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This post will contrast two stories. Both could be considered positive in their own right but the latter caricature has infinitely more depth, fulfillment, and resolve than the first true account. Once more, I’m quoting a story that Matt Kelly tells in his Rhythm of Life book beginning on page 33.

“At different times in our lives, we all need a new perspective.

In the late 1960’s, there was a young man who had a dream of  becoming a famous musician. He knew exactly what he wanted, so he left high school and began to play his music wherever people would listen. But as a high school dropout and with little experience, he found it difficult to get work as a musician.

Before too long he found himself playing in small, dirty clubs and bars. Sharing his gift with a handful of drunks night after night become a discouraging habit. This was not his dream. He had dreamed of playing to sellout shows across America and around the world. He had dreamed of seeing his name in lights, of walking down the street and being stopped for autographs, and of having his albums in every music store. He even dreamed one day he would play to a pack baseball stadium – an absurd thought in the late 1960’s.

He had stumbled upon difficult times. Financially he was broke, professionally he was failing, and his only joy in life was the support of his girlfriend. They had so little money that they would sleep in laundromats to save the expense of a hotel. But one day she got sick of being constantly on the road,. This gypsy lifestyle was not her dream either. She had dreamed of being married to a famous musician but was unaware of the hard work it takes to get to the top. It was not the life she had imagined, so she left him.

With his only joy in life gone, he decided to commit suicide. That night the young musician made a halfhearted attempt to end his life by drinking a bottle of furniture polish and a bottle of vodka. The next day very sick, he checked himself into a mental institution.

Less than three weeks later, he checked himself out. He was a new man. He was refreshed, enthusiastic, and excited about life. He was cured. They had not given him any medication, nor was it anything the doctors or nurses had said to him. The other patients had cured him.

They reminded him of how fortunate and gifted he was, and they had shown him how much more life could be. He was given a new perspective on life.

That day, that same young man left the mental institution absolutely resolved to pursue his dream of becoming  a famed musician. He was determined to travel and work and do whatever was necessary to achieve his dream.

Three years later, he wrote a song called “Piano Man,” and today almost every person on the planet has heard of Billy Joel.  And yes, on June 22 and 23 in 1990, Billy Joel play to sellout crowds of 90,000 people at Yankee Stadium.

Yes, we all need a startling new perspective at least once in our lives. Billy Joel’s experience in the mental institution gave him that new perspective. It is my hope that this book will give you that new perspective, too.”

Now, we’ll switch over to a book by Robert Morris titled “Frequency. Tune In. Hear God.” I was first introduced to both Robert and Frequency before it was even published as Loretta had given me the Frequency seminar four CD set but that is another story. As I was re – listening to the book the past two days, I’ve been touched on two fronts, First, that God really desires to speak to us directly and second, that merely living in check with our conscience as our GPS is woefully archaic spiritually. I’ve not recalled hearing this specific teaching on conscience ever prior, but in all fairness, spiritual attentiveness prior in my life was not one of my attributes.    

But before I go into his teaching on conscience, I must conclude what I began with Billy Joel. I contrast Robert’s narrative of God strolling through the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve picking up on page 144 “Every morning and evening, in the cool of the day, God would meet with them. I like to think their time was more than a mere conversation– even though a conversation with God would have been great enough by itself. I think God enjoyed Paradise with them. God enjoyed showing them around the garden. Maybe the three of them even hiked to see a huge waterfall before jumping in for a swim. Perhaps God said “Come on, I’ll show you a herd of elephants.They’re just over the rise. Aren’t they funny with their long trunks and big ears?” 

And maybe sometimes their conversations were like those quiet, almost breathless words that can be whispered between a husband and a wife when they are perfectly at peace, lying side by side, holding hands, drifting off to sleep – perfect harmony, perfect intimacy, perfect joy, perfect peace.”

So I offer now for your consideration, where lies the basis for your pursuit, priority and passion in life? Are you settling for merely a new perspective? For Billy Joel,  it was certainly a needed and a most unique encounter… Or does your passion resonate in the garden, with real conversation, real communication as with the couple drifting off to sleep – perfect harmony, perfect intimacy, perfect joy and perfect peace.

These two examples are certainly worlds apart!

Now on to quoting Robert on our conscience starting on page 146, “Here is a bold statement: God never intended us to live by the knowledge of good and evil – NEVER. He intended for us to eat from the tree of life. God always chooses life. God didn’t intend for people to need to live by their consciences and continually weigh what’s good and bad. He originally intended people to live by His voice. (Matt 4:4)

Casting doubt on this plan was part of Satan’s original lie. He wanted Adam and Eve to believe that sin was more pleasurable than following God, and he wanted them to doubt the voice of God. Remember how several of Satan’s temptations began with a question: What did God say? Has God truly said…? (Gen 3:1) Satan wanted Adam and Eve to doubt God’s voice. Once Satan got them to doubt God’s voice, then it was easy for them to take the next step and sin. But God wants us to hear his voice, to listen to Him and to rely on hearing and heeding His voice.

God doesn’t want us to live by our consciences, even today. Sometimes our conscience doesn’t agree with God. A conscience can be overactive, prompting a sensitive person to feel condemned, crushed by the weight of sin, even after confession. The best thing a conscience can ever do is tell us what’s good and bad and help bring us to the place of conviction of sin where we know we need Jesus as our Savior. The Holy Spirit picks up the job and brings us to the place of full conviction where we accept our Savior. Then, when Jesus enters our lives, our consciences are cleansed by the blood of Jesus so that we don’t serve God out of dead works. Dead works is how some people try to earn God’s favor. We know sin separates us from God, so we try to work our way back to Him, as if our effort can save us. Mark this carefully: we can never earn our salvation. We can only receive it. But if our consciences have not been cleansed, then we’ll continually work to earn God’s favor.

Hebrews 9:14 is a wonderfully freeing verse: “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”  We are free to love Jesus wholeheartedly, to pursue Him with all our hearts, and to serve the living God out of faith, love, and hope (I Thess. 1:3 ). Actually, when we follow Christ, it’s not even our consciences that convict us of right and wrong. That is the job of the Holy Spirit   

living inside of us as Jesus said of the Holy Spirit in John 16: 8-11, “And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgement: Of sin, ,because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to my Father and you see me no more; of judgement, because the ruler of this world is judged.”

Like the voice of a close friend or a spouse, we learn to recognize God’s voice by being with Him and by talking with Him often. God never intended for us to live by our consciences alone, for deciding what’s good and evil or right and wrong. We were created to hear and to respond to the voice of God. I promise you this: when God is our highest priority, pursuit, and passion, we will recognize his voice. And in those times when we don’t hear Him, we just need to trust His silence.” 

 Blessings as You Go Forth Today Anticipating Drifting Off To Sleep Tonight – In God’s Perfect Harmony, Perfect Intimacy, Perfect Joy and Perfect Peace! Accept No Imitations or Knock-Off’s!!       merlin

Good afternoon everyone. My sister Verla Hochstetler, and her husband Jonathon, a native of the famous Wolford ND community, now living on 40 acres of the home place in MN, called me saying she had just listened to the August 14 Focus on the Family podcast featuring Michele Cushatt who said about our identity, “I propose if you can lose it, it is not who you are!!”

 Next Verla listened to my last post and found it interesting how similar they were in emphasis. Actually, Michelle surpasses my and Kelly’s initial encouragement for us to discover our true identity. When appropriately timely for you, I encourage you give it a listen for its full impact. Simply Google “focusonthefamilyyoutubepodcastaugust14.

I have included my rough grammatically incorrect notes of her presentation in the following if you prefer a quick reading……

Experienced cancer of the tongue three times, third was devastating loosing 2/3’s of her tongue…Absolutely No promises from surgeons, a 9 hr surgery… Extreme external radiation and chemotherapy…. Learned again to eat, to speak, lost 80% taste,  dry mouth for remainder of her life… One year later after third surgery,  an angelic 4 yr old girl asked her “Why do you talk funny?” Michele , a speaking professional had earlier traveled the world speaking and training persons to speak. You can do everything right all of your life , and in a sec it all can (will) vanish!

Now Michele asks “What about you? We all have our cancers, things that make us feel damaged, broken or different, rejected, perhaps relationships that were so important, so precious to you that went away, vanished in a moment!  OR maybe you’re getting older, you look in the mirror! Ugh! And what about your faith, sometimes you’re not sure what you believe anymore?… Wherever your form of “cancer” is, that thing that happens in our life,” that disrupts everything we hold dear….  I’m guessing ingrammatically  time it takes you to the point where you don’t really know who you are anymore? This is all more complicated by the culture we live in. Our culture’s basis for our identify is based on 4 things: 

1. Your career –  what you do, your aptitude, IQ, house, your ability to add something,

2. Role – who you are in relation to other people, mom, dad, GP, neighbor, friend,

3. Talents – something you can do better than most anyone else

4. Appearance– height weight hair color or presence, skin color, commanding presence, posture

The problem is that every single one of those things can (WILL) change—Your job, contributions, relationships, appearance, death, diminished talents…. OR maybe you’re getting older, just look in the mirror! Ugh! And what about your faith, perhaps you’re not sure what you believe anymore?  Whatever your form of “cancer” may be, I’m guessing “it” will in time take you to the point where you don’t really know who you are anymore… So if we answer who we are by the above, we are on “sifting sand” & I propose something different…If You can lose it, it is not who you are!!  The reality is that everything in your life can be lost.

So, where do we find the solid ground for our existence? How do we answer the “Who Am I Question?”  I am quite fond of Moses, he has a long story, much drama, born a slave, destined to die, raised and educated in a palace,  later at a burning bush, 80 yrs, old, thinking I’m too damaged, too messed up for a calling, too different, too flawed, but God was just getting started with him, Exodus 3:4  “I am the God of your father….. the promise.. so now go, I am sending you, Moses said “Who am I that I should go?” This is God’s answer to us, every time we ask that question He answers with (if we’re listening) “I will be with you!”  God is literally telling us “It’s not about you!”

That is the first footing that God wanted to give to Moses, and to us also, to the “who am I” question. From Genesis to Revelation, there is this one consistent thread visible and that IS GOD”S deep consuming desire to be with us!”  Consider a 60 second Biblical summary: Garden of Eden, a blood covenant, God dwelt in symbols, a tabernacle and temple, people came to meet with God. God came in flesh, Incarnate, God with us, the cross became that bridge, no longer have to worry about gaining access to the Almighty, because of Christ we can always be in his Presence, no more divider between us and the divine, then an empty tomb so that even death couldn’t separate us.. Jesus upon his ascension said “And Lo I am with always, even until the end of the age.. If I don’t leave, the Spirit cannot come to you” ..now it’s God’s Presence in us.. until the day we enter heaven… In heaven in God’s Presence, there is no sun and no moon because God Himself….Yes, longer than 60 sec, are you convinced? Can you see it? (the podcast is much more articulate and complete!)

The Presence of God is our first footing but God gave another answer to Moses because  Moses was still not convinced.. I need more, I need some really solid references, some more ammo, some more credibility in my arsenal (doesn’t that sound like all of us?) …The Lord says “I am who I am!! I am has sent me to you! This is your second footing with God… the  Purposes of God!

Presence first, His Purposes are second

Moses’s mistake and my mistake on that downtown street that day responding to the angelic 4 yr old was that Moses and I  were looking for greatness within. He was looking at what he had to offer, what he could bring to the table.

Back to the burning bush, funny thing about fire. Fire can either burn or warm, can either kill or consume, OR warm and give life. The difference depends on who is wielding it. As long as Moses and you and I walk in our own purposes, you and I will be consumed. But the burning bush was not consumed because God was in it. If you and I attempt to work out our own purposes, we will be consumed by them. The only way for you and I to walk out of this life without being consumed by a “faulty identity” is to  walk closely in the purposes of God. These are the two footings God gave Moses and us.

Let’s talk about footings briefly. My husband Troy builds. A “Footing” by definition is something that concrete supports under a foundation that rests on something solid and the key for a good footing is that it needs to be wider than the structure it supports.. When you and I try to look for greatness within, guess what? The footing is ourselves. It won’t hold up. The Presence of God and  the Purposes of God. These are the only two footings that will prevail. That’s it. The ultra-extreme radiation and chemo pushed me to the brink of my very existence. I now know how very little I can take with me. It really is only what you send ahead!

It has been three years since the third diagnosis. I am now cancer free. We celebrate. I have scars all over my body. Things don’t work the way they used to. That is hard! However, who I am is absolutely intact! Who I am has not been compromised in the least. What I thought would be my devastation, has become quite frankly my salvation. Why do I talk funny? I talk funny because it forces me day in and day out to stand on the solid ground of God’s two footings. There is no fooling myself anymore.

I am going to ask you to do something right now. Take off your shoes. Now stand up.  This is not a game. This life we’re living is not a game. It’s real and it’s for keeps. And it depend entirely how you and I walk out this journey,

 This is what I want you to do. First I want you touch that Right leg. You walk in the presence of God every single day,when you get up, when you go to sleep at night. God does not sleep.. And the reason is Psalm 16:8 “because He is at my Right hand, I will not be moved! You have the presence of God at your R hand 24/7/365! Feel it. Know it. My advice is to be passionate  … If you’re going to thrive in God’s uniquely personal gift of His presence and purposes, if you’re going to be the type of person that has solid ground for an unshakable life, you have to get your footings. Repeat after me “I will walk in the presence of God”

Now take your Left leg. Consider the Purposes of God. This is an ongoing challenge as we all have our agenda. But every day as I consider my left leg, I’m walking in the purposes of God, His purposes will not consume and defeat me. And only his purposes will last, will persevere! You can sum this all up in one sentence, You and I were never meant to build our own identity . Actually our identity is God’s gift to us established even before the foundations of the world where laid…. However, iit is for us to discover though (coaching/discipling has its place), and is most accessible while in God’s presence and while pursuing His purposes. No, I can’t even imagine!! Being without, that is!

When you and I leave here today, lets live differently. We must take back our Holy Ground. Be willing to confront that  burning bush! Whatever the cancer! Or whatever the “cancer” was that ushered us into the very Presence of God and an appreciative understanding the Purposes of God revealing out true Identity.

Merlin speaking now, “In my case, it was the events of my entire life living for self with my obnoxious decoys strategically placed about finally culminating in being laid flat on my back three times in 30 months, even twice in a wheelchair for several months that was concluded with my auto accident on 9/18/18 where I literally may have been four feet shy of death. God is merciful indeed.”

“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whosoever would save his life would will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his own soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his own soul? Matt 16: 24-26.       

 Go forth now, always in His Presence and Purposes, enjoying your Identity in Christ, remembering “if you can lose it, it is not who you really are!”  merlin

PS: So perhaps, we do have a bigger “identity crisis” today in the world and the church than we ever realized. I did and I admit it. Now though, we do have the necessary understanding to effect a real and enduring significant  change… In us and  others.  No need to be shy either. Do enjoy the  JOY of your identity.

Part of my coaching assignment by JD, requires I read Matthew Kelly’s book “The Rhythms of Life: Living Everyday With Passion & Purpose” (TROL) Even though I’ve been through it as well as “in and about it” frequently, I am amazed how my “at this moment perspective” has been  changed by the events and experiences of the past 30 days.  It is virtually monumental!

I did as JD instructed. “Go on vacation and do no work.” Actually it was the longest vacation I ever took, 12 days. And I am now embarrassed to even tell you that. Never really bothered me before. Perhaps evidence finally I am losing some of the vestiges of up until recently, having been a life-long workaholic. I did leave with a lengthy to do list (stack of green 3×5 index cards) which I lost early on. Very convenient and perhaps even divine! Out of sight at my age is indeed out of mind!   

So how was it so monumental? I was blindsided at how much my dreams had changed during the past two weeks. I had prior to leaving on vacation 65 dreams identified in the following areas: Adventure, Emotional, Spiritual, Financial, Legacy, Professional, Physical, Intellectual, Material, Creative, Psychological, and Character. I just looked over them this morning and I estimate nearly half of them will be dropped or greatly retooled. Why? I’m sure there are numerous reasons but it primarily lies in the realm of perspective; getting off the treadmill long enough to break the rhythm of mild insanity and experiencing numerous interactions with persons for the first time in 50 + years, new locations, new genre of literature, long fruitful discussions with Loretta and family and even perfect strangers on the road hearing their stories, etc. We even crashed a wedding! Much better than a car!

Most of you know I really do desire a much different life from here forward and what is so strange, is that as I continue to discover my God given “essential purpose,” I am discovering it is really what I’ve given lip service to for decades but was clueless and powerless to initiate. And the reason I was clueless and powerless? Intellect and desire alone are insufficient catalyst. Basically, I was living without the love of God in my heart, life, being, etc. Once I accepted that I was indeed loved by God, my focus shifted from myself to others and as my ability to love increased, so did my ability to be loved increase, completing the cycle as God always intended.

Perhaps the word that best describes my former years is the most unattractive word, infatuation. We mistakenly will say “he is so in love with himself” of a selfish self-centered person, or “I just love Rocky Road ice cream, BMW’s, summer, or whatever. I believe those examples are merely an infatuation, because they can’t love you back. They only tantalize your taste, ego, or dislike of winter. Love functions best when it is cyclical but that is definitely not the prerequisite. Only God can provide us love reminiscent of the love He had for us “in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”( Romans 5:8) sufficient for us to endure, resist, refrain, and to be empowered to “keep us from stumbling and to present us blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy…..” Jude 1:24.

Or consider The Message Version of I Corinthians 13: 3-7. ”Love never gives up. Love cares for others more than for self. Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have. Love doesn’t strut, doesn’t have a swelled head, doesn’t force itself on others, isn’t always “me first,” doesn’t fly off the handle, doesn’t keep the score of the sins of others, doesn’t revel when others grovel, takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, puts up with anything, trusts God always, always looks for the best, never looks back, but keeps going to the end.”

Yes, God’s standards are high and infatuation is today’s normal for us choosing  the path of clueless and powerless. But as Kelly skillfully reveals to his readers in the books first three sentences. “Everything is a choice. This is life’s greatest truth and its hardest lesson. It is a great truth because it reminds us of the power within us. Not power over others, but the often untapped power to be ourselves and to live the life we unfortunately, have never even imagined.”

“For many years I have been asking myself and others, “What do you want from life?“ The first several times I made my own list, all I wanted was more of the things of the world. Then I discovered my essential purpose, and everything changed.

I started asking myself, “Which of the things on my list are going to help me become the- best-version-of-myself?“ The good news was that I did have some things on my list that were going to help me become such. I also had a lot of things that were indifferent to my essential purpose. The bad news was that I had some things on my list that were directly or indirectly going to cause me, or encourage me, to become a-lesser-version-of-myself. I began assessing the things on my list in relation to my essential purpose.

From here on Kelly is speaking beginning on page six and the following will help you better understand how a two week vacation so positively disrupted my earlier dream list.

When I am focused on becoming the-best-version-of-myself, I am deeply happy. It is the pursuit of our essential purpose ALONE that satisfies.

When you know you are striving to become the-best-version-of-yourself, that alone is enough to sustain you in happiness. When you don’t have that, all the pleasure and possessions you can summon from the world cannot sustain happiness in the depths of your heart.

We spend our lives in the service of our desires. Sometimes those desires are good and their pursuit is to our benefit. At other times our desires are selfish and self-destructive. If there is purpose and meaning to our lives, then the highest levels of living must be linked to discovering that meaning and fulfilling that purpose. It stands to reason, then, that there should be a relationship between the purpose and the meaning of life and our dreams.

Earlier, I asked you to stop and consider what you wanted from life and to write those things down. As you progress through this book, I would like you to remain open to revising and changing, adding and eliminating, some of what you had previously written.

So, even though I am constantly dreaming new dreams, I have learned to dream with my central purpose at the center of my life. With that in mind, I have developed seven core dreams that help me stay focused on my essential purpose.

These are my dreams. I believe that the pursuit of these dreams will lead us to peace, happiness, success, satisfaction, service, wholeness, and holiness.

They are my dreams, but they are also my dreams for you.

The first dream

I have a dream for you….that you have complete control over your mental and physical faculties and that you are slave neither to food, nor drink, nor any other substance. I dream that you will be free, that you will have freedom in the truest sense of the word and the strength of character to do what is right in each situation.

The second dream

 I have a dream for you… that you are able to discern the people, activities, and possessions that are most important to you. And that you are able to give each of them their time and place according to their appropriate priority.


The third dream

 I have a dream for you…. that you have the courage and determination, firmness, and persistence to perform the tasks that you choose, decide, and resolve to perform. That you perform them with a commitment to excellence and attention to detail.



The fourth dream

I have a dream for you… that you discover a unique talent that leads you to dedicate the professional aspect of your life do some work you can be passionate about. I dream that you may enjoy the rare privilege of spending your days in meaningful work. That you serve your neighbor, your family, and your community in this occupation and that by it, you are able to provide for your temporal needs.



The fifth dream

 I have a dream for you…  that you grow in wealth in every sense of the word, that you are never in need, and that whatever your wealth is, you share it with all you can.


The sixth dream
I have a dream for you….  that you find true love. Someone you can cherish. Someone who makes you want to be a better person. A soulmate who can challenge you and love you. A companion who can walk with you, know you, share your joy, perceive your pain and heartache, and comfort you in your disappointments.


The seventh dream

I have a dream for you…. that you discover a deep and abiding inner peace. The peace that comes from knowing that who you are, where you are, and what you do is essentially good and makes sense; that you are contributing to the happiness of others; that you are progressing towards becoming the-best-version-of-yourself.

Blessings as you GO FORTH REVELING IN THE DREAMS YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER HAS ALWAYS HELD FOR YOU…IF YOU COULD ONLY IMAGINE… merlin

Matthew Kelly is an avid story teller. And I’m just thinking you’re about ready for some “lighter fare,” but beware, their truths are heavy! These two stories are taken from his book The Rhythms of Life. I trust both will stretch  you.

Perhaps you are familiar with Leonardo da Vinci‘s famous painting The Last Supper. Leonardo was living in Milan at the time he painted it, and when he committed himself to that particular composition, he wanted to find thirteen men to pose, one for each of the disciples and one as Jesus. He wanted each of his models to look exactly as he envisioned Jesus and each of the disciples to have looked. And so his search for these men began.

One day while he was sitting in church, the voices of the choir were so angelic that he turned around and looked up into the choir loft. As he did his gaze fell upon one young man in the choir. He perfectly matched how Leonardo had visualized Jesus to look. After church Leonardo approached the young man, explained his project, and inquired as to whether he would be interested in posing for the painting. The young man agreed, and the following week he spent four days posing for Leonardo in his studio in Milan.

Leonardo’s search continued, and he quickly found someone to pose as Peter, Simon, and Matthew. Within eleven months he had found and painted all the persons in the scene except for Judas.

Leonardo could not find his Judas. He looked everywhere. He would walk through the streets of Milan, some days for endless hours, searching the nameless faces in the crowd for a man who embodied how he envisioned Judas to have looked. Eleven years passed in his search for Judas when he finally realized he had been looking for his Judas in the wrong places.

Leonardo thought, if I am to find a man who has the qualities and appearance of Judas, I must look where such men are gathered. With that in mind, Leonardo went to the prisons in and around Milan, searching for a man with pain and anger in his eyes, with harsh impatience on his face, with the scars of pride and bitterness on his cheeks, and with the marks of brokenness in his features – a man who looked to him like Judas.

After many days and many prisons, he came across that man. He explained to the man what he was doing and asked him if he would be willing to pose for the paining. The prisoner agreed, and Leonardo made arrangements for him to be brought to his studio in Milan under guard.

The following week he was brought to the studio, and Leonardo begin the final stage of his work. As he painted, Leonardo noticed that the prisoner was growing more restless and distressed, even by the hour. Leonardo observed that the man would look at him, then at the painting, and every time he seem to be filled with a certain remorseful sadness.

By the middle of the second day, Leonardo was so disturbed by what he was witnessing in his model that he stopped work and said to him, “Is there something wrong? Do you not like my work?“ The prisoner said nothing, and Leonardo inquired once more, saying, “You seem very upset, and if I am causing you pain in any way, perhaps we should stop.“ The man looked at the master painter and then at the paining one more time. As his gaze fell away from the painting, he lowered his head, lifted his hands to his face, and began to weep inconsolably.

After several minutes, Leonardo was finally able to settle him down. “What is it?“ He asked.

The prisoner looked expectantly into the artist’s eyes and said, “Do you not recognize me, master?“

In confusion, Leonardo replied, “No, have we met before?“

“Oh yes,” the prisoner explained. “Eleven years ago I posed for you, for this same painting, as the person of Jesus.“

In each of us there is a Judas and a Jesus. Our lives here on earth are an incomplete work unless we can discover the Judas and the Jesus within us. We must come to know our strengths and our weaknesses. It is often very easy to find the Jesus within us. Too often we shrink from the task of examining our faults. Yet it is only by knowing the flaws and defects of our character that we can begin to work to overcome them.

Our weaknesses are the keys to our richer, more abundant future. Our strengths are already bearing the fruit they can. Our weaknesses are the unfarmed lands of our character. Pull the weeds from that land, till the soil, plant some seeds, and we will yield a great harvest.

Most people don’t want to know about their weaknesses. This is a classic sign of mediocrity. While the rest of us are standing around arguing for our weaknesses, trying to convince people that our lack of character is our character; the heroes, leaders, legends, champions, and saints who fill the history books went looking for their weaknesses. They didn’t hide their weaknesses, and they didn’t hide from them. They woke early each morning and went out to face them, because they knew their weaknesses were the keys to their richer, more abundant future.

If you want your future to be bigger than your past, start to transform your weaknesses into strengths!

Are you prepared to face the Judas in you?

The following heavenly trivia is priceless!

When God was creating the universe, some of the angels were discussing where each of them felt God should hide the truth. One angel said, “I think God should hide the truth at the very summit of the highest mountain.“ The next proclaimed, “I think God should hide the truth at the very depths of the ocean.“ Another said, “No, I think God should hide the truth on the farthest star.“

God overheard the angels and spoke up, saying, “I will hide the truth in none of these places. I will hide the truth in the very depths of every man and every woman’s heart. This way, those who search humbly and sincerely will find it easily, and those who do not will have to search the whole universe before they do.”

Know thyself; know your strengths and weaknesses; your relation to the universe (more accurately, God); your potentialities; your spiritual heritage; your aims and purposes; take stock of thyself.           Socrates

This is Eugene Peterson and this is the introduction to The Message New Testament.

Over the course of about 50 years, these writings added up to what later would be compiled by the followers of Jesus and designated the New Testament. Three kinds of writings; eye-witness stories, personal letters, and a visionary poem make up the book; 5 stories, 21 letters, one poem. And in the course of this this writing and reading, collecting and arranging with no one apparently in charge, the early Christians whose lives were being changed and shaped by what they were reading, arrived at the conviction that there was in fact someone in charge. God’s Holy Spirit was behind and in it all. In retrospect, they could see it was not at all random or haphazard, that every word worked with every other word, and that all the separate documents worked in intricate harmony. There was nothing accidental in any of this, nothing merely circumstantial. They were bold to call what had been written God’s Word, and trusted their lives to it. They accepted its authority over their lives and most of its readers since have been similarly convinced.

The arrival of Jesus signaled a beginning of a new era, God entered history in a personal way and made it unmistakably clear that He is on our side, doing everything possible to save us. It was all presented and worked out in a life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. It was and is hard to believe, seemingly too good to be true. But one by one, men and women did believe it, believed Jesus was God, alive among them and for them. Soon they would realize He also lived within them. To their great surprise, they found themselves living in a world where God called all the shots, had the first word on everything, had the last word on everything. That meant that everything, quite literally EVERYTHING had to be re–centered, re-imagined, and re-thought. They went at it with immense gusto, they told stories of Jesus, and arranged his teachings in memorable form. They wrote letters, they sang songs, they prayed. One of them wrote an extraordinary poem based on holy visions. There was no apparent organization to any of this, it was all more or less spontaneous, and to the eye of the casual observer, haphazard.

The striking feature in all this writing is that it was done in the street language of the day, the idiom of the playground and the marketplace. In the Greek speaking world of that day, there were two levels of language, formal and informal. Formal language was used to write philosophy and history, government decrees and epic poetry. If someone were to sit down and consciously write for future generations, it would of course be written in this formal language with its learned vocabulary and its precise diction.

But if the writing was routine; shopping lists, family letters, bills and receipts, it was written in the common informal idiom of everyday speech, street language. And this is the language used throughout the New Testament. Some people are taken back by this supposing the language meeting with a Holy God and holy things, should be elevated, stately and ceremonial. But one good look at Jesus, his preference for down to earth stories, and his easy association with common people, gets rid of that supposition. For Jesus, it is the descent of God to our lives just as they are, not the ascent of our lives to God, hoping that He might approve when He sees how hard we try.

And that is why the followers of Jesus and their witness and preaching, translating and teaching, have always done their best to get the message, the Good News, into the language of whatever streets they happened to be living on. In order to understand the message right, the language must be right, not a refined language that appeals to our aspirations after the best, but a rough and earthy language that reveals God’s presence and action where we least expect it catching us when we are up to our elbows in the soiled ordinariness of our lives, and God is the furthest thing from our minds.

This version of the New Testament in a contemporary idiom, keeps the language of the message current and fresh and understandable in the same language in which we do our shopping, talk with our friends, worry about world affairs, and teach our children their table manners. The goal is not to render a word for word conversion of Greek into English but rather to convert the tone, the rhythm, the events, the ideas, into the way we actually think and speak.

In the midst of doing this work I realize, that this is exactly what I’ve been doing all of my vocational life. For thirty five years as a pastor, I stood at the border between two languages, biblical Greek and everyday English, acting as a translator, providing the right phrases, getting the right words so that the men and women to whom I was pastor, could find their way around and get along in this world where God has spoken so decisively and clearly in Jesus. I did it from the pulpit, and in the kitchen, in hospitals and restaurants, on parking lots and at picnics, always looking for an English way to make the biblical text relevant to the conditions of the people.      Eugene H Peterson.

The Message is a reading or listening Bible translated from the original Greek and Hebrew Scriptures. I am frequently surprised by how many believers in the non KJV congregations do not have access to The Message. I do realize for some of you translation/version is paramount. And for memorizing, study and teaching, I believe that to be valid. However, I’m not so convinced the Holy Spirit would not have us use other translations/version for such as when I desire to be “immersed and washed” in the essence of a chapter or even an entire book of Scripture to readily capture and absorb its perspective, instruction and wisdom in our street language today.

Also, I see value in providing a seeker unfamiliar with biblical jargon Scriptural texts in a format such as The Message, that they more easily can understand. I concur the discussion ranks higher than merely prime rib or broccoli (14:6-9). Perhaps more like “milk vs. meat”(Heb 5:12, I Cor 3:2).  

Below I  have included selected texts from Romans Chapters 12-15 in The Message that I appreciate. Blessings as you read below challenging your “everyday ordinary life in Christ.”          merlin

Romans 12: 1 – 21 (The Message)

Place Your Life Before God

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life, your  sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life – and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You will be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well formed maturity in you.

I’m speaking to you out of a deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it’s important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.

In this way we are like the various parts of a human body. Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around. The body we are talking about is Christ’s body of chosen people. Each of us find our meaning and function as part of his body. But as a chopped-off finger or cut-off toe we wouldn’t amount to much, would we? So since we find ourselves fashioned and all these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ’s body, let’s just go ahead and be what we are made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren’t.

If you preach, just preach God’s Message, nothing else; if you help, just help, don’t take over; if you teach, stick to your teaching; if you give encouraging guidance, be careful that you don’t get bossy; if you’re put in charge, don’t manipulate; if you’re called to give aid to people in distress, keep your eyes open and be quick to respond; if you work with the disadvantaged, don’t let yourself get irritated with them or depressed by them. Keep a smile on your face.

Love from the center of who you are; don’t fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle.

Don’t burn out; keep yourself fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don’t quit in hard times; pray all the harder. Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality.

Bless your enemy; no cursing under your breath. Laugh with your happy friends when they’re happy; share tears when they’re down. Get along with each other; don’t be stuck up. Make friends with nobodies; don’t be the great somebody.

Don’t hit back; discover beauty in everyone. If you got it in you, get along with everybody. Don’t insist on getting even; that’s not for you to do. “I’ll do the judging,“ says God. “I’ll take care of it.

Our Scriptures tell us that if you see your enemy hungry, go buy that person lunch, or if he’s thirsty, get him a drink. Your generosity will surprise him with goodness. Don’t let evil get the best of you; get the best of evil by doing good.

Romans 13: 8 – 14

Be a Responsible Citizen

Don’t run up debts except for the huge debt of love you owe each other. When you love others you complete what the law has been after all along. The law code, don’t sleep with another person’s spouse, don’t take someone’s life, don’t take what isn’t yours, don’t always be wanting what you don’t have, and any other “don’t” you can think of – finally adds up to this: love other people as well as you do yourself. You can’t go wrong when you love others. When you add up everything in the law code, the sum total is love.

But make sure that you don’t get so absorbed and exhausted in taking care of all your day-by-day obligations that you lose track of time and doze off, oblivious to God. The night is about over, dawn is about to break. Be up and awake to what God is doing!  God is putting finishing touches on the salvation work he began when we first believed. We can’t afford to waste a minute, must not squander these precious daylight hours in frivolity and indulgence, in sleeping around and dissipation, in bickering and grabbing everything in sight. Get out of bed and get dressed! Don’t loiter and linger, waiting until the very last minute. Dress yourselves in Christ, and be up and about!

Romans 14

Cultivating Good Relationships

Welcome with open arms fellow believers who don’t see things the way you do. And don’t jump all over them every time they do or say something you don’t agree with – even when it seems that they are strong on opinions but weak in the faith department. Remember, they have their own history to deal with. Treat them gently.

For instance, the person who has been around for a while might well be convinced that he can eat anything on the table, while another, with a different background, might assume he should only be a vegetarian and eat accordingly. But since both are guests at Christ’s table, wouldn’t it be terrible rude if they fell to criticizing what the other ate or didn’t eat? God, after all, invited them both to the table. Do you have any business crossing people off the guest list or interfering with God’s welcome? If there are corrections to be made or manners to be learned, God can handle that without your help.

Or, say, one person thinks that some days should be set aside as holy and another thinks that each day is pretty much like any other. There are good reasons either way. So, each person is free to follow the convictions of conscience.

What’s important in all this is that if you keep a holy day, keep it for God’s sake; if you eat meat, eat it for the glory of God and thank God for prime rib; if you’re a vegetarian, eat vegetables to the glory of God and thank God for broccoli. None of us are permitted to insist on our own way in these matters. It’s God we are answerable to – all the way from life to death and everything in between – not each other. That’s why Jesus lived and died and then lived again: so that he could be our Master across the entire range of life and death, and free us from the petty tyrannies of each other.

So where does that leave you when you criticize a brother? And where does that leave you when you condescend to a sister? I’d say it leaves you looking pretty silly – or worse. Eventually, we are all going to end up kneeling side by side in the place of judgment, facing God. Your critical and condescending ways aren’t going to improve your position there one bit. Read it for yourself in Scripture:

“As I live and breathe,” God says, Every knee will bow before me; Every tongue will tell the honest truth that I and only I am God.”

So tend to your knitting. You’ve got your hands full just taking care of your own life before God.

Forget about deciding what’s right for each other.  Here’s what you need to be concerned about: that you don’t get in the way of someone else, making life more difficult than it is already. I’m convinced – Jesus convinced me! – that everything as it is  in itself is holy. We, of course, by the way we treat it or talk about it, can contaminate it.

If you confuse others by making a big issue over what they eat or don’t eat, you’re no longer a companion with them in love, are you? These, remember, are persons for whom Christ died. Would you risk sending them to hell over an item in their diet? Don’t you dare let a piece of God blessed – food become an occasion of soul-poisoning!

God‘s kingdom isn’t a matter of what you put in your stomach, for goodness sake. It’s what God does with your life as he sets it right, puts it together, and completes it with joy. Your task is to single-mindedly serve Christ. Do that and you kill two birds with one stone: pleasing the God above and improving your worth to the people around you.

So let’s agree to use all our energy in getting along with each other. Help others with encouraging words; don’t drag them down by finding fault. You’re certainly not going to permit an argument over what is served are not served at supper to wreck God’s work among you, are you? I said it before and I’ll say it again: All food is good, but it can turn bad if you use it badly, if you use it to trip others up and send them sprawling. When you sit down to a meal, your primary concern should not be to feed your own face but to share the life of Jesus. So be sensitive and courteous to the others who are eating. Don’t eat or say or do things that might interfere with the free exchange of love.

Cultivate your own relationship with God but don’t impose it on others. You’re fortunate if your behavior and your belief are coherent. But if you’re not sure, if you notice that you are acting in ways and inconsistent with what you believe – some days trying to impose your opinions on others, other days just trying to please them – then

 you know that you’re out of line. If the way you live isn’t consistent with what you believe, then it’s wrong.

Romans 15:1-6

Those of us who are strong and able in the faith need to step in and lend a hand to those who falter, and not just do what is most convenient for us. Strength is for service, not status.  Each one of us needs to look after the good of the people around us, asking ourselves, “How can I help?”

That’s exactly what Jesus did. He didn’t make it easy for himself by avoiding people’s struggles, but waded right in and helped out. “I took on the troubles of the troubled,” is the way the Scripture put it. Even if it was written in Scripture long ago, you can be sure it’s written for us. God wants the combination of his steady, constant calling and warm, personal counsel in Scripture to come to characterize us, keeping us alert for whatever he will do next. May our dependably steady and warmly personal God develop maturity in you so that you can get along with each other as well as Jesus gets along with us all. Then we will be a choir – not our voices only, but our very lives singing in harmony in a stunning anthem to the God and Father of our Master Jesus!

This post too comes from Chapter Two as did the prior from the book “Call to Joy.” Another revealing glimpse for me! Again, my comments are italicized.

A wise  man was once asked, “What do you think most needs to change in the world?” He replied, “I do.“ Most people do not consider themselves perfect, yet even though we recognize our need to change and grow, we often do not take a single step toward doing so.

We are held back by our fear of the unknown. We are scared of what we might become if we change. Absurd as it may sound, we are scared of the very thing for which we were created: our fulfillment. We are cautious about abandoning what we do and what we have (even if these are self-destructive) because we have found in these things some sense of security. Sadly, however, these are also what hold us prisoners to our limitations.

Many of us are scared to dream for fear that we might be disappointed. It is like a young woman who prays and dreams every day for that special young man to come into her life; then when he finally does, she becomes hesitant and wary, sometimes to the point that this confuses him and he walks away. She has focused on the fact that one day he might leave. Sometimes we are too hesitant to let our dreams become realities. And what she is focused on comes true.

Do not be afraid of your dreams coming true. Allow them to emerge and become realities in your life.

Only by envisioning what it is we want to achieve and then by the power of the Spirit of God that dwells within us are we able to achieve anything.

The things that we have, the things we do, and who we are form our identity. People identify with us according to these things, and our identity determines the level of respect we receive from people. Often we think we must acquire or do certain things in order to maintain this identity and sustain this respect. (Perhaps this coercion or blackmail is far worse than today’s identity theft.) 

Change threatens this identity and respect, which are false and idolatrous when the things that form this identity and gain us respect are the very things that prevent us from walking with God. So many people are alienated from God by the things that they think give meaning to their lives but that in fact bring them nothing but emptiness, unhappiness, and only momentary pleasure.

You cannot both change and stay as you are.

What holds us back from changing are things that do not help but hinder, things that bring not life and happiness but death, self-destruction, and sadness. Very often these things are detrimental to both our physical and our spiritual health. In some cases God wants us to give up these things and replace them with much grander things. (Consider the June 4 post titled “Intro to Coaching 101” in paragraph 16 of the story of the children content to play in their back yard mud box when their parents really wanted to take them on a family vacation  to the beach for a week…. Absolutely incomparable!) In other cases he wants us to be more moderate. But always we are being called to raise our sights do the things that are above, to envision our fulfillment.

The first positive step for the journey of the soul is to recognize that you are not completely fulfilled. And then you must acknowledge that you cannot become more fulfilled while you remain exactly as you are today. If you are not fulfilled and happy today and yet, tomorrow you do everything the same way you did today, do you actually believe that you will be any happier?

Perhaps what is holding you back is the fact that in the past you have tried to change and been unsuccessful. Often people see the need for changing their lives and make a particular resolution to accomplish it. Although they have the best intentions, these people often fail to achieve the desired change. Why? Because they are focusing on the negative.

There is no change necessary for your fulfillment and perfection that you are not capable of achieving with the assistance of the divine. Take some time to reflect on the power in this statement.

The answer to this problem is to replace the old activity with the new activity. A person experiencing a problem in the area of purity can respond in several ways. For example, if he is constantly glaring lustfully at women as they walk down the street, his response can be twofold. First, he can learn to admire the pavement instead of scanning everything as he walks down the street, thus limiting the input to his imagination. Then, with his imagination and attention now his slaves, he can use them to begin a conversation with Christ, and he can try to sustain this conversation always and everywhere, “praying constantly“ throughout the day.

Thus, far from focusing on the negative and the “sacrifice“ being made, he moves forward by replacing the activity being removed with one much more positive, beautiful, and fruitful to his development.

Focus on the good, the noble, the just. Focus on the positive and hope in God.

It is the replacement of one activity with another of greater meaning and value that makes attempts to change successful.

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above. Colossians 3:1

You ever get the feeling recently there is much more to “seeking the things that are above” than you realized? God very ably has “raised us up” and apparently has placed the ball in our court to “work out our own salvation” as stated in Philippians 2:12. 

Paul’s “working out” our salvation is very different from “working for” our salvation! He is simply explaining that our wonderfully free gift from God is already inside of us; it has already been downloaded and is in our RAM ready for us to access. By “seeking those things that are above,” we bring out those beautiful attributes and character traits by faith. It is our faith that works out what is on the inside of us, perhaps in the form of all those freely Holy Spirit  given apps, certainly not us or our “works.” Perhaps this is  one way we can see our inner salvation visibly through our outwardly manifested  character? Remember, Paul instead of receiving the death sentence on the Damascus road, which he expected, was shown unfailing mercy and love that transformed him into one of the greatest apostles in the Bible. 

Perhaps our first step in this faith building process is for us to finally realize we are not yet fulfilled, or even close? And neither will we be until we either become mentally incapacitated or experience death. In other words, God has much more yet to download in us to enhance our “character traits.” And unless I’m daily “Seeking first the kingdom of God,” I’ll remain clueless and oblivious to what all I’ve missed out on until the day I give my accounting. Remember the 5, 2, & 1 talents in Matthew 25:14-30?

And I will tell you from experience, that “living in the now” and being Spirit-empowered, is sorta like  enrolling in auto pay for all your monthly bills, always on time every time, no mess, no fuss, no late fees. And what’s more, your spiritual “equity account” with Jesus, always has more than enough to see you through. 

Blessings as YOU GO FORTH TODAY SEEKING FIRST THE KINGDOM>>>>>…..merlin  

Again, readers, I am sharing a portion of Chapter Two, Walking with God, from Matthew Kelly’s book, A Call to Joy. My comments are italicized.  Enjoy.

When you acknowledge your imperfections, you are on the brink of great growth and wonderful times.

None of us is perfect. This is a truth that most of us learn early in life. Yet, though we are not perfect, we are perfectible!

We have all witnessed ourselves and others failing in different areas of our lives. Some allow their failure to be transformed into despair and defeat. Others are able to get up, move on, and struggle again.

Something failures just look like failures. Other failures really are failures and need to be recognized as such.

Vincent van Gogh, the Dutch painter, is now hailed as one of the greatest artists of all time. But he did not enjoy the same  acclaim and success during his lifetime. He painted 1700 paintings during his lifetime. He sold only one of them, for a mere $85. Almost 100 years to the day after his death, one of his paintings was sold at auction for $40 million. Sometimes failures just look like failures.

Imagine if after paining five pictures and not being able to sell them, van Gogh had quit. Today we would not have sunflowers and so many of his other works to enjoy.

How do you respond to failure? When you fail, particularly in your struggle to become a better person, how do you respond?

It is interesting to look at the circumstances in which both Judas and Peter found themselves just prior to Jesus death and then to compare how they responded. Judas betrayed Jesus. Peter turned his back on and denied Jesus. They both failed. They both fell. The difference is not that one of them failed and one of them succeeded. No. The difference is how they responded to failure.

Judas experienced discouragement as a result of his betrayal. He allowed his discouragement to be transformed by pride  into despair. His pride was his defeat.

Peter also experienced discouragement as a result of his denial. He allowed his discouragement to be transformed by humility into hope. His humility was his victory.

With whom do you identify when you fail? Judas or Peter? Are you prideful or do possess humility?

Get used to failing. We all fail sometimes. It is often the key to success. It is a big part of human existence and it’s an inevitable part of the struggle. But if you persevere you will emerge victorious and fulfilled. So often it is our fear of failing that prevents us from attempting to change and from seeking the joy we desire.

Powerful stuff.  Simply put! Pride vs. Humility. Pride wasted my best years. I trust you learned humility early. Regardless, it is never too late to CHANGE! Blessings as you fail forward traveling FORTH in Spirit empowered humility>>>>    merlin

Greetings readers. This week I am simply providing you some quotes from Matthew Kelly’s book “A Call to Joy: Living in the Presence of God” from its first chapter, “The Voice of God.”

This book was written over 20 years ago when Matthew was 23 years old. In the prior five years, Matthew spoke to over a million people in seminars, talks, and retreats in 46 countries. Millions more have been touched by his writings and appearances on major radio and television programs worldwide. Young, charismatic,and extraordinarily engaging, Matthew comes to the aid of a generation desperately searching for some meaning in life deeper than the pursuit of material things. Exploring the challenges of our modern world, he brilliantly puts into context the unchanging truths of the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. In a Call to Joy, he shares both his remarkable personal story and his uniquely inspiring insights on faith, love, and the trials and triumphs of the spiritual life.

Enjoy!

In the midst of all the hustle and bustle of the world, there is a whisper in the marketplace. The whisper is the voice of God. He is calling to you. He is beckoning to you. He is gently inviting you to a quiet place, and His call is a call to joy. If you listen, you can hear His voice saying, “Come to Me.” He is calling you into His presence so that your life may become a dance for joy.

Holiness is about grasping the moments of each day and using them to grow and become a better person and about assisting others in achieving the same. It is this that gives glory to God.

Smile, say less and listen more, pray, and trust.

A smile is an invitation, and invitation to someone else to dance for joy.

The following is a true story. One day a priest found himself walking through the Bowery in New York City, a place where many homeless people can be found. The priest was with three friends, and they were on their way to take a ferry ride. As they walked along, they came upon a man sitting on the pavement. He was very dirty and look depressed. When he met the priest’s eyes, he beckoned to him to come over. Touched, the priest move toward him. But his friends quickly spoke up: “Come on, you don’t want to go near that bum.”

The priest ignored their warning and move still closer while his friends watched in amazement. The priest said a few words to the man. Then he smiled and moved on to catch the ferry.

As they were waiting to board, the same man came running up to the priest, sobbing like a child; he pulled out a gun and said, “Father, just before you walked along this morning I was about to go down an alley and blow my brains out. When you came along I waved to you and you responded to my call, my cry, my plea. Then you spoke to me as you would speak to someone you love, but it wasn’t any of this that stopped me from doing what I had planned. As you started to leave, you looked deep into my eyes and smiled. It was a first sign of human affection that I’ve been shown in seven years and I just wanted you to know that today your smile has given me life.“

The two spoke for a while, and the priest discovered that this man had been once been a doctor practicing at John Hopkins Hospital. Then the priest gave him his blessing and went on his way.

Later, the priest went to the hospital to find out what he could about this man.He brought the man’s name up to various doctors and nurses and was told that he had in fact been a doctor there, but he was having some trouble so he left. No one knew where the priest could find him now.

Three years later the phone rang and the priest was greeted by a well-spoken voice saying, “Hello, I’m Dr. Lawson. Remember me? From the Bowery? I’m back at the hospital now. I just wanted you to know a smile can make a difference, sometimes all the difference.“

If you do nothing else today, smile at someone who needs to see you smile.

Say less and listen more. These five words have improved my relationships with people more than any others. Everyone has a story. Your story is the thread of your life. It is when we lose or forget our story that our lives begin to fall apart.

Experience is not the only teacher.

The voice of God never ceases in our lives; he just uses different channels.

We are always wanting to know more, yet we are often not prepared to listen. We want to know more, but we do not live what we already know.

Our big struggle takes place between the false self and the true self. The more we abandon the false self and surrender to the true self, the more we grow in perfection. This battle takes place primarily in our hearts. It is a battle between power and love, between the love of power and the power to love. As we discover and nurture our true selves through prayer and reflection, the power to love grows in our hearts and defeat its enemy, reducing our love of power.

Suffering puts us in touch with what is really important. Sacrifice spells out our commitment and confirms our love.

Nothing in this life is a coincidence. There are no accidents, just providence. Providence, providence, all is providence.

To breathe is not a right, it is a gift.

One of the first steps toward being able to recognize and be in touch with the divine plan for you is discovering the difference between a right and a gift. In the modern Western world we have an interesting combination of an overdeveloped sense of rights and over developed ego. When the two are mixed together, they form an extremely harmful formula known as U4 (unfulfilled, unhappy, unsatisfied, and unbearable).

I don’t under stand why I’m alive, or why I wake up each day, how I breathe, and many other things, but I do know that one day I will not wake up. Death, however, is not a mystery. Life is the mystery. Life is sacred.

Life is to be reverenced in all its forms.

To hear his voice you must be willing to change and obey his words. To achieve the necessary frame of mind and heart, we must recognize that God is good and that he calls us to do what is best. His challenge to change is much more than just that. His challenge to change is really a call to growth and to fulfillment. Fulfillment for a person is not a place, it is not a destination, it is a path. Journeying along the path is fulfilling. Standing still on the path is depressing.

When you stand still, you reject “the struggle” and you refuse to change and grow. Simultaneously you reject fulfillment, happiness, the dance for joy, and everything else that is eternally good.

God is your Father. He is a loving Father with wonderful plans for his children. Regardless of the greatest plan you can put together for yourself with the greatest power of your imagination, his plan is better, greater, more exciting, and more rewarding. Believe in his plan. Ask him to reveal his plan to you. Then listen…

Standing still on the path is depressing..  Believe in his plan. Ask him to reveal his plan to you. Then listen. Blessings as you GO FORTH ON YOUR PATH!   merlin

Good evening readers! I have not sat down to write in nearly two weeks …. which is a record  for me since I began this blog. This was certainly not by design, for even prior to my accident and Loretta “nursing” me thru that season, she was planning two 10 day trips this summer and I’ve been adamant that they occur regardless. But what we didn’t plan for was her mother being hospitalized prior and for me now to be responsible for her care while Loretta is elsewhere. But everyone has been helping and all is well.

Actually, it is really a neat experience to spend so much time with Eileen. I’ve “experienced”four additional mothers after losing mine in ’72. I have two presently yet on earth to enjoy, both 93 now, and of course Eileen is immediate family, not an adoption. Perhaps I need to write a book on the dynamics and blessings of being a “vagabond son” and “adopted” by three “experienced” and one “inexperienced” mothers after being “orphaned” at the mature age of 23. Most interesting!    

FYI, I do have a specific chair from which I write in my office. Certainly not fancy, actually wicker. But now here at mom’s, I either sit on the living room couch or at the kitchen table. And I do have the couch covered with books and papers, but worse, is I have not brought a printer over so I make a frequent journey of 102 steps to our home for that or whatever else I may need.

But even more interesting , is how I process several books at once in addition to scripture. I’m reading the One Year Bible again after a twelve year break and the experience is just choice. I am also back to listening to the Message version of the NT again as I did extensively five years ago providing much joy.

I always have a new book ready on audible while driving or similarly focused as such on a  “trial basis” to determine if this new book’s message “moves” me sufficiently to study it more closely later on Kindle when I will underline it. Then, if I think I’ll really refer to it frequently and loan copies to whomever, I’ll even order a hard copy.

It seems there is always one book God has me virtually “inhaling.” Be better if He could just direct deposit it in my brain but truth be told, he has sorta promised that via the Holy Spirit with Scripture, hasn’t He?  In fact, I’m currently listening to Bevere’s “God, Where Are You?! Finding Strength and Purpose In Your Wilderness”  multiple times and specific chapters, maybe even 5 or 6 times. This book is spot on for my life choices today and is also giving me insight to both past and present challenges.

Recently I was told to read for entertainment. I seldom read now strictly for entertainment. The exception to that recently has been all of Paul Stutzman’s books. And I’m sure there’ll be other authors like him who I’ll meet when timely and prudent. At this moment of my life’s focus, I consider all my virtue wisdom books as my form of entertainment. You must understand I didn’t start reading significantly until I was 65. My mistaken thinking prior was I just didn’t have “time.” Now I more fully understand the futility of my self-imposed “desert experience.” By not reading scripture significantly or the virtue/wisdom books, I continually destroyed the potential life giving energy in both my vertical and horizontal relationships reducing my opportunity to “wake up and smell the roses” and “get a life” worth living, both for myself, and with all those persons in proximity to me.

Enough about the necessity of reading. My biggest pet peeve today about typical weekly church pew squatters is the impression I get at least from many, is they don’t read the “good stuff.” And that was exactly me for many years! When you’ve been a non-reader as long as I, (usually non-readers are also non-learners …  remember the Bernard quote in a recent post?) you sorta have a sixth sense about what’s going on in a non-readers life. Perhaps it can even be said, you can read non-readers like a book?

I dare say if the only reading you ever do is your daily reading in the One Year Bible and if you approach that as the opportunity for God to speak truth and wisdom into your life, you will be surprised at how frequently you’ll find something; a truth, an insight, a new understanding, etc. And if your faith is real, in the moment, and in community,  you just gotta share it with someone. However, in the event that your daily Bible reading is merely to check your “did it box,” as I did for thirteen years, it will be sadly and largely, a waste of your time. Your time may be better spent talking with your kids or spouse. I do believe podcasts do not replace reading of scripture though such may enrich your reading profoundly.

If I’m honest with myself and you, I’ve indeed spent much of my life in a DWE. Perhaps not literally, because many of you know I first came to Wayne County OH 51 years ago from MN, a frozen wilderness and you’re not likely aware how I lived in “real time” spiritual deprivation and all its catastrophic losses …especially in relationships, both vertically and horizontally.

Perhaps we’ll talk more about our “desert/wilderness experiences (DWE’s)” next time. I understand it seldom  rains in the desert. If you desire water, it will have to be drawn from wells or springs. John 7:37-39 NKJV states “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” Note that it is not the outpouring (rain) of the Spirit of God that we are apt to experience in the desert. Rather, in the desert, we must draw deep from within our heart, for actually it is from the fountain or well of God that these refreshing waters arise.

Just how does this happen to us? Read Isaiah 11: 2 NKJV where the prophet Isaiah explains the nature of how the Spirit works flowing like rivers out of the believer’s heart.“ And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.”

Consider also these supporting Scriptures:

Proverb 18:4“The words of a man’s mouth are deep waters; the wellspring of wisdom is a flowing brook” (NKJV).

Proverb 16:22 “Understanding is a well spring of life to him who has it” (NKJV).

Proverb 20:5 “Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out” (NKJV).

I believe the key word is “draw.” Remember, the waters of refreshment in the desert do not come from the Spirit’s rain but must be “drawn” from the heart.

I like Proverb 10:11 that says, “The mouth of the righteous is a well of life …”(NKJV). Even better is Proverb 15:23 “A man has joy by the answer of his mouth”(NKJV). Such as when you suddenly realize while living life in real time, you have an Ah Ha moment, and you know that you know! ….The reality is the “Truth having been internalized” is now suddenly flowing out from within you. It should be no great surprise. Truth in, Truth out. Thank you Jesus!

I think too often I have gotten discouraged with the surroundings of my DWE continually pleading with God to do “something” and so I stagnate (sit, soak, and sour) on the “on deck circle” waiting for whatever to materialize. And since it doesn’t or hadn’t, we are tempted to build a “house” there and get comfortable, you  know how it is; keep the job, buy bottled water, install heat and AC. Not a  good idea! Deserts are temporary. Wildernesses require living in “tents” so we can move out quickly. We must be tenacious and persistent in our drive to experience the fullness of God. We must drill deep into our “being” continually supported by scripture as God utilizes the desert to build up our strength and  stamina for our future battles. Understand the DWE is where God brings us to teach us that any attempt on our part to do something for Him, apart from his leading and ability, is merely futility!

God does not waste our less than desirable sinful experiences. We were already forgiven before conceived and upon our confession and subsequent restoration, we are then empowered for his service, possibly in even the very area we experienced our most devastating failures. Now isn’t that scary? Suddenly perhaps a grass hut in Africa and being shoe less doesn’t sound so bad? I say that because something similar is always given as the worst possible nightmare for entering kingdom work!  Even more so, your personal experiential truth!

And when God has us wandering in the DW, please realize God is not wasting time. Actually, He is the one who redeems our time. Where I am today is a vital component of where I am going. Look at it as being the process of going from the promise to ultimately, the promotion. That is the real fulfillment God desires for us. He is God, the Author and Finisher. Continually live in the moment … trust Him and obey what He is showing you today!

John Bevere says it well. “Just because we don’t feel his presence in the prayer closet does not mean that He is denying us. Therefore, our joy is not based on how we feel. Rather, it is based on who He is and the privilege we have of being related to Him. So, we see past the lies of being denied and instead realize He is drawing us out … toward the deeper wells!”

I prefer to think of the DWE as God bringing us first into a state of contentment, but not complacency, so we can live fully engaged in the present. Consider the lives of both Joseph and David. Such patience!

Prepare to go forth all you tent dwellers, move out now since you’ve drank deeply of those cool refreshing waters from your heart. Live in the moment. Accept your divine orders. Conquer your promised land!>>>>> …… merlin

I am continually amazed at how God provides such an abundance of truths from the wisdom writings and how they mesh or flow into my circumstances today. Perhaps I’m encouraged to move ahead in confidence, or to wait patiently though seldom with adequate understanding. Perhaps I’m merely awaiting  confirmation, but all too often it seems, the experience requires a very painful but oh so necessary, total reworking of me and everything I hold dear, or increasingly, NOT dear enough!  

I am increasingly aware I have either developed, been given, or am acquiring  a dream/desire to communicate by writing. Isn’t that just totally absurd? Me write? Who would ever take time to read it? And what would I ever write about? I’m still waiting for several articulate readers to step forth with a heavy dose of a reality check!

In my defense though, coaching protocols today encourage us to discover or uncover our dreams/desires and this leads us frequently back into our earlier days, maybe even back to grade school, to a time when circumstances overruled  dreams and desires. Perhaps your dreams and desires were restrained, repressed, discouraged, misunderstood, or for sure at least, not practical in your life situation then or later for whatever reason. And only now sadly, are you and I finally having the luxury of discovering how the God given desires of our hearts are so intricately interwoven with our natural skills and abilities even though as I did my entire life, lied to myself while pursuing all my other adventures while in my workaholic stupor. Hopefully, you were not as obsessed as I!    

You know this writing all began quite innocently as Loretta had encouraged me to write throughout our marriage but I seldom obliged. I literally had nothing to write about. No creativity was present. Then our two younger sons several years ago threw in their support and this past November, our eldest set me up with a blog that was all new to me. But I did write, or tried at least. Basically, I just looked out the windows, admired the beauty, and started typing.

Some of you remember those first posts. Actually, the first post comes up when you google merlinsmustache.com as “Greetings.” As I recall, Ben was getting ready to leave when he said “you need to quick write something introductory” so he could show me the process before he left. Now I am surprised the post is as coherent as it is considering the time frame of its birth.  

The very thought I would someday enjoy spending hours communicating through a keyboard when I never even took a typing class, was a huge stretch … but  now I even have a future list of subjects I am looking forward to developing when time permits.  

All I can say at this moment on Friday afternoon at 4:59 PM, is this. I find it simply amazing how God has worked in us as Loretta and I are two very imperfect vessels,  especially I. True, we had been considering God’s will or suggestions for our retirement for years. Howbeit now, the focus has evolved into a  consuming passion for us since the 9/18/18 accident. We are not persons of great faith or even significant prayer warriors. But being sidelined on the bench has provided me time for considerable reading, listening, and prayer coupled with an intense seeking to know and experience God as I have never done prior, and it has been in a few words, “simply marvelous.”

Never in my life have I been as happy, fulfilled, and filled with expectations when I really have no concrete basis for such. It certainly is not because I have any great predictions for my liking to write or because I’m getting any accolades from anyone anywhere!

Recently I was listening to an evangelist relate his wilderness experience of God earlier leading him into significant kingdom building activities progressing toward the dream he had heard from God years earlier, but then all the events in this couple’s life were disrupted for several years. And during their wilderness times of silence, solitude and simplicity, he heard God say “I just wanted to know if you were really in love with me, or merely with the dream of what I could do for you.” And that stopped me dead in my tracks as I was working in the lab at the time when I heard it. I hit the 30 second rewind button on audible twice to hear it again. And again. Yes, those 25 words suddenly turned the lights on for me spiritually. Am I actually so in love with Jesus, seeking His righteousness, His holiness, His presence, regardless of the task, OR was I only in love with the dream of what He could do for me. May I explain. 

Only of late do I realize how I have been so deceived in my past quests for spiritual accomplishment. Yes, decades ago I was likely unknowingly the model Pharisee at my church. Eventually I “matured,” and saw the error of my ways and actually went underground by just staying off the platform choosing instead to engage others in their stories of their faith walks and be an encouragement as a faith facilitator. During my Pharisee stint,  I once focused my “merlin’s project attention” on several men outside the church without faith and in visible need of a relationship with Jesus.

There are several key words here: “merlin’s project” and “visible.” The first, project, is what addictive people, such as myself do when they hide behind rather than face their separation from God and remain synthetic in their relationships. Visible in the fact it was readily apparent these men needed Jesus  but what was not visible to me, though it was very visible to Loretta, was the extent to which I personally needed healing and restoration before I could speak truth into these men’s lives. “Merlin’s projects” continually during our marriage consumed and diverted my energy and attention away from my wife and family, even and especially, my spiritual growth, illustrating so well the hypocrisy of these hidden addictions that we often unknowingly tolerate in our relationships, families, churches and communities.

Addictions in addition to those we normally consider, are also found in such as food, travel, entertainment, continual self-centered thoughts, shopping, media, clothes, image, financial security, name brands, children’s activities, sports, software, pets, landscaping, gardens, books, google, tools, music, attitudes, conversation, busyness, intellectualism, creativity, hobbies, politics, minimalism, demonic, spiritualism, reading, games, and especially, physical health and well being, etc.

Understand we human beings are very capable of making virtually anything “addictive” if we inadvertently shift our essential purpose from being “human beings” reflecting God’s-best-possible-version-of-us; to merely becoming “human doings,” reflecting our consumptive addictive busyness and-less-than-desirable-version-of-ourselves.

 Is it possible we’ve been trying too hard to facilitate healing for others as I did with those two men, when actually we desperately need first to receive healing from our “hidden” addictions ourselves? And then when we do recognize our hypocrisy, rather than immediately seeking forgiveness, restoration, and empowerment as we ought, we are embarrassed and understandably so… so we sit , soak, and sour in the safety of our pew, until we just can’t handle all the hypocrisy any longer, so we split. I keep wondering what effect these “hidden addictions” or “displaced affections” are having in our congregations today.  Perhaps this explains why some today are seemingly so easily withdrawing their church support and attendance. 

Or consider addiction’s effect from a different angle. You have heard it said that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. That is not from the Sermon on the Mount either! I believe every area of life can be weakened by one area of addiction.  Mahatma Gandhi once wrote, “Man cannot do right in one department of life while he is occupied in doing wrong in another department. Life is one indivisible whole.” And we all know only the blood of Jesus and His righteousness can make our lives “one indivisible whole” and once and for all, stop all of this daily trivial pursuit nonsense full of excuses addictions! 

I shared all of this to simply say this. I am only now learning to dream real dreams. I have had many dreams over the years but I never wrote them down. Dreams not written down and reviewed frequently are merely of-no- effect-wishes! Likely most of these wishes were quite selfish and self serving rather than “restorative and healing” to both  myself and others in our quest to become the-best-versions-of-ourselves/themselves.

The question now for me this Friday evening on June 14, 2019 is “Do I trust God with my desire to communicate to whomever wherever however with whatever?” Or is my desire, enjoyment and dream to write, merely another one of “merlin’s misdirected self-centered addictive projects” in my feeble attempt at spiritual discovery, hopefully fulfillment? Time will tell. It usually (or always) does.

How about you? Is God tweaking your heart strings yet about anything possibly addictive for you? Are you on the path presently experiencing “restoration and healing,” not only for yourself, but also with the others in your life from over the years, where now, for whatever reason, it seems relationships may have weakened, perhaps even  “soured?” And if so, for very little fault of your own, but you know now without a doubt, that you solely have the power and even quite possibly, the responsibility to initiate the process to make both yourself and “all of them” the best-possible-version-of-themselves now, and hopefully, even guide them into eternity.  Can you trust God on this? The time is now. Become a faith facilitator. Many are watching you! Your destiny and your legacy lie in the balance.

Everything in life begins with a thought, leading to conversation, leading to relationship, leading to dreams and desires, leading to choices and decisions, leading to destiny and legacy, leading to joy or misery ….

Listening, asking questions and offering accountability is what I do.

Destination discovery, goal setting and implementing is what you do.

Celebrating victories is what we do.

Blessings as you go forth now resisting addictions by continually facilitating restoration and healing>>>>   merlin