Peter’s Posts

It was a chilly morning he could see his breath as he strapped on his worn and dusty work apron.

He walked to the wood stove, opened the door door then walked to his scrap pile of wood and picked up piece after piece. With each piece he raised his eyebrow and squinted down on the wood, as if to ask a question, will you or won’t you? Then he would pause as if waiting for the wood to respond to an unasked question. With some he would shake his head slowly and sadly and toss the piece of wood into the fire.

With some pieces he would purse his lips in a slight smile, eye brows raised in approval and nod and toss the wood onto his work table.

It seemed the wood was choosing its own fate; the work bench or wood stove.

Once the fire was roaring and the room was warm, the carpenter went to work.

The workshop seemed to be cluttered with pieces and parts of many different kinds of furniture. It seemed to have no rhyme or reason. There were spindles and chair back slats, chair seats, cupboard doors and dressers, and drawers, rockers without chairs and chairs without rockers, cabinets, and parts of stairs wells, Newell posts, and every other odd piece and part to make any and every kind of furniture. It may have seemed cluttered and a jumble but each piece and part was known by the carpenter. Each piece and part had a purpose and a plan to be fit into a larger piece. As needed the pieces would form a group that had a purpose. A chair or table or night stand or a pulpit, a bench, a stool, a set of stairs, a bed, all types and all kinds and all styles.

The carpenter never seemed to be in a hurry to finish a part. He would slowly shape and mold each piece, cutting, filing, rasping, chiseling, sanding and re-sanding, until each piece was ready. Occasionally a piece of wood would split or crack. Again the carpenter would look intently at the wood, holding it up to the light with one eyebrow raised and a slight tilt of the head,

His face asked “will you or won’t you?”

Then the pause, with an unspoken answer to an unspoken question the piece was repaired or was tossed into the fire. If repairs were the course taken, The glue applied and the clamps would be pressed on with incredible force and pressure, and then left to dry, to seal and repair the damage and make the piece stronger than it was to begin with.

The others, resistant to repair, refusing the glue and clamps would be taken to the fire. The carpenters face was always sad when the piece was tossed into the flames.

The unspoken question was to the piece of wood, will you or won’t you submit to my plans for you? The carpenter had plans, good plans, plans to incorporate and use every piece of wood in his work shop. Every piece and part would be as smooth as it needed to be, and take the shape required of it. Some pieces were put into a hot bath and the bent and pressed into a shape they never realized they could be. Some would be joined, pressed and glued to others that were different species and different colors and made more beautiful by their combined assemblage. Not one piece was left unchanged. The carpenter had a purpose and a place and s plan for any and all who would entrust themselves to his hands.f

For those who would not submit? Sadly, it was the fire.

Jeremiah 29:11-14a

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back from captivity.

God has a perfect plan for each one of us. To prosper us. That word prosper doesn’t mean to make us rich, rather it means to allow us to live to our full potential, to fully and completely be used to the best of our ability. To serve in the sweet spot where our gifts and abilities fit the needs of those around us.

God is committed to finish what he has started in us. We don’t need to fear reprisals or condemnation from him. If we get sidetracked or sidelined by life he waits for us to rejoin his plan. He is the God of completion.

“I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Phil 1:3-6

The image of God tossing someone into the flames- it’s not the warm fuzzy view of the permissive God who winks at sin and rebellion. God wants our obedience. We do have a choice. Our choice is not “submit and obey or die in the flames of hell!!!!”, no! our choice is, will we receive God’s gift of salvation and forgiveness and submit ourselves to his plan? If we want his forgiveness but bristle at submitting to his plan then we will not receive either forgiveness nor his plan to finish his work on and in us. He cannot be our savior if he is not also our Lord.

If we will not allow him control of our life, then we have chosen to be separated from him forever and that will be hell for us.

God is a skilled craftsman. There is no carpentry imagery in scripture that I am aware of. However The Bible shows us in Jeremiah God’s working with Israel as a potter works on clay. Same idea, different medium.

Jeremiah 18. The potter and the clay.

“The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear[a] my words.” 3 So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. 4 And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.”

In the potters shed there is a wheel for forming, a shelf for drying and an oven for hardening. The process goes from one difficult thing to another but in the end the clay that was dirt beneath the potters feet becomes something useful and sometimes beautiful. It could be a bed pan for service or a vase for beautiful flowers or a cup or a bowl give drink to the thirsty or to feed the hungry. If the clay will surrender to the potter something good will become of it.

Jesus came to save us, not condemn us. We have to choose though.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.” Jn 3:16-21

If the clay will surrender to potter’s hands, something good will come of it. If the wood will surrender to the carpenter, something good will come of it. If I will surrender to the God of creation and of salvation, something good will come of it. And what of you my reader? What will you choose today? Will you accept Gods forgiveness and submit your self to his plan? Something good will come it.

“If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.” Romans 10:9-10

God has paid the price to free us from sin through sacrificing his one and only son Jesus on the cross. The perfect man died in our place, took the punishment we deserve. He rose again from the dead, proving his victory over sin and death and opening the gate way to eternal life with God.

Today will you receive God’s forgiveness and submit yourself to his master plan for your life? If you already have done this, will you share? Will you tell someone else your story of redemption and renewal? Where are you on your spiritual journey today?

(This Is from several years ago but I think it has some value for us today )
Warning: broad generalizations ahead.

I have been thinking about how godlessness is so normal now. We have made a world where life without God is normal and a person who believes, loves and serves a god, especially the God of the bible is an oddity and to be held in suspicion and disgrace.

We binged on one of my favorite shows, Longmire and after several episodes where the good guy wins I began to wonder what it is that makes him good? There is no mention of God, the bible or any standard of morality, and yet, every episode is a moral conflict. I understand the conflict and what the moral choice should be but I have a standard to live by. The characters have nothing to base their decisions on.

Satan on the other hand is very popular this season. He is represented in several TV shows. According to our culture the devil is more normal than a christian. I haven’t watched it but there is a show called Lucifer. Maybe it’s about Cinderella’s cat. I don’t think so though.

Could it be that there is a plan to desensitize us to the person of Satan? To make him a fictional character, at the whim of some slick hollywood writers? to make him normal and to make God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit odd?

I am also seeing so many revisionist story lines where the character that we grew up believing is the bad guy suddenly becomes the much maligned and misunderstood good guy. Wicked the musical comes to mind as well as Maleficent.

Is this all part of some grand evil plot?

Yes. Yes it is.

“28 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. 32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.”

Christians beware and be alert and be filled with the love of Jesus for this fallen and broken world that we live in.

(This Is from several years ago but I think it has some value for us today )
Warning: broad generalizations ahead.

I have been thinking about how godlessness is so normal now. We have made a world where life without God is normal and a person who believes, loves and serves a god, especially the God of the bible is an oddity and to be held in suspicion and disgrace.

We binged on one of my favorite shows, Longmire and after several episodes where the good guy wins I began to wonder what it is that makes him good? There is no mention of God, the bible or any standard of morality, and yet, every episode is a moral conflict. I understand the conflict and what the moral choice should be but I have a standard to live by. The characters have nothing to base their decisions on.

Satan on the other hand is very popular this season. He is represented in several TV shows. According to our culture the devil is more normal than a christian. I haven’t watched it but there is a show called Lucifer. Maybe it’s about Cinderella’s cat. I don’t think so though.

Could it be that there is a plan to desensitize us to the person of Satan? To make him a fictional character, at the whim of some slick hollywood writers? to make him normal and to make God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit odd?

I am also seeing so many revisionist story lines where the character that we grew up believing is the bad guy suddenly becomes the much maligned and misunderstood good guy. Wicked the musical comes to mind as well as Maleficent.

Is this all part of some grand evil plot?

Yes. Yes it is.

“28 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. 32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.”

Christians beware and be alert and be filled with the love of Jesus for this fallen and broken world that we live in.

I was thinking today about how the “church” has been maligned for the way that it dealt with new ideas. Like when Copernicus posed the theory that the earth revolved around the sun and not the sun around the earth. that idea messed with current accepted theology and so all manner of manipulation was tried by the church to keep this idea from spreading. The problem was that the leadership then would rather start with the theology and then select the facts that supported that theology instead of asking the question, which one is in the center, the sun or the earth? and then compiling the facts and let the truth decide.

I think that evolutionists are starting to act like the church. They start with the theory that man evolved from primitive life and select the facts that support the theory instead of just asking the question, Where did mankind come from? And then look at the evidence.

To think that time and accidents will create anything is hardly plausible. Look at the natural world. If that theory worked then it would only take a few tornadoes tearing through a lumberyard to build a house. According to evolution it may take a few billion tornadoes but eventually the result would be a house. Maybe. But where did the lumber yard come from? Evolutionist say that there was nothing and then bang, there was everything. Without cause and without design or supply.

My sister is a potter. If she plopped a blob of clay on a wheel and started spinning after million of years she would still have a blob of clay and that only if someone were constantly whetting it. There has to be a cause and a designer for her clay to change form from a blob to anything else. She is the potter and her clay becomes beautiful art in her hands because she touched it, she, the designer formed it. To change something of chaos into something of order It always takes cause. It always takes a designer.

I’m no expert so don’t try to argue your case. just Try this. Buy all the material to make anything that you choose. A cake, a bird house, a car, whatever. Leave it loosely piled anywhere. Now wait for time and chance. Come back in a billion years. Will that pile have gotten better or worse? Less chaotic or more chaotic? Does the universe tend to go from chaos to order or order to chaos. This example isn’t even fair because it implies an order to the pieces and that everything was there to make whatever you had in mind to make. Evolution says that everything that is required to create life evolved itself from nothing and then found its way to a central place where all of the conditions necessary were conveniently provided by no one for no reason from nothing with no plan or design and life formed and this life kept getting more and more complex, chaos to order, simple order to more complex order with no outside interference over and over again until chemicals became compounds became life forms became..became..etc. became man. And that man said “I got here by complete cosmic accident”. Wow.

There’s a very old book that purports to tell a different story. In the story a benevolent all powerful being had a design in mind and he spoke, and chaos and vacuum began to take shape and have order and substance. He created light first, then he created everything else. The elements were at this beings command. He created, not something into something different but from nothing into his design. And he said it was good.

I believe this story because it gives me a starting point and explains how and why there is a design and order to the universe.

1 Thessalonians 4

That thing that you did yesterday, where you lived a selfless life, loving and serving the world around you? Living like Jesus and telling the world about him? Do that again. And again. And again.

“As for other matters, brothers and sisters, we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more. 2 For you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.”

Part of this lifestyle, a big part, is living a sexually pure life.

“It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; 4 that each of you should learn to control your own body[a] in a way that is holy and honorable, 5 not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God; 6 and that in this matter no one should wrong or take advantage of a brother or sister.[b] The Lord will punish all those who commit such sins, as we told you and warned you before. 7 For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. 8 Therefore, anyone who rejects this instruction does not reject a human being but God, the very God who gives you his Holy Spirit.”

His (or her) own body. I must learn to control me.

Be quiet and mind your own business. Find a job and work at it as if Jesus was watching everything you do and is available to help you succeed. Why? Because Jesus is watching us and his Holy Spirit is inside of us waiting to be asked for advice and help.

” make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, 12 so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.”

I have seen some very precious people laid into their graves. It hurts but I have hope that we are not separated forever.

“For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15 According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.”

I am waiting for that day. Meanwhile I strive to keep moving forward.

No turning back, no turning back.

Matthew 7 has some verses that keep me going. Here are a few.

“7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

9 “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! 12 So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”

Continuing to pray for the impossible. Sometimes I’ve had to that. But the thing behind the praying is kind of like the beginning of the the Lord’s Prayer.

“Our father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name”

When we are praying, we need stop and think, Who is it that we are praying to?

We are praying to the God who said “let there be light” and suddenly, even though light had never before existed and without a source for the light, there was light. This is the God we are praying to. Powerful, creative, unlimited. Everything we see and know has limits. God does not. What if what we need doesn’t exist now? How can we ask God for something that doesn’t exist? We can Because he is limitless and creative and powerful.

Before we start to pray let’s remember who we are praying to and before we give up and stop praying let’s remember who we are praying to.

One of the impossible things God has done is to make a way for sinful man like me to be with him, a Holy God, for eternity. He did this by sending his only son Jesus to die in my place. Jesus death has paid for all my mistakes, those done in ignorance and those willful deliberate disobediences. All my sin, all of our sins, forgiven. Impossible yet true.

God can and does do the impossible. That’s part of who he is.

(Some of those who know me expected me to bring up my truck Rusty. I didn’t. Or did I?)

On this night 57 years ago I stepped out of the side door of a body shop in Pendleton Oregon and ended up with life altering burns on my face and hand. If nothing else, I am proof God can use horrible events and situations and turn them into blessings. My burn scars are what brought Mary Loeffelbein and I together and SHE has been the biggest (except for my salvation) blessing of my life. So tonight I celebrate the anniversary of the night my life changed course for the better. I can’t say that I rejoice in the scars but I do rejoice in how God has used them to make me who I am and to take me to this place in my life.

Is it an itch or a hunger?

There’s a restless soulish urge that continues to plague me. I want to say it is spiritual in nature, or at least soulish. It comes from somewhere beyond my rational mind’s control. It is a longing but it doesn’t go away when I administer what should be relief measures. The more I attend to it the greater it becomes.

When I was in 7th grade I started to get some itchy spots on the back and side of my calves. I didn’t like the itchiness, but I loved the satisfaction of scratching. The harder and more intensely I scratched the more pleasurable the sensation, up to a point. Then it started hurting. It went on for what seemed like months. The bumps where the itching started grew in number, and as I scratched, they spread. first they were dime size, then quarter size, then half dollar size. They started oozing, and forming scabs.

The style in that day was to wear long white tube socks, all the way to the knee if you could find them. They were made of some type of acrylic fiber and they had two or three bands of color at the top. The half dollar size sores on my calves were covered by my socks. The scabs that would form on the sores sometimes would get stuck in the fiber of the socks. pulling the socks off or down tore off the scabs. (Sorry this is so gross). It became a cycle of itching, scratching, oozing, scabbing, spreading. What started as a sore on a leg became multiple sores on both legs. I don’t remember how my mom discovered what was going on, she worked full time and wasn’t home very much, but eventually She saw the sores and I was taken to the doctor and given some cream and antibiotics and the itching and infection went away.

I don’t remember how annoying the itch was. I do remember how pleasurable the scratching was. This plague of soulish unrest that I am experiencing is like that itch. And to answer the original question I asked, It is an itch, not a hunger. If you feed a hunger, it goes away, it is satisfied. If you scratch an itch, the itch only gets stronger the next time, and bigger. It covers more area and the scratching brings with it other problems, like infection and other ills.

The problem, the itch, is soulish. It lives in area beyond my intellect but under my spirit. I can’t think it away. I can pray it away. There are issues that my brain power can overcome, but soul issues live outside the realm of my intellect, like in an orbit that my brain cannot reach, but my spirit, now inhabited by the Holy spirit absorbs the orbit of my brain and my soul with its emotions and longings and itches.

My solution for the itch is to say NO to the urge to scratch, and then honestly pray to my Father in heaven about both the itch, and the urge to scratch. If I have scratched and caused an infection in my soul, God offers me salve. He offers me the salve of forgivenss in Jesus.

I have written this down so that I can share what I think might be a common problem and offer a solution that I am clumsily learning to use. I hope it helps. Jesus saves, he also salves.

Doctor God, report to surgery. Doctor God, report to surgery.

I quote large chunks of scripture when I post. I want to show what I’m reading so it can be seen in context.

The Bible is no ordinary book. It is the very words of God. It is alive and powerful. It can heal. It can save.

“For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. 13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”

By reading his word we open ourselves up to being changed by them, changed by him, made better, healed and repaired by God as we read his word.

Who is this Jesus? He is both fully God and fully man. In the Christmas season we will sing about Emanuel, which means God with us. This God whose words can heal us has sent his son to us to be with us, live as one of us, experience our life, and live it without sinning, and then die for us to pay for all of our mistakes, misdeeds and failures.

“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven,[f] Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. 16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

So far I’ve only read four chapters of Hebrews and the writer has already quoted Psalm 97 3 times. It may be become my anthem.

““Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts.”

Guess what day it is? Correct! It’s Today. What will we decide to do about Jesus today? Will we accept his gift of forgiveness today?

This is a memory from a few years back. It still applies to my life.

It’s cyber Monday. A busy day for shopping. Mary has been asking me what I want for Christmas and I I’ve been humbly replying “I am content with life, I want for nothing” but then I went to Home Depot with my son in law Michael. SO much stuff, so many tools and gadgets that I don’t have yet.

But I caution myself with what the apostle Peter says in his second letter.
“But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.”
2 Peter 3:8-13

Everything we see and know will eventually be destroyed by God as he prepares a new heaven and a new earth. Only two things will remain, the word of God and the souls of men. We are created to live forever. And we will, but where will we spend eternity?

God loves us and longs to spend eternity with us but our sins separate us from him. He knew that and prepared a way for us to be forgiven and cleansed from our sin through his only son Jesus. By accepting Jesus death as payment and believing in his resurrection we can spend eternity with our Heavenly father.

I’m going to try to not let this holiday season be about the stuff of life in stores but about hastening the return of Jesus by expanding his kingdom through sharing the story of a God who loves me enough to die in my place. A baby who came to save me, save us.

Who can I tell this to today?

James 5. 

Riches. Having some makes us want more. On the eve of the day we as a nation give thanks for Gods abundance that he has given to us, James has this to say to us. 

“And a final word to you arrogant rich: Take some lessons in lament. You’ll need buckets for the tears when the crash comes upon you. Your money is corrupt and your fine clothes stink. Your greedy luxuries are a cancer in your gut, destroying your life from within. You thought you were piling up wealth. What you’ve piled up is judgment.

4-6 All the workers you’ve exploited and cheated cry out for judgment. The groans of the workers you used and abused are a roar in the ears of the Master Avenger. You’ve looted the earth and lived it up. But all you’ll have to show for it is a fatter than usual corpse. In fact, what you’ve done is condemn and murder perfectly good persons, who stand there and take it.”

Will our fattened corpse that we leave behind testify against our indulgent lifestyle?  How much is enough? What have we done to earn what we have? Is having more our goal or is having enough and sharing the rest?  

“7-8 Meanwhile, friends, wait patiently for the Master’s Arrival. You see farmers do this all the time, waiting for their valuable crops to mature, patiently letting the rain do its slow but sure work. Be patient like that. Stay steady and strong. The Master could arrive at any time.

9 Friends, don’t complain about each other. A far greater complaint could be lodged against you, you know. The Judge is standing just around the corner.”

Patience, waiting, delayed gratification. Those are not popular practices in our culture. But remember  We are not of this culture. Christians have been waiting for the return of our messiah for 2 thousand years. He is closer now then he has ever been and each day is closer still. We Look around, we watch and wait, we stay busy building the kingdom planting the flag in a heart here or there. We do this because Gods kingdom doesn’t exist on the soil, it exists in the hearts of people. We can’t claim America for Jesus but we can claim Americans for Jesus. 

Pray. Pray for America, pray for each other, pray for the sick. Prayer works because God is all powerful and He works. Not like a genie but like an all knowing, all powerful God. 

Sing praise to our great God because no matter what situation we are in, he is worth praising. There is none other like him. 

Here is our James 5. 

Riches. Having some makes us want more. On the eve of the day we as a nation give thanks for Gods abundance that he has given to us, James has this to say to us. 

“And a final word to you arrogant rich: Take some lessons in lament. You’ll need buckets for the tears when the crash comes upon you. Your money is corrupt and your fine clothes stink. Your greedy luxuries are a cancer in your gut, destroying your life from within. You thought you were piling up wealth. What you’ve piled up is judgment.

4-6 All the workers you’ve exploited and cheated cry out for judgment. The groans of the workers you used and abused are a roar in the ears of the Master Avenger. You’ve looted the earth and lived it up. But all you’ll have to show for it is a fatter than usual corpse. In fact, what you’ve done is condemn and murder perfectly good persons, who stand there and take it.”

Will our fattened corpse that we leave behind testify against our indulgent lifestyle?  How much is enough? What have we done to earn what we have? Is having more our goal or is having enough and sharing the rest?  

“7-8 Meanwhile, friends, wait patiently for the Master’s Arrival. You see farmers do this all the time, waiting for their valuable crops to mature, patiently letting the rain do its slow but sure work. Be patient like that. Stay steady and strong. The Master could arrive at any time.

9 Friends, don’t complain about each other. A far greater complaint could be lodged against you, you know. The Judge is standing just around the corner.”

Patience, waiting, delayed gratification. Those are not popular practices in our culture. We are not of this culture. Christians have been waiting for the return of our messiah for 2 thousand years. He is closer now then he has ever been and each day is closer still. We Look around, we watch and wait, we stay busy building the kingdom planting the flag in a heart here or there. Gods kingdom doesn’t exist on the soil, it exists in the hearts of people. We can’t claim America for Jesus but we can claim Americans for Jesus. 

Pray. Pray for America, pray for each other, pray for the sick. Prayer works because is all powerful and He works. Not like a genie but like an all knowing, all powerful God. 

Sing praise to our great God because no matter what situation we are in, he is worth praising. There is none other like him. 

“19-20 My dear friends, if you know people who have wandered off from God’s truth, don’t write them off. Go after them. Get them back and you will have rescued precious lives from destruction and prevented an epidemic of wandering away from God.” Here is our 

job, here is our mission,

“19-20 My dear friends, if you know people who have wandered off from God’s truth, don’t write them off. Go after them. Get them back and you will have rescued precious lives from destruction and prevented an epidemic of wandering away from God.”

Reconciled. I can’t get past that word. I’m reading in Romans chapter 5 today and the word reconciled is like a road detour or a stop sign. I have to sit here and think about this for awhile.

Being reconciled. Two parties that have been separated have been brought back together. Another definition is making what is into what it should be. At McDonalds we had to reconcile the cash drawers. Making sure the amount we had equaled what should be there from receipts. I don’t remember what we would do if it came up short. Somehow we had to make up for what if anything was missing.

How can a morally bankrupt person, someone with a moral cash drawer that is empty be reconciled to a God who has the receipts of what should be or what could be in our moral cash drawer?

“…we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have received reconciliation.” Romans 5:11b

And this is how and why he did this.

“You see, at just the right time, when we still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will Anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man some one might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrate s his own love for us in this; while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

God himself made up for our morally empty cash drawer through Jesus. He paid our debt. He reconciled our debt AND he has reconciled our relationship to him.

“Since we now have been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from Gods wrath through him! For if, when we were Gods enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life.” Romans 5:6-10

Our Account with God has been reconciled and now we are free to have a good and right relationship with Him. Him who made us and loves us.

Clean Dry socks
Clean sheets
Warm place to sleep
Full tummy
Choices
A secure place to keep my stuff
Carpet
Hot coffee in the morning
Being able to read and write
Sunshine
Clean towels
Space
Music
A coat and hat
Heat
A flushing toilet
Toilet paper
My Bible

A non inclusive, non exhaustive and in no specific order list of things I am thankful for. Things. Not people. People list is much longer and may make me weepy so maybe tomorrow.

Thank You God that I have these things today and I’ve never been without them. Not sure why you have blessed me so much. Help me help those who aren’t so blessed.

I was prompted to read psalm 139 this morning. It is filled with incredible things about God. He knows us, it was he who formed us, no matter where we run to hide from him, he is already there. In our grown up hide-and-seek we isolate ourselves and he says “peek-a- boo, I see you!”

There are all of these wonderful things about God and our relationship to him and with him and then David goes on a rant about wicked people.

“If only you, God, would slay the wicked!
Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!
They speak of you with evil intent;
your adversaries misuse your name.
Do I not hate those who hate you, LORD,
and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?
I have nothing but hatred for them;
I count them my enemies.”

And then David stops and asks God to take inventory of his heart.

“Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.”

It seems to me that David realizes his own weaknesses. He realizes maybe that ere’ the grace of God go I. And now he wants an outsider to check him, a peer review or an editor to come and read him and show him his errors, look for his spiritual bad grammar and spelling mistakes.

God said to me this morning that I can be like that guy Jesus talked about, the one who looked over at a tax collector and said, God, aren’t you glad that I am not him? (Luke 18) If I have a few minutes strung together where not I am not a total basket case I can tend to be proud, and instead of asking God to show me where I still have errors and sin, I say in a smug prayer, all good here Lord, aren’t you glad that I am on your team?

This morning God, search me God and know my heart, test me, check me to see if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in your way, the way everlasting.

Wow! What a difference!

I just had cataract surgery on my left eye. I don’t ever want to forget the incredible difference from before and after. After surgery Everything is brighter and clearer. I can read my Bible again without using 6x reading glasses. The thing is that I didn’t know how bad it was until it was corrected.

It seems like a great analogy of the difference between my life before being saved by Jesus, filled with darkness and fear and because it was so dark I did a lot of stumbling around doing stupid and hurtful things. Then the light came in the form of love and forgiveness. Jesus died for me, to pay for all my sins.

In the Gospel of John, John says this “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” John 1:1-5

I still stumble on occasion but now I have a savior who is himself a fountain of grace and forgiveness. Now since meeting Jesus There is light and hope and direction and a plan for my good. His plan for my good.

Each day now the difference of before and after is becoming less exciting as I replace what was with what is.
In a couple of weeks I will be having the right eye fixed and both of my eyes will be working better than they have for decades. I don’t want to forget the change from what was my vision to what is my vision. Likewise I don’t want to forget my before and after in my spiritual life. I want to continue to be amazed with my loving God and what he brought me out of and the splendiferous life I now get live.

I don’t want my prayers to be formulaic but by using this prompt I remember that prayer Is more than a shopping list and without praise, God has no place to “sit a spell” and converse with me.

His grace is truly amazing.

1 Timothy 4

The food network got this one right; All food is good. (Even beets?) no food is on the naughty list. And speaking of naughty, marriage isn’t naughty, it is good. I would add that for me it has been very good.

“3 They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. 4 For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 5 because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.”

There are things we should avoid.

“Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly.”

And here is the thing to not forget, the key, the center of the message, the reason for it all, “This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance. 10 That is why we labor and strive, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, and especially of those who believe.”

Jesus saves. Jesus has forgiven us. Jesus wants to restore us. Restore the broken parts, the parts that hurt us. He wants to heal us from the the inside out. When I think about restoring I think about my old truck Rusty and what all I’ve done to get him drive able, useful. A labor, a labor of love. The goal has never been to make him glisten but to make him road worthy. To get him back in service. In many people’s eyes he was just an old carcass, a pile of junk, a waste of space but I saw what he was meant to be. (https://www.facebook.com/Rustys-Page-532927836827647/ )

Some of us feel that way, like a pile of junk but God sees us through eyes of a loving Father who knows our potential. No one knows better the capability of a thing than the designer/architect/craftsman. I am
Limited in my skills, abilities and resources for Rusty. God is not limited in any way with us. He knows what we can be and has the skills and resources to make us just that.

1 Timothy 3

Overseers (Pastors) and deacons qualifications.

“3 Here is a trustworthy saying: Whoever aspires to be an overseer desires a noble task. 2 Now the overseer is to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3 not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. 4 He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him, and he must do so in a manner worthy of full[a] respect. 5 (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?) 6 He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil. 7 He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil’s trap.”

The online version that I’ve been using is just a little different than the one that I have been reading. My hard copy says “the husband of but one wife” where this one says “faithful to his wife”. Same idea, being faithful.

Men this is a gold standard list. Orderliness, a life of order and self control. A man who has himself under control. A man who can bring order and control to a system prone to disorder and chaos, his family. It’s not by might or power or vocal volume. It’s by a heart and mind lead and empowered by the Holy Spirit. God in my head and in my heart can bring order first to me then help show, guide and direct those around me to what God has shown me in his word. It is so much easier to read and write about than to do it. Husbands and Fathers, this is the list we are to aspire to. It won’t be easy but that’s why God has called us specifically to the wife and family that we have. We are the specific men for our specific families.

Men, We may not ever lead a church but we are given the opportunity to lead our families. It won’t be by grit or self determination it will be by humbly submitting ourselves to God and being servant leaders in our own homes.

Men the call on us is to pastor our families. Are we up for the challenge? What if our family is a basket case? The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is today. The same goes for pastoring our families. We can only use the second best time, today. Give God our past and present and see what will grow in our future.

Living the Matthew 29 life.

“And thenHe ascended into heaven from whence he shall come to judge the Quick and the dead and his kingdom will have no end.”

I quote from memory, part of the apostles creed. (It was my favorite, the Nicene creed was longer ).

3 of the 4 Gospels have a commissioning by Jesus before his ascension. Matthew’s goes like this: “Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Matthew 28:16-20

Mark and Luke tell us that Jesus ascended into heaven. In Acts Luke says “They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”
Acts 1:10-11

Editorially I will add that the angels were implying “didn’t our master and your master just give you a job to do? Will you now get moving on that job?”

Here we are, His church, His people, and we still have the same job to do. We are to make disciples of all nations. When we think about sharing the story of Jesus with the entire world it is overwhelming. Let’s just start with one. A neighbor or a co-worker. That too can be scary. It scares me. But what is the alternative for these people we know who don’t know Jesus? The alternative is that they will enter eternity not hearing about the God who loves them, who suffered and died to save them and now lives forever to intercede for them. Eternity without knowing Jesus is hell.

We live in the next chapter, we live in the era of being The commissioned. We live in Matthew 29. How are we doing on sharing our story, the story of being redeemed, bought back from slavery by a loving God?

Here is a Facebook challenge, share your redemption story with one person this week.

(P.S. It occurs to me that not everyone has a redemption story. If you are reading this and you don’t have a story to tell about how Jesus forgvave all of your sins and became your Lord and master you can begin the story today. “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that he rose from the dead, you will be saved”)

Acts 26

Paul’s trial before King Agrippa.

We hear more of what happened on the road to Damascus. We get more of the conversation.

“12 “On one of these journeys I was going to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests. 13 About noon, King Agrippa, as I was on the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, blazing around me and my companions. 14 We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic,[a] ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’

15 “Then I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’

“ ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ the Lord replied. 16 ‘Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen and will see of me. 17 I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them 18 to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’”

Paul loved God. He grew up
Loving God and learning about him. During his days persecuting the church he was defending the God he loved from attack, or so he thought.

It seems as though Judaism was a vehicle to bring us Jesus who is the fulfillment of all the promises of the past. Kind of like the ark of Noah binging mankind from one place to another. We don’t still live in the ark but we still live because of the ark.

As Paul said, “22 But God has helped me to this very day; so I stand here and testify to small and great alike. I am saying nothing beyond what the prophets and Moses said would happen— 23 that the Messiah would suffer and, as the first to rise from the dead, would bring the message of light to his own people and to the Gentiles.”’

“29 Paul replied, “Short time or long—I pray to God that not only you but all who are listening to me today may become what I am, except for these chains.”’

So I invite you to receive Jesus gift of forgiveness for your sins. Today. I did it by just admitting that I needed forgiveness and then acknowledging that Jesus gift was for me too.

Thank you Jesus for your ongoing work in my life. I fail you so often yet you are always faithful to forgive.

I’ve got some good news.

I opened my bible this morning intending to continue reading in Psalms but opened to Isaiah 61. Isaiah 61 is the Gospel ministry spelled out in the Old Testament.

“61 The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,[a]
2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of joy
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the Lord
for the display of his splendor.
4 They will rebuild the ancient ruins
and restore the places long devastated;
they will renew the ruined cities
that have been devastated for generations.”

This is good news.

I am spiritually poor. My debt has been paid in Jesus.

I am broken-hearted. For my own situation and for the people of my world. There is help and healing and comfort in Jesus.

I am captive to sin. And sometimes held chained in darkness. Jesus can set me free. Jesus brings light into my world. Light shows me my depravity and also shows me the way out.

I’m not sure what the year of the Lords favor is. I think it might be the year of jubilee. That is where all debt is wiped clean. Anything mortgaged or pawned is returned. I would love a day of that. Can you imagine a year of that? No debt unpaid. Everyone reset to zero. Financially it would be incredible, spiritually it is life changing.

I mourn the loss of family. I mourn the loss of innocence and purity. I mourn for those lost and and alone. I mourn for those enslaved by addiction of any kind. I mourn the victims of abuse, the breakup of homes and families. I mourn. Jesus brings comfort to me.

Beauty for ashes. This part is special to me. I am ashes. I was burned as a child, my dad said my nose was a black cinder. He feared it would be gone. When my bandages came off my nose was there. All of it. I feared that I would never find a woman to love me but then one day while I was still a youth I met Mary and she has been the beauty that I traded my ashes for. Jesus provided love through my loss.

I have a family history. It’s not all good. There is abuse and alcoholism and pornography and fights and divorce and pain and base humanness. Jesus has come to restore brokenness that is generational. Walls broken down for decades, for centuries can be restored. Family sins, family patterns of abuse and pain can end now in Jesus.

“delight greatly in the Lord;
my soul rejoices in my God.
For he has clothed me with garments of salvation
and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness,
as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
11 For as the soil makes the sprout come up
and a garden causes seeds to grow,
so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness
and praise spring up before all nations.”

Jesus has come to bring good news. That’s what the word gospel means, good news. We are forgiven and free in the covering Jesus provides us.

God loves us and longs for a relationship with us. The one who built everything we see and know, who created us , has also redeemed us. He has bought us out of slavery. That’s good news.