Author: Peter Loeffelbein

The pull of adventure can sometimes feel like gravity.

Calvin and Hobbes captured the moment as if they were there.

I’m not sure if this memory is a Prologue to a cautionary tale about an untimely death or the first paragraph of a legend starring me.

The scene is me at about 4 years old. My butt and my right leg are plopped inside the big brown coaster wagon, it wasn’t a radio flyer but it was along those lines. It was a lot of work to pull the wagon up to the the top of the east hill. Grandpa Loeffelbein’s little orchard was divided east and west by a deep gulley and the gulley had a small creek at the bottom. There was a bridge across the creek, just wide enough to drive grandpas Fordson tractor over. The road to the bottom was a gravel two track trail. The west side road was the steepest. Dead mans hill. Only fools tried riding the wagon down the west side. I had pulled the wagon down the west side and up the east side.
It would be epic I thought to myself. I was sure there was an award ceremony in my near future if only. If only I could over come the crippling fear that kept my left leg on the outside of the wagon extended with my heal dug in. I had my hand on the tiller. I don’t know if I squinted as I stared down to the bottom the hill, charting the course. It wasn’t that complicated. The road went straight to the bottom of the hill. All that was required of those bold enough to try was use the tiller to steer the wagon and keep it on the road and get over the bridge. On the north side of the bridge was about a three foot drop into the creek. On the south side it was more like a 4 foot drop and there was the barb wire fence and stinging nettles. If I had to ditch I would head for the north side. I didn’t know much about stinging nettles but rumor had it that it could result in blindness and death. Nettles were to be avoided. The course charted, and the plan made. As soon as I could swallow the fear I would begin.

I don’t remember what the trigger was that released my left foot emergency brake. I have an older brother and I suspect that there may have been taunting or some other challenge. It could’ve been the thrill effect where the excitement and anticipation of a thing fills up and over flows the brain bucket to fill and over flow the logic bucket and boldness bucket. Like a teeter-totter these three buckets on one side tipped the scale. The left foot came up, brake off, left leg got pulled over and in, tucked in and gravity took over. The part that I couldn’t have or at least didn’t anticipate was the vibration of the wagon and how it affected the steering. I was all over the road. As the speed approached Mach 10 and the vibration took over the controls I did the only rational thing my preschool brain could think of, I ditched to the north. As an adult I look back at this scene and see some dangers. The water in the creek isn’t deep to me now, shin deep. As a four year old my shins weren’t that tall. I remember that I was suddenly very wet and very cold.

The house where the adults were was at the top of the west side hill. There were some stairs that were made of old truck tires stacked and terraced into bank of the hill. Somehow my parents and grandparents were alerted to my catastrophic accident and near death experience. I don’t remember those details but I do remember the thrill of the ride down and the moment of deliberation before the thrill.

There were consequences. I did crash. I did get wet. I did cry. I don’t remember the wagon being at grandpa and grandmas house on the next visit.

I have dreams not of this but like this. One where I am sitting in a parked car the car is parked on a steep hill which turns into a cliff. In my dream the car starts to slide toward the edge. Not matter how hard I press on the brake it continues to slide down the hill.

Why are these stories in my head? I was trying to think of an example of getting pulled away from safety into danger. How the excitement can overcome reason, and reasonable fear is pooh-poohed away. I walked away. Like a good landing is any landing you can walk away from, what doesn’t kill you makes you maimed, wait no, makes you stronger? Hmmm. Same guy who said that also said God is dead. Not a fan of the man or his philosophy.

Anyway, I did face a fear, I took a chance, had an adventure, scared my grandparents, (I’m not sure my parents were ever concerned about safety, they had a bohemian mentality in some areas), I had fun up to a point. I started writing this because I was feeling the pull of sin like I felt the pull of fun and adventure and sometimes it feels almost like the pull of gravity. Becoming a Christian didn’t make all of that go away however I have this working for me.

“Romans 6:15-23 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

(There’s an epilogue to the story about the wagon itself written by my uncle Jerry.

“I shared my story with my uncle Jerry who grew up at my grandparents orchard and he gave me the back story to how he the wagon came to the family.

“That wonderful wagon came to be as a result of the Great Flood of 1948. The Wenatchee River flooded the area north of the Loeffelbein Addition of Cashmere, where Art Lobe had a barn and corral. That area is now the levy, which was built as a result of that flood. When the water went down, I walked with Uncle Art and Dad to view the damage. Much sand had been deposited, and my 3-year-old eyes spotted the tongue of a wagon sticking up out of the sand. I don’t remember the particulars of how they got the wagon out of the sand, but we dragged the remains home. My next memory of it is that it had wheels. They were the old pressed tin narrow tread scalloped typed, and they were in rough shape. Delvin scrounged up some better wheels, we painted them puke yellow, and I had a wagon! Delvin notched a long pole so it would stay on the rear axle, and he would push me around, at top speed, of course. That wagon made many trips down those two hills, and as often as possible ended up in the creek. I also remember piling 6 – 100 pound bags of feed on it, and pulling it across the driveway (with great difficulty.) It got used for anything and everything, and every time I’d break it, I’d take it to Uncle Bill and he’d weld it back together with the acetylene generator and a bottle of oxygen. Mom once told me I had to be more careful, as I was overdoing Uncle Bill’s generosity. After I left home, the wagon remained, working hard in the yard, orchard, and garden.”)

As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. 4 As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. 5 While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. 7 “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing. His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, “Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?” Some claimed that he was. Others said, “No, he only looks like him.” But he himself insisted, “I am the man.” “How then were your eyes opened?” they asked. He replied, “The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see.”
John 9:1-11 – NIV

I m not going to say much about this. Today, encounter Jesus who made blind men see. Jesus died and rose from the dead and is living today. He is still at work in our midst. He is still touching and healing. What will you ask him for help with today? My wife needs his healing touch. My relationship with my kid needs his healing touch. Jesus please touch these things and heal them.

What will you ask of him today?

Next up? The good news according to Dr Luke.

For 400 years there is silence from heaven. No prophets, no revelation. The people of God carry on. They continue to pray and worship. It becomes routine

Worship can become routine. We do it because we do it because that’s what we do. Then something happens. Last week our power went out right before service started. It broke up the routine and we had to decide to worship not because it’s what we do but because we want to connect with the God of the universe, with the great God of mercy, with the God who loves us enough to die for us.

Zechariah was doing his job, his routine and a messenger of the great God he was serving showed up and had an answer to his prayer. It’s what we should expect. We should expect God to answer. He is listening. He is aware. He is watching and waiting for His perfect timing. Sometimes the routine becomes the thing. We forget that there is a God and a relationship with this God behind all the trappings.

I guess what I’m getting out of this is don’t give up praying. Keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking. We have a God who hears our prayers and will answer them. Sometimes the answer is yes. Sometimes the answer is NO, and sometimes it is WAIT. What’s the difference between no and wait? Time.

There are people that I have prayed for to get saved for over a decade with no change. There are others who did decide to follow Jesus. So I keep on praying and believing that God is hearing me and that someday he will take away the barrenness in this relationship and bring new life.

I was listening to a radio pastor yesterday and heard something new or at least fresh. A fresh thought.

As I get closer to Jesus , the light he brings into my life continues to expose more and more of the mess in my life.

Like if I were with Jesus in a dark room. The dark Romm being my life. He asks me if the room is clean. Hmm, the room is dark, nothing under my feet, I say yes. He then lights a match and we see just a little way around us. There are dirty dishes, litter, a pair of underwear that didn’t make it to the hamper. Then he turns on a flashlight and we see deeper into the room, more mess, then he flips on a light and we see clearly, smudged walls, mildew and mold. The mess symbolizes that hurt, emotional pain and damage that living life can cause. Stuff done to me and Stuff I have done to others, words that have stuck in me and on me.

The longer I hang out with Jesus the more stuff he exposes. Sometimes the pain and shame of a life exposed is too much and I want to push Jesus back out of my life and shut the door and please oh please, kill the light. The mess doesn’t go away when Jesus leaves and the light goes out, but if we don’t have to see the mess of our lives, we can pretend it isn’t there, and the pain and shame fall and fade.

Meeting Jesus and inviting him into my life will not make my life a blissful rose garden. Well not just the flowery part. Jesus will begin to clean up and the fascinating thing he will do is to use the poop of my life to grow beauty. The bible says the he will give us beauty for ashes. Ashes are the waste product of the end of something, something gone and useless. God has the ability to turn that part of life, and poop is a useless waste end of life product too, the poop and ashes and reuse them to bring us beauty, like roses.

This will only happen if we allow him into our lives and trust him enough to expose the mess behind the door. Denying a mess doesn’t make it go away. Admitting to a mess doesn’t make It go away either but it can start the process of cleansing.

Isaiah 61:1-6 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, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, 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. They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations. Strangers will shepherd your flocks; foreigners will work your fields and vineyards. And you will be called priests of the Lord, you will be named ministers of our God. You will feed on the wealth of nations, and in their riches you will boast.”

Today will you let Jesus into your life to help you declutter your your heart and soul? He will turn it around for you. Beauty for ashes, joy for mourning, praise for despair. He loves us and just wants to help.

What are you thinking about God right now? Who is he right now to you? A stern judge? A watching cop? A pouncing powerful predator?

OR

Is he a loving and gentle father? A caring and creative genius who thought up, well everything. Every thing. Even the things that make up things. Is he more like that?

“Psalm 95:6-7 Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. Today, if only you would hear his voice, “

God wants to be like our shepherd and like a father. He wants a close and caring relationship with us. That is why he sent Jesus for us. To enable a pathway back into God’s gentle, caring embrace.

Then, we will worship this great and awesome God together. Woo hoo!

Sin, our rebellious and selfish nature is a wall between us an God. Like the the song I learned in Sunday school it’s so high you get over it, so low you can’t get under it, so wide you can’t get around it. Jesus has become the gateway through a wall so high you can’t get over it, so low, you can’t get under it, so wide, you can’t get around it, you gotta’ go right through the door 🚪. Jesus. Today, if you haven’t already, walk throught the door.

What God wants for us is a love relationship where he is free to lavish his love on us.

Chris Rice is a Christian singer songwriter. He is a brilliant lyricist.

Please Read these lyrics.

“On a hill far away stands a tall mighty tree
Where a boy and girl used to take turns pushing the tire swing
I remember the pocketknife in hand
And her name in my heart
And thinkin’ there ain’t no way for a boy to contain
The love that he feels inside
So I carved her name into my tree
Then I carved a heart around her name
Then I carved an arrow through the heart
Just to say “I love you”
Now on a hill far away stood an old rugged cross
The emblem of suffering and shame
I remember the nails through my hands
And your name in my heart
And how in their wordless way the nails explain
The love that I feel inside
As they carved your name into my tree
Where I wrapped my heart around your name
Then I took your arrow through my heart
Just to say, “I love you”
Just to say, “I love you”
Now I can never forget how much you mean to me
‘Cause I will always remember whenever I see
Where I carved your name into my tree
Where I wrapped my heart around your name
Then I took your arrow through my heart
Just to say, “I love you”
Just to say, “I love you”’
Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: CHRIS RICE
My Tree lyrics © WORD MUSIC, INC. OBO CLUMSY FLY MUSIC

Thank you God for loving us so much that you sent your only son to die for the sin and rebellion that we committed. Thank you Jesus for lobing us do much that you sacrificed yourself, your very life, for us, for me. Thank you for making a way back to our Father.

Every once in a while our Pastor will say that what he is speaking about is “family business” meaning it pertains to those of of us who are part of that specific body of believers. It is a specific message to a specific group of people.

I feel like Ephesians 4 is a “family business” chapter but not just for the people in Ephesus but all believers everywhere for all time.

I think I just said that it is specifically written to a general group. At least that’s what I intended.

John 3:16 is written to everyone, everywhere. “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.”

Once we decide to follow Jesus we join a new group, the body of Christ. The group of people known as the body of Christ live by a different set of guidelines.

I will use myself as an example. Basically there has been a shift, a change of command has happened. I used to be in charge. I did what I wanted. Now I have given over the control of my life to Jesus.

I’ll let Paul say it, “Living as Children of Light
17 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 18 They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. 19 Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more. 20 You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. 21 Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”

Paul goes on to say how our honesty in word and deed, and our reaction to anger needs to be different now that we are filled with Gods spirit. Our life experiences haven’t changed. We will still face the same temptations and trials that the general population does but now we are empowered to respond differently.

I’d like to quote one more verse that reminds me that when I need to forgive someone, that I too am in constant need of forgiveness.

“32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”

We live in a desert. The Eastern side of Washington state is a desert. It lies in the rain shadow of the Cascade mountains. Our annual rainfall is around 10″. There is very little water here naturally. My Grandpa Loeffelbein’s property in Cashmere out on Pioneer Ave where I spent many a summer day, had a tiny little stream. It was so small that I could jump across it. The odd thing about it that it was always flowing, and it flowed fast. It was not a lazy little trickle. Even in the hottest of summers, put your foot in and it would try and knock you over. It took strength to stand in the flow. The water was cold, and the force was steady and strong.

Sometimes my life feels like a desert, arid and dry. Living life sometimes sucks my soul dry. I need a source of refreshing.

Gods love is like that little stream in some aspects. It’s steady, strong, constant, refreshing, water in a desert. It just isn’t little. When my son in law Nathan Dowd preached recently he quoted someone who said “Gods love is an ocean without shores and without bottom.”

The apostle Paul wrote this to Jesus’ followers in Ephesus, “For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge —that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”

Ephesians 3:14-19 – NIV

Yes please!

Lord I need to know your love today, not just know it but feel it. I need your wisdom and understanding, I’ve got things to do today that go beyond me. Help me Jesus. Fill me up.

You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.
Isaiah 26:3 NIV

This is going to sound stupid but this is one of those verses that bugs me. It bugs me because its sounds like it can’t be true. Like it’s the picture of the imaginary Christian life, the pretend Pollyanna Christian life.

The reason is that I have been utterly terrified before. Waking up after having your head bashed against a dashboard, the vehicle upside down and family members moaning and crying can bring on overwhelming fear. I have been in stark terror.

Our car was hit head-on then hit again from the side. Then everything went into a cold and foggy February 18th blackness. That car accident has been my scariest moment, but my most blissful peaceful moment came only minutes later. Somehow the people who came to the wreck got me out of the wreckage and put me in an ambulance. As I laid there fear was almost to crazy level which is 5 clicks past 11 on the fear dial, then I heard words,in my head or my heart or my ears I don’t know, the words were “Jesus will take care of you”.

Peace flooded over me and I relaxed. That could be when I died I don’t know. When we arrived at the hospital I was clinically dead, no pulse and not breathing.

You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.
Isaiah 26:3 NIV

Maybe in the days since then when I’ve encountered fear, it wasn’t God’s fault, it was mine for losing sight of him. How can we fear if we know the God who said to nothing “let there be light” and there was light, who created everything that exists and then created mankind and watched as we as a race defied him, then he provided a way back to him through giving up his only son to be punished in our place. If we know that God, and can keep him in our sights and believe and trust in his existence and receive his persistent love, maybe our souls can experience peace.

After reading through Romans a chapter a day since January I think I’ve read the book about 14 times this year. I’ve been pondering which book to read next. The book of Ephesians keeps popping up in my head so this morning I read the preface. It is a letter that Paul wrote while in prison in Rome so beyond the words in it, the where, why and how of this book compels me to study it next after studying Romans. First the book to Romans and then the book from Rome.

I found this this morning and it is my heart for me and those who read my posts.

“12 in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. 13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession–to the praise of his glory.

15 For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16 I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. 17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 18 I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, 20 which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”

I want to know God better. I want to know the hope that he has called me to, the riches of his glorious inheritance, and his incomparable great power.

I have met him, Jesus . He has saved me and now his Holy Spirit lives in me. So many still have not heard about Him. If you know him, will you tell someone else about him today? The world needs to hear this great news.

Romans 16 is kind of like the credits at the end of the movie. I’m tempted to walk out of the theater at the end of chapter 15 but I hang in there just in case there’s a blooper reel or a teaser for the next installment. Maybe there will be a secret little gem that only those who stay to the end will see.

I had to ask google about the lists of people and here’s what I found out: Pheobe was the mail woman, the next group were the Romans that Paul knew personally and was saying “hey” to. The second group was Paul’s personal team. Now we know about these folks 2 millennia after they left the earth.

I have my own list. A list of people I pray for every time I sit down and read my bible.

It started with one guy I used to work with. I found out he was struggling with some stuff and I was asked to pray for him. I wrote it down so I wouldn’t forget. I kept adding people. People I thought need a touch from God, people I want to see in heaven with me, my family. my wife Mary made the list, she’s on the bottom of column two. One morning it dawned on me that she needs to be covered in prayer as much or more than the other people in my world. She has to live with me.

There are some Hollywood folks, people from my past, people in the news. All my grand babies are there. There are many friends from work and I pray about the things that they have shared with me. I pray for my neighbors. I don’t know all of their names but God does. I meet and greet when I get a chance.

I had to scribble off one name. He died earlier this year. That was hard.

I have limited myself to one page but I have room on the page for more.

Post script: I originally posted this in 2015. The list I used then wore out, life changed, a lot of the people on my original list I either lost touch with or they died then the list started to fray and fall apart so I wrote a new list. I learned the names of almost every person on my block and I prayed for them. But my prayers started getting stale, and I feared that they may have been becoming “vain repetition“ which Jesus warned about so I haven’t been praying through the list every day. I now have moved to a new neighborhood and I am challenged to learn about my new neighbors, their names and their needs. One of our old neighbors is a new neighbor, the family that lived across the street from us has now moved just down the street from our new house and Mary are excited that we get to continue our friendship with them.

The challenge of a list not to let it become words on a page, but to keep it about the people because Jesus loves the people, all the people of the world.

“I love the LORD, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy. Because he turned his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live.”

God is merciful.

For some of us that is the problem. His mercy attracts us but also repels us. If he can forgive me, and welcome me, then what’s to keep him from forgiving and welcoming my enemy? How can he forgive the person who hurt me so deeply? It isn’t fair.

Some of us are stuck in the attraction/repulsion zone. We know what Jesus said about forgiveness, that to receive it we must give it.

“Matthew 6:12-15 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’ For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. “

We get stuck right here.

There are 3 things to consider if we find ourselves stuck, needing forgiveness, but unable to forgive.

1. God knows. He knows our hearts. He also knows what happened. He will take us where we are, how we are. We may not be able to forgive today, but once we are God’s he begins to make us new.
2. God will change us from the inside out. The person that enters a relationship with God through Jesus death for them and his resurrection, will be transformed, from the inside out. Hurts will be healed, slowly, sometimes instantly but always persistently he moves to completeness and wholeness and health. We won’t finish our lives, as we Have started them, once we have given control over to God. Like a master carpenter/engineer/builder remodeling a shambled wreck, he restores, renews, rebuilds us.
3. God is infinitely merciful and he is infinitely Just. We find this in Acts; “Acts 17:26-31 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.” ‘

There is still a day of accounting to come. This will be the day when all things wrong get righted. I don’t know how it will work. I know Jesus has paid for my sins so I will not be punished, but somehow he will make up for wrong that I did. His way of Justice will be as perfect as his way of Mercy. He is infinitely powerful and infinitely creative and solutions are unlimited to him.

Today, please consider surrendering to the great God of mercy and let him begin the process of renewal in you.

I had a spiritual experience on the way home. It’s kind of private but I am going to share it because it might encourage someone else.

My dad and I were not very close as I grew up. This has made it difficult for me to understand the fatherhood of God in a loving way. At best it has felt that God tolerates me.

Tonight a radio pastor asked his listening audience to imagine themselves alone in a room with Jesus. Jesus sitting toe to toe and eye to eye. What would he say to you?

I knew right away, in spite of my sinfulness Jesus first words to me would be “I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!”

But then my mind wandered to the Father, what would he say to me?

It was as if I heard his loving voice say, ” I sent him for you…”

My Father in heaven sent his only son to die in my place, to die for my sins. Why would he do that? Because he loves me “so much!”

I don’t get it all, but today I understand a little better how my Heavenly Father feels about me. He loves me so much! So much that he will sacrifice his own son to save me.

Here is some good news for anyone reading this, he loves you “so much!” too!

Romans 14 has a nugget of good news. We all, every person that has drawn a breath, will meet HIM. We will meet God. At the end of our days we have an appointment with our creator.

There is a down side. We will have to give an account for our lives.

“10 You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister[a]? Or why do you treat them with contempt? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. 11 It is written:

“‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord,
‘every knee will bow before me;
every tongue will acknowledge God.’”[b]
12 So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.”

For those of us who have accepted Jesus as our savior this this will be when we get to see Gods unmerited favor, his grace, truly become amazing. Our meanest acts, most brutal, most selfish, most shameful, all covered by Jesus’ substitutionary death. He stepped in and took our punishment. He absorbed it all, and God has absolved it all.

Thank you Jesus for dying in my place. Thank you for loving me, I love you Jesus.

I heard a radio pastor pose an interesting question. What if at the end of our life we were only judged by our own rules? What if the only test for eternal life was how well we kept to the things we said, “they ought to….”?

I wouldn’t pass. I cannot keep my own rules. We can’t keep God’s rules. We can’t even live by our own rules. Jesus talks about this in Matthew 23 when he talks about the Pharisees.

The chapter is long so I won’t post the whole thing but here is a highlight:”Matthew 23:27-39

Matthew 23:1-4 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them. “

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness. “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. Go ahead, then, and complete what your ancestors started! “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? Therefore I am sending you prophets and sages and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Truly I tell you, all this will come on this generation. “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”

We don’t get to heaven by keeping rules. We cannot keep rules. The same propensity for making rules we cannot keep is inside everyone of us.

We get to go to heaven because there was one perfect man, and he sacrificed his perfect life to pay for our imperfections. Then he rose to life to enable us to live forever with him. Our sins killed him and yet he loves us so much he wants us to live with him forever.

I don’t get it but I have in fact taken him up on his offer, trade my imperfections for his perfection and have all of my mistakes covered.

Have you? If not, will you? Today?

My wife bought me a new shirt for Father’s Day. Nothing fancy, it was a grey tee shirt with a wide white horizontal stripe. I liked the look of it but that white stripe scared me. Me and white clothes don’t get along. I’m not sure what it is but it seems like if I am wearing white, it will only be minutes before it gets stained. Sure enough, as soon as I put it on, I stained it. I hadn’t noticed the stain until I put it on to wear to church. I looked down and saw it.

My heart is like that white band on my shirt. It is prone to stains. In fact my heart came pre-stained from birth. when I accepted Jesus as my savior he washed my heart clean but it wasn’t long until I had sinned and stained it again. I was ashamed of myself and embarrassed about the stain but I confessed my error and repented and my stain was gone. Now over 40 years later that pattern has been repeated probably millions of times. Confess-repent-repeat.

I hope that you my reader will read this as good news. There is forgiveness of sins available from Jesus because he died on the cross to pay for our sins. He rose again on the third day to give us new and eternal life.

The prophet Isaiah looked 700 years into the future and saw the forgiveness of God coming to cleanse us.

‘“Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.”
Isaiah 1:18 – NIV

There is only one place to go to to be forgiven of sins. It’s a one stop shop, truly all our sin, all of our mistakes, all of our failures, all of our slips and fails and falls, all of our stains, forgiven cleaned and cleansed by the all powerful God through the blood of his son Jesus.

My shirt wasn’t clean enough to wear but through confession, repentance and Gods forgiveness my heart is. God and his cleansing power are always only a prayer away. Will you take him up on his offer today?

“‘Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.”
Isaiah 1:18 – NIV

Is there a standard that we can live by? Is there like a code of conduct that if we applied to our lives, it would make the world a better place? I didn’t say a code to force onto others, I said a code to live by, one that I apply to myself and my children.

Romans 13 has a code of conduct.

“Romans 13:7-10 Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor. Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”

It could work.

But it isn’t something to muster up, to force on over our lives like a wet suit that’s 2 sizes too small. It is only possible from a heart change that takes place when we have received God’s forgiveness through Jesus death on the cross.

Step 1. Admit our need. Which means we will need do all of the list below:

I). Stop justifying ourselves by either saying what we’re doing isn’t wrong or by comparing ourselves with someone else and seeing ourselves better than the other person. (Unless we are comparing ourselves to Jesus which should be done).

II). Stop trying to pay off our mistakes with good works. You can’t pay off mistakes with used sanitary products, which is what Isaiah called them “Isaiah 64:6 All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags (used feminine sanitary products); we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. “

Then, confess, say out loud, that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead.

From that beginning our hearts are changed and we will have Jesus living in our hearts. He can empower us to live out “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

It’s not just the code of the west, it’s the code of all who believe in and follow Jesus.

“Love your neighbor as yourself.”

I have a practical application of this that happened recently. We moved into a new house. The house comes with a lot of nice features but one thing it it lacks is a fence. We have 2 small dogs who have always had a doggy door to access our back yard. We don’t have that here, yet. For the time being we have to harness them and take them on leashes to answer the call of nature. The need for the fence became even more prevalent when while bringing in groceries from the car, one of the dogs escaped. He was captured and brought back home but it exposed a glaring need. We need a fence.

Mary and I chose a particular brand of big box store to purchase the materials to build the fence. It was in the next town over, a half hours drive away. she would stay home and unpack and I would go and procure the fencing, bring it home and then she would go and finish cleaning the old house for it’s new owners and I would start building the fence.

We were told by an employee of the store that we should go straight to the pro desk and ask for a team member by name to help us get all the parts and pieces.

About 5 years previous to this project I had a friend who had a friend who was raising funds for an adoption. In support of that project I purchased a tee shirt. The tee shirt states; “I love Jesus and orphans Isaiah 1:7”. To keep myself in a proper frame of mind, I chose to wear that shirt to the hardware store.

When I arrived at the pro desk there was only one person working it, and she was cashiering along with answering phones and questions. Because they were busy and because of social distancing The line to her register stretched back into the lumber aisle and had about 7 customers waiting to buy their stuff and get on with their day.

Between customers I explained to her what I needed. Behind her on the wall, I saw the picture of the man we were told to ask for. When I asked for him, I was told it was his day off, he didn’t work weekends. There were others salesman pictures on the wall but one by one I was told why they were not available. Eventually her line was empty and a I was able to start ordering my fence parts.

We worked together to assemble the parts order right up to and through the end of her shift. She was able to locate another team member who was more knowledgeable about the products and the system and he took over for her. We finished the order and he started to assemble it but had other responsibilities too. By this time I had been in the store close to 2 hours. I attempted to pay but my debit card was declined. I checked with the bank and my balance was 8 times the purchase price. I called my wife and she sent her card information but it was also declined. By now the sales person had switched and I could tell the new salesperson was suspicious of me. To her credit, it was her idea to split the purchase between out two cards and that worked. I was into Hour 3. The staff told me it would take a while to assemble the order and suggested they I go do whatever else I had to do. All I had scheduled for the day was to purchase and install a fence. But it was past lunch time so I grabbed a fast food lunch and returned to the store parking lot and quickly wolfed it down. I went back into the store and waited at the pro desk. I got updated that they were struggling to find someone to pull and assemble the parts. Time, like this story, drug on. At every step of the order and purchase process there was error and waiting and miscommunication. My frustration was gurgling up. At every step of the way though, I would recall what my shirt said and remember who I was representing that day and I would have to choose how I would respond. 7 hours after walking in the store, I pulled away with 1/2 the load. Another hour later I would be at my house unloading the last bit. (Thank you my friends and family that volunteered to unload).

The entire day seemed to be a test of how I as a follower of Jesus would treat people who were doing their very best but still causing me delays and costing me time and straining an already tight timeline. I chose a garment that had his name on it, the name of my savior Jesus. I was identifying myself with Jesus. He treats me with patience and love. Could I also treat other people with love, respect and patience? Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians in chapter 13 says that love is patient, love is kind. In earlier translations instead of the word patient it says, love suffers long and is kind.

Many days it would be better to change my heart and attitude or change my shirt. Jesus doesn’t need me representing him if I can’t be suffering long and remain kind.

I would kind of like to ask the folks there at the store how I did. But the one it matters to the most is Jesus. Jesus, how did I do? I realize that there are followers of Jesus in other parts of the world who get mistreated, beaten, have their property taken, are imprisoned, sometimes even killed for daring to be identified with and follow Jesus. They may be sadly shaking their heads at my simple test.

But here is my point. As a follower of Jesus I may or may not be wearing his name on my chest but I will always be representing him to the people I encounter. Following Jesus doesn’t just mean an hour or two in church. It is everyday, everywhere I go and to everyone I meet. No matter what.

So fellow followers of Jesus I challenge myself and all of you to live life as if we are representing Jesus everywhere we go, because we are.

“Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”

“Though in your sin you are undeserving and undesirable, He loves you when your mind disavows it, your heart dodges it, and your soul dismisses it. He loves you right now as you are, not as you think you should be.”

(Someone else said that. When I find the quote I will give them the credit).

I don’t have to shower or shave, to change my socks or undies or my habits before God will love me. He just loves me.

I put a period at the end of that last sentence but my emotions want to put a question mark there. Even me? Even me God? Have you seen me? Have you looked at all of my life?

Yes he has, and the truth is still the same for even me. For God so loved (my name here) that he gave his one and only son so that (my name here) would believe in Him, he gave the power to become a child of God and give him not death, but eternal life. That was John 3:16 from a paraphrased memory. Here it’s quoted:

“John 3:16-17 For God so loved the world (our name here)that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever (and here)believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world (and here), but to save the world (and here) through him. “

I rejoice that so many of my Christian friends read my early morning devotional ramblings but I also hope that someone who doesn’t know about Jesus love for them yet might read this or at least hear the message. Will you, the person reading this, tell one other person today that God loves them and Jesus came to die for them so they can share in God’s love and have eternal life? At least one?

Thank you.

Return to the Lord

King Hezekiah was a descendant of king David. He took the throne at age 25.
“Hezekiah was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother’s name was Abijah daughter of Zechariah. He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father David had done.
2 Chronicles 29:1-2 – NIV

Hezekiah was king of Judah, the southern tribes which were the tribe of Judah and Benjamin. The nation of Israel had originally been 12 tribes but under King David’s grandson Rehaboam, the northern 10 tribes had broken away, established Samaria as their capital and adopted pagan Gods to lead them. Judah, with its capital as Jerusalem had the temple of God but it had been neglected and abandoned because the people of Judah had also been worshipping pagan Gods.

Hezekiah made an effort to humbly return to the Lord and Invited his people and his neighbors to the north to return to the Lord.

“At the king’s command, couriers went throughout Israel and Judah with letters from the king and from his officials, which read: “People of Israel, return to the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, that he may return to you who are left, who have escaped from the hand of the kings of Assyria. Do not be like your parents and your fellow Israelites, who were unfaithful to the Lord, the God of their ancestors, so that he made them an object of horror, as you see. Do not be stiff-necked, as your ancestors were; submit to the Lord. Come to his sanctuary, which he has consecrated forever. Serve the Lord your God, so that his fierce anger will turn away from you. If you return to the Lord, then your fellow Israelites and your children will be shown compassion by their captors and will return to this land, for the Lord your God is gracious and compassionate. He will not turn his face from you if you return to him.” The couriers went from town to town in Ephraim and Manasseh, as far as Zebulun, but people scorned and ridiculed them. Nevertheless, some from Asher, Manasseh and Zebulun humbled themselves and went to Jerusalem. Also in Judah the hand of God was on the people to give them unity of mind to carry out what the king and his officials had ordered, following the word of the Lord. A very large crowd of people assembled in Jerusalem to celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread in the second month. They removed the altars in Jerusalem and cleared away the incense altars and threw them into the Kidron Valley.
2 Chronicles 30:6-14 – NIV

The people of God as directed and invited by their king came and worshipped God. They repented of their sins, they humbled themselves and then they gathered together and cleared away anything and everything that wasn’t part of worshipping God and then worshipped God. God is always worthy of worship. No matter how bad things are.

Our worship of God is not determined by our circumstances. Paul and Silas were beaten and imprisoned, locked in chains inside a prison cell. Here is their story found in the book of Acts.

“The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods. After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks. About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose. The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!” The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved —you and your household.” Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized. The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole household.”
Acts 16:22-34 – NIV

In the current pandemic the response of our government has been restrictive to us, with them imposing rules about if and how we meet, what we can and can’t do, all with the intent to keep us from spreading the COVID virus. No physical torture has been involved, no prison cells, no chains. Can we still worship? It feels as though our system of worship has been torn down, or filled up with distractions and road blocks like for King Hezekiah and his people. We can still praise our God. Our circumstances do not change who God is. They do not, cannot change what God has done for us. He has given us his son as the ultimate sacrifice to pay for our sins.

Maybe our 21st century Christianity has gotten cluttered up with stuff that doesn’t belong in our worship of God, and through COVID-19, God has given us an opportunity to clear away the rubbish that has been a distraction to us, keeping us from mindful, soulful, heartfelt and rigorous worship of God.

I have a request for all my readers; Don’t quit worshipping the God who sent us his only son Jesus. Don’t quit worshipping the God who sacrificed his son to die and be raised to life on the third day. Do not quit worshipping the God who took Jesus to heaven so he could prepare a place for us and then sent Hod the Holy Spirit to be with us, in us and working through us.

No matter what, We can continue to worship God. Will we?

Romans twelve. The lifestyle chapter. If you want to know how apply Christianity to life this would be good chapter to memorize.

This morning I can’t stop thinking that this chapter is the Mayberry RFD of Christianity. Our pastor for the last 27 years has been Rory Lewellyn. One of his favorite TV shows is the Andy Griffith show which is about a simple little rural town called Mayberry. It is set in the simpler times of the early 1960s Over the last 27 years Mayberry has come up frequently in Rory’s sermons. Now to me, the Andy Griffith show will always be linked to my faith in and my following of Jesus. Romans 12 seems like the back story for the characters of the Andy Griffith show but my life isn’t fictional, I don’t have writers feeding me my lines. Life is real and Romans 12 gives me, gives us, the guidance we need to live in reality, here and now, even through a pandemic.

-Bullet points-

Offer our bodies as living sacrifices

Don’t conform but be transformed by renewing our mind

Be humble and also know that we have a place in the body of Christ and so to we have a job to do for and with the body of Christ

Love, love with sincerity
Be joy full, be hope full, be patient full (?)

Be real with those around us, cry and laugh when appropriate

Be humble

We don’t get to get our revenge. Our story should never make a good spy novel.

Live at peace, as far as it is possible, with everyone

Give your enemy his needs, food and water

Do not be overcome with evil but reverse that, overcome evil with good

And now, like the show begins and ends with a dad and his boy whistling while walking to the fishing hole, I will whistle a tune and smile. Knowing who I am and whose I am. I Probably won’t fish for fish but I might fish for men. A very mayberrian life.

Epilogue. Our pastor Rory is retiring and moving out of town. He has been a faithful friend and guide and teacher to Mary and I and our family. This Sunday will be the his last Sunday in our churches “pulpit“. (We don’t actually a pulpit, he usually preaches from a music stand). We wish him well and send him with many blessings onto and into his new adventures in service and ministry. We are forever changed because of his serving us here. May God bless and provide and guide you Pastors Rory and Debbie Lewellyn and bring much more fruitful ministry into your life. Thank you for sharing your life and faith with us. We love you both.

I had it all wrong as a child. It was a pleasant idea. It made my parents smile when I told them how I thought it worked. As a kid I thought everyone believed in Jesus. I also thought that Jesus was running the world from an office building in New York City

I was about 6 at the time. Something I heard on the news was talking about Israel and the Jews. I didn’t know that some of Gods people hadn’t accepted Jesus as their messiah. I was shocked that not everyone believed in Jesus.

Yet.

Romans 11 talks about this.

“25 I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob.”

I am one of those Gentiles that God has been gathering in. I am so grateful. When he is all done with that, all of us gathered, things are going to change here. Wouldn’t it be cool to be part of the action that brings the last Gentile to Jesus? What can I do to participate in that?

Once that happens something miraculous is going to happen amongst the Jews, The children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the sons and daughters of Israel will see Jesus for who he is, the son of God and the savior of us all.