Merry Christmas

Yesterday it was the first day of winter and here where I live in Texas, it hit 85 degrees. OK, so we are off to a warm start to this winter season, but it has already  dropped down to a high of about 60 today, so we are heading in the right direction. My Christmas morning scene will not look like this.

Not exactly a White Christmas this year, but this season has never been about the weather, it has been about Christ.


I am looking forward to a quiet and long Christmas weekend, starting tomorrow, with my wife. We will send a lot of time together alone (I like that a lot) and a lot of time with our Lord (I like that a lot as well). We will not be visiting family this year, I like to have a Christmas once in a while in my own home, not on the road visiting. Christmas to me is a state of mind not a physical location (unless that location was to be in the eternal physical presence of God. Which it will one day, but not yet it seems), so I am cool with a quiet Christmas in which I can really seek out the Lord and thank Him for what this season means.


I pray that wherever you are, and whatever you are doing this Christmas, your thoughts turn often to Christ, the true reason for the season.


Merry Christmas to all.

The Glory of God

I stayed up late last night to watch the lunar eclipse, knowing I would pay for it this morning when I had to get up for work. I figured watching a lunar eclipse on the winter solstice, which hasn't happened since 1638 (I missed that one) and will not happen until 2094 (will probably miss that one too, or since I will be around 138, probably will have even more trouble than staying up than tonight), it was worth the effort and the pain. Seeing something that hasn't happened in close to 400 years is something to see, and to write  about. Just to walk outside and see the moon directly overhead, like the noonday sun, was a treat worth staying up for. And it got better from there.

I really wanted to experience the glory of God in the wee hours of the morn, watching what I could see of how He wheels the heavens about from our vantage point on earth, bringing about moments of celestial harmony such as this. These moments are rare indeed in our rather puny and finite lives. These moments cannot be created by us, but only by the Creator for us.

It made me think of the of the divine harmony one can experience for eternity by accepting Jesus as the only way to your salvation. Of being able to experience incredible moments of harmony eternally, continually and absolutely.

A moment like this really highlights the incredible grace He extends to us daily, once we are His.

A New Direction?

I know it has been a while since I blogged and may be quite a while longer before I do it again. You may have noticed I changed the name of the blog and the link to it. You may not have noticed since I am not sure I am not going to mess up all the links it has. It may take me some time to sort that all out, but I have always plunged first and thought about it afterwards as I have worked changes to this blog.
I am looking to make this more of a passage through the grace I have been provided by Christ through my trust in Him, as I walk in faith with Him. We shall see how it goes and if anyone actually can read this going forward. As a social mediot, I do not always get the techie stuff quite right.

Happy touring!

Really?

Just finished filling out an on line survey. No big deal. This one was easy to get through and took the amount of time advertised.

What threw me was one of the questions:

I am:

___Male

___Female

Other:

I mean, Other had a whole box to fill out; Male and Female just had a button to check.

Other.

Really?

Time Traveler

Here’s one for you to ponder. A short clip detailing what is claimed to possibly be evidence of a time traveler caught in camera frame during the filming of a 1928 Charlie Chaplin movie, The Circus.

OK. So this is the latest evidence we have of the possibility of time travel: an old woman (or someone dressed like an old woman) with thick ankles and skinny shoes, talking into a cell phone in the middle of a 1928 Charlie Chaplin movie. Go with that explanation if it works for you. Or come up with your own and post a comment. Maybe she is talking to her dear diary, yelling at an imaginary friend. I don't know. I am not losing any sleep over this, either way it plays.

But OK. So who says the future doesn’t make sense? We have seen it, and it is a silent movie.

What Did He/Does He Look Like?

To you that is.

What mental picture do you have of Jesus? What did He look like when they took Him off the cross, what does He look like now, while we await His glorious return? These questions came up in the study of Revelation in my seminary class today. The question came up as we studied the following verse (emphasis is mine):

And I saw between the throne (with the four living creatures) and the elders a Lamb standing, as if slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent out into all the earth.
Revelation 5:6 (New American Standard Bible)

The question is that Christ stands in heaven, the Lamb, as if slain. Does He bear the marks of His crucifixion, will He for eternity, not as a remonstrance to us, but as a reminder of His love? Clearly, the marks of crucifixion were evident after the resurrection, before He ascended into heaven:

So the other disciples were saying to him, "We have seen the Lord!" But he said to them, "Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe." After eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, "Peace be with you." Then He said to Thomas, "Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing."
John 20:25-27 (New American Standard Bible)

Look at what some of the Old Testament prophecy had to say about His death:

Just as there were many who were appalled at him — his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness
Isaiah 52:14 (New International Version)
He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
Isaiah 53:7 (New International Version)

I do not even have to go into the crucifixion accounts of the Gospels, easy enough to find and read, for you to get a sense that it was a broken body taken down off the cross, and I believe that when we meet Jesus we will see the marks He bore in love and continues to do so even in His glory.

It is interesting that there is no physical description of Jesus in the bible, and I think not for good reason. while we can surmise some from where and when He walked the earth as a man, we are left to let our mind's eye capture for us what Jesus looks like. I think that allows us to approach Him on terms we are comfortable with, at least until He comes back in glory and removes all doubt.

What did He/does He look like to you? I hope whatever that image is, it is the picture of your Savior.

The Never Ending Post - Part IV

So, what is next? I am running out of steam on my social media activity, limping along on blogging. Not sure what to do next.

Maybe I should take up reading, again. I did a lot more of it before I started seminary, which I find ironic. School is making me cut back on my reading.

I need a big fat book to read. Feeling the heft of a massive tome (like Shelby Foote's tripartite on the Civil War). Something I can get into, grind through. Maybe try to wade through Charnock's The Existence and Attributes of God again, a little more intently this time. Or the seven Jules Verne novels in one edition I picked up a couple of years ago.

Maybe not. It may not be the time to run over covered, or semi-covered ground right now. I have a pretty big stack of unread books, and I got through a couple pieces of the Verne collection, and I do not need to take on a reread at this point. It would need to be something I have not cracked open yet (and that would leave out the Foote trilogy as well). Although the one book I will always read, no matter how many times I go over the same part, is the Bible. To me, there is no better indication of the divine inspiration of the Bible, that it is the word of God written into our hearts, than the fact that I never tire of reading it. Never tire of seeking Jesus in it.

I need a sense of accomplishment I cannot get from reading off a screen. I have to admit, there is something satisfying in finishing a big book that you do not get at reading a long blog post.

So I will cut this one off.

Now.

The Final Check In

I completed my review of foursquare and Gowalla and reached a decision yesterday. I shut both accounts down. Yes, there was a brief moment when badges (21), stamps (117), mayorships (16) and pins (17) just flew off in all directions, not to be seen on my accounts ever again. I looked these over for about 40 days (a good amount of time for testing and trial) and decided I did not want to go further with either. Both had their merits in my eyes, and both their drawbacks. Foursquare was more socially oriented, but Gowalla more travel oriented. Gowalla had nicer looking pins and stamps than the badges of foursquare, but foursquare seemed way more interactive and goal oriented. But in the end, I came down to this:

• Not many people care where I am at a given moment
• Fewer care to be reminded of it
• I do not care all that much where most people are at a given moment
• If I cannot remember where I have been, I would rather not be reminded that I had forgotten

So, out the door both went yesterday. I deleted them one after the other and I cannot remember which one went first (which sort of underscores the 4th bullet above). It was fun to try them out and collect badges for a while, but one thing became painfully clear, at least in my daily living. It becomes a little depressing to keep checking into the same places. I do not need a reminder of the banality of my life from www.e-rut.com on a daily basis. I mean, other than the occassional foray to try a new restaurant or take a trip, we are creatures of habit. And I am getting too old for the hamster wheel.

I did learn some stuff:

• The GPS-based services on my Droid eat battery like I suck down my wife's baked ziti. Only with less sauce splattering around.
• The location services that are cell phone based only are not always that reliable. There were times when I was standing in front of a place and was told I was 2.2 kilometers away.
• I live not all that far from DFW airport. They must be bouncing radio signals around in the area to keep them away from the planes because I always got some weird results when I was close.
• I can take a flight from Newark to Dallas, log on to GoGo Inflight and check in to O'Hare airport in route and earn a Swarm badge on foursquare. Been there, and did that.

I did try some new stuff as a result of seeing things on foursquare (which is why they seemed way more interactive and goal oriented):

• Waze
• RunKeeper
• Health Month
• GoGo Inflight

Regrets? I've had a few, but then again, too few to mention.

And none at all on trying out or turning this stuff off.

I guess I'll wait for the next thing to come along.

Technorati Tags: Foursquare, Gowalla, Waze, RunKeeper, GoGo Inflight, Health Month

The Beginning of the End

Today in my seminary class we move on from Daniel into Revelation, where will be for the remainder of the semester. I cannot wait to dig into this part of the study. I have always wanted to spend time in the Book of Revelation, but have never done a detailed study. This one, led by Dr. Pentecost, will be from the pre-millennial, pre-tribulation school of thought. Which is fine, as that is what I hold to personally, I would probably not be studying where I am if I wasn't of that frame of mind.

As I go through the reading of this section, as I hear the events laid out in the bible and compare them to what is going on on the world, I see things developing in a way that one can see Revelation playing out in the future. I am not saying today nor tomorrow as no one knows the day except our Father in heaven, if I may paraphrase Matthew 24:36 a bit.

I can imagine how John struggled to get his mind around this divine revelation, how he must have struggled to put it on paper. (And remember, he had to do it in Greek with all those funny squiggles. You can tell I am not taking languages in school). What did he see, how did he describe it as he did? I am sure without divine inspiration he would be completely lost understanding what it is that was revealed to him. I wonder if he saw it in his mind like we see on a TV or computer (maybe a little 3D or HD action?), if he saw it as it will happen or in images his mind could grasp from the world around him.

That we are heading towards the end of days, I have no doubt. I mean, we are a day closer each day. Will it happen in my lifetime, or the lifetime of anyone alive on the earth today? Who knows. But it is possible that this is more likely true today than it was yesterday, and will be more so tomorrow. All I know is that it will happen when God wills it, and I will be in it those days if that is His will for me.

I do not know what to expect, but I know what to do. Follow hard after the Lord as I walk down The Narrow Road.

Quiet Time

I love my quiet time with the Lord, early in the morning, before the sun is fully up, before everything else is stirring.

I will adjust the time I get up to spend time with the Lord, the earlier I have to be someplace, the earlier I get up for quiet time. I must say, that has led to some very early quiet times over the years.

It is ingrained in my day, the few times when I miss my quiet time, I do feel out of sorts for the rest of the day. I need that daily time of prayer, reflection, reading of the word, meditation, and just having a conversation with God, just the two of us. I love this pisture I took at the Grand Canyon a few years ago at dawn, it is a good mind picutre for me to focus on when I think of quiet time, standing here at a quiet time, taking in the stunning beauty of the Lord's creation.

I feel that if I am going to hear that soft, still voice leading me, coaching me, prompting me toward action (or in my case, more probably inaction on a particular item), it is going to be during these early quiet times of the day.

The only regret I have about my quiet times is that I always feel like I should have let them last just a little bit longer.

Time Moves

At seemingly differing speeds, all at the same instant.

Here it is, the 1st of October, the year 2010 is rapidly winding down, the Christmas season will be upon us before we realize it (Is someone keeping track of how many shopping days are left? It would not do to lose track of the true reason for the season after all). We will celebrate the birth of our Lord (the real season reason in case you missed the sarcasm), and move into a new year. Time moving at what seems to be ever increasing pace as I get older.

Here it is, the end of another work week. There has been vacation time, and travel and return to house, hearth and cubicle. A good week, but one that has seemed to go on longer than the 4+ days that have transpired.

Time at differing speeds at the same instant. As I ponder this, I think it is my faith walk that allows me to cope with the changing speeds of my life. It is walking with Christ that allows me to know that whatever pace life takes, I am moving at the right speed, for He is with me and I feel Him by my side. My faithfulness in Him doesn't change His attitude to me, He loves me, no matter what. But it allows me to be calm in Him but of that faithfulness.

Time moves as He wills it, and I hope to keep up the pace He wants me to.

Race Time Is Nearly Here

Saturday is a major event in my town’s social calendar. The Oktoberfest Wiener Dog Race. I went a few years ago and there were close to a 100 dogs racing, and I understand the event gets bigger by the year. Not sure if any ringers come in from wither coast. It is a lot of fun to watch. I mean, what can be funnier than racing wiener dogs against each other? Rumor on the street (or in the run) is that there is still time to enter a speedy wiener.

I have been searching for something with which to break a recent blog fast.

This is it.

In the Presence of the Lord

Had a great drive into work this morning, watching the sun rise as I headed down I-635E towards Dallas. A great sunrise, wish I could have taken a picture, but that is not advisable when you are doing 60 (in the slow lane) down the highway in DFW.

I wish I could have taken a picture because it was a good representation of what I felt this morning; I felt the presence of the Lord in my life. Nothing dramatic (no thunder or trumpet) but the soft assurance that He is in my life and He is sovereign.

It was a great feeling to have, I hope it stays with me all day as I move about my routine on a Friday.

It is so good to know that He is always present, but even better when you feel Him close by. My day has a smile on it because He chose to show me that He cares for me deeply today.

I don’t know why it was today, but I am immensely grateful that it was.

Hanging In

It is a great feeling when you accomplish what it is you set out to do. We love goals, and we love to reach them even more. (I always try to set my expectations low enough that meeting them will be easy).

I am finding that a good deal of accomplishing what you set out to do requires one key ingredient: hanging in there to get the job done.

Nothing breeds success like perseverance.

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith

2 Timothy 4:7 (New American Standard Bible)

May you fight the good fight today and accomplish what you set out to do.

I do not know why, I just feel I had to say this today.

Hang in there!

Impact

Speaking to a friend yesterday, he told me he had reflected on what I had said in a recent blog post and as a result, needed to talk to some people about some stuff.

Oops.

While those of us who blog are looking to share thoughts and ideas, and are hopeful that they make an impact with someone; I always find it a bit daunting when someone actually tells me that something I wrote actually has done that. It makes you stop and reflect on what it is you are doing with this whole blogging thing, makes you reflect on whether your words are making things better, and not worse.

I take comfort from the fact that I seek to follow Christ as I live my life, I seek to make Him the standard by which I am measured (and I do fall short, but only those times when I am measured against Him). It is the best barometer for measuring how it is I am impacting the world around me, the standard of Jesus; His teachings, His life, His commands to us on how to live our lives.

The impact, the effect I have on others will never be the wrong one if I am following hard after Him, seeking out the His will. I can be assured of doing as He wills, if I am faithful to Him alone in the pursuit of my life and how I interact with others. I have no idea in this particular instance of what I might have impacted, what course of action, what path I have set someone down. I trust that it is the path He would want walked, the footsteps He would have fall in the time and place He chooses to hear them.

Nor can I know what path it is that I might now walk on as a result of how I think about what I am writing now.

But this I do know.

I cannot go wrong if I stay on The Narrow Road.

Technorati Tags: Jesus, God, faith, impact

Tryouts Continuing

I have now been using both foursquare and Gowalla for a little over a week and I must say, I am torn between the two. Both of them have features I like, both of them would benefit from some aspect of the other. I guess as of now I am a Gosquare fan.

Gowalla has more of a travel based theme, with it's passport type stamps, region based pins and the trips component that allows you to design or follow trips as you collect stamps in your passport. However, that clearly will show up as one starts to travel out of town, something I have not done yet and something I do not do as a regular part of my employment or leisure time activity.

foursquare has more of a social theme to it, it seems the interaction with others is more of a driver to it than the travel aspect of Gowalla. The badges are not as pretty to look at as the stamps and pins of Gowalla, but there seems to be more of an aspect of measuring yourself against others as opposed to your self. Just one check of the leader board will give you that feel.

I ran across this blog entry on EverythingEverywhere recently that really goes into some detail and I found it on the mark and a realistic assessment from someone who has tried it more than I. You can read this to get a real appreciation of the differences between the two.

As a result, I also stumbled across check.in, a way of checking into both services simultaneously, which makes it a little easier to manage both and continue the tryouts. Easier, that is, when it works and actually locates the spot I am checking into.

The bottom line is that the tryouts continue for several reasons. Indecision (likely), desire to be fair to the process I have established and allow more time to fully vet my experiences with the two (possibly). Check.in is allowing that to be a little easier.

Or maybe I just like collecting stamps and pins and badges (most likely).

Technorati Tags: foursquare, Gowalla, social media, Check.in, EverythingEverywhere

The Passion of Life

Having spent a good chunk of last week in and around the annual convention of CareNet and having participated in the first National Care For Life Forum that we co-hosted with them on Friday, I was impressed most of all with one thing about the people I got a chance to meet and talk with.

Passion.

They all had a passion for the ministry they were doing, promoting and defending the sanctity of life. They had a passion for the Lord, knowing in their hearts that true progress in sanctity of life issues and initiatives would only come through faith and trust in Jesus Christ and His intervening grace to change minds and move the mountains that are in the way.

These are people on the front lines of the sanctity of life battle daily, who bear a large part of the brunt of criticism, ridicule and attack by those who say they are for choice, but are really for their choice, and no other. These are loving, caring people, who choose not to judge, but to love on and offer alternatives to the abortion juggernaut they face, one fueled by media support, government support and overwhelming financial support.

They have passion, but they have peace as well. The peace of mind that comes from knowing you are near to and working on something that is dear to the heart of God. If they have trouble sleeping at night, it is because they are anxious to get up the next day and do more, or they concerned they did not do enough on the day that just ended.But it is not the torment of knowing that they are doing something wrong, it is the drive of wanting to do more right.

They have passion, but they are not wild eyed religious fanatics. They are intelligent, thoughtful, concerned and deeply caring people.

If the ministry I work in is doing just some small amount in encouraging, exhorting or edifying them, I am so grateful for the opportunity we were given to do so; it was a privilege from the Lord. I can only pray the good discussion and ideas that circulated at the Care For Life Forum will turn into actionable plans and goals.

To all I met last week, and to those I didn't; thank you for what you are doing.

Technorati Tags: CareNet, EvanTell, sanctity of life, Jesus, God, Lord

Sanctity of Life

I am going to enjoy today. As part of the ministry I work with, we are going to be spending the better part of the day meeting with people who are heavily engaged in the sanctity of life arena. I call it an arena because it is a better for those who hold to a Christian worldview. Life is sacred because life is created by God. Humanity was made in His image, and each individual life begins at the moment God conceives of it and allows it to happen. Life is a spark from the finger of God.

It will be interesting today what new thoughts and perspectives come out of the day of conversation and brain storming. I am interested to see how we can make an evangelistic approach become an even more important facet of the issue. Know Christ, trust Christ and I think you will place more value on all life as Jesus did. To share Jesus is to share life.

There are people who have dedicated their whole life to working on various parts of this issue. I hope to meet some of them today, to be encouraged and edified by their wisdom and knowledge, their passion and drive. To learn better how to do what they do daily.

I hope I come back with a lot of good thoughts I can share in the future.

I hope to come out of the day a better person than when I went in.

Living Water

With all the weather we have had here the past two days, I have driven quite a bit in heavy downpours and flooded roads. Fortunately, I did not experience any of the tornado activity that touched down around the Dallas area yesterday evening, just the driving rain and flooding of the morning. I thought of this verse after I got home yesterday:

Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water."
John 4:10 (New American Standard Bible)

Living water. Strong, moving, irresistible. It can often be turbulent, it is always powerful.

Living water. We can be swept up and along in it.

Living water. Offered freely by Jesus to all of us who thirst so much for it.

This is not the soothing sound I mentioned a few days ago of gently moving water. This is strong, firm movement; a force to change everything in the path it is taking. I am thankful today that after yesterday I will never think of this verse and others mentioning living water quite the same again. I will think of the power, the force, the life changing nature of the living water he offered. Of the living water I have accepted from His loving hand.

Living water. Let it flow through your life.

Technorati Tags: Jesus, God, living water

Try Outs (foursquare vs. Gowalla)

The past few days I have begun experimenting with my next avenue of social media. Location based social media. I understand I am way behind the curve here, but gimme a break. I'm a boomer and I am trying. The two I have chosen to play with are foursquare and Gowalla. I have been on foursquare a few days longer so I am more familiar, but after experiencing a bout of overcapacity issues this evening (can you say fail whale?), I decided to test in tandem.

So far, Gowalla seems to have the better graphics; Gowalla artwork on the pins and stamps is much better than the badges of foursquare. But foursquare just has badges (at least I think that is all); Gowalla has pins and stamps and items (which can be swapped some how). Gowalla seems a bit more confusing, but that could be my basic unfamiliarity with Gowalla as of yet.

Time will tell. I cannot see myself staying on both for very long, one has to win out over the other. I do not know which way it will go, but I will try to make it a long enough tryout to make a reasoned determination.

Any thoughts? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

Technorati Tags: foursquare, Gowalla, social media

Settle for Less

It occurred to me recently that we are quick to accept society's standards for what is acceptable to watch, listen to or read. Well, maybe not quick, but we are easily influenced and often do not even realize it. The message of our culture is so pervasive, so invasive, bombarding us during almost all of our waking hours, we become unaware that it is happening. Never immune to it, but clearly unaware.

I think that is why quite time before the Lord is so crucial, why daily reading of the Word is so necessary. Because without it, we show we are so ready to settle for less. Ready to settle for man-made values and not God-ordained ones. To settle for the less challenging (and following Jesus is a challenge to a sinner) for the more comfortable (living as a sinful being in a fallen world is clearly a situation that would put us in a false, and temporary, peace of mind).

Settle for less. The fleeting, the temporary, the here and now. Ignoring the better part, the eternal, the lasting, the forever. It is offered freely, it is offered as a gift. It is offered to you and I. Have you accepted it? Do you grasp it in your hand? If so, are you trying to make sure you do not settle for less while you are waiting for more than you can ever imagine?

I think I need to try harder not to settle for less in my life. I think I have been listening more closely to the world lately, and as a result have deafened myself to the soft sure voice that will point me to the everlasting joy that awaits me.

I need to look more closely at my path down The Narrow Road.

Soothing Sound

I sit in my backyard listening to the sound of the spa in the pool, a little waterfall sending off it's water-music.

What is it about the sound of gently moving water that we find so soothing? True, the sound I listen to now is artificially made, not the natural course of water flow. But it soothes nonetheless.

There must be something of the voice of the divine Creator in a gentle moving body of water, something that calls us to listen. Something that quiets us, calms our heart, rests our soul.

Or at least it does mine.

Do yourself a big favor today before the Sun goes down.

Listen intently to some gently moving water.

Life Marches On

After a most welcome period of several days of rain, after weeks of 100+ weather, it has been sunny again for a couple of days and is in the 60's this morning. I am out back enjoying our new patio, looking at what all has been going on in the backyard. (And mobile blogging, all this over my cellphone). This is what I saw, which was not there a few days ago. Mushrooms, or toadstools, whatever (not really sure what is the difference, if you know, please let me know), growing up in a few days of sunshine. Not sure if they are magic mushrooms, I'll have to watch and see if our 14 year old dog starts chasing squirrels again.

Amazing growth, life marches on. It will not be stopped by the likes of man, because it is at the behest of our Creator.

The Rut

Have you ever felt like you were in a rut? You probably have. I feel that way from time to time, stuck in a mental rut, cycling through the same thoughts, feelings and emotions. Running them in my mind, picturing them, chewing on them. I think about the poem in my head that I wrote about yesterday, about it recessing back into my mind. Maybe it was sucked into the vortex of the spin cycle of the mental rut I am describing here. I guess that is possible.

And the frustrating thing is that while my mind is in this seemingly endless spin cycle; it also seems to be trying to figure out how to break free. I know there are new ideas that need to come out; breakthroughs in thought. (At least they are breakthroughs for me. You may hear them and say, that's it?)

I guess that is what keeps my mind from giving in to the vortex and giving up. New thoughts, new directions, progress. I want to believe, I have to believe that the greatest progress comes out of the spinning churn of recycled thoughts, because it takes that little extra mental push to hatch the new ideas and have them establish their own path of flight.

So I can be encouraged. I can treat the spin cycle as a rut, or choose to think of it as the crucible in which new ideas will be born and set free. I can think of the spin cycle as a trap, a mental gravity trap of some sort; or I can treat it as the launching point of the next series of steps I take in a new direction of progress.

I think this is where my faith comes in. I cannot be stuck in a rut with Christ by my side, for He is moving me ever forward towards Him. The times I feel in a rut is probably due to loss of focus on Him. If I take my eyes off of Him, I lose my balance and enter the spin cycle.

That being said, I need wait for His timing. I can open my eyes to the world and see it spinning around and around. Or I can close my eyes in prayer and see Him.

There is no rut if I choose correctly. That is my hope each day.

Technorati Tags: Jesus, God, thoughts, ideas

Recession

To put your minds at ease, this is not a post about the economy. I am talking about the recession of thoughts back into the deep recesses of my mind. (Where else would things recess into but recesses?)

I am speaking of a poem that was lingering about in my mind just not ready to come out, no, just not yet. I had mentioned not long ago that I felt it coming on.

And now it is gone. Into hiding. It lays buried deep in my mind if it exists at all anymore. If it ever existed in the first place.

For those of you who would think it strange that I would even write something I would try to pass off as a poem. I have done it before. Here. Here. And here. Not to mention here and here. I think there is one other somewhere else, I just cannot find it right now. Wait a minute, here it is, I found it.

Not very good, but there they are. What troubles me is not the loss of the poem (OK, a little), but the fact that I can lose a grasp on a thought, one I was sure was there but now is lost. (For once I saw, but now I am blind? Does not make a good hymn lyric.)

It is gone for now. So be it. I wonder if it will come back, but if it does, will I even recognize as the thoughts I had from before? Or will it all seem so new to me? I guess I have to be glad my faith is not like the rest of my thought process. It is there and is not going anywhere.

It occurs to me that the reason for that is simple: my thought process is man-made. My faith was wrought by God, and woven into my very fabric. The man-made is fleeting, temporal, passing. The God wrought is eternal, spiritual, lasting. The two are not comparable, because God is incomparable. The reason for it is not understandable because a divine being is incomprehensible to a finite mind. We cannot understand Him fully, maybe we are just better off writing poems about Him instead. In addition to praying to Him and worshiping Him that is.

I may just have to write a poem about all that one day.

Moving Forward Or Falling Back

This past weekend I experimented with mobile blogging, just two quick posts. I must admit, it leaves a lot to be desired, but I guess it may have some applicability to my blog if I am overly mobile and need to blog on the run, in which case it is probably good that the blog posts have to be short. In my condition, I would not be able to run all that far before the process of breathing would take up so much of my attention and strength to make the possibility of continued blogging a far fetched concept.

But I thought I would try it (jury is out, but the early reviews are not enthusiastic. Which is ironic since I like short blog posts. But I guess maybe not that short). At least the capability is enabled and available to me. And isn't that important today, to have things available to us, whether we want them or not; whether we use them or not. It seems that's when we get most agitated, when we lose access to something available, whether we really need it or not. We are beyond wanting things we need, beyond wanting things we want; we are at the point of wanting things we want to want.

As I reflect on this, it seems like I have to move forward or I begin to lose precious ground, at least as far as the world is concerned (at least as far as the world is concerned when it isn't concerned about wanting the things it wants to want).

Progress, per se, is not bad. Progress for the wrong reason is. If I can use this to communicate better on this blog, so much the better. If it is just another bell and whistle available to my whim and fancy, it is not all that good. Not at all. I do not like change for change's sake (no more than I like want for the sake of wanting to want).

So where do I look for progress first and foremost? In my faith:

For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.
Philippians 1:6 (New American Standard Bible)

If He stops my forward progress, I have big problems. Because His is progress for the good, not change for change's sake. So it is change that I want, and more importantly, change that I need.

Technorati Tags: God, Jesus, progress, change, blogging

The Never Ending Post - Part III

Why do we try to go it alone when there are those who would help us along the way? We can seek out advice and sort out answers if we only stop and ask those who have our interests in mind and care enough to share their thoughts with us. Proverbs 24:6 states you need many counselors for victory.

Is it that you cannot win on your own? Or is it not victory unless you share it with others? Or are you just not smart enough to do it by yourself? Or is it we are to seek out others so that we learn also to seek out God? It seems the more I speak to others the less I realize I actually know myself. Some form of victory comes from being humble enough to know what you do not know.

But who to ask? I cannot believe victory comes from seeking counsel from those who are no wiser than myself. Maybe it comes form listening to people who do not always tell you what you want to hear, the wisdom of knowing in your heart what you hear is right even though you fight it in your head. (Here is an interesting sidebar. I went for my annual eye exam this past Saturday, convinced I needed a new prescription. I told the eye doctor that I felt my vision had changed quite a bit. When you have worn glasses as long as I have, you know when you have to move your head to get clear vision more than usual. The exam yielded no change of any significance, no change in prescription strength. I was puzzled, so was the eye doctor. Until I told him about the nose pad I had lost a month or so ago that I never got around to replacing. Seems the glasses were not sitting on my face quite the right way. Victory in an abundance of counselors. Duh.)

Maybe the victory comes over self, over realizing the limitations one has, which are often fogged from view by the mists of pride.

It is not enough to be smart enough to hear, you have to take that step to listen to what you heard.

Technorati Tags: The Never Ending Post, victory, counselors, wisdom

Time Will Come

When the Word of God is ignored and violated, divine judgment sooner or later is inevitable.
John F. Walvoord (from his commentary on Daniel)

I put this quote up on my Facebook status last week, and I have been thinking about it on and off ever since. I am reading this commentary as part of my seminary class, but for some reason, this sentence keeps coming around to the front of my brain, or at least to the front of my thinking.

Judgment. Inevitable judgment.

And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment
Hebrews 9:27(New American Standard Bible)

We are all going to die one day and face judgment as individuals, but until that day comes for each of us, will we face judgment as a nation? I look at how our society is moving forward, how far we seem, each day, to drift away from God's will and way. On the good days we seem to drift, the bad days we seem to run in the opposite direction from Him. As if running away works, it doesn't, just ask Jonah. If you do not think God punishes a nation, look at Israel in the Old Testament when the nation turned from God, look at the nations that attacked or invaded Israel. None fared well. Even when God used one nation to punish Israel, that nation didn't make out well in the long run. There is not a good long term record in defying God.

I always get concerned when people speak of America as if we are God's chosen. We are not, the nation of Israel is. And look how they got treated when they strayed from God. Not sure the average American wants to deal with that type of treatment. The more God gives a nation, the harder the judgment that seems to come against them. Something about to those who are given much, much is expected comes to mind.

There is an inevitability to God's pronouncements of judgment, after all, God is God and that is that.I wonder if we are all ready, as individuals and as a nation, for the judgment we will face. And face it we will, for the Bible says it is so.

The only way to face it is to trust Jesus as the only way to your salvation.

Then whatever comes will be tolerable in Him, and Him alone.



Technorati Tags: Jesus, God, judgment, America, Israel

Sunny Sunday afternoons are just about perfect. Who can doubt the existence of a Creator on a day like this? This is a day He has gloriously made!

Blogging at 160 characters at a time will be a challenge, I will have to limit use. More to come. Someday. Maybe. This has been a test - what do you think?

I think I may try mobile blogging again but it seems quite limiting an application. However, it might be nice to share while walking The Narrow Road.

Paths and Choices and Seasons

I read last night of a friend who decided to shut down her blog, maybe permanently. She started roughly the same time as I did, we have only met on the internet, I have enjoyed her blogging and hope she has enjoyed mine half as much.

And we are not alone in revisiting why we started to blog. I have watched as a couple of other blog friends have gone through a similar journey. Maybe there is such a thing as a two year itch in blogging.

It is interesting for me to think I went through quite a dry spell this summer and have only recently seemed to enjoy blogging on a more consistent basis. Many times I thought I was through but something kept the spark alive. So I labor on, with one less friend to read as I walk down my own road on this journey.

What keeps one doing this? I am not sure, but hopefully there is a purpose to the time spent doing this. Those of us who blog may never know the majority of people who read our posts; may never know who those posts touch, who they encourage, who they make stop and think. Every once on a while I get some affirmation, and it surprises me to think anyone is not only reading me, but actually taking in what I blog about occasionally. The tree is not always falling soundlessly in the forest.

I have been encouraged by others over the past two plus years to continue this; and I must say it feels right to continue. It feels right. There are days I am sure I will never think of another thing to blog, but it feels right.

So it comes down to paths and choices. It comes down to seasons of time and what we do during them. Hopefully we all make the right choices, walk the paths without stumbling, enjoy and adapt to the seasons in our lives. I know that as long as I follow hard after Jesus, the right choices will come to me. Because in my faith walk, that is what paths and choices come down to. Following hard after my faith in Christ, in Him alone for my eternal future.

I know my friend made the right choice to stop and at the right time, because her faith in Christ is strong, and she follows it.

So really there is not much to decide in paths and choices and seasons ahead of us if we follow His will.

And that is what I will seek to do each day as I go down The Narrow Road.

Be Real

Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles? And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.
Matthew 7:21-23 (New American Standard Bible)

While we are all standing around waiting and doing, I think there is one thing we all need to remember. Be real. You can fool others. You can fool yourself. You can fool some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time. But you can never, ever fool the Lord. He knows and always will. He knows and always did. You cannot fool someone who knew you before you were.

Authenticity is relationships is a key to a meaningful life here on earth. Authenticity in a relationship with Jesus is the key to an eternal life. As you are moving through this life, keeping a focus on the Lord and how he would have you live it is the key to a satisfying life. I know that when I am moving in His will (or at least toward His will), I am more content, more at peace with myself and my surroundings, more aware of how He is moving in my life and the lives of those I come into contact with.

If I am not doing real, He cannot give me all He wants, because I get in the way. I know I have to work hard to be real before the Lord.

Then being real with the rest becomes easy.

Technorati Tags: Jesus, God, real, authenticity

Off To A Good Start

Started class today, Daniel and Revelation, started with the Book of Daniel. We made it almost all the way through Daniel 1:1 before class ended. A great start.

Seriously, a great start because of all the background we did in Deuteronomy 28-30 (on the blessings of Israel, on the curses on Israel, on obedience and disobedience. You can guess which one gets you the blessings and which one doesn’t). A bit of time on Ezekiel 10 and 11 (the call for repentance of the nation and the departure of the Shekinah glory from the Temple) and a little side detour into 2 Chronicles 7:14 (for a biblical concept of repentance - humble yourself, pray, seek His face, turn from your wicked ways).

I am not feeling that great today, but those 50 minutes were quite the boost. If only the rest of schoolwork jazzed me up like the lectures do, I’d be working on my doctoral dissertation right about now (the second or third one, that is).

It is going to be fun in class, whatever the rest may hold!

School Redux

Today I start class again at Dallas Seminary. I say class because I am taking one class this semester, that is all I can handle while working full time and all the assorted other stuff that has attached itself to me like so many magnetic mines over the course of the past 30 years or so.

I am doing well in class, at least when I contract for a grade that can be classified as doing well. But I have been struggling as a student since I got here, being a student has not changed all that much for me since the 70’s. I really do not like it all that much.

This is a great institution, I just do not like student-hood. I view it as a negative form of childhood I guess. I will soldier through, I have a plan mapped out in my head that gets me to a desired end in a time frame and frame of mind I can live with. I am working the plan and getting it done.

I will enjoy this course, it is on Daniel and Revelation and is taught by Dwight Pentecost, a favorite for me here at DTS. I hope I will be educated enough over the semester to be in a position to share some of it with you.

Details to come.

Now it is off to school, where’s my lunch pail?

Be Ready and Doing

Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming. But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into. For this reason you also must be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will.
Matthew 24:42-44(New American Standard Bible)

Just because you do not know what the future holds, you should not wait your way into the future; you should do your way into the future. You wait for the Lord, but you do life. A work has been begun in you in Christ Jesus (Philippians 1:6), so God is clearly working on you, and in this life, you need to continue working for Him. You are waiting for Him, but you are not waiting for life. It is happening around you and there are people in your life (careful or you may trip over them) that so desperately need to hear the good news of Jesus Christ.

Scripture speaks of doing a servant's work (Matthew 25:14-30), of doing works of mercy and love in His name (Matthew 25:40). Scripture speaks of waiting for the return of Jesus.

Scripture speaks of waiting, but I do not see anywhere where it says to wait around doing nothing.


Technorati Tags: Jesus, God, waiting, doing, Gospel

Be Ready and Waiting

I have been thinking of the post I put up on Thursday last, of being ready for the Lord. Maybe I should expand that to be ready and waiting. For He calls us to wait (part of the maturing our faith that enables growth in our relationship to Him). I started thinking about this on the drive home Friday night, when while flipping through the dial (OK, pushing the arrow on the steering wheel) I came across Layla by Derek and the Dominos. If you do not know who Derek is, I cannot help you. There is only so much I can do.

This classic became a staple of FM rock stations in the 70's and my favorite part of the song was what I think of as the bird tweet at the very end. You had to wait for it (I said it was at the very end, did I not?). I mean, the song runs 7:04 and the tweet is at around 6:59. If the DJ started talking too soon, it was cut off by talk. So I get hit with that tweet at the end and start thinking about waiting for the good stuff.

And that is what Jesus calls us to do. Wait for the good stuff. A life here, one of sin and struggle, but it can be one that ends in salvation and safety in the arms of a loving God. But we have to wait for it. In faith. Maybe impatiently, maybe anxiously, maybe peacefully or joyfully. But waiting nonetheless. In the song above, the tweet only has meaning for me if I listen to the lengthy instrumental passage (about 4 minutes) that precedes it. It only has meaning if I wait for it. You cannot rush the good stuff.

We do not know the day we will face the Lord, but face Him we will. For now, each of us is waiting.

For those who wait in faith it will be glorious. For those who do not wait in faith, please, wait in faith.

It is going to be way better than the tweet. I would say trust me, but you need to trust in Him.

Technorati Tags: Jesus, God, faith, Derek and the Dominos, Layla