Category: Personal Interest

“The Lord is far from the wicked, but He hears the prayers of the Righteous”. Proverbs 15:29. Prompted by and adapted from David Jeremiah’s devotional Destinations: Your Journey With God, Jan 19

In developing a stronger prayer life, it’s often helpful to read books about prayer, and the older ones are usually the best. For example, more than a hundred years ago, Samuel D Gordon published Quiet Talks on Prayer, which is still in print today. He opened his book by reminding us, “You can do more through your praying than through your personality.”

Most of us try to do things through the force of our personalities. We persuade. We cajole. We brownnose. We maneuver. We make exotic promises. We compromise. We bait. We push. We sweet-talk. We urge. We hint. We arm-twist. But you know, too often we just forget, or are too preoccupied to remember that the foundation of our faith, such that, we need to be reminded once more, that we are Spirit Empowered to do so much more through prayer than we ever could through our puny too often mis-directed quirky personalities.

Dr. Gordon goes on to say, “You can do more than pray after you have prayed. But you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed.”

BOTTOM LINE:

I’m curious. Do you have any issues today in your life you’ve been trying to resolve but which, on reflection right now, you better realize that you must ask the Lord to intervene? So why not try the force of prayer where your forces of personality has failed?

“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” Luke 22:3-32

If anyone should have been able to help Peter with good counseling or teaching, it would have been almighty Jesus. Yet His solution was to pray. Just meditate on that for a moment, better a week or two!

PS: I ordered Dr Gordon’s book yesterday after adding my twist to the above devotional, which as usual, I write first to myself, before offering it to you. I next opened my favorite book by a former mega church pastor, Francis Chan, titled “Letters to the Church” detailing his journey from leaving his mega creation and called to go to Asia with his growing family to build house fellowships and then five years later,was called to return to the Tenderloin subculture of San Francisco to further develop that church growth model in the states. I’d be remiss not share his prayer insights here.

In Chapter Six Francis identifies eight pastoral identities and speaks these inspiring words in the Praying Pastor portion, saying “I once told my staff to let me know if they were not praying at least an hour a day. This way I could replace them with someone else who would. I would much rather hire someone who prayed and did nothing else than someone who worked tirelessly without praying. That may sound harsh, but prayer is that critical. Prayer is not merely a task of ministry; it is a gauge that exposes our hearts’ condition…. Regardless of position: whether in the pulpit or the pew! It unveils our pride, showing us whether or not we believe we are powerless apart from God. When we pray, it is an expression of surrender to God and reliance on His infinite wisdom and sovereignty. Even Jesus Himself would not take matters into His own hands when His disciple Peter was being attacked by Satan.

Prayer is the mark of a lover. Those who deeply love Jesus can’t help but pray often. To love God with our entire being is the greatest command in Scripture. Pastors who are not drawn to prayer should not be pastors. It is in prayer we seek the Lord and the welfare of our people. I have joining my elders to pray Ephesians 3:14-19 over our people, begging God that they would long for Jesus as we do.

A pastor from India once told me he was researching movements and noticed a common thread: movements of God always start with a leader who knows God deeply and they always end when the followers only know their leader deeply. Pastors, we must know Him deeply and make disciples whose primary attachment is to Christ himself.”

NEXT UP!

Possibly the script of a unique Mother’s Day sermon delivered here in Wayne Co this morning.

“The righteous man walks in his integrity: His children are blessed after him.” Proverbs 20:7

One night around a campfire Dr. Robert Brandt (“A Heritage of Honesty” in Decision Magazine, July-August 1991, 8-9), told his sons about a workman injured by a sliding boulder. He was dirt poor, and he feared losing his job. Because he couldn’t afford a horse, he walked everywhere; so his injured foot was a constant trial. When payday came, he limped to the general store for groceries. Back home, he discovered the he’d been given too much change. Despite the searing pain, he limped back to the store to return the change.

“What do you think, guys? Asked Dr. Brandt. “Did he do the right thing?

The boys discussed it, then Brandt finished the story. “Before he died, (the young father) had passed his values in honesty to his children and his grandchildren. Even his great-grandchildren still hear about his honesty… He was my grandfather and your great-grandfather!”

As parents and as people, we model our integrity after that of our heavenly Father. Indeed, “The righteous walk in their integrity, and their children will be blessed after them.”

Merlin from here on:

With Mother’s Day in the wings, I suggest we each reflect on our mother’s if possible, considering perhaps one or several events of your choosing that your memory over the years as flagged and pretty much now has direct access whenever so triggered. Have you ever contemplated its significance and why it’s now a default recall? Significant yet today?

Perhaps it is an event in your family tree as the story above. Perhaps it is yet as vivid as I remembering the summer day in ’54 or ’55 when my mother packed up my sis and I up in our recently acquired ’49 Dodge pickup and drove 5-6 miles to the location of her birth home farm in a MN wilderness. Although the buildings were gone and the 35 acre opening in the woods, much of which Grandpa had cleared, reminds me of Laura Ingalls Wilder book The Little House in the Big Woods but not in Wisconsin, but rather, in Height of Land township of Becker Co. in west central MN. Strange, but my fifth grade one room teacher read us at least three from that series to restore order amongst the 25 of us after the chaos of lunch and recess.

Sorry for the digression. The field was indeed becoming smaller, not that mother told me, but that within a few years I myself had witnessed how the prolific ever reproducing sapling popular trees could in 10 years move 100 feet into a field if it were not under cultivation or pastured hard to keep the new growth at bay. We entered the woods and soon came upon a one room schoolhouse, in the middle of no where so it seemed. No playground remained as the trees had proven victorious; its windows mostly broken, door open, but some of the desks were still there. But what I remember most was the blackboard, the alphabet letters across its top tier, and above that, the maps that you could pull down, though I certainly couldn’t reach them, and the pole with a hook for such maneuvers was long gone, perhaps repurposed as a fishing pole by one of the neighboring Hansen boys whom I later rode the bus with when in seventh grade when we all went to school in town, necessitating an 11 mile 25 minute commute.

Next on our outing, mother took us to the Height of Land Lake and its puny little dam, which is the source of the Ottertail River, all of which is within 65 miles from the source of the mighty Mississippi River where it flows from Lake Itasca, which now reminds me to encourage you all to read Holmes Co. author Paul Stutzman’s book “Stuck in the Weeds: Pilgrim Stories from the Camino De Santiago and the Mississippi River,” a most delightful encouraging adventure read with his bonus spiritual insights.

We and other relatives returned to the site of that schoolhouse in the years following but by then basically only a few stones of the foundation remained. Not being on a township road, it couldn’t survive for back then, it was just located between likely 4-5 small subsistence farms connected by logging or farm trails accessible then best by horses.

Yes, I remember mother well, as do many of my cousins, as my siblings and I are now frequently told. She possessed integrity, rooted in love, expressed in quiet kindly compassion in her small sphere of influence, always faithful to encourage, ever following Him. Following Him, not to get or accumulate, but only to give, to share; all from His warehouse and dispensed to her recipients with the understanding that He was the Source of all good gifts…

FYI, in hindsight now, I realize how remote and emotionally unavailable I was during the passing my mother. What was the deal with me anyway? Mother passed Labor Day weekend ’72 after Dad and Mom earlier that June had celebrated their 25th anniversary. Labor Day Monday was a beautiful day with the service at 2 pm, and by 4:30 pm, Dad was baling and I was on the wagon stacking bales, trying to get done before the 5 PM milking, and you know, back then, I always considered we were a functional normal family. After all, the hay was ready, and the cows did indeed need to be milked, all of which provided more than enough fertile ground to produce a a long term dysfunctional workaholic son.

Fortunately, we did have 18 months to prepare from the diagnosis, and she did spent most of her last months viewing the farm’s activities from her bed in front of the picture window, where she did physically transition to her new Home, finally free of all her pain, years before hospice was available. Understand though, her eldest son, for whom she had sacrificed so much, was off battling his own battles, solely created by me. They were not inherited, or given me by any luck of the draw, but, entirely by my choices. I was clueless and oblivious to the emotional needs and wishes of my prematurely dying mother and grieving father. I hope only a few of you can relate to this stark narrative of my experiences. If you’re familiar and need a listening ear, contact me by personal email. Perhaps that is why I was so attracted to the Dr. Brandt story above….

BOTTOM LINE:

Again as I said yesterday, I say to myself as well, WAKE UP! Life is passing us by. I just remembered the biggest disappointment for mother after that wonderful day exploring her childhood schoolhouse with us in tow, occurred was some weeks later when the film was processed, and it had somehow been double exposed so we had nothing as proof. Perhaps that is our bottom line for today. Though we’re totally surrounded and immersed in digitalized sights & sounds, be advised all such proofs may someday just go “poof and be gone,” whereas the relationships that we enjoyed in times past, or are now, or will be in the future, will grant you safe passage seeing you through all of life’s hurdles preparing you for transitioning into eternity. So invest well today!

NEXT UP: No idea yet. I only have a dozen such as today’s clip prepared to choose from, which often opens the door for the creative juices to begin flowing. If you are enjoying this blog, a gift from my three sons after an accident forced my retirement in ’18, please invite your friends to read it, and if they desire more of the same, to subscribe. The more the merrier. Yes, I know. It depends.

I am certainly not here to entertain you or write books. I believe I’m only here to get us ready to transition to whatever is next for each of us. Continual transitioning is the way we grow, whether physically, mentally, and especially, spiritually. Perhaps being a blog writer is not the most honorable pursuit, certainly not rewarding financially, but it’s mine for now, at least, until I’m transitioned to whatever is next. For example, after 41 years at the same address, the past 8 months of transitioning has been a brutal firestorm, but we survived, and are now even beginning to thrive as never before! Perhaps I am finally able to connect the dots on the MM header; Retooled & Thriving. Now it is perhaps exhibiting a smidgen of truth! You should know God gave me that banner back in ’18, and until very recently, I often considered the banner to be a hypocrisy to be so used .

Also, FYI, you should know last week while in Panama we were given our permanent visas, so now we can come and go as we choose.

Blessings on your life journey ever building your personal integrity’s visible latticework that indeed supports your internal silent repose drawing those persons and their unique personalities into your sphere of influence as you emulate The Master, especially now as we go toward Sunday, first to Worship, then to honor the Mothers we’ve been blessed to experience. Now simply decompress. Write. Share. Communicate as prompted.

Psychologists tell us anticipation, which is the opposite of surprise, is an emotion with marvelous healing powers. Can you imagine a world without anticipation? That’s an innocent question but, just now as I re-read it, it hit me hard in the gut that I surely must realize the majority of the worlds 9 billion population today never did, or no longer do, have the opportunity to engage in joyful anticipation. Just how would you & I ever cope with nothing to look forward to?

Do I dare here even suggest a three generation comparison of satisfaction markers be it personal, family, vocational and especially health benchmarks, to get a damage assessment of the culture’s current confusion and chaos to society and the stability for future generations? I tend to think the time for such academic considerations are long past, and that the “endowed & empowered persons capable of anticipation” must unite in focus as detailed below here, and hopefully from past and future blogs.

So, if there is no, or only limited anticipation, then welcome to world of non-Christianity. And fact is, such may also be true for the “not yet” transformed cultural Christians struggling for their identity in the shadows of the Almighty, for without Christ, there can be no ultimate anticipation. There may be momentary prospects of anticipation and even incremental excitement sporadically, but a lasting assured fruitful anticipation is just not happening. Whether you’re among the procrastinating “not yet transformed” cultural Christians, or even an avowed atheist, your future has no promise; it holds no hope. Everything is, or will, soon perish. Death will be the termination of our lives, our families, our fortunes, our civilization, and even the universe itself.

God created both the good and the evil, so that we would have a choice of whom we will serve; be it the Dark, or the Light. Are you beginning to understand the rampant struggle we’re witnessing right now in our culture for personal identities on so many fronts, with so much chaos and confusion? We should not be surprised “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12).

You know, these days I am often reminded (though I never bothered to look up the words until just now) of the title to Peggy Lee’s song “Is That All There Is” as written by Mike Stoller and Jerry Lieber in the early 70’s inspired by, and understandably so, by one of Thomas Martin’s short stories, titled “Disillusionment.”  Even I, then being only a 23 year-old rootless cultural Christian not yet transformed, recognized the potential undermining depravity of such “worldly” thinking as echoed in the song’s chorus:

“Is that all there is? Is that all there is?

If that’s all there is my friends, then let’s keep dancing

Let’s break out the booze and have a ball if that’s all there is…

Mike and Jerry used a house fire, a circus, and a “lost cause puppy love heartbreak” for their visual stage of dis-illusioned despondency. Here is the last verse:

I know what you must be saying to yourselves

“If that’s the way she feels about it, why doesn’t she just end it all?”

Oh no, not me

I’m not ready for that final disappointment, Cause I know just as I’m standing here talking to you

And when that final moment comes and I’m breathing my last breath, I’ll be saying to myself

Is that all there is……Chorus

Wow! Is that a sermon in a song or what? Understand, I’ve deliberately chosen not to listen to the song because time has totally erased my memory of even a smidgen of its melody, and that is good! I am quite vulnerable to being emotionally triggered by such negative sights & sounds of darker days & times, so we’ll just let that sleeping dog lie…. You get the picture?

Bottom Line: Thank God we have a Message and Mission of Hope and Light to Dispense and Disperse while we yet tarry here, Living & Building His Kingdom Today while relishing our Joy anticipating the future return of our Lord and transitioning to the mansions He has prepared for us. May we choose to live in His vastness of anticipation today and encourage others either on the fence or in the wilderness to physically & spiritually join us anticipating the wonder & goodness of life in its richest and fullest dimensions.

On every page of the Bible there are words of God that give reason to hope… In the promises of God I find inspiration and new hope. Charles A Allen

The above was inspired by the April 8 reading “Anticipation” in David Jeremiah’s “Discovery: Experiencing God’s Word Day By Day” and revamped and expanded by merlin.

LIFE Perspectives Offered Now from Hindsight…

Possibly for your Foresight, BUT,

Only by His Continual Grace & Mercy…

So, a week has already passed since Easter! Are we still focused on its supreme triumph, shaking the very foundations of hell? And do we so consider there is nothing in time or eternity more absolutely certain and irrefutable than what Jesus Christ accomplished on the Cross, making it possible for the entire human race to be brought back into a right-standing relationship with God? And furthermore, hasn’t He made redemption the very foundation of human life, and the only way for every person to enjoy permanent fellowship with God?

Oswald Chambers continues the accolades that the Cross of God can never be comprehended thru merely human experience. Nor is it a gate we can pass right thru; No, for it is there at the Cross where we may abide in the life that is found there. And do realize, the reason salvation is so easy to obtain is that the Cross cost God everything, for it was that intersection where God and sinful man merged with a tremendous collision that opened man’s Way to Life forever, and all the cost and pain of that collision was absorbed by the heart of God. Oswald does have a way with words.

Quite honestly, the busyness of the past six days since Easter has literally “eclipsed” the focus of our worship and adoration last Sunday, perhaps just as in Jesus’ day, when we noticed the sway of public opinion from the Palm Sunday’s Hosannas until the Pharisee prompted Good Friday’s rants of “Crucify Him.” Consider the manipulations today that we’re not fully comprehending. For example, how many of you knew President Biden again issued a proclamation on Good Friday recognizing March 31 as Transgender Day of Visibility, as was begun 15 years ago, and as he has so commemorated on March 31 every year since taking office. It’s embarrassing to admit but I was not aware of either the 15th year, or Biden’s annual observance.

And this week, may we just consider the likely purposeful hype about the eclipse, thereby diverting the attention of the Church from Easter to the next “shiny” thing, or for the worlds masses, away from the myriad of significant news events, such as NATO and Russia heightening their posturing in Europe. Never is the Church exempt from being distracted from its Christ given message and mission by Satan’s four weapons of Lies, Suffering, Pride, and Self-Accusations.

I strongly encourage every Christ Follower to memorize Warren Wiersbe’s main points below summarized from his book The Strategy of Satan: How to Detect & Defeat Him; involving four Old Testament Pillars, and Satan’s Four Personalities of Deception, their Targets, their Weapons, their Purposes, and lastly, our Defenses against such actions of Satan.

1.) Eve was approached by Satan The Deceiver. Satan’s Target – Your Mind, Satan’s Weapons – Lies, Satan’s Purpose – To Make You Ignorant of God’s Will, Your Defense – The Inspired Word of God.

2.) Job was approached by Satan The Destroyer. Satan’s Target – Your Body, Satan’s Weapon – Suffering, Satan’s Purpose – To Make You Impatient with God’s Will, Your Defense – The Imparted Grace of God.

3.) King David was approached by Satan The Ruler. Satan’s Target – Your Will, Satan’s Weapon – Pride, Satan’s Purpose – To Make You Independent of God’s Will, Your Defense – The Indwelling Spirit of God.

4.) Joshua was approached by Satan The Accuser. Satan’s Target – Your Heart and Conscience, Satan’s Weapon – Accusation, Satan’s Purpose – To Bring an Indictment by God’s Will, Your Defense – The Interceding Son of God.

I believe memorizing the above 125 words and being able to speak them forth with conviction and understanding in these last days, perhaps even last hours of His lingering grace and mercy, for certain at least, of our mortal existence as an aging population, is top priority for all Christ Followers.

Now onto a lighter note, when I opened our church email bulletin this morning, I saw additional insults added to the past week’s injuries. I can just imagine that three or four decades ago, some of the movers and shakers amongst the Church Council members may have been contacted during the week by one of our former church council chairs were they still walking amongst us, asking them if they’d seen last week’s services figures yet? In a nutshell, as a skilled scholarly statistician, this council chair would have admonished them that the congregation’s attendance was good at 299, but it was Easter and it should have been 399; and that the SS attendance had dipped to a perilous 99 (no further comment there), and worse of all, the offering on Easter was pitiful, though conceding that the prior weeks were largely exemplary. No further comments were forthcoming.

This post was prompted by inputs from:

1.) the April 6 reading from My Utmost for His Highest, titled the Collision of God and Sin …“who himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree…” I Peter2:24;

2.) that our lack of implementing Scriptural teaching and encouraging each other as we are reminded in Hebrews 10:24-25: “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging on another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” Hence, the Strategies of Satan book summarized for practical referral and usage, and

3.) just enough history from the “by gum by gone” years to be “interesting, and hopefully, not too, dangerous.”

right up to the present moment of His continuing renewal and restoration in my life. It took hours to complete with all my diverse and intense bunny trails. I was graciously humbled by the journey thru time, concluded by propelling me to the unspeakable heights outlined in Ephesians 3:17-19, “… you being rooted and established in love, may have the power together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” Truly proof of God’s awesome protection and His deliverance, sparing me from even one Near Death Experience during my 75 yeas! Perhaps when I retire I’ll write about my numerous personal Angel Rescued Encounters.

Before I go any further, I want you to be aware NDE’s can be very controversial for many persons. The Handbook of NDE’s reports that 12 different different studies involving 1369 subjects found 23 percent “reported NDE’s ranging from disturbing to terrifying or disturbing.” I have only read two NDE books so far. John Burke, author of Imagine Heaven, trained and worked as an engineer before God called him to ministry. He wrote three outstanding books chronicling his ministry before Imagine Heaven; No Perfect People Allowed, Soul Revolution, and Unshockable Love. I read all three enjoying their perspective, two we used in a SS class. And now his sixth book is titled “Imagine God.” John has skillfully presented his research of interviewing nearly 1000 NDE persons in light of scriptural truths, not to convince us of anything specifically, but rather to present his findings and let us discern greater understandings. Perhaps the greater truth is observed in the life changes we observe in the persons he introduces us to through out this book.

During the last 18 months of Loretta’s mothers life, Loretta was gone well over two months on mission trips and assisting family. At meal time, mother and I, she 96, would listen to this Imagine Heaven on audible books. In fact, spring a year ago, we were halfway thru it the second time. She loved listening to the diverse encounters and the snippets describing heaven, prompting many interesting discussions, all of which I believe were helpful preparing her to transition to her forever home this past September. Now, back to what transpired with me this past Tuesday that set this post in motion.

First, you must know it was the inspiration from Romans 11: 32-37 (MSG) that began this unique journey down my memory lane beginning with my own paraphrase of verse 32:

“In one way or another, God makes sure that we all experience what it means to be so very lost and shackled in the filth of our past sins so that he can personally open the door and welcome us back in,”

33.) Have you ever come on anything quite like this extravagant generosity of God, this deep, deep wisdom? It’s way over our heads. We’ll never figure it out.
34.) Is there anyone around who can explain God? Anyone smart enough to tell him what to do?
35.) Anyone who has done him such a huge favor that God has to ask his advice?
36.) Everything comes from him; Everything happens through him; Everything ends up in him. Always glory! Always praise! Yes. Yes. Yes.”

Now, more about one unique NDE. In the last March post, I spoke of Howard Storm in John Burke’s book “Imagine Heaven: Near-Death Experiences. God’s Promises, and the Exhilarating Future That Awaits You.” Even though I’ve never experienced an NDE as described here by Howard, I do remember twice having an unusually vivid replay of my negative life’s events yet stored in my memory.

You may recall Howard was the ardent atheist former university PhD art professor who is now a pastor in Covington OH. What follows here are some key paragraphs from the book describing Howard’s NDE as chronicled in Chapter 16 “What about Hell” that occurred while taking students on a tour of Paris’s museums when a stomach ulcer perforated his duodenum. Little did he know, but from the time of perforation, life expectancy typically is five hours. The hospital only had one surgeon on duty that weekend, so he and wife, Beverly had to wait. Ten hours later, a nurse informed them the doctor had gone home, and they would have to wait until morning. Howard fought to stay alive, but now he had nothing left. “I knew I was dying…. we said our good-byes. I knew for certain there was no such thing as life after death. Only simpleminded people believed in that sort of thing. I didn’t believe in God, or heaven, or hell, or any other such fairy tales.” Howard closed his eyes and passed. He expected oblivion, but instead, he found himself standing up beside the bed. He opened his eyes.

“Could this be a dream?” I kept thinking. “This has got to be a dream.” But I knew it wasn’t. I was aware that I felt more alert, more aware, and more alive than I had ever felt in my entire life. As I bent over to look at the face of the body in the bed, I was horrified to see the resemblance that it had to my own face. It was impossible that that person could be me because I was standing over it and looking at it… I had never felt more alert and conscious. I wanted desperately to communicate with Beverly, and I yelled at her for her to say something, but she just ignored me… and the next 6 pages describes his terrors traveling toward hell in custody of his demonic tormentors, eventually he became too badly torn up and too broken to resist, and his tormentors gave up because he was no longer amusing.

“As I lay on the ground, my tormentors swarming about me, a voice emerged from my chest. It sounded like my voice, but it wasn’t a thought of mine … “Pray to God.” I remember thinking “Why? What a stupid idea. That doesn’t work. What a cop-out. Lying here in this darkness, surrounded by hideous creatures, I don’t believe in God. This is utterly helpless, and I am beyond any possible help whether I believe in God or not. I don’t pray, period.”

A second time, the voice spoke to me, “Pray to God.” It was recognizably my voice, but I had not spoken. Pray how? Pray what? I hadn’t prayed at any time in my entire adult life. I didn’t know how to pray… That voice said it again, “Pray to God.” And Howard struggled to remember any prayers from childhood, anything with God’s name in it, so he just pieced together all he could recall into a rag-tag prayer of desperation. “Yea, though I walk through the valley of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. For purple mountain majesty, my eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. Deliver us from evil. One nation under God. God bless America.”

To my amazement, the cruel, merciless beings tearing the life out of me were incited to rage by my ragged prayer. It was as if I was throwing boiling oil on them. They screamed at me, “There is no God! Who do you you think you’re talking to?” They spoke in the most obscene language, worse than any blasphemy said on earth. But at the same time, they were backing away from me. I could still here their voices in the utter darkness, but they were getting more distant. I realized saying things about God was driving them away. I became more forceful with what I was saying….

I knew they were far away, but could return. I was alone, destroyed, and yet painfully alive in this revolting horrible place. I had no idea where i was… I was alone in darkness without measure. I thought about what I had done. All my life I had thought yhat hard work was what counted. My life was devoted to building a monument to my ego. My family, my sculptures, my painting, my house, my gardens, my little fame, my illusions of power, were all an extension of my ego, All of those things were gone now, and what did they matter?

All of my life, I’d fought a constant undertone of anxiety, fear, dread and angst. I didn’t like myself and I didn’t like other people either. How ironic it was to end up in the sewer of the universe with people who fed off the pain of others? I had had little genuine compassion for others. It dawned on me that I was not unlike these miserable creatures that had tormented me…. Little strength was left to resist becoming a creature gnashing his teeth in the outer darkness. I wasn’t far from becoming like one of my tormentors for all eternity.

As Howard lay alone in the dark, feeling himself slip away into darkness, a song he hadn’t heard since childhood came into his head: “Jesus loves me, da, da, da.” He couldn’t remember but three words, yet it tapped deep into a longing and ignited a tiny spark of hope.

“I wanted it to be true that Jesus loved me. I didn’t know how to express what I wanted and needed, but with every bit of my last ounce of strength, I yelled out into the darkness, “Jesus, save me.”… I have never meant anything more strongly in my life,”

And thus began Howard’s journey out of the outskirts of hell. In Chapter 17 titled Life Review, on page 239, we read “Howard Storm had been rescued from the horrors of the outer darkness, and now he found himself with Jesus, paused in space looking toward what he knew to be God’s City. Jesus called in a melodic tone, and seven lights shot across the vast distance from the city of Light to join them. Howard recognized them as angels or saints, more brilliant and beautiful than Howard could imagine, trumped only by Jesus himself. Storm’s words follow italicized.

They asked me if I would like to see my life. Unsure of what to expect, I agreed. The record of my life was their record, not my memory of my life. We watched and experienced episodes that were from a third-party point of view. The scenes they showed me were often of incidents I had forgotten. They showed their effects on people’s lives, of which I had no previous knowledge. They reported the thoughts and feelings of people I had interacted with, which I had been unaware of at the time. They showed me scenes from my life that I would not have chosen, and they eliminated scenes from my life that I wanted them to see. It was a complete surprise to see how my life history was being presented.

As Howard watched his early years being relived in 3-D, he saw how his father’s anger slowly became his own anger, directing his life.

“Seven angels and myself were arranged in a circle in the presence of Jesus while the scenes were projected in the midst of the circle… I saw how I was being trained to repress emotions and was obedient so as to win the approval of my parents. I was also learning that my father completely dominated all of us by the threat of his anger. Although we not allowed to show anger, I was learning what a powerful means of controlling people anger could be…

The angels showed me how my father’s compulsion to be successful was driving him toward increasing impatience and rage with his family. I saw my mother, sisters, and I each developed different means of coping with his unpredictable mood swings… I grew withdrawn and lived in a private world of anger and violence… The angels and Jesus shared their feelings of joy with me when love was expressed, and they shared their disappointment and sadness when we hurt one another. God had put my mother, father, sisters, and me together to love and support one another in our life’s journey to grow in love and spirit. We were adapting our desire to love in unhealthy ways…

I didn’t understand – nor did my generation – that love and sexual relations are not the same thing. We viewed members of the opposite sex as objects to be exploited for sexual gratification… This period of my life was shameful to watch in divine company because I had misdirected my desire to love and be loved… The sexual revolution that I grew up in was opposed to love by promoting counterfeit sexual love as true love. This cultural wave of hedonism was bathed in alcohol and drugs, which are an even further departure from love and the will of God… God brought my wife and I together to learn love. I saw it in my life review. God gives us each other to learn how to love. This is our opportunity…

In my life review, I had to turn away numerous times when I saw myself treating my children in unloving ways. The most unloving thing I did was to be at times so obsessed with my concerns (agenda) that I was indifferent to their needs. The most disturbing behaviors I witnessed in my life were the times when I cared more about my career as an artist and college professor than about their need to be loved. The emotional abandonment of my children was devastating to review.

 It was horrifying to see how I had become so much like my father… I begged them to stop it because I was so ashamed of my failure to live lovingly and because of the grief I had caused God, Jesus, and the heavenly beings. The only reason I could bear to proceed with the life review was because of their love for me. No matter what we watched me do in life, they communicated their love for me, even as they expressed their disapproval of things I did… To use vulgar words is beyond poor taste. To use the name of God in crude or empty ways is an insult to our Creator. I was horrified at how it hurt my heavenly company when we witnessed me blaspheming God and Christ Jesus… As my adult life unfolded before us, my self-centered nature predominated, and this greatly displeased my divine company. I did very little that was not in my own self-interest. Other people’s needs were less important than my own desires. This is opposed to the will of God and is the opposite of love…

The angels showed me that we do not earn our love of God by the things we do. God’s love is given without cost or strings attached. We live lovingly because God loves so much. Thank God there is a way to change our lives and be forgiven our mistakes… Only a person who loves God can accept that God would suffer and die so that we may be raised up to life with God. God defeated the power of death through God’s great love for us. Jesus is God’s redemptive act for a fallen world… If a person is not ruled by the love of God, he or she is ruled by hatred for God. Perhaps our greatest hatred for God, or at least, the most damaging to us, is our indifference to God! “

It is said the life review in the presence of God often has the most dramatic impact on the life of a person according to NDE researchers. It clarifies what really matters to God as He shows them that every little action has relational reverberation, person to person, and down through the generations. Some people experience their life flashing before them as they are dying. Most experience the life review in God’s presence as he gently guides them to see what matters. The majority of life reviews start with a question from this Being of Light. They may phrase it in different ways but they all hear basically the same thing: “What have you done with the life I gave you?” It’s not said in judgement, but in love, to prompt reflection and learning.

Imagine when your earthly life ends and you relive your whole life – every moment! Imagine the day God shows you how your faithful, loving acts of service produced a ripple effect of good in God’s economy. God records every thought, every act, and every motive. He promises to reward those who love him and have been faithful to him. Jesus reminds us what to live for: “What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their own soul. Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.” (Matt 16:26-27). The life review NDErs experience seems to be a preview. It’s not the judgement, but it is an opportunity to live for what truly lasts. Don’t wait for your life review to live for what matters!

Merlin speaking now. So now in summary, to the question “what have you done with the life I gave you,” Jesus told us, “The time is coming when everything that is covered up will be revealed, and all that is secret will be made known to all. Luke 12:2 (NLT).

The message is clear: Live now for what really matters. God wants to set us free from proving ourselves, judging ourselves, or comparing ourselves to each other so we can be free to accomplish the wonderful things he created us to do. At the end of time there are two judgements, and we’ll discover in the next chapter the OT prophets and Jesus tell us about these two separate judgements. The great white throne is a judgement of faith and determines who belongs to God, whereas the bema seat judgement, will be the greatest cosmic awards ceremony ever imagined for all who belong to God. As scripture makes clear, neither judgement takes place until the end of human history as we know it: “

The last four sentences of the April 3 Utmost reading are a positive invigorating encouragement to those of us such as myself, never having been close enough to death to experience an NDE, but have experienced deeply reflective times as I did recently, traveling through all the garbage of my life’s great transgressions. May I encourage you with these four sentences from Utmost.

“Never be afraid when God brings back your past. Let your memory have its way with you. It is a minister of God bringing its rebuke and sorrow to you. God will turn the “what mighta/shoulda have been” into a wonderful lesson of growth just for you in your near future.” Do you recall what I said in the first paragraphs, about propelling you upwards to unspeakable heights of joy for your deliverance from evil as we now bathe in the verses of Ephesians 3:17-19? Read them again. Powerful words.

FYI, ThriftBooks now has one used Imagine Heaven for $6.89 and 50 new hardcover copies for $38.38. Perhaps someone in the supply chain is being greedy? They also have several copies of Howard Storm’s book “My Descent Into Death: A Second Chance at Life,” that I’ve not read yet. I’ll post this Saturday early so you have all weekend to read and digest it, as I’m hoping this post may be more memorable than the coming eclipse, unless you include the possibility of incited media drama generated the days following the 8th. Join me in praying that we’re spared any such trauma…

Blessings as you continue discerning His Truth for your life here forth >>>>> merlin

Thursday evening I viewed Episodes 1-2-3 of Season 4 of The Chosen. Although the jury may still out on the effectiveness of this monumental spiritual film project, I’m embarrassed to admit I’d not seen even one episode prior. I suspect that fact is connected somehow to my lifelong aversion to theaters, movies, sitcoms, even today’s media deceptive narratives, etc., likely stemming from my childhood being devoid of Hollywood’s visual stimulations during the fifties, sixties and even into the seventies, causing me to focus, since my first six grades were spent in three one room township schoolhouses since ‘54, and until college, I existed entirely on library books, magazines such as the Gospel Herald, Christian Living, Readers Digest, Farm Journal, radio, and absolutely, no television.

It is understandable then, that blogging now best serves me as my public medium of communication, and especially so during my wanning years of any mental and physical presence I may have once possessed. However, in contrast, the Apostle Paul was physically and mentally in his prime (though possibly with limitations) when he dialogued with the men of Athens at the Areopagus on Mar’s Hill.

Yes indeed, I understand The Chosen is just a movie, but Thursday night, my heart, soul, and mind so fully resonated with Jesus firmly speaking truth in love while fully engaged with the Pharisees, that those sights and sounds somehow did a system reboot amongst all my spiritual circuitry, replacing the old benchmarks, installing new protocols, all of which, deposited me fully alive in the presence of God, both ready and desirous, to only do His bidding. The film even awaken past public experiences as a child when the Spirit’s presence was every bit as real as John Burke’s book “Imagine Heaven” interviews of 1000 NDE”s (near death experiences) with one being Howard Storm, a former ardent atheist, Northern KE University, professor and chairman of the art dept, more recently a television director and actor, writer (publishing in 2000 his book My Descent Into Death), painter, and now a Christian minister in Covington OH, graduating from Union Theological Seminary with an MDiv. He is described on pages 217-222 What about hell; 232-233 Hell’s welcoming committee; and 239-241 Life Review. I have copies to loan you if interested in reading the book.

Today it is appallingly apparent that the skill set, or the art of creatively engaging dialogue while in dissension, whether it be with those in the next pew, OR perhaps, even with the vilest atheist available, such as Howard Storm mentioned above, or whomever you can imagine, such skills are sorely missing today judging from our empty spiritual-go-to-battle toolboxes or arsenals. I choose to remember that even as our most exquisite genetically endowed gifts lavishly received at birth, can be wasted, even annihilated, so too can be our acquired spiritual battle tools; especially when they are just ignored for decades, and are now, even scorned and ridiculed. May God forgive us on many fronts; perhaps even for such as thinking we’re too intellectual for reading Psalms, such as the one below.

After three plus hours of such visual and verbal stimulation; I compare it to like drinking from a pressurized fire hose. I was at a loss to describe it. I slept really well that night but minutes after awakening and reading Utmost for March 29 (Our Lord’s Surprise Visits), and then while riding the stationary bike to get my blood moving, I had an understanding summarizing my visual overload from The Chosen.

And it was solely centered on the encounter Jesus had with the Pharisee’s after restoring sight to the blind man, encapsulating the pain and frustration of the masses, the evil driven self-protecting totally misdirected destructive agendas of both the religious and political powers of that moment, thwarting any possibility of a peaceful resolve in such chaos…. 

And, then I realized like by a lightening bolt, oh my goodness, this is us TODAY! Just Stop, Look, Listen to the media noise about us that we’ve become so accustomed to continually unconsciously absorbing this evil,  (totally opposite of abiding in Christ) that we no longer even detect warnings for us to seek safety, by turning off our bodies fight or flight responses!  Today when we’re confronted with such snippets of truth from our present realities, perhaps even from scenes such as The Chosen, do we simply continue to yawn seeking comfort from our favorite soothing camouflaging addictive whatever? And if we are so tempered, it seems we only resort to speaking our mind when our “peace and prosperity” is threatened, perhaps then even ridiculing or threatening those in disagreement. Both the Romans and the Pharisees in The Chosen were exemplary in their depictions of being ruled by hate.

The final realization given me this morning was a mere wisp of greater understanding that may well perhaps be developed in the remaining episodes; and that is simply this: what is our response to be to this man Jesus, and His teachings? It was the tension of the subtle undercurrent connecting all the scenes that I witnessed in the three episodes. It was their struggle then. It is still ours today. And it will be yours and mine tomorrow.

And so, it will continue to be for each of us, from the very first time we open our heart’s door to allow Him entrance, thus bringing us initially salvation, then continuing on with His gift of a full Life, and after that, for as long as we live in the Spirit, our daily opportunity to live in the moment whenever we hear His knocking.

This all reminds me of the world-famous allegorical painting by the English artist William Holman Hunt titled “The Light of the World,” commonly known as the “sermon in a frame” where Jesus, carrying a lantern, is depicted at a door with no handle on the outside. The door is overgrown with weeds, and the nails and hinges are rusted, implying the door has never been opened. The message: it is up to the person on the other side of the door to let Jesus in.

Bottom line for us today, before we part, besides further contemplating the significance of His death and resurrection, is asking ourselves where on this planet TODAY are those Christ Followers bold enough to positively engage with the religious and political establishments and their assorted affiliates? And to do so in the manner Jesus demonstrated so well on the screen, providing us a greater dimension for understanding His message, but I still believe, perhaps I’m old-fashioned, such understanding is still unrivaled by the Holy Spirit’s capable activation within us from the Holy Scriptures.

The boldness of Jesus during the film declaring truth to the demonstrated evil of the Pharisees, while playing games with the Romans, poignantly reminds me of Eric Metaxas in his book,” Letters to the American Church,” and its theme of declaring truth in the German Lutheran Church while facing the impending evil arising from the Nazis during the thirties, not at all unlike our situation of being salt and light in our nation’s chaos. I do believe the church and its remaining constituents, have never been more deceived since its inception, than we are today. Your take?

In closing, may I quote Warren Wiersbe from his book The Strategy of Satan for you to consider. “Satan enjoys seeing Christians get a head knowledge of victory without a heart experience, because this lulls believers into a false security, and Satan finds them an easy prey. (Seriously, doesn’t that aptly describe us humanly?) It is not the reading of truth, much less the enjoying of truth that brings the blessing. Rather, it is the doing of the truth. Therefore, determine with the Spirit’s guidance how to put these truths into practice.”

Personally, I find Psalm 40 from The Message paraphrase particularly comforting as we especially prepare mentally for these last day events already in process; such as the signs for the “falling away.” See I Timothy 4:1 … “in latter times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons.”

Psalms 40:1-17 (MSG) A David Psalm

1. I waited, and waited, and waited for God. At last, he looked; finally he listened.
2. He lifted me out of the ditch, pulled me from deep mud. He stood me up on a solid rock to make sure I wouldn’t slip.
3. He taught me how to sing the latest God-song, a praise-song to our God. More and more people are seeing this: they enter the mystery, abandoning themselves to God.
4. Blessed are you who give yourselves over to God, turn your backs on the world’s “sure thing,” ignore what the world worships;
5. The world’s a huge stockpile of God-wonders and God-thoughts. Nothing and no one comes close to you! I start talking about you, telling what I know, and quickly run out of words. Neither numbers nor words account for you.
6. Doing something for you, bringing something to you— that’s not what you’re after. Being religious, acting pious— that’s not what you’re asking for. You’ve opened my ears so I can listen.
7.  So, I answered, “I’m coming. I read in your letter what you wrote about me,
8.  And I’m coming to the party you’re throwing for me.” That’s when God’s Word entered my life, became part of my very being.
9. I’ve preached you to the whole congregation, I’ve kept back nothing, God—you know that I’m not a hoarder of your bountiful gifts!
10. I didn’t keep the news of your ways a secret, didn’t keep it to myself. I told it all, how dependable you are, how thorough. I didn’t hold back pieces of love and truth for myself alone. I told it all, let the congregation know the whole story.
11. Now God, don’t hold out on me, don’t hold back your passion. Your love and truth are all that keeps me together.
12. When troubles ganged up on me, a mob of sins past counting, I was so swamped by guilt I couldn’t see my way clear. More guilt in my heart than hair on my head, so heavy the guilt that my heart gave out.
13. Soften up, God, and intervene; hurry and get me some help,
14. So those who are trying to kidnap my soul will be embarrassed and lose face, So, anyone whom gets a kick out of making me miserable will be heckled and disgraced,
15. So those who pray for my ruin will be booed and jeered without mercy.
16. But all who are hunting for you— oh, let them sing and be happy. Let those who know what you’re all about tell the world you’re great and not quitting.
17. And me? I’m a mess. I’m nothing and have nothing: make something of me. You can do it; you’ve got what it takes— but God, don’t put it off.

Life’s Given Bookends: First, a Cradle; Finally, the Casket!

Merlin’s Intro: I have been blessed recently not only having ready access to the past years KMC Sunday AM services, but also other significant events, such as recent funerals, indeed, celebrations of these final transitions. I found listening to them Exquisitely Enlightening, Encouraging, Evidentially Elevating my spirit…

At any rate, Eugene Peterson’s book, Run With The Horses, is a favorite of mine and in the updated version since Eugene’s death in 2018, it now includes his son Eric’s Commemorative Preface: A Homily for the Celebration of the Resurrection of Eugene Peterson Nov 3, 2018, in the First Presbyterian Church in Kalispell, MT.  Eric’s words below were a highlight for me having only found them the Thursday before Good Friday. Eric’s words resonate deeply within me! Enjoy! No doubt our friend Eugene invested well!

Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

I’ve been thinking a lot about containers these days.

It brought to mind an ancient proverb that tells the story of a young girl whose morning chore it was to walk to the river and fetch water for her household. Suspended from a pole across her shoulders were two water pots that supplied her family’s daily needs. One of the pots was perfect, but the other one was cracked, and by the time they made the return trip home each day, the second pot was only half full.

After some time, the little cracked pot, ashamed that she wasn’t able to function at full capacity, expressed her embarrassment and sense of failure to the girl.

“Why do you keep using me when all I do is leak?” she asked. “Why don’t you replace me with a new pot?”

Smiling, the girl gently responded, “Have you seen the beautiful flowers that grow along the path between the house and the river? And have you noticed that they only grow on your side of the path as we walk home together? That’s because every spring I plant seeds on only your side, knowing that you will water them as we walk home together. I’ve been picking those flowers for years and filling our home with fragrance and beauty. I couldn’t do it without you. What you thought was a flaw is actually a gift to us all.”

In ways that continue to astound me, God consistently chooses to accomplish divine purposes through the agency of human imperfection. Through the weaknesses and shortcomings of the clay pots—which are our lives—uncommonly beautiful things emerge.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

The message of God’s love, this magnificent story of creation, salvation, and liberation, has been entrusted to the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives (II Cor. 4). In other words, the container of good news is the broken body of Christ. We’re a bunch of crack pots. We leak. This is by design. So that the blessings might flow.

One of the most important things Eugene taught us is that everything about the life of faith is livable. If you can’t translate an idea into an experience, it’s not gospel. Abstractions are enemies of the Way of Truth and Life (Key, & so true! mle).

Which is why I’m so very grateful to have grown up with a man whose life was so well integrated and congruent, such that the dad who served up mashed potatoes on Saturday night was the very same pastor who served up the word of God on Sunday morning. He was someone who embodied the message he proclaimed. His body was a sacred temple. A habitation for the holy. A container of the Spirit of God.

I know this to be true because the evidence is irrefutable, inasmuch as he manifested the fruits of the Spirit.

He was a container for love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

He was a flawed and cracked container of these gifts, never hoarding, always leaking. What a holy vessel he was. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Moreover, I think of his many books as durable containers of the words he wrote for us. Inspired words full of truth and grace. Words that we will treasure for many years.

But for right now I wish to draw your attention to two particular containers that are here. They are common enough as containers go. What is unusual is that they are in the same room at the same time.

A cradle. And a casket.

The one is a container of life. The other is a container of death.

One is open to the world; the other, closed, having finished this world.

The one holds promise and hope and future. Anticipation. The other holds completion: it is finished.

The one represents a glorious beginning; the other, a glorious end.

A cradle and a casket: these are the containers that bookend our lives.

When Eugene delivered this cradle, freshly crafted from his basement workshop in Maryland to New Jersey, where his first grandchild was born, I exclaimed to him how beautiful it was. As we were carrying it into the apartment together he confessed that it had a flaw, and he had to shim it. I knew all about shims because he had taught me, at an early age, about them. “Every carpenter,” he said, “needs to know how to use shims.”

I have scrutinized this cradle over the years, and I still can’t find the flaw. He wasn’t just a master word-worker; he was a master woodworker.

And among the things he left us, in the craft of words and wood, is this exquisite piece of work that our family will treasure for generations. Many of Eugene’s grandchildren and grandnephews and grandnieces were held in this little container, and their names are all inscribed inside.

This all came back to mind as I was building his casket a couple of weeks ago. The miter joints weren’t lining up exactly right, and I had to use some shims to tighten them up. I had never built a casket before, and so I set out doing what many of us have learned to do: I went to YouTube. And in the process, I came across a coffin maker named Marcus Daly, who doesn’t just build wooden boxes but contemplates the human condition. I very much like the way he reflects on his work. Here is what he says:

“I think one of the most important aspects of the coffin is that it can be carried. And I think we’re meant to carry each other. And I think carrying someone you love, committing them, is very important for us when we deal with death. We want to know that we have played a part and that we have shouldered our burden. So, if we make it too convenient, then we’re depriving ourselves of a chance to get stronger so that we can carry on.“

At various points in their lives, Eugene carried six of his grandchildren, both physically and emotionally. He was a strong, steadying presence in their lives, as he was for so many of us. He carried them up mountains. He carried them through school. He carried them through heartache.

Today those six grandchildren carry him. And at the end of the day they will be stronger for it. Today, the rest of us watch while the heavy lifting is accomplished through their fierce love, as they carry him to his final resting place. But if we’ve been paying attention, we will also know that as Eugene has been wielding the words of his craft over the years, we too have become more fit, strengthened, readied for citizenship in the kingdom of God.

This casket-container is now holding the body-container that was Eugene Peterson. I say was, because by the mystery of the resurrection, to which the baptized are heirs, his body has been exchanged for something much, much more durable. Perishability, as St. Paul once famously said it, has taken on imperishability. Mortality has been swapped for immortality. The temporary traded for the eternal.

Now, it’s the casket and the cradle!

But these are just temporary containers. Pretty much like everything is. There is only one thing that isn’t.

We don’t know much about what heaven is like. The preferred biblical metaphor is that of a city, suggesting that it is inhabitable. It’s populated. But the particularities that St. John describes make it clear that it is unlike any city we’ve known on earth. For starters, it is a city without limits, unconstrained by zip codes or boundary lines, unencumbered by fences, not obstructed by walls. In other words, it’s a container for the hosts of heaven without being confining. It is a place or—perhaps better said—it’s a reality in which the limitations of our present mortality give way to the full expressions of that which we now know only in part—namely, perfect love, unmitigated joy, deep and eternal peace.

It’s quite a design, as city planning goes: there is no temple in this New Jerusalem—no church container of any kind—because it’s no longer necessary, the presence of God being so pervasive, holding everything and everyone together.

There is a river running through the city, suggesting that the blessings flood freely.

And there is a tree, whose leaves, we are told, are for the healing of the nations. And my how this world needs those leaves right now.

All of which is to say that what we sort of know as we look through a glass darkly is that heaven is a glorious container for all the saints.

Where life is free to flow unbounded, unencumbered.

Where blessings—no longer contained—rush like whitewater.

Where there are no more tears, no more pain, no more death. And because the former things have passed away, and because it is a city built by the Master Carpenter, there are also no more shims.

It’s a most perfect, everlasting container, for all the saints.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

First Presbyterian Church, Kalispell, Montana

November 3, 2018

— Run with the Horses: The Quest for Life at Its Best by Eugene H. Peterson (1932-2018).  A pastor, scholar, author and poet. He wrote more than 30 books, including his widely acclaimed paraphrase of the Bible, The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language.

merlin again: You agree too that this is a high impact document? Those 4 words; containers, cracked pots, cradles & caskets, are now etched positively forever in my mind for my good and His Glory. I’m just blessed to have been the facilitator! Thanks for joining us! Got something good you want to share with the audience? Contact me.