we don’t enforce his judgement in our own lives, we will be victims instead of victors.”
May that image of victim-hood be destroyed in the hearts and minds of Christ Followers! Books, I’m sure, have written on these verses, if you’re still thirsty. Seek and ye shall find…. Jeremiah just wants us equipped to fly above and beyond this oppressive ground fog and its darkness…Blessings today as you seek clarity and get cleared for take-off….merlin
Because you have … not withheld … your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky … and through your offspring, all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me. Genesis 22: 16-18 (NIV)
It fills a father’s heart with joy to see his children obey. The younger our children are when they willingly and joyfully obey, the more remarkable it is! In our desire to build godliness into our children’s lives, we want to be sure obedience is in place on their character chart.
If the obedience of our children is meaningful to us, how much more it must please God when we obey Him, whether we understand the outcome or not. Abraham did just that. When God asked him to take Issac to Mt. Moriah and sacrifice him, Abraham obeyed. We aren’t told of the emotions he felt or the sleeplessness he may have endured through the long night before. We just KNOW that he obeyed and trusted in God.
BOTTOM LINE:
One of the best gifts a godly father can give his child is when the child can observe his father’s heart being obedient to the Lord. So, are we ready to immediately and joyfully do whatever God asks without hesitation? Yes, it may at times be very difficult, and we MAY not fully understand until we see the full effect later in our life’s rear view mirror, but rest assured, God blesses families when their fathers obey.
One act of obedience is worth more than a hundred sermons. Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Discovery: Experiencing God’s Word Day by Day June 8 David Jeremiah
I’m always so curious…
Fathers, this camouflaged short simple 246 word devotional has the explosive potential to rock our boats, perhaps thus revealing the needed changes in our embedded fathering leadership patterns, especially when we consider Abraham being commanded to GO, let alone the SACRIFICE component!
First off, is it normal thinking that we men (or even mothers) place ourselves mentally in a similar position as Abraham found himself? I did briefly, and then naively, found myself wondering if I would have even shared the command with Loretta, or if I’d just sucked it up, made the necessary plans the night before, arisen early the next morning and left without a word? Who am I kidding when I can’t even plan and implement a surprise picnic?
And I also keep wondering, where was Sara in all this drama? I’m not aware scripture really addresses that, like her earlier recorded snicker. Had Abraham confided the command with her, or, did he not, but because of her intuition as his wife, was she there undetected in the early morning shadows, watching Abraham’s team departure. Either way, knowledgeable or not, of God’s bizarre command, you wives/mothers can best imagine Sara’s mental anguish from such a heart-wrenching situation .
Back again to my reality. When my brain fog lifts, I realize my suppositions that God would even enter my space and give me such a command was akin to pure foolishness. It is not likely I will ever possess the essentials to warrant such an interaction/intervention from God. How I could ever be so naive to think that I could place myself in that realm of possibility of that command from God ever occurring to me?
But yet, is that not the playing field for all of us today to navigate as we encounter our “altar challenge” in order to spiritually mature? So, perhaps the important question really is: how well am I now obeying His Biblical commands or reveling in the inspiration of His Holy Spirit, so we’re ready for that inevitable future “altar moment”?
Such off-the-wall thinking tends to demoralize my present mental state before God and upon becoming depressed by my intellectual folly, He soon replaces such foolishness by an awe of His greatness. Read Psalm 19. Notice how quickly our warped little minds can run the gamut from our nothingness before an Almighty God to embracing the resplendent empowering three “omni” attributes that characterize Him as all-powerful, all-knowing, and everywhere present culminating in John 3:16, “For God SO LOVED the world that He gave His ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, that whosoever BELIEVETH in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
FYI, Omnipotence means that God is in total control of himself and His creation. Omniscience means that He is the ultimate criterion of truth and falsity so that His ideas are always true. Omnipresence means that since God’s power and knowledge extend to all parts of creation, he himself is present everywhere. Together they define God’s lordship, and they provide us a rich understanding of creation, providence, and salvation.
Greater understanding of God always begins with obedience.
The following scripture was listed on today’s dailylightdevotional.org., again, such an inspiration.
“And being not weak in faith, [Abraham] considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb; he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God.And being fully persuaded that, what He had promised, He was also able to perform.” Rom. 4:19-21 KJV
The Message version reads:
Abraham didn’t focus on his own impotence and say, “It’s hopeless. This hundred-year-old body could never father a child.” Nor did he survey Sarah’s decades of infertility and give up.
He didn’t tiptoe around God’s promise asking cautiously skeptical questions. He plunged into the promise and came up strong, ready for God,
sure that God would make good on what he had said.
“And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. John 14:3
Little kids love the idea of a special trip. If a favorite uncle promised them a day trip to the zoo, beach, or other long desired destination, they can hardly sleep the night before. On the day, they are up early and dressed long before the appointed hour. Then they stand by a front window waiting for the familiar car to pull in the driveway.
No wonder Jesus said that those entering the kingdom of God ought to enter like children – with the same wide-eyed anticipation of a child being transported from the ordinary to the extraordinary (Matthew 18:3). The Bible says Jesus has promised to come and “pick us up” and take us to a place He is now preparing for us (John 14: 1-3).
And not for just a day of fun, but for all eternity. The question is, “What is our level of anticipation?” As adults, are we so attached to things of this world that we have lost our sense of anticipation? Get ready! He is coming again to gather those who want to spend an eternal day with Him.
David Jeremiah Destination: Your Journey With God June 12
FYI: Recently while in MA I made a new friend six years younger than I from Colombia S.A. who too was visiting his son and grandchildren in the UMass complex next door to my son and grandson. We really hit it off, he’d gotten his Master’s from Auburn, his PhD in Japan, and spent a lifetime in the science of raising fish for meat commercially, etc.
We explored many bunny trails all leading repeatedly to our shared concern for the fragile state of our world’s well-being, and especially the handicaps the younger generations are now inheriting. We each entered the conversation from our experiential spiritual perspectives, Anabaptist & Catholicism, but the commonality of being bonded in faith and mental community transcended country of origin or education. I personally sensed a real sadness in that we’d likely never meet again, perhaps sorta like those divine seatmate encounters on airplanes, but this time I didn’t have work needing done!
I remember well thinking to myself as I left the encounter, why can’t we just be honest and say, “Well so long for now, but I’ll see you later in heaven, when we can really get acquainted.” Fast forward in time depending on our schedules and God’s, will determine whether we’ll then be concerned about our kids and grand-kids, but at least, he and I will be ultimately restored!
Ever since that revelation nearly two weeks ago, I’ve been thinking how I’m going to implement that conversational openness when publicly appropriate about we meeting up in eternity, when we’re in our next similar earthly encounter, and are about to part when it is very likely our paths will never ever cross again. And just why is this?
Why are we so crazily inhibited about publicly referencing professionally our eternal home? Just think about how much of our yak time is driven by trivia, perhaps significant at the moment of impact, if your AC or car just died, or your dog had to be put down, etc.. but really now, note how easily we are effectively shut down and rendered totally ineffective.
Yes indeed, I agree, life does happens! But still, where is our eagerness like a child as expressed above? Get the picture? Remember when you as a child had a trip the next day and you couldn’t sleep? I suggest we all go lay out in the grass like I remember doing once as a first grader during summer vacation contemplating how I was ever going to survive until school started again, but then, miraculously my legs finally reached the tractor’s clutch and brake pedals, and I never again lacked for engaging opportunities! I remember while looking up yonder back then, either watching those MN cumulus clouds by day, or at night, the stars, and now, I’m trying to remember what I was thinking back then and what was going on in the world. I well remember while getting ready for church Sunday morning Oct 6 1957 hearing on Christian radio that the Sputnik mission was successful, but that was 28 months after I was first deemed fit to drive the tractor.
Now if getting into this heaven frame of mind doesn’t come easy or natural, I highly recommend “Imagine Heaven” by John Burke, formerly an agnostic engineer whom God repurposed to prime the flow of our understanding and appreciation for heaven. I’ve mentioned that book frequently prior. Sorta reminds me when as a kid I primed the pump outside the one room schoolhouse to secure a vibrant flow of water, but you might not get that either.
Bottom Line: First, we gotta get in the flow! Utmost For His Highest today tells us “The one true mark of a saint of God is the inner creativity that flows from being totally surrendered to Jesus Christ. In the life of a saint there is this amazing Well, which is a continual source of original life. The Spirit of God is a well that is springing up perpetually fresh. A saint realizes that it is God who engineers his circumstances; consequently, there are no complaints, only unrestrained surrender to Jesus.
(And this is so key-perhaps even today’s second bottom line):
Never try to make your experience a principle for others, but allow God to be as creative and original with others as He has been with you!!!” Go For It, No excuses!
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. James 1:17
No matter how dear your friends are, they can fail. No matter how much money you have, you can go broke. No matter how diligently you exercise, you can get sick. Even your most trusted walking stick can break. Your dearest dream can die. Life is as uncertain as the clouds that gather and scatter, and as fickle as the waves on a beach.
That being said, we oldsters today are experiencing losses that are not easy for us to verbalize among our peers and especially, our genetic down-line. We, who were birthed during the 30-40 year period from just prior WWII until our nation’s 200th birthday, largely experienced the cultural dimensions of hope and prosperity as communicated to us by our parents, family, close-knit communities and the relevant stable institutions, etc., providing us in the USA, at least on the surface, a mostly invigorating world view, even though we usually knew much of the world’s populations were struggling for adequate water, sustenance, shelter, and especially, physical and emotional health and its subsequent well being.
Fact is today, the hopelessness formerly experienced in either third world or strife or war-torn countries during our first 30-40 years of life has now come home to roost in Europe and North America, and more than a few of us are increasingly, viewing our current culture and living conditions at their best, kindly spoken, simply as “senseless!” The evidence is now in plain sight even with the switch & bait games, with such as the Covid fiasco & lock-down (who knows, perhaps to be repeated again by the Moderna bird flu jab and it’s subsequent lock-down), the Ukraine War, Trump trial, Israel Gaza conflict, the disintegration of our inner-connected global economies, fragmented dysfunctional homes & families, evil now called good & good now called evil, rampant impairing addictions cutting across all segments of populations, etc., etc.
And we of the group birthed in that 30-40 year window, are now being smartingly irritated from this descending & prevailing cloud of senselessness. So, often we simply choose not to meaningfully communicate with those born since the eighties including now too often even those labeled progressive oldsters because the conversations between all of these media purposely polarized generations just doesn’t seem to go so well, or for sure, not end well.
And so, we oldsters too often simply withdraw, at the very moment in our personal history of destiny, that we are most needed to be lovingly engaged with the younger crowd, to come alongside them while they are being pawned or hawked by media outlets, so as to draw out their questions, concerns, frustrations, conclusions, as well as their dreams, goals and aspirations during these darker senseless days that are oppressing them relentlessly without evidential access to His hope from us, virtually to their fatal demise, that being, of course, the bottom line for Satan and his crew. Seriously, think this through!
Some of you may well recall your emotional darkness during the Berlin wall going up, the Cuban missile crisis, the three assassinations (Kennedy’s & King, Vietnam atrocities, Cambodian bombings, etc. And, as traumatic as these events were for us, I now consider everything we experienced in our first forty years of life as rather trivial and insignificant compared to the cultural, moral, emotional, spiritual and physical nuclear blasts figuratively speaking being unleashed on the younger generations today. And to think we oldsters are off busying ourselves elsewhere thereby avoiding our responsibilities rather than even directly refusing to engage with them (ignorance is bliss?) during these horrific world and cultural events for whatever be our excuses; shame on us!
For example, just observe how pervasive the mothering instincts is in nature with its young; thus serving or confirming the biological basis for that truth. Fact is physically and emotionally, our infants and children, even youth, are the most vulnerable of all God’s creation while in their preparation to achieve their life’s destinies; and are we content to just sit back and watch them struggle without the benefit of our experience, hopefully wisdom, and His love, within a Cultivating Anchored Community?
Isn’t it sad for us with such a rich spiritual heritage that we are actually allowing ourselves to be held hostage now in this senseless world since we are literally ignoring our changeless God? Especially so, when we actually do have a God with whom there is no variation nor shadow of turning. He doesn’t have shifting moods, bad days, “oops” moments, momentary breakdowns, or changes of mind or heart. He’s as consistent as a plumb line, as steady as a rock, and as unchanging as eternity. He is as He has always been and always will be. Forever He is enthroned in the highest, and forever His Word is fixed in the heavens.
BOTTOM LINE: Even though our culture’s actions, sights, sounds & smells may at times overwhelm us, take strength in the fact our forefathers chose to walk with God the best they could, and so can we, and most assuredly, so can our children. God’s provisions for us are the same in every generation. His promises cannot fail, His presence cannot dim, His power cannot wane. We can trust Him completely.
“False christs and false prophets will rise and show signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. But take heed; see, I have told you all things beforehand.” Mark 13:22-23.
It is not wise to be overly confident dogmatic as we try to interpret current events. The twists and turns of history are under God’s providential control, and it’s best to watch prayerfully so we can take advantage of open doors for evangelism while awaiting our Lord’s return. We must live every day with confidence and excitement that no matter how dark or senseless the news reports, our sovereign Lord is in control.
This quickie admonition I tweaked from David Jeremiah’s Discovery April 21 several paragraphs is much too long, but you are well aware by now, if I’m inspired, brevity is not one of my virtues. And adding insult to injury, I’d be remiss if I’d not share yet, for those of you with more time and interest, the nugget I found in today’s, June 6, dailylightdevotional.org in it’s Evening’s 8th innocuous verse from Ephesians 2:14, “He is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us.” Since that was unclear to me, I read it in the Message and that really opened up the gates! So simple, so plain! And yes, FYI, I am aware today’s theme of we oldster’s stepping up to the plate that was was also hit on earlier in the conclusion of the Eat Move Sleep Finale post. Perhaps there is a reason. Be aware though, my scribblings are written first to me.
In fact, I suggest at some point you all read the whole chapter to get a vision for God’s big picture. Such will serve you well considering the senselessness all about us! Here it is from The Message Version, for your ready comprehension. The scholarly translations have their place BUT hopefully not to complicate Truth for the masses. I include the verses here because too many readers are yet without a copy. Most thrift stores in our area have copies for cheap. Better, keep a supply yourself to give away when appropriate.
NEXT UP: Since this turned out to be something of a weekend edition, the next post will be short & sweet.
Ephesians 2:1-22 (MSG)
It wasn’t so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. 2. You let the world, which doesn’t know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. 3. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It’s a wonder God didn’t lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. 4. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, 5. he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! 6. Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah. 7. Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. 8. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! 9. We don’t play the major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing! 10. No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing. 11. But don’t take any of this for granted. It was only yesterday that you outsiders to God’s ways 12. had no idea of any of this, didn’t know the first thing about the way God works, hadn’t the faintest idea of Christ. You knew nothing of that rich history of God’s covenants and promises in Israel, hadn’t a clue about what God was doing in the world at large. 13. Now because of Christ—dying that death, shedding that blood—you who were once out of it altogether are in on everything. 14. The Messiah has made things up between us so that we’re now together on this, both non-Jewish outsiders and Jewish insiders. He tore down the wall we used to keep each other at a distance. 15. He repealed the law code that had become so clogged with fine print and footnotes that it hindered more than it helped. Then he started over. Instead of continuing with two groups of people separated by centuries of animosity and suspicion, he created a new kind of human being, a fresh start for everybody. 16. Christ brought us together through his death on the Cross. The Cross got us to embrace, and that was the end of the hostility. 17. Christ came and preached peace to you outsiders and peace to us insiders. 18. He treated us as equals, and so made us equals. Through him we both share the same Spirit and have equal access to the Father. 19. That’s plain enough, isn’t it? You’re no longer wandering exiles. This kingdom of faith is now your home country. You’re no longer strangers or outsiders. You belong here, with as much right to the name Christian as anyone. God is building a home. He’s using us all—irrespective of how we got here—in what he is building. 20. He used the apostles and prophets for the foundation. Now he’s using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone 21. that holds all the parts together. We see it taking shape day after day—a holy temple built by God, 22. all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home.
No joke folks. You’re in for an adventure the next three days. I was reminded by my eldest son Ben while getting our visas in Panama last month that it was he who had suggested I read Tom Rath’s book, Eat, Move, Sleep: How Small Choices Make a Big Difference. I’ve promoted it to all the the associated health professionals I encounter since introduced, and I may have mentioned it briefly prior in several of my 312 prior blogs, but now, I’m literally compelled to PROMOTE it to you, as I do believe we are in for some changes very soon that we are not at all prepared for that will affect us in every known, even unknown, dimensions of life monumentally, simply by the way we eat, move, and sleep.
So here goes. And the clincher I maybe should throw out here is, Ben did retire at 41 from the only employer he actually ever had beginning in his second year at University of Cincinnati while Co-oping with Great American. He tells his brothers though he’s fortunate to be able to live now on income from former investments so he could leave the corporate race, and that he is really more of a starving artist in that he and Jill are working together on another future income producer. Actually, his first job began with me when he was five by closing bottles and placing labels on thousands of bottles in the milk testing lab, in order to buy his first bike, and continued in various capacities through his first year at Wayne College prior to co-oping. The upshot of it all is I’m still working PT in my micro lab at 75, though it too, is my choice.
I recall only loaning two people my copy of Eat Move Sleep. I am waiting on the first person to spontaneously with out me asking, continue the initial conversation after reading it which had prompted him making the decision to discontinue a hobby business that he was really enjoying BUT, it was damaging his health… A month ago I gave a copy to a local fellow after I noticed he had a desk like mine that you can adjust its height to either stand or sit at. He was primed already. I’ve been back twice to see him and he’s never at his desk! I just ordered two more copies so I can prospect more readers in person. It’s just who I am. Enjoy.
Eat Move Sleep
Introduction
Choices count. You can make decisions today that will give you more energy tomorrow. The right choices over time greatly improve your odds of a long and healthy life.
No matter how healthy you are today, you can take specific actions to have more energy and live longer. Regardless of your age, you can make better choices in the moment. Small decisions — about how you eat, move, and sleep each day — count more than you think. As I have learned from personal experience, these choices shape your life.
A Personal Perspective
At age 16, I was playing basketball with friends when I noticed something wrong with my vision. There was a black circle in the middle of my visual field. I assumed it would go away. Instead, it got progressively worse. I finally told my mom, who immediately took me to an eye doctor.
That black spot turned out to be a large tumor on the back of my left eye. The doctor said it might lead to blindness. As if that was not enough, I needed to get a blood test to rule out other medical problems. A few weeks later, my mom and I went back to the doctor’s office for the results.
The doctor told us I had a rare genetic disorder called Von Hippel-Lindau (VHL). While VHL typically runs in families, my condition was a new mutation that affects just one in every 4,400,000 people. This mutation essentially shuts off a powerful tumor suppressor gene and leads to rampant cancerous growth throughout the body.
I still vividly recall sitting on one side of a large wooden desk as my doctor tried to explain what it would be like to battle cancer for the rest of my life. It was one of those moments when your stomach sinks and your mind races for an alternate explanation. My doctor then described how I was also likely to develop cancer in my kidneys, adrenal glands, pancreas, brain, and spine.
While the thought of losing my eyesight was tough, these longer-term issues were even more daunting. That conversation with the doctor forced me to wrestle with much larger questions about my life. Would people treat me differently if they knew about my illness? Was there any chance I would get married and have kids? Perhaps most importantly, I wondered if there was any way I could live a long and healthy life.
Doctors tried everything to save my eyesight, from freezing the tumors to cooking them with a laser. But the sight in my eye never returned. Once I got over this loss, I turned my attention to learning everything I could about the other manifestations of this rare disease.
I quickly realized that the more I learned, the more I could do to increase my odds of living longer. As new information emerged, I discovered I could stay ahead of my condition with annual MRIs, CTs, and eye exams. If doctors caught tumors early, when they were small, the tumors were less likely to spread and kill me. Learning that was a huge relief. Even if it required some difficult surgeries, there was something I could do to live longer.
I have had annual exams and scans for 20 years now and currently have small tumors in my kidneys, adrenal glands, pancreas, spine, and brain. Every year, I “watch and wait” to find out if any of these tumors are large enough to require surgery. In most cases, they are not.
Waiting around for active tumors to grow may sound nerve-racking. It could be, if I dwelled on the genetic condition that is beyond my control. Instead, I use these annual exams to stay focused on what I can do to decrease the odds of my cancers growing and spreading.
BOTTOM LINE:
As each year goes by, I learn more about how I can eat, move, and sleep to improve my chances of living a long and healthy life. Then I apply what I learn to make better choices. I act as if my life depends on each decision. Because it does.
Last Sunday Pastor Carl effectively captured our attention with the children’s SS song This Little Light of Mine and drove home his four points on marriage to insure our marital joy thrives recognizing its: 1.) Source…God’s plan is in His manual (not to be confused with civil unions), 2.) Sanctity (what God has joined let not man…, 3.) Sabotage … forces that damage/destroy bonds, & 4.) Solution … miracle working God, abide within His boundaries, Church community offer hope, get help early on…
Today (May 27) Pastor Carl drew from the Dr Seuss 1940 book Horton Hatches the Egg with its famous line “I meant what I said, and I said what I meant, an elephant is faithful 100 percent!” with the Biblical text taken from The Sermon on the Mount Matthew 5:33-37 concerning oaths; 33.) Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord all thy oaths,” concluding 37.) “But let your communication be yeah and nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.” I am presuming Pastor Carl was suggesting we apply and remember the essence of this text by his PJR triggers of 1.) the Principle Jesus is Referencing not being a commandment, but rather our appeal to God by means of some sacred object; 2.) the Problem Jesus Revealed, we making oaths that we have no intention of keeping; & 3.) the Practice Jesus Recommends, that our being completely honest, truthful, transparent and righteous, is assured not by an oath, but stems from His Spirit residing within and directing us, such as calling off sick when we’re not, or fudging car title sale prices to lower either their, or our tax liabilities, or by telling someone when they request my time, that I already have plans, which are only not to do whatever they have for me…. Oh yes, we are so easily deceived…
Visit the kidronmennonite.com, click on Livestream, then select the desired date, or search Kidron Mennoite on YouTubes for the May 19 & 27th sermons.
Now, I said all the above just as a lead into my conversation with Jim & Doris Miller as Daniel Gerber and I were walking to our cars after SS. Jim informed me of a popular article by A.W. Tozer titled Five Vows to Make and Keep, which he recited to us briefly inferring he’d lived by it since hearing it, picking up on the morning’s sermon. Later Daniel sent me a copy of the Tozer’s Five Vows that I’ve slashed to half size below, but still, 1800 words. If desiring the full-length article, type in this address: /2016/12/five-vows-to-make-and-keep/
Some people object to taking vows, but in the Bible you will find many great men of God directed by covenants, promises, vows, and pledges. The psalmist was not averse to the taking of vows. He said, “Thy vows are upon me, 0 God, I will render my praises unto thee” (Psalm 56:12).
My counsel in this matter is that if you are really concerned about spiritual improvement – the gaining of new power, new life, new joy, and new personal revival within your heart -you will do well to make certain vows and proceed to keep them. if you should fail, go down in humility and repent and start over. But always keep these vows before you. They will help harmonize your heart with the vast powers that flow out and down from the throne where Christ sits at the right hand of God.
A carnal man refuses the discipline of such commitments. He says, “I want to be free. I don’t want to lay any vows upon myself; I don’t believe in it; it is legalism.” Well, let me paint a picture of two men.
One of them will not take vows. He will not accept any responsibility. He wants to be free. And he is free – in a measure – just as a tramp is free. The tramp is free to sit on a park bench by day, sleep on a newspaper by night, get chased out of town on Thursday morning, and find his way up a set of creaky stairs in some flophouse on Thursday night. Such a man is free, but he is also useless. He clutters up the world whose air he breathes.
Let’s look at another man – maybe a president or prime minister or any great man who carries upon himself the weight of government. Such men are not free. But in the sacrifice of their freedom they step up their power. if they insist upon being free, they can be free, just like the tramp. But they choose rather to be bound.
There are many religious tramps in the world who will not be bound by anything. They have turned the grace of God into personal license. But the great souls are the ones who have gone reverently to God with the understanding that in their flesh dwells no good thing. And they knew that without God’s enablement any vows taken would be broken before sundown. Nevertheless, believing in God, reverently they took certain sacred vows. This is the way to spiritual power. There are five vows I have in mind which we do well to make and to keep.
1. DEAL THOROUGHLY WITH SIN
Sin has been driven underground these days and has come up with a new name and face. You may be subjected to this phenomenon in the schools. Sin is being called by various fancy names – anything but what it really is. For example, men don’t get under conviction any more; they get a guilt complex.
Instead of confessing their guilt to God and getting rid of it, they sit on a couch and try and tell a man who ought to know better all about themselves. it comes out after a while that they were deeply disappointed when they were two years old or some such thing. That’s supposed to make them better.
The whole thing is ridiculous, because sin is still the ancient enemy of the soul. it has never changed. We’ve got to deal firmly with sin in our lives. Let’s remember that “the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.” Righteousness lies at the door of the kingdom of God. The soul that sins, it shall die.
This is not to preach sinless perfection. This is to say that every known sin is to be named, identified, and repudiated and that we must trust God for deliverance from it so that there is no conscious, deliberate sin anywhere in our lives. It is absolutely necessary that we deal thus, because God is a holy God and sin is on the throne of the world.
So don’t call your sins by some other name. if you’re jealous, call it jealousy. If you tend to pity yourself and feel that you are not appreciated, call it what it is – self-pity.
2. NEVER OWN ANYTHING (perhaps better said, OWN YOU!
I do not mean by this that you cannot have things. I mean that you ought to get delivered from the sense of possessing them. This sense of possessing is what hinders us. All babies are born with their fists clenched, and it seems to me it means, “This is mine!” One of the first things they say when they begin to speak, is “mine” in an angry voice. That sense of “This is mine” ‘is a very injurious thing to the spirit. If you can get rid of it so that you have no feeling of possessing anything, there will come a great sense of freedom and liberty into your life.
Now don’t think that you must sell all that you have and give it to charity. No. God will let you have your car and your business, your practice and your position, whatever it may be – provided you understand that it is not yours at all, but His, and all you are doing is just working for Him. You can be restful about it then, because we never need to worry about losing anything that belongs to someone else. If it is yours, you are always looking in your hand to see if it is still there. If it is God’s, you no longer need to worry about it.
3. NEVER DEFEND YOURSELF
We are all born with a desire to defend ourselves. And if you insist upon defending yourself, God will let you do it But if on turn the defense of yourself over to God, He will defend you. He told Moses in Exodus 23: “I will be an enemy unto thine enemies and an adversary to thine adversaries.”
What do we defend? Well, we defend our talents; we defend our service; and particularly, we defend our reputation. Your reputation is what people think you are, and if a story gets out about you, the big temptation is to try to run it down.
4. GUARD YOUR WORDS ABOUT OTHERS
Never pass anything on – about anybody else that will hurt him. “Love covers a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8). The talebearer has no place in God’s favor. if you know something that would hinder or hurt the reputation of one of God’s children, bury it forever. Find a little garden out back – a little spot somewhere – and when somebody comes around with an evil story, take it out and bury it and say, “Here lies in peace the story about my brother.” God will take care of it. “With what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged.”
if you want God to be good to you, you are going to have to be good to His children. You say, “But that’s not grace.” Well, grace gets you into the kingdom of God. That is unmerited favor. But after you are seated at the Father’s table, He expects to teach you table manners. And He won’t let you eat unless you obey the etiquette of the table. And what is that? The etiquette of the table is that you don’t tell stories about the brother who is sitting at the table with you – no matter what his denomination, or nationality, or background.
5. NEVER ACCEPT ANY GLORY
God is jealous of His glory and He will not give His glory to another. He will not even share His glory with another. It is quite natural, I should say, for people to hope that maybe their Christian service will give them a chance to display their talents. True, they want to serve the Lord. But they also want other people to know they are serving the Lord. They want to have a reputation among the saints. That is very dangerous ground – seeking a reputation among the saints. It’s bad enough to seek a reputation in the world, but it’s worse to seek a reputation among the people of God. Our Lord gave up His reputation, and so must we.
I go along with this. If you are serving the Lord, and yet slyly -perhaps scarcely known to you – you are hoping to get just a little five percent commission, then look out! it will chill the power of God in your spirit. You must determine that you will never take any glory, but see that God gets it all.
BOTTOM LINE:
These vows cut against the old human nature. They introduce the cross into your life, and nobody ever walks back from carrying his cross. When you make these vows, remember, they strike at the heart of your self-life and there is never a place to go back to. And I say, “Woe unto the triflers!”
Now, if you happen to be one of those on whom God has laid His hand for a deeper life, a more powerful life, a fuller life -then I wonder if you would be willing to pray this kind of prayer: –
0 God, glorify Thyself at my expense. Send me the bill – anything, Lord. I set no price. I will not dicker or bargain. Glorify Thyself. I’ll take the consequences.
This kind of praying is simple, but it’s deep and wonderful and powerful. I believe that if you can pray a prayer like that, it will be the ramp from which you can take off into higher heights and bluer skies in the things of the Spirit.
NEXT UP: Time for a break from the intensive! How about encouragement and wisdom from Einstein in less than 300 words?
I and the multitude of his fans and friends, value & treasure John’s unique music & quips flowing from his compelling identity in Christ as His troubadour & Kingdom Warrior Ambassador. Enjoy.
SEIZE THE MOMENT (Pay Attention)
“At the risk of repeating myself (I may have told this story before), I want to retell a story that I thought had to be false, but I’ve checked it out. It’s true. Here’s the story:”
A man stood at the L’Enfant Plaza Metro (subway) entrance in Washington, DC playing his violin. It was a cold January day. He played six classical pieces for about 45 minutes – two Bach pieces, one Massenet and one each from Schurbert and Ponce. It was rush hour, so over a thousand people went through the building on their way to work. After about three minutes after he started playing a middle- aged man heard the music, slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried on to his work. A minute later the violinist received his first dollar tip. A woman tossed the money into his open violin case as she walked by. A few minutes later a man leaned against the wall to listen to him for a minute or two, looked at his watch and walked away.
The one who paid the most attention was a three-year-old boy who stopped to listen while his mother held his hand. Finally, the mother started walking, tugging the boy along. He went with her as he kept turning his head and watching the violinist while being escorted away. This action was repeated several times by other children.
In the 45 minutes that the musician played, six people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money as they continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32.17 plus a $20 bill from someone who seemed to recognize him. $52,17 total! When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed. No one applauded. There was no recognition or thanks.
Who was this metro subway musician? His name is Joshua Bell,one of the most acclaimed classical violinists in the world. He was playing a Stradivarius violin, made in 1713, worth several million dollars. Two nights earlier he played the same repertoire to a sold-out theater in Boston to folks who paid more than $100 per seat and he received thunderous applause and appreciation.
Columnist Gene Weingarten of The Washington Post initiated this experiment. Bell wore a baseball cap and played incognito as his performance was videotaped on a hidden camera. They wanted to see how beautiful music would affect people in their daily routine.
Their conclusion: the world is too busy, too preoccupied, too uncurious, or simply disinterested to stop and joy the best that classical music has to offer. One of the finest violinists in the world playing the finest classical music in the world on possibly the finest violin in the world! As the world walked by.
Weingarten won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for his article on this experiment. The Washinton Post posted the video on YouTube and it was entitled: Find Your Way: A Busker’s Documentary. It went viral.
So many take aways! What was learned? Several observations:
If we don’t have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written on one of the best musical instruments ever made, how many other things are we missing?!
If you don’t have a “name,” people don’t expect much. At a Johnny Cash concert in Dover in 1995, I listened politely, though impatiently to the warm up” band. They stopped, Johnny Cash’s band came on stage and at the sound of the first three notes of Bob Wooten’s guitar, the crowd was their feet. The performer had a name. Anticipation was high. I guess we get what we want and expect?
How an artist is introduced is very important. I was once asked by an MC how I would like to introduced. “Do you want my humble intro, or my boastful introduction?” I asked jokingly. “The boastful one!” he demanded. So, I told who all I had been on stage with and where I had performed, etc. and he got up and gave me a flowery (albeit truthfully) introduction. I could feel the anticipation when I got up on stage.
Atmosphere matters. Presentation counts. There is a reason Joshua Bell does not wear a baseball cap and a T shirt when he performs at Carnegie Hall. Maybe it wasn’t totally the commuter’s fault that they missed greatness.
“Friend, how did you get in here without wedding clothes?” The man was speechless. Matt. 22:11
The thief on the cross was just several feet from the Savior and yet he missed him.
Don’t miss the beauty around you. Don’t miss the Savior!
Contact Info: Common Ground Ministries Box 178 Berlin, OH 44610 office 330-674-9862 home 330-674-2274 www.johnschmid.com
I thought because we have several flower beds to work and plant before the showers arrive. At least, that was what I thought until I read the first three verses from dailylightdevotional.org which led me to all of I Cor 2… And last evening after attending and being greatly blessed by the first of Daniel Gerber’s Abiding worship services, all from seeds planted at the Pittsburg youth convention when he was a high school senior. I came home for a late supper and while scanning some new for me but old devotional books, I found this unique one that intensely resonated with my spirit as I’m been researching personal spiritual disciplines, this one titled “Joy in the Morning based on Psalm 30:5 “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.” in David Jeremiah’s “Sanctuary: Finding Moments of Refuge in the Presence of God.” 2002 Jan 25 quoting,
“It’s interesting that David follows a pattern of looking at the day that was begun in the creation account in Genesis. He says that weeping comes in the night, but joy comes in the morning. If you remember, when God created the heavens and the earth, He said, “the evening and the morning were the first day” (Genesis 1:5). We think just the opposite, don’t we? We think of a day as the morning followed by the evening.
I think there are wonderful truths embedded in God’s perspective on life. If you will look at your day as the evening and the morning instead of of the morning and the evening, you will begin your day in the evening by meditating on what you need to accomplish the next day, and asking God’s blessing on it. Then He is free to work in your heart and mind as you sleep to prepare for accomplishing those things. When Christ returns, there will be no more weeping. Weeping is ours during the night, but eternal joy is coming in the morning of Christ’s return.”
mle … These italicized words from above will no doubt cause me to evaluate and rethink the way I schedule my life. It appears I’ve been blindsided/broadsided! Perhaps this is why the Jewish Sabbath begins at sunset Friday evening and ends at sunset Saturday evening? Interesting!
Now for the dailylightdevotional.org scriptures before I Corinthians 2:
May 25 MORNING
How great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee! Psa. 31:19
Since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him. Isa. 64:4
Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit. I Cor. 2:9, 10
1 Corinthians 2:1-16 (MSG)
1 You’ll remember, friends, that when I first came to you to let you in on God’s master stroke, I didn’t try to impress you with polished speeches and the latest philosophy.
2 I deliberately kept it plain and simple: first Jesus and who he is; then Jesus and what he did—Jesus crucified.
3 I was unsure of how to go about this, and felt totally inadequate—I was scared to death, if you want the truth of it—
4 and so nothing I said could have impressed you or anyone else. But the Message came through anyway. God’s Spirit and God’s power did it,
5 which made it clear that your life of faith is a response to God’s power, not to some fancy mental or emotional footwork by me or anyone else.
6 We, of course, have plenty of wisdom to pass on to you once you get your feet on firm spiritual ground, but it’s not popular wisdom, the fashionable wisdom of high-priced experts that will be out-of-date in a year or so.
7 God’s wisdom is something mysterious that goes deep into the interior of his purposes. You don’t find it lying around on the surface. It’s not the latest message, but more like the oldest—what God determined as the way to bring out his best in us, long before we ever arrived on the scene.
8 The experts of our day haven’t a clue about what this eternal plan is. If they had, they wouldn’t have killed the Master of the God-designed life on a cross.
9 That’s why we have this Scripture text: No one’s ever seen or heard anything like this, Never so much as imagined anything quite like it— What God has arranged for those who love him.
10 But you’ve seen and heard it because God by his Spirit has brought it all out into the open before you. The Spirit, not content to flit around on the surface, dives into the depths of God, and brings out what God planned all along.
11 Who ever knows what you’re thinking and planning except you yourself? The same with God—except that he not only knows what he’s thinking,
12 but he lets us in on it. God offers a full report on the gifts of life and salvation that he is giving us.
13 We don’t have to rely on the world’s guesses and opinions. We didn’t learn this by reading books or going to school; we learned it from God, who taught us person-to-person through Jesus, and we’re passing it on to you in the same firsthand, personal way.
14 The unspiritual self, just as it is by nature, can’t receive the gifts of God’s Spirit. There’s no capacity for them. They seem like so much silliness. Spirit can be known only by spirit—God’s Spirit and our spirits in open communion.
15 Spiritually alive, we have access to everything God’s Spirit is doing, and can’t be judged by unspiritual critics.
16 Isaiah’s question, “Is there anyone around who knows God’s Spirit, anyone who knows what he is doing?” has been answered: Christ knows, and we have Christ’s Spirit.
Blessings to you and your plans for this ’24 Memorial Day Weekend!
Before I sat down to write this conclusion, I had the opportunity to visit an elderly pastor, formerly an acquaintance, now becoming a dear friend, who is struggling with Parkinson’s. After catching up on the past week, I was explaining the Tony Reinke phone article and just ended up reading it to him, noticing when I began the avoidance motives, he was dozing. With lunch time approaching, I thought it best for me to move on allowing him a quick nap prior lunch saying perhaps we’d continue from there next time.
I mention this encounter for while reading this article again, I was reminded how vulnerable we as Christ Followers are today to the nuances and functional intricacies of this pocket sized idol that has been catapulted virtually into functioning as a living organism with its intrinsic addictive programed capabilities that we lazily elevate above our God endowed gifts diminishing and ultimately mothballing them as we shift our trust from Almighty God to merely one of many latest & greatest new & shiny objects, as we become the proverbial “cooked” frog when initially only seeking its comforting functional warmth.
Note these captivating devices once given free-reign in our daily treadmill of life are soon quietly unobtrusively under-girding our thought processes, and our subsequent actions & decisions, such that we are not even aware of the shift. These phones literally can think, recall, perform, store, capture and transmit data around the world and cloud, either electronically or even by its own voice, and now with AI, to even heal itself and continually diagnose and monitor the state of our health and make its dire or life-saving predictions. The list is endless; and all this occurs without fleshly eyeballs, blood, bone, heart, or brain. Just imagine! Even reproduction is in process, be it 3 D printers or cloning.
Remember how we chuckled as children during SS or Bible School at the foreign god idols during Bible days, being merely wood, stone or cast metal; “whatever were those heathen people thinking”? And then, we were even more judgmental when the children of Israel left the True God and worshipped their neighbor’s gods!
So, what about our situation now? It seems regardless of the date in history, without Christ, our hearts continue to gravitate toward some form of idolatry, be it identity or significance; all of which nudges out our love and adoration for our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ; be it a spouse, children, work, trinkets, toys, heroes, castles, social media, sexual fulfillment, kingdoms, sports, hobbies, land, humanitarian causes, fame, recognition, unique skills, etc. The list is endless, and we may snicker at the obviousness of those listed, but all that really matters in the end, is that we know without a doubt exactly what is crowding out God and His Righteousness from being front and center in our lives right now!
I’m suggesting by using this simple 9-year-old phone idolatry article that we just ponder, really ponder the significance of that one technological development, and the hundreds of generations of phones since Alexander G Bell in 1844 sent the phrase from Numbers 23:23, originally recorded as spoken from Balam to Balak “What hath God wrought?” by telegraph, the precursor of the telephone.
I remember well having the power line installed along our county road 120 in ’51 so we all had electricity, thanks to the REA, the Rural Electrification Association; a party line rotary dial phone installed in ’55, water piped into our home with a faucet in the hallway in ’56, and indoor plumbing with a kitchen sink and a bathroom in’59, but the TV got skipped until the next generation. All of these developments since the Industrial Revolution were of significance in the doors they opened and the lives they changed, but none quite compare to the impact of phones on us individually spiritually, especially when intertwined with video.
We can’t undo it or ignore it, as my father tried with daylight savings time when it was introduced. Monday thru Saturday night except for Wednesday night prayer meeting, we operated and lived on old time, standard time, not the new, or Daylight time. Both the mailman & the milkman just came an hour early and our few appointments were adjusted. Seems funny now, but I think we did it 2 or 3 summers, being normal duration then.
I also remember well our old Zenith tube radio taller than me then with its AM/short wave bands arriving several years after the electric poles were set, providing Christian radio programming such as “Songs in the Night” from the historic Moody Church, Bill Collins and the Sugarcreek Creek Gang series, Unshackled, and with three short wave bands to cruise, (surfing came later with internet), with programming all the way from Quito Ecuador, one of the few in English, and of course, our government’s Voice of America broadcasting the positive attributes of democracy around planet earth, which interestingly enough now, I have no recollections of content.
Although for some reason, I am reminded of the five words “How the mighty have fallen! It seems I am using those five words more frequently of late when pondering the current trending perspectives being floated out & about, in & around. Perhaps it’s because I just came across that phrase twice in my One Year NIV Bible reading on Wednesday May 22 in I Samuel 1: 19 in David’s lament quoting from verse 17, “David took up this lament concerning Saul and his son Jonathan, and ordered that the men of Judah be taught this lament of the bow (it is written in the book Jashar): 19.) Your glory O Israel, lies slain on your height. How the mighty have fallen!” True then, true now.
For some weeks my copy of the book “A Church Dismantled: A Kingdom Restored” has been in plain sight on the top of several books, the bottom being my grandfather Gingerich’s very tattered Thompson’s The New Chain Reference Bible. A Church Dismantled was written by another acquaintance afflicted with Parkinsons, Conrad L Kanagy, whom I imagine would also echo these five words today, as he set the stage already in 2007 with his book “Road Signs For the Journey: A Study of Denominational Decline – and the Discovery of Hope in the Spirit’s Dismantling of the Church.” Isn’t that a novel perspective when the chatter today is confusingly more along the lines of “God Save the Queen?”
I mention all the above history only for perspective to awaken us to the lateness of the hour and how we of my generation are being lulled into spiritual oblivion, possibly even to our demise in our quest for “peace and safety” as espoused by our government and culture’s prior standard sources or benchmarks, which are already functionally dismantled, much as Kanagy has ascribed to the Church nearly 20 years ago.
I am very concerned for my generation, for even though we yet possess a knowledge and obedience toward the real and true God, we are fast becoming aware that individually and corporately we must up our game and demonstrate to all those in the cloud around or behind us, how exactly does our faith sometimes visibly sustain us and is witnessed by all those in our sphere of influence pleasantly exuding a NT freshness and an honesty unfortunately seldom intimately observed in & around our spiritually cultivated & anchored communities, let alone, be they ever personally encountered.
Our generation have & are witnessing historically the evolving of these intimate invasions into even how we communicate with God, and soon may have communication curtailed in our spiritual enclaves, or even more broadly, what we can communicate in or through any media at all anywhere.
Now, for those who graduated from high school in the past 20-30 years, their spiritual futures are suspect. Too many have been seriously handicapped being raised in the shadows of a glib shallow cultural institutional Christianity model sub-consciously characterized as authoritarian power based that I’ve been chief of the guilty promoting, “do as I say, & not necessarily as I do,” vividly juxtaposed with the invitational forgiveness love grace and mercy model, pervading & exemplified by Jesus as recorded in the gospels and vividly demonstrated in Acts of the Apostles and the following epistles.
Bottom Line: We are out of time! And our phones are not the problem. We are. More to come. Until then. Read. Pray. Listen. Obey. More perhaps Sun evening. Or not. Blessings on your journey through the these inner disciplines….
