Peter’s Posts

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.

I can’t do it. I want to but I can’t. Fit in. Mold myself to the culture around me. I try but I can’t. I get stuck half way. Wanting to conform but this whole Jesus thing, his love for me, his sacrifice, he died for me, it calls me back. Most of my day I spend running back and forth between two masters. How can I just stop being drawn away from Jesus who loves me, to the world and worldly pleasures that I love?

I read a verse today, I have read it many times, but if I put this into practice, I will be launched and supported in the way I should go.

“Therefore I urge you brothers in view of God’s mercy to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is- his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Romans 12:1-2.

Putting this into practice will mean I act on this verse by adding the rest of the Bible, bit by bit, to my heart and head. Head and heart, I know what it says, and I believe it, and I do it.

I have been a Christian since 1981 and in that time I have gone through seasons of intensely following Jesus and seasons of coasting, like journeying up a river, against the flow, and then at times pulling in the oars, laying down and taking a nap, waking to find that the boat that is my life didn’t stay where I pulled in the oars. What a rude way to wake up, with the roar of the falls of destruction in my ears, and the mists of the tears of the fallen on my face.

The Christian life is rowing the boat against the current of our culture and our world, but not in judgement of those around us floating with the flow, in concern and care of them, warning, loving, helping.

I’ve said enough. I need to get back to rowing.

I’ve been reading through the book of Romans this year. I started in January. I read through a chapter a day and start over when I’m done with chapter 16.

This month I have been posting as I read through and verses jump out at me.

I am up to chapter 8.

Anticipating what I would say about chapter 8 before I read it because it holds my “life verse”. That verse that explains me and my relationship with Jesus better than any other single verse in the bible.

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28

My childhood was traumatic. I have a steel plate in my jaw and some nasty burn scars on my face. I got these before I turned 12. When I was burned I almost died. Getting the injuries that resulted in the steel plate I was actually clinically dead by the time I reached the hospital.

Again, ” And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

You’d think scars on a face would be a deterrent to finding love. It worked the other way around for me. Mary was actually drawn to me because I was scarred yet I was still laughing. Our story reminds me of the joke about the soldier in a doctors waiting room with a spear stuck through him. He was asked if it hurt. His answer was “only when I laugh”. Mary and I became friends in part because of my scars. We became friends, then boyfriend and girlfriend and then we got?

Broken up. You thought I was going to say married. Well we did, eventually but first for almost a year we were broken up. We even dated other people. I did not do well with that. I wanted out of town. I decided to join the Air Force. I was going to quit school, I had all of my credits already, quit and join and get out of town. I had all the papers signed except one. The medical release form. The recruiter went through rather casually until we got to the question about steel pins or plates. As it turns out the Air Force wouldn’t take folks with steel plates in them. I was stuck in Soap Lake and that and a big blue Dodge Polara are how Mary and I got back together.

The steel plate in my jaw God used to keep me around so that I could participate in the greatest blessing of my life. That blessing was to make up with Mary and get engaged to Mary on the same night then get married, have 4 kids and 6 grandkids and still be married 35 years later.

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

Even burn scars and a brief dance with Death with a steel plate as a bonus prize. God has used all things in my life, even ugly and painful things for my good.

Tomorrow is our 40th anniversary. Happy anniversary baby! Love you SO much.

“I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil that I do not want to do- this I keep on doing.”

The voice of my sinful nature is never silent and the pull of my fleshly appetites never goes away. Like gravity there is a constant tug to go the opposite way that God is calling me to follow. How do I do what is right? Like a dog being called by two “owners” I am conflicted. I need to follow the one who loves me the best. The one who loves me the best is the one who made me, paid for me, and wants the best for me not only now, but in the life to come. The “owner” that loves me best may not have a treat in his hand, but he has love in his eyes and his voice as he says, “come, follow me”.

“…Who will rescue me from this body of death?thanks be to God- through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Romans 7:18,19,24,25

(A post from 5 years ago)

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. ” Romans 6:23

I believe that I will live forever but at the same time I’m not sure that I will survive the next China project at work. Does that make sense? Sometimes the pressures at work feel like they are crushing the life out of me. Always demanding more than I possess.

I need my faith to effect not just my eternity, I need more of Jesus in my here and now. Right now Jesus as I pull on my boots for another day, fill my deflated lungs and strengthen my weak arms. Give my brain clarity, make my heart compassionate. Let me continue to see the eternal significance of my daily life.

That was my post back then.

I posted this 5 years ago so I did make it through this rough patch of work and both facilities we built are now running smoothly and are profitable enterprises. Life is hard sometimes and I can make it harder on myself by taking too big a bite of it. I try and figure out too much at a time. God provides for us daily, not weekly or monthly. The manna that was provided for Israel in the wilderness was enough for a day. God got me through the construction in China. Can I trust God to get me through the current COVID crises? Yes, but he will do it as he always has, one day at a time.

Today I read Nehemiah 1. When Nehemiah was given a report about how things were going back home, and they were going poorly, he took immediate action, in that he mourned and fasted and prayed.

“When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. Then I said: “ Lord, the God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments, let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s family, have committed against you. We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you gave your servant Moses. “Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations, but if you return to me and obey my commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my Name.’ “They are your servants and your people, whom you redeemed by your great strength and your mighty hand. Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man.” I was cupbearer to the king.”

Nehemiah 1:4-11 – NIV

What has been my reaction and what have I been doing? Is There room for me to do something beyond social distancing and masking up and washing up? Yes. I can take action. I can go to my Father in heaven, humble myself and pray and seek his face and pray for his mercy and his healing.

It’s not my place to sort it all out and figure it all out. I can pray, pray for the sick, pray for a vaccine, pray for the souls of men and women who are lost and looking for help, like sheep without a shepherd, pray that they may find Jesus the good shepherd.

Will you join me?

Getting back to church

Ezra 3

The nation of Judah had been exiled from their home. Rounded up and herded off to Babylon. Now some of them had made it back home. Their capital city of Jerusalem lay in ruins. The center piece of the city and the center of worship, their temple, had been torn apart and burned.

What did they do?

They rebuilt.

They worked on and for rebuilding. It took labor effort and cooperation and coordination and it took money.

“When the seventh month came and the Israelites had settled in their towns, the people assembled together as one in Jerusalem. Then Joshua son of Jozadak and his fellow priests and Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and his associates began to build the altar of the God of Israel to sacrifice burnt offerings on it, in accordance with what is written in the Law of Moses the man of God. Despite their fear of the peoples around them, they built the altar on its foundation and sacrificed burnt offerings on it to the Lord, both the morning and evening sacrifices.”

Ezra 3:1-3 – NIV

Once the altar was rebuilt and sacrifices could be made once more, they turned their attention to the rebuilding of the temple.

“When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments and with trumpets, and the Levites (the sons of Asaph) with cymbals, took their places to praise the Lord , as prescribed by David king of Israel. With praise and thanksgiving they sang to the Lord: “He is good; his love toward Israel endures forever.” And all the people gave a great shout of praise to the Lord , because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. But many of the older priests and Levites and family heads, who had seen the former temple, wept aloud when they saw the foundation of this temple being laid, while many others shouted for joy. No one could distinguish the sound of the shouts of joy from the sound of weeping, because the people made so much noise. And the sound was heard far away.”

Ezra 3:10-13 – NIV

Praise erupted for the great God of their fathers who had preserved them, and brought them back home.

God is good. God is always worthy of praise. God is overflowing with love, displayed in his abundant and abounding grace and mercy. He showed us that in his sacrifice for us all. He loved us so much that He gave his only son that whosoever would believe on him…well here is the verse..”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.”

John 3:16 – NIV

As I’m writing this it is the beginning of August 2020. Our church building has been closed since the beginning of the pandemic shut down. Through online technology We have maintained a service and weekly message. Last Sunday we had an outdoor service. Our congregation seemed to be starving for public worship. Having Church took on a whole new meaning and a bunch of people worked very hard to set it up and carry it out. It wasn’t a passive activity, it was a choice to do it and then a ton of work to pull it off but our worship resounded throughout the neighborhood our church building sits in.

Now more than ever, at least more than in my life time, having church, being in a public worship service is an active act of my will. How much work will I do just so I can worship my God? How much effort is he worth? There is a risk of exposure, exposing myself to a virus yes, and also exposing myself publicly and purposefully in my worship of my God. Our church leadership did everything possible to keep the setting safe for all who participated.

God is always worthy of our worship and our praise. Even in and maybe especially in a pandemic. Church is different now. It is more active. More of a conscious choice and a conscious effort.

Because of what I read this morning and what I experienced last Sunday, I want to be involved in the rebuilding of worshipping my God. The people of God who returned from Babylon couldn’t be passive, they had to jump in with hands and feet and wallet to make the temple worship happen. I may need to do something similar to be able to return to worship. I am committed to keeping all safety protocols in place for everyone’s safety.

Come, Let us worship our God together with shouts of praise! With cymbals and trumpets or whatever we have! God is worthy of our praise!

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.

Jesus- not just for Jews anymore.

I have been working my way through Matthew 22 and it ends on this verse about whose son is the messiah. What does that matter?

“Matthew 22:41-46 While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, “What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?” “The son of David,” they replied. He said to them, “How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord’? For he says, “‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.”’ If then David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?” No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions. “

If the messiah is just the son of David then the kingdom he will rule is at a minimum, Jewish. Even if he were to rule the Jews and the Jews were to take over the world, his kingdom would be earthly and only continue as long as he or his son would maintain the throne.

But, if the messiah is God’s son? The playing field just got bigger. The players list just went from exclusive to inclusive.

Jesus had come as the messiah, the redeemer, the savior from the Jewish people but he was promised to all people, all the way back in the garden of Eden, God would provide a way for us to re establish our relationship with Him. He was from the Jews but he will be for all people.

We have a king, we have a savior, we have a redeemer. His name is Jesus. He has beaten our two biggest enemies; death and sin. He has restored our broken relationship with our creator God.

It is a transaction that you must initiate. If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Today is a good day to start.

The book of Ruth

I am sitting here in Ephrata Washington reading this tiny little book in the Bible , only 4 chapters long, about a person from Ephrata. Bethlehem Ephratha, the original, in the land of Judea, which is now in the nation of Israel.

It’s the story of a regular working class guy Elimalech, who tries to make good for his family when famine strikes, he leaves town and goes to another country. He heads East to neighboring Moab. He had a wife, Naomi and 2 sons, Mahlon and Kilion. I see it’s a little like Jed Clampett of the Beverly Hillbillies show from my childhood, “They loaded up the the ox cart and moved to Moab”…Doesn’t have the same ring to it as the Beverly Hillbillies theme song and the story line runs in the opposite direction, the TV Show was a bad to good story and the Bible story is bad to worse. Naomi’s sons both find wives among the Moabite women but then one-by-one her men folk die, leaving her and her daughters in law widows.

Naomi hears that things had gotten better back in Bethlehem so she packs up and begins the journey towards home. Her daughters in law begin the journey with her but Naomi encourages them to go back their families. One daughter in law, Orpah takes her advice and heads back to her family but her daughter in law Ruth says this about that: “But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.”

Ruth 1:16-17 – NIV

Naomi and Ruth end up back in Bethlehem Ephratha as 2 poor widows with no visible means of support. Ruth begins to glean the leftovers of the barley harvest. The harvest crew she works with just happens to be that of a family member, a rich farmer named Boaz.

Boaz takes notice of Ruth, her hard work and dedication to her mother in law and begins to help her.

Boaz becomes Ruth’s kinsmen redeemer, marries her and has a baby with her.

“So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. When he made love to her, the Lord enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. The women said to Naomi: “Praise be to the Lord, who this day has not left you without a guardian-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel! He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth.” Then Naomi took the child in her arms and cared for him. The women living there said, “Naomi has a son!” And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David. This, then, is the family line of Perez: Perez was the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, Ram the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, Salmon the father of Boaz, Boaz the father of Obed, Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David.
Ruth 4:13-22 – NIV

Because there was a Ruth, there was an Obed, because there was an an Obed there was a Jesse, because there was a Jesse there was a David, as in King David. Jesus is a descendant of King David.

Was it the right thing to do for Elimelech to leave town and go to Moab? Was it the right thing to do to allow his sons to marry foreigners? It looked like the trip was not sanctioned, the activities were not permissible or at least not advisable, the entire enterprise looked like it was cursed, all 3 men dead and buried in a foreign land and the return trip included a foreigner but no family.

But God can and does uses detours as the main path to accomplish his desire and complete his design. The apostle Paul says this about God and the way he works in our lives; “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

Romans 8:28 – NIV

In my own life I was badly burned when I was 8. The burns left my face scarred and deformed. Later we moved to a new town and on a trip between towns my family was in a bad car accident which among the other injuries, broke my jaw in 5 places. The doctors were going to wire my jaw closed but because of the burn scars, instead they chose to install a steel plate.

The scars and steel plate were instrumental in me meeting and marrying my wife. The scars made me stand out among my peers, she liked me and we became friends then started dating. The steel plate kept me from joining the Air Force and leaving town during a break-up period my senior year. In a couple of days we will celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary. We now have 4 kids and 11 grandkids.

God used what looked like detours if not complete roadblocks in my life to bless me.

For Naomi and Ruth God uses a famine and death and loss and poverty to not only bless them with marriage and a baby but he has blessed us all, every human who has ever drawn breath because in 3 generations from Ruth and Boaz would come a simple shepherd who became king of unified Israel and God promised David that a descendant of his would have an everlasting kingdom.

“and have done ever since the time I appointed leaders over my people Israel. I will also subdue all your enemies. “‘I declare to you that the Lord will build a house for you: When your days are over and you go to be with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for me, and I will establish his throne forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. I will never take my love away from him, as I took it away from your predecessor. I will set him over my house and my kingdom forever; his throne will be established forever.’”

1 Chronicles 17:10-14 – NIV

That king was and is Jesus. Jesus’ reign will never end. He was crowned king with a crown of thorns. He bought all of us back from a life of slavery to sin. He purchased our freedom not with gold or silver but with his own blood.

I sit in my recliner, reading about Elimalech and his famine avoidance strategy and marvel at a God who never loses track of us, no matter where we scamper off to. Then an alarm goes off and I am brought forward from Bethlehem Ephratha in BC days to Ephrata Washington in 2020, COVID-19 days. Can I still trust a God in this pandemic to be working “all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose”?

I think so, no I believe so. How about you? Can you trust God even in this? Do you have any stories of how God used detours and roadblocks to get you to a better place? Will you share them in the comments?

In 2015 Mary and I had an opportunity to travel to Italy. We rode a lot of trains and busses. One thing I noticed that many of the plants and trees that I saw in Italy were also back home in the USA. One plant in particular is what we call Virginia Creeper. Spotting that very familiar plant in an unfamiliar place got me thinking…

Train musings:

As I’m looking out the window of our train to Venice I’m realizing that the air, the water, the plants and trees don’t know or seem to care what country they are in. They listen to and obey a higher authority than a man who draws a line in the dirt and says “this is mine and that is yours”. They obey a higher authority, the one who made them.

People have some strong opinions about who belongs where. I’m sure that there were meetings in a smoke filled room somewhere. men wearing suits looked at a map and argued where the lines should go.

I don’t think that God sees it that way. The planet that is. One reason might be his vantage point looking down from
Heaven it all looks the same. No colors of states or countries. No lines.

Another reason could be that it is all his. All the land, all the animals, the trees plants fish birds all are his. He made it. He made it and he made us. All of us. No matter what hue our skin is or what language we speak or inside which lines drawn on the map we find our feet or our home. We are his. God is an international God because he only made one planet earth.

Growing up I thought God dressed like captain America Except he wore a robe but his robe was red white and blue because he loved America more than any other country. We were right and they( whomever) were wrong. In any fight, God was on our side.

In the revelation of John the apostle described the vision of the city of God. In that vision he describes the foundation stones of the heavenly city. It is made of 12 different colored stones. I wonder if those 12 colors encompass the colors of all the flags of all the nations?

From Johns description There isn’t going to be an American heaven and an Italian heaven and a French heaven. There is just going to be heaven, the place God dwells. Neither will there be sections for Catholics and a part for Protestants, a space for Jews there will be an all inclusive home for those who believe and receive Gods gift of salvation, being bought back to be a child of God from slavery to sin. No denominations of Protestantism , one God, one heaven, one family. Strange to think about.

One of the creeds I learned as a child said about us believers that we’re one holy catholic, which means universal, church. We are after all part of one body, the bride of Christ, his church.