Category: Personal Interest

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.

Read Exodus 16:1-36

As always, even in Dalton and NE Ohio, time passes. We presume the electric will come back on again. A blackout from Saturday 12:40 PM until an estimated Wednesday 4 pm is not 40 years! Notice Ex. 15: 22-27 reveals it only took three days to find water that they now enjoyed. But now it’s been more than 40 days! I call that a serious test of time. There they were in the midst of the wilderness with their unrealistic expectations, much like we too often. “We thought we were through those parched days in the wilderness. We were already there three days. Why do we have to go back?“ Many in Wayne Holmes county are saying “Come on, we were just without power nearly a week last summer! Surely not again!”

And guess what? Out rushed the complaints from the freed slaves now in their liberation transition. “The whole congregation of the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. (Ex 16:2) Why were they (or are we) grumbling? Again, is it because they (we) were looking back? Listen to their words in verse 4: “Would that we had died by the Lord’s hands in Egypt, when we sat by pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full, for you brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger” (v.3).

Sounds like our response? Perhaps, but we in Dalton are only momentarily inconvenienced. Perhaps it’s time for us all to learn a timeless lesson. If we focus on our past, the good old days, before this global reset, it won’t be long before complaints will start oozing from our lips, “for out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks.” (Luke 6:35) ESV

You will remember a long-ago time (perhaps a decade, not a century) when we bathed in the hazy rosy glow of memories, when living was simpler, easier, and more comfortable than it is today. For example, gas was only 29.9 cents for decades! As you with memory of such times compare life then to now, I guarantee you will grumble. If your age is under 50, not so much; and if you’re under 30, you may be clueless; unless you’ve been well parented, or grand-parented!

It hurts to endure life’s trials, and it hurts worse to repeat such episodes. Yet, without these deep hurts, we may have very little capacity to receive godly counsel or make progress forward to maturity. The test of time is perhaps our most rugged test of all.

Seriously now folks, over the perspective of what we need to prepare for this global reset and the imminent next lock-down, I believe God is honoring us through such trivial tests as no electric to awaken us out of our complacency. Stretching us. Breaking us. Crushing us. Reducing us to an absolute, open-armed trust, where we say in essence, “Lord, I have come to an end of my own flesh.  If you wish me to die in this wilderness, here is my life. Take it. I refuse to look back and complain about where I am at this moment.” And then trust Him! How? For starters, Accept His Love. Share His Love. Live His Joy. Grow Your Fruit. Embrace His Peace. Share His Hope. Refute Satan’s Evil.

Moses had learned to wait for 40 years. Now his congregation needed to learn as well. How about us? I strongly urge each of you to search out and read your favorite Scriptural passages, especially I & II Peter, Martyr’s Mirror, Pilgrims Progress, and Letter to the American Church by Eric Metaxas. ASAP. Praise God for His divine continuing ed program! Learning from the past may be hard, but continuing in ignorance is expensive, time consuming and may jeopardize your eternal life assurance. Better to learn these priceless lessons today than to search for pennies in the scorching wilderness tomorrow.   

Swindol’s devotional this morning really got me thinking. I well remember listening to him on the car radio in early ’81 while waiting for an appointment in Charlottesville. God was pointedly calling me thru Chuck’s words and I merely turned the radio off to avoid the confrontation. Similar event happened earlier with David Jeremiah in summer of ’73 while traveling thru Ft Wayne. Only two of the bigger mistakes of my life. I recall Bill Detweiler too. merlin

A few minutes ago, I was sent this blog post about Albert Einstein from my friend Wendell taken from Bill Federer’s AmericanMinute.com that I’d never seen. After submerged in the Metaxas book all day attempting chapter summaries, this Einstein clip came much as a delightful soothing dessert, after a hearty meal of Metaxas with too much to digest and ponder. Relax now, and breathe deeply. Some interesting dynamics here. Know God’s children have nothing to fear.

While a student at physics-mathematics section of the Polytechnic Institute in Zurich, Albert Einstein met Mileva Mariæ, whom he studied together with. She helped him with papers and articles, advancing his career. They eventually married in 1903. Albert and Mileva had a daughter, Lieserl, and two sons, Hans Albert and Eduard. Correspondence indicates she may have contributed materially to his early research, so much so, that after their divorce in 1919, he gave her the money from winning the Nobel Prize.

With a doctorate from the University of Zurich, Einstein wrote papers on electromagnetic energy, relativity, and statistical mechanics. Einstein predicted a ray of light from a distant star would appear to bend as it passed near the Sun. When an eclipse confirmed this, The London Times ran the headline, November 7, 1919, “Revolution in science – – New theory of the Universe — Newtonian ideas overthrown.”

In 1921, Albert Einstein won the Nobel Prize in Physics, gaining international recognition. Einstein’s first visit to the United States was to raise funds for Jerusalem’s Hebrew University. On his 3rd visit, 1932, he took a post at Princeton University. When the National Socialist Workers Party (Nazi) took control of Germany, they barred Jews from holding official positions or teaching at universities. Einstein stayed in the United States, becoming a citizen in 1940.

Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels proclaimed “Jewish intellectualism is dead” and burned books by Jewish authors, including Einstein’s works. Jewish poet Heinrich Heine prophetically penned in 1822: “Where they burn books, they will, in the end, burn human beings too.”

A current instance of this was reported in the Breitbart News article “ISIS Burns Books at Mosul Libraries” (February 5, 2015): “The Islamic State … raided the Central Library of Mosul to destroy all non-Islamic books. These books promote infidelity and call for disobeying Allah,’ announced a militant to the residents. ‘So they will be burned.’ Militants targeted the library at the University of Mosul. They burned science and culture textbooks in front of the students.”

Concern is growing over recent anti-Semitic comments made by politicians and radical campus groups, which forebode a resurgence of Jewish persecution. A FoxNews headline (3/8/19) read: “Failure to condemn anti-Semitic Rep. Omar by House Democrats is a profile in cowardice.”

Commenting on socialist redistribution of wealth, Albert Einstein stated: “I am absolutely convinced that no wealth in the world can help humanity forward, even in the hands of the most devoted worker in this cause. The example of great and pure individuals is the only thing that can lead us to noble thoughts and deeds … Can anyone imagine Moses, Jesus, or Gandhi armed with the moneybags of Carnegie?”

Einstein’s theory of relativity, E=MC2, is “energy equals mass times the speed of light squared.” It is the basis for applying atomic energy. Berkeley Lab published the article (9/23/20) “CERN’s Large Hadron Collider Creates Matter From Light”:

“The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) plays with Albert Einstein’s famous equation, E = mc2, to transform matter into energy and then back into different forms of matter. But on rare occasions, it can skip the first step and collide pure energy – in the form of electromagnetic waves. Last year, the ATLAS experiment at CERN’s LHC observed two photons, particles of light, ricocheting off one another and producing two new photons.

This year, scientists have taken that research a step further and discovered photons merging and transforming into something even more interesting: W bosons, particles that carry the weak force, which governs nuclear decay….

The research doesn’t just illustrate the central concept governing processes inside the LHC: that energy and matter are two sides of the same coin.

It also confirms that at high enough energies, forces that seem separate in our everyday lives – electromagnetism and the weak force – are united.”

Describing the theory of relativity, that the closer one approaches the speed of light time slows down, Albert Einstein said:

“When a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. But let him sit on a hot stove for a minute — and it’s longer than any hour. That’s relativity.”

 Albert was married to his cousin, Elsa, from 1921 till her death in 1936. His accountant, Leo Mattersdorf of New York, wrote (TIME Magazine, 1963): “One year while I was at his Princeton home preparing his return, Mrs. Elsa Einstein, who was then still living, asked me to stay for lunch. During the course of the meal, the professor (Einstein) turned to me and with his inimitable chuckle said: ‘The hardest thing in the world to understand is income taxes.'”

Einstein’s warning that Nazis could create the atom bomb led President Franklin D. Roosevelt to set up the Manhattan Project.

In November of 1952, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion asked Einstein to be Israel’s 2nd President, but he declined due to age, dying less than 3 years later. Being “deeply moved” by the offer, Einstein replied:

“My relationship with the Jewish people became my strongest human tie.”

The periodic table’s 99th element, discovered shortly after his death in 1955 was named “einsteinium.”

Albert Einstein was quoted in The New York Times, November 9, 1930, saying:

“I assert that the cosmic religious experience is the strongest and noblest driving force behind scientific research.” Paraphrasing Miguel de Cervantes’ quote “I do not believe that the Good Lord plays dice,” Einstein stated: 

“God Almighty does not throw dice.” He added: “Before God we are all equally wise — equally foolish.”

In Einstein and the Poet: In Search of the Cosmic Man (1983), William Hermanns recorded Einstein’s 1943 statement:

“Creation may be spiritual in origin, but that doesn’t mean that everything created is spiritual … Let us accept the world is a mystery. Nature is neither solely material nor entirely spiritual. Man, too, is more than flesh and blood; otherwise, no religions would have been possible. Behind each cause is still another cause … Yet, only one thing must be remembered: there is no effect without a cause, and there is no lawlessness in creation.”

As recorded by Helen Dukas in Albert Einstein, The Human Side (Princeton University Press, 1981, p. 66), Einstein stated:

“My religiosity consists in a humble admiration of the infinitely superior spirit that reveals itself in the little that we, with our weak and transitory understanding, can comprehend of reality.

Morality is of the highest importance — but for us, not for God.”

Einstein stated in an interview published in G.S. Viereck’s book Glimpses of the Great, 1930:

“I’m absolutely not an atheist … The problem involved is too vast for our limited minds. We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many languages. The child knows someone must have written those books. It does not know how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books but doesn’t know what it is. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God. We see the universe marvelously arranged and obeying certain laws but only dimly understand these laws.”

Walter Isaacson quoted Einstein in the article “Einstein and Faith,” Time 169, April 5, 2007, 47):

“The fanatical atheists … are like slaves who are still feeling the weight of their chains which they have thrown off after hard struggle.

They are creatures who — in their grudge against the traditional ‘opium of the people’ — cannot bear the ‘music of the spheres.'”

Einstein’s referenced to the “music of the spheres” is a religious concept used through the Medieval- Renaissance period to describe an orbital resonance of the planets.

Johannes Kepler, who discovered the laws of planetary motion, compared the eight planets in the solar system to the eight notes in music – an octave.

Kepler wrote in The Harmonies of the World, 1619: “Holy Father, keep us safe in the concord of our love for one another, that we may be one just as Thou art with Thy Son, Our Lord, and with the Holy Ghost, just as through the sweetest bonds of harmonies Thou hast made all Thy works one, and that from the bringing of Thy people into concord, the body of Thy Church may be built up in the Earth, as Thou didst erect the heavens themselves out of harmonies.”

Yale professor Benjamin Silliman, who founded the American Journal of Science and Arts in 1818, stated:

“The relation of geology, as well as astronomy, to the Bible, when both are well understood, is that of perfect harmony … The Word and the works of God cannot conflict, and the more they are studied the more perfect will their harmony appear.”

According to Prince Hubertus (Ronald W. Clark, Einstein: The Life and Times, New York: World Publishing Company, 1971, p. 425), Einstein stated:

“In view of such harmony in the cosmos which I, with my limited human mind, am able to recognize, there are yet people who say there is no God. But what really makes me angry is that they quote me for the support of such views.”

Einstein wrote to M. Berkowitz, 1950, (William Hermanns, Einstein and the Poet. In Search of the Cosmic Man, Brookline Village MA: Branden Books, 1983, p. 60):

“‘God‘ is a mystery. But a comprehensible mystery. I have nothing but awe when I observe the laws of nature. There are not laws without a lawgiver, but how does this lawgiver look? Certainly not like a man magnified.”

 Though not believing in a personal God, The Saturday Evening Post, October 26, 1929, published George Sylvester Viereck’s interview with Albert Einstein.

When asked “To what extent are you influenced by Christianity,” Einstein answered: “As a child I received instruction both in the Bible and in the Talmud. I am a Jew, but I am enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene.”

When asked “Have you read Emil Ludwig’s book on Jesus,” Einstein replied:

“Emil Ludwig’s Jesus is shallow. Jesus is too colossal for the pen of phrase mongers, however artful. No man can dispose of Christianity with a bon mot! (witty remark)”

When asked “You accept the historical existence of Jesus,” Einstein answered:

“Unquestionably! No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life.”

In 1931, astronomer Edwin Hubble invited Einstein to the Mount Wilson Observatory in Pasadena, California. After viewing the “red shift” of distant stars revealing an expanding universe, Einstein remarked

“I now see the necessity of a beginning.”

Princeton University’s Fine Hall has inscribed Albert Einstein’s words above the fireplace:

“Raffiniert ist der Herr Gott, aber Boshaft ist er nicht.” (God is clever, but not dishonest.)

​Download as PDF … Albert Einstein “I observe the Laws of Nature … There are not Laws without a Lawgiver”

Read as American Minute blog post.

Accept His Love. Share His Love. Live His Joy. Grow His Fruit. Embrace His Peace. Share His Hope. Refute Satan’s Evil. merlin

Today I am burdened by the lack of God’s peacemakers visibly impacting our world. And since we as Christ Followers operate by faith and not by sight as the world does, we may not even see or hear of many attempts at peacemaking, nor even, the end results. I now view peacemaking simply as a lifestyle choice that we Christ Followers (CF’s) choose to adopt and implement in our daily routines serving notice, first as a reminder to ourselves and our family, and secondly, to all those in our spheres of influence, that we are not their their typical next door neighbor. And therein, lies the biggest challenge for CF’s.

I believe the Mennonite Church has always struggled with its identity in Christ. I certainly did as this weird 1 of 2 Mennonite kids in a class of 72 in the early 60’s. Our girls were not allowed to wear shorts to gym class and nor were they allowed to cut their hair. However, the one unique trait that I thought the Catholic Lutheran cultural majority had the most trouble with was that we didn’t fight. But now I think, that was all fabricated in our heads. Of course, we said we didn’t believe in war. And truth told, I was never ridiculed or made fun of nor was anyone else I knew. But not bearing arms or participating in the armed forces, was a point I avoided at all costs. Had I known my church history better then, I possibly could have constructed a diversion as Paul did with Pharisees and Sadducees over the resurrection, only here, I’d have used the Reformation.

When I got talked into declaim, I didn’t choose the Sermon on the Mount nor defending our position of non-resistance. No, I chose to speak on why smoking was not a wise activity: it was an expensive, dirty habit, that ruined cars, homes, clothing; and science was just beginning to discover all the health risks. Or so they said. Never once did I consider “Know ye not that your body is the temple of the living God…. ! Yes, speaking against smoking in ’65 was a very safe subject as smoking was quickly falling from favor,

Bottom line, have not we Christians always had an identity crisis? In the 70’s, Mennonite youth soon discovered the hippie and the anti-war movement nearly put them in the spotlight, and perhaps we today as a church are still struggling with the identities we adopted and the cultural alliances we made back then, rather than seeking out our unique identity in Christ as revealed to us thru the scriptures by discerning with truth tellers in community, what God’s actual desires were for us during these changing times into the ensuing years and decades.

Today, we exist in a culture that is truly on drugs and steroids virtually without any time to think a clear original thought since we’re being inundated by sights and sounds of in-your-face  examples of hate, selfishness, anger, distrust, greed, perversion, etc, all quite clearly, being everything except, how can we best produce the fruits of the Spirit in our daily living in this culture?

I am well aware that I sorely squandered most of my life in trivial pursuits when I was endowed to become a peacemaker in my personal life and my spheres of influence, and possibly, even beyond!  Sensing the time is now for me to intentionally write about this devastating dilemma I experienced as a youth, and I believe, am yet observing today, I’ll share this journey with you. If the Spirit so prompts me, I may write more.

Not having read nor studied the classics on this subject, I’ll let that for you to research. I shall keep this discourse short (I was hoping less than 500 words, but I’m already over 2000) and simple by beginning with Matthew 5:9, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the Sons of God.” Certainly, a worthy motivation, if not the premier text, as history supplies ample examples of such successes or dismal failures. These peacemakers were willing to risk their lives, health and wealth to bridge the gap between the camps to heal the disagreements and avoid the battles.

More pertinent though for most of us, is the unspoken or silent strife fermenting under the radar in just our personal lives, too often not spoken, certainly not confessed sin; never mind broadening the circle to include our families, congregations, and communities, all of which will be our focus here. I maintain if I can’t float my peacemaker ship in my own puddle, then just perhaps I’d better rethink my calling before I try a bigger pond with more ships. The apostle Paul advised us to first mature our digestive tract on milk before we attempt the complexities of digesting meat. You get the picture?

Have I ever looked critically in the mirror considering first the peacemaker dysfunction within first me, and my life?  I happen to believe and am now trying to live each day by replacing my personal dysfunctions (peacemaker quirks if you would, even sin perhaps) with operational and recognizable fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control. Until that is accomplished in me, brothers and sisters, I’m still on milk and perhaps not qualified to be seek any recognition as a peacemaker beyond myself, whether in my family, church or community. I believe it is inherent with all institutional church groups to suffer from this difficulty of function.

I also just happen to believe Peace and Justice is so much more than academic pursuits and spiritual makeovers. Is not today’s lack of peace and justice in our society fundamentally stemming from our world’s humanity being separated from God’s love such that healing (peace & justice) can only be addressed, influenced or corrected, by peacemaking ambassadors serving as bond servants of Jesus Christ as they are empowered by Holy Spirit following Jesus’s birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension?

Or, on what basis are we operating? Yes, the church has been infiltrated, incapacitated, and intoxicated with the headiness of the church’s institutional success in taking the gospel around the world. But are not those days over! Look at the data! During the last century, we’ve witnessed the spiritual take down of western Europe and North America while we’re seemingly unable to see the elephant in the church’s hospice room trashing the hospice team attempting to offer life support before they offer last rites!    

Is not the first line of strategy to consider in any peacemaking offensive (seriously, we’re not to cower in fear and be on the defensive) is for CF’s to be empowered? If you read me frequently, you may be sick and tired of hearing this by now, but it is so fundamentally basic in these last days to insure we move from milk to meat, and begin thriving spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and yes, for sure, even physically.

Succinctly stated, first and then sequentially, we must be obedient to God’s Word, then seek His forgiveness, His transformation, His empowerment by Holy Spirit, becoming discipling bond servants of Jesus Christ to serve as His ambassadors until death permits retirement.

Look around today on your road of life and you will see the worldliness in the church’s broad road’s exit to the narrow road. In fact, many Christians are just realizing now they stayed in the fast lane too long and no longer can squeeze over to the exit lane for the narrow way. They passed the “Cross” exit miles ago thinking exiting then was pure foolishness. Now with the family in the car, recognizing what is about to happen, panic rises as their lane is slowing to a standstill, and they are still stuck on the broad road and once again, locked down! Not a pretty picture but I believe it to be a crude reminder depicting the institutional church in W Europe and NA.  

I believe Jesus wants all of His Kingdom’s children to be known and sought after as peacemakers. Scripture makes it plain that we are to be known as ambassadors of peace leading or guiding persons “possessing no peace” toward:

1. God: “God has given us the task of reconciling people to Him” (II Cor. 5:18 NLT). Read also the famous “unadorned clay pot” scripture from II Cor. 4:7-12 for additional understanding and clarity for the process. I prefer the Message here.
2. Ourselves: “Joy fills the hearts that are planning peace!” (Prov. 12:20 NLT).
3. Others: “And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of goodness” (James 3:18 NLT).

Since the blessing of being a peacemaker is to be called a child of God, we can experience the joy of goodness, happiness, and peace within our own lives. When we exhibit these positive traits, we will begin to reflect:

1. Contentment with ourselves: We will know our identity in Christ, thus giving us the contentment we’ve been searching for.
2. Optimism in our faith: We will exhibit a love for God and reflect a positive faith toward out outlook on life and future events.
3. Relationally connectedness: We will experience deeper & more intimate friendships. People will form closer bonds and our friendships will be strengthened.
4. Doing what is right: We will have a benchmark to judge proper behavior for ourselves.

Make Jesus your Lord and Savior and gain your own peace. Trite but true. No God, No Peace. Know God, Know Peace. Enjoy the opportunities as Holy Spirit opens doors.

Prayer: Father God, may I have the courage to step out and become a peacemaker, Let it start with me and ripple out to the others in my pond. Help me humble myself so that I can thrive wherever you assign me short term or plant me long term, for service in your kingdom.

Action: Deal with whatever causes strife within yourself and others. Take your sins to the cross and leave them there, never pick them up again! If that is a re- occurring problem for you as me, go to the March 2 blog titled “Issues With Your Past” and click the link. Some of the best such teaching I’ve ever heard.

PS. Read the classics if I’ve challenged you. I have not the time or energy for such. God only gave me this simple message this morning after Emilie Barnes in her devotional “Minute Meditations” stirred the fire within me. Rather easy to tell the words she wrote. Her words intrigued me, and then the Spirit moved me. Simple. Get ready. War is coming! Wrong, it has been here and still is.

I hope Emilie and I inspire you to go far beyond with the intricacies of God’s command to be peacemakers ever broadening the ripples, perhaps in your lake, with the wisdom or scars (evidence of God’s healing) you’ve been endowed with. Live in the Joy.

Plain Values Magazine: Restoration. Authenticity. Hope.

What Can I Learn About You Looking At The Magazines on Your Coffee Table?  

Every Christian Home Should Consider Getting Plain Values magazine!

Coming into my office after doing lunch, I collapsed in my chair and picked up my Feb edition of Plain Values I’d neglected to read yet while reflecting on the phenomenal Sunday morning I’d just experienced.

It started rough though by sleeping thru a 5:30 alarm until 6:45. I quickly cared for the animals, got my mother-in-law her pills, coffee & toast, and was off to the 8 AM men’s prayer group being only 6 minutes late. After this unique week being both buoyantly positive and the jury still out and, I inhaled the groups love and encouragement while we all renewed our bonds praying we’d be ready for whatever comes our way this week as His ambassadors in our congregation and community.

Returning home, I fired up the livestream for mother and I. Awesome service but no time here to share – listen for yourself on youTube Kidron Mennonite Church. I text the SS class I was coming before driving back to church (16 min) and we shared our prayer requests. One member’s friend Mark had called from Arkansas, requesting prayer as he is befriending a bizarre derelict in his 50’s evidently possessed and continually repeating “all I want to do is to go to hell to be with my friends,” and understandably so, as no wants to be around him in his current state. Mark has visited this man 30 times and so far, has seen little change. Rather reminds me of the demon-possessed man in the tombs as recorded in Matthew 8 and Mark 5. Please pray for Mark as he seeks help for this deliverance.

Indeed, a great morning, but finally, my chores are all done and I’m off the clock. Plain Values magazine is one of my literary life lines, seldom lying dormant for a few days, never a month.

Thumbing past Joel Sallatin, now known nation-wide, he having just returned from Israel, will be in Akron and Middlefield in March, and Walnut Creek in June. Joel now owns, with his family, Polyface Farm in Swope, VA in western Augusta County. Loretta & I bought our first home in Stuarts Draft, in western Augusta in’78 but I didn’t know Joel until after we returned to OH. When Joel is not on the road speaking, he’s home on the farm in Swope, keeping the callouses on his hands and dirt under his fingernails, mentoring young people, inspiring visitors, and promoting local regenerative food and farming systems.

I remember when I first met Joel at an Acres USA conference in ’84 and I recall that my father-in-law, LaVern, admired him and was hoping I’d become friends with Joel so their shared similar agricultural philosophies might help us grow our recently birthed mini-Penn State soil lab, NSWS Labs. LaVern greatly enjoyed passing thru the doors the lab opened for him for his fifteen years before retirement giving him the wings he needed to launch his other dreams. Some of his grandkids are now aware too, that he was definitely born a generation too soon. And it didn’t help the situation one little bit that I was the in-house doubting Thomas pain in the butt not quite willing yet to take on conventional agriculture as precarious as I was financially, and I certainly was not a poster child either from Matthew Kelly’s Book The Culture Solution, that I live by and teach from today.

Still thumbing thru the February issue, I passed the regular contributors; Homestead Living struck numerous chords, especially growing as a writer; I even paused to skim thru Ferree’s uniquely meaningful transparency detailing her second marriage proposal.

Finally, on page 45, I encountered Wendy’s contribution: Honest Conversations: Proof of God. I settled down into my chair in full sunshine, relaxed, and began to read the following and immediately was hooked. Later I realized, I’d never read her post prior, but now, I sensed a deep literary and spiritual kindred spirit forming. FYI, don’t miss her bio at the end of my abbreviated or condensed version of her post. Here is Wendy:

“I thought I had become a Christian. Although I didn’t realize it at the time, my first conversion was to theism – the belief in God. And in many ways, I had become as “Christian” as many folks ever become – lumping everything together with a general understanding. If God was the king of the universe, and He said His son was Jesus, who was I to argue? But I quickly came to realize what I’m not sure the church at large has figured out: sometimes we believe completely, but don’t completely know what we believe.

That was me. Once I got over being wrong (or maybe more aptly stated, misled) and surrendered my life to God, my husband pointed out there was a difference between my Father in Heaven and Jesus, my Savior. We know them as two parts of the Trinity – the Godhead – but do we know them separately specifically? Because I had spent so many years debating and considering God’s existence, it was easy to just include Jesus in the equation. If God’s real, Jesus is real. End of story.

But with Jesus comes the proof of God. He is the tangible element of our faith….

It’s not hard to conclude the impact of Jesus must be supernatural. Since we’re blessed with a mountain of prophetic accounts to examine, you may be like I was, leery and asking what do they prove? Are they reliable? Are they not like fortune tellers? When I get stuck in the weeds of just how many specifics were prophesied about the coming Messiah, it becomes impossible to check so many boxes oneself. I will defer to mathematician and author of the book Science Speaks, Peter Stoner, because he explains it so perfectly.

“If we take a quantity of 10^17 [10 to the 17^th power] of silver dollars and lay them on the surface of Texas, all 265,596 sq. mi., they will cover the state two feet deep. Now mark one of those silver dollars and then imagine you could stir all that mass of silver dollars, thoroughly! Blindfold a man, put him in a helicopter and tell him to land at his will to pick up the marked silver dollar. What chance would he have getting the right one? Just the same chance that the prophets would have had of writing just eight prophecies and having them all come true in any one man, from their day to the present time, providing they wrote in their own wisdom.

Now these prophecies were either given by the inspiration of God or the prophets just wrote them as they thought they should be. In such a case the prophets had just one chance in 10^17 of having them come true in any man, but they all came true in Christ…. This means the fulfillment of just eight prophecies alone proves that God inspired the writings of prophecies to a definitiveness which lacks only one chance in 10^17 of being absolute.”  

I don’t know about you but I’m convinced. But just in case you need more proof, Stoner goes on to say that the likelihood of one man fulfilling 48 of the OT prophecies is mathematically impossible. He suggests the number is a one with 157 zeros after it. For reference, there are not only eight or even 48 prophecies fulfilled in the Bible. There are more than 300. And they’re written by different authors over hundreds of years.

We can be sure Jesus was the Son of God!

Now, appropriately asked in this Lenten season with the undercurrent of whomever casting about their doubts, the question becomes, “Can we be sure He rose from the dead?” Well, I would answer: “How can we be sure of anything?” Somewhere along the way, Christians stopped referring or thinking about Bible as history. Perhaps with the rise of academia? Y’all, it’s a historical book, and in many cases, it’s more accurate and cross referenced more than other typically accepted historical documents. Consider how we learn about anything that happened before we were born.

For example, we have a substantial collection of accounts from the Second World War, both from survivors of Nazi Germany as well as from Nazis themselves. Soon, we will enter a generation where there are no survivors from that time period. We will be left with only their stories – written, recorded, photographed, and otherwise – as evidence that it happened. But we’ve had nearly 100 years to collect information from both sides of WWII, allowing for it to be contested, corrected, and corroborated. From that point on, those first-hand accounts will remain as a written record of what happened from those who were there, data we now call history.

The same is true of the Bible. There are many things in this world to be uncertain of, but Jesus’ death, and resurrection – the cornerstone of our faith – is not one of them. In the end, there is a difference between knowing about Jesus and knowing Jesus. It’s good to believe in God. It’s important and foundational. But it is hollow without the confidence that comes from knowing what is true and why. Not just believing, but actually trusting in the truth of what you believe. We can’t follow a God we don’t know, and we can’t lead others to a Savior we’re not certain is the Lord.

Every congregation needs spark plugs like Wendy to be “truth tellers in their community.” Wendy Cunningham is wife to Tom and homeschool mom to three amazing gifts from God. In addition to that calling, she is an entrepreneur and author. Her book What If You’re Wrong?, blog, and devotionals can be found at gainingmyperspective.com. She is also host of the podcast Gaining My Perspective. Wendy loves Jesus and inspiring people to step into their calling – whatever that might look like in this season. When she’s not doing all of the above, she can be found homesteading and chasing kids and cows on her farm in Middle Tennessee. Sounds to me like we just met a Proverbs 31 woman with skin!