"Coronary Connection..............."

The human heart: Jeremiah wrote that it is “deceitful above all things and desperately wicked: who can know it?” Yet this element of who we are as an individual is repeatedly, throughout the Bible, determined to be that which God will one day examine in the finality of our existence here on Earth. The mind, which seems to equate to whatever elements of our identity are involved with thinking, reasoning, finding logic somewhere within the puzzle before us, also appears to be recognized as the main culprit in our stagger down the path. The Creator, apparently, is not so concerned about how well we solve the mystery. Rather He looks at the cry of our soul, stoops down to write with His finger in the sand, and pronounces mercy upon us if we are but willing to connect with Him in taking the next step…. Our church school bi-weekly chapel service was yesterday morning. The thirty year-old fellow who teaches Health and coaches those boys on our basketball team delivered the sermon, pointing to the woman taken in adultery and stressing the need in all our lives for something he called a “do-over”. Speaking of his own childhood years and the feelings of inner insecurity we’ve all wrestled with in this journey from time to time, he drew the kids into a prayer service that not only kept us in the sanctuary for nearly two hours, but followed us, then, back to our classrooms. Teenagers “confessed” emotional, hidden pieces of their relationships with each other. Tears flowed in abundance. “Lockers” were emptied and much was accomplished in so far as our being a “community under the covenant of His promise”. Today the waters will have, no doubt, have receded a bit. The well within, however, remains. We, in our busy-ness, in our lack of wisdom, do not always stop to drink, to swim, to know Him in its depths as often as we should. Nonetheless He holds us in HIS heart in as much as we have surrendered ours unto Him, the anchor-line, on His end, secured……

"Trinity in Me............................"

My pastor’s morning sermon yesterday was centered on the necessity of getting God’s Word out of our head and into our heart. While such theme is certainly there within the pages of the Book, nonetheless, it seems to me that few actually grasp the “mechanics” of such process. Does the achievement involve at all the filling of our brain with chapter and verse? Reading our Bible, most assuredly, has purpose. It is vital to our walk in Him. It is Christ, Himself, however, who “seals the deal”, pronounced by John to be “the Word made flesh”; and, if scripture fails to provide similar phrase elsewhere correlating Him with “the Word made Spirit”, yet there is plenty of Bible evidence to conclude such fact. When James speaks of our receiving with meekness the “engrafted” word, that which is able to “save” our soul, the Greek roots for that term can also be translated as “implanted”; so is he referring to the printed page or an inner reconnection with the Creator? When Peter declares us born-again, “not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible”, by the Word of God which “liveth and abideth” forever, once again the same question can well be posed. When Jesus, Himself, however, gives testimony of no man coming unto Him except “the Father draw him”, and Paul adds to that witness how it is the Spirit who gives us “access” unto the Father, I have long been convinced that when we fail to see the Holy Ghost in the role mentioned above, we tend to lose understanding of just who “swings the sword”. One thing I really loved about the message was the pastor’s using a large basket of flowers positioned just in front of the pulpit, center stage, for an illustration of the truth that we are but vessels for His presence. What should happen in our walk with Him is an overflowing of His reality until others no longer see us, but only Him. Even so, it should be, I think, in our talk…….

"Self-Worth.................."

My Friday assignment only involved half a day monitoring the church school science class; and the first two periods merely amounted to watching a video about the human brain. Mostly, it dealt with our ability to multitask, not just in the sense of driving a car while texting or reading a book while preparing breakfast, but also seeing and hearing things at the same time in the circumstances that come to us on a daily basis. Of a truth, although some appear to be better than others, no one is adequately “wired” for the task. In fact, I found it quite interesting to discover that our cerebral package only requires about twelve watts to operate, significantly less than what that little light in the refrigerator demands in order to operate the next time you open the door. That’s as humbling as learning recently that the DNA of a bullfrog is drastically more complicated than mine. Indeed, it makes me ask myself just what is it that separates man from everything else out there; and what comes to mind is not necessarily all the details contained in my blueprint, but rather the meaning of my existence as initially purposed by my Creator. From the very beginning, man was intended to be a vessel knowing merger with God’s Spirit! We, alone, were blessed with a consciousness to know Him in all that He is in all that we do! If, almost immediately, such fellowship was rejected in the Garden, it was never taken entirely out of the picture and eventually was set before us again, through Christ, as an option. Sadly, people being people, we’ve managed extremely well to lose the fullness of such Biblical promise somewhere along the way, burying it under so much religious ritual and doctrinal dogma set in concrete that the witness of “life” beneath all our exterior claim of knowing Him in such terms, especially here in America, falls short. Christianity, by no means, is dead. It’s still here and there, more “wheat among the tares” than the other way around, tainted by the “leaven in the loaf”, but nonetheless possessing “greater is He that is in us, that he who is in the world”. What we must ask ourselves is: How much “overflow” has penetrated my children, my family, my neighbor, and all those who know me in this journey as I go? Do others just see me, or is there ever evidence made manifest of His resurrected reality abiding within me?.....

"Possessed................................"

There were just two of us, Frank and I, at the rescue mission Wednesday evening, sharing with as many as twenty-five men. It seemed a younger bunch, just a few grey-headed veterans, one no stranger to singing out of a hymnal. Whatever his circumstances, whatever doctrinal point of view he held, it was obvious to me that he was well familiar with Gospel worship. Even more, there was witness of an inner faith with Christ, his spirit connecting with my spirit almost from the start. The rest of the room was a mixture of 40s, 30s, and 20s, men of different history, background, men with enough Bible encounter along the way so as to listen with apprehension toward any sermon trying to convince them other than their own personal beliefs. Frank began, nonetheless, by pointing to prayer and praise as gateways to actually “touching the hem of His garment”. His words, then, would open a door for me to share with our small congregation an old Ray Boltz tune whose own lyrics profess “the source of life is right there in your hands” and kept us “on track” with the Holy Ghost. Indeed, an anointing began to flow among us, with me abandoning my notes and just speaking from my heart. We were made one in the reality of His resurrection, His presence taking us “through the veil”. Living water flowed from His well and we talked of it in terms of it being an oasis to which a man might return again and again, MUST return again if he is to know assurance in his stagger down the path. This, for me, is the bottom line of any message preached concerning the Cross. When I look around me at America as it is today, however, I wonder how well the Church, as a whole, has delivered such theme. Take away the truth of Christ “in” me, in what I do as well as what I say, and all that’s left is religion…

"Motion Assessment................"

The last few days have had me hopping in one way or another. As I was about to step out the front door Sunday morning, headed for the Youth Detention Center, Beth spoke of being dizzy and, when we took her blood pressure, it was fairly high. A phone call to the others cancelled my participation in that ministry. Toward evening she was feeling much better and opted to visit the night service with me; but, not twenty minutes into worship, she needed to escape to the foyer. Some women gathered round her and entered into prayer. Peace returned and we came home. We’re thinking this mixture of medicine presently assigned her is the culprit, are not simply rejecting doctors’ counsel, but are most certainly not “swallowing” everything they suggest. In middle of such concern, life, of course, keeps us busy with family, grandkids, and commitments otherwise. The church school has me working at least a couple days a week now, most of it voluntary tutoring of younger students, but a few times in the last months substituting for teachers on all levels. Monday afternoon was a last minute request for me to fill in for three classes: Art, Geometry, and a study hall. My last encounter with that particular segment of mathematics was Tenth Grade, if memory doesn’t fail me; but I managed to get the kids through their assignment without appearing too “lost in the woods”. The lesson involved determining the median and altitude of a triangle, repeating the process for all three sides in order to pin-point the exact center of the polygon, and then using a bit of Algebra to assign value of all the intersecting lines created. Fun for a nerd like me! On the wall of the room was an Ernest Hemmingway quote declaring: “There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self”, though, and it’s had me pondering its message ever since. What, exactly, was the author really trying to say here? Striving to improve ourselves as we go might well be a worthy endeavor to try and instill into our youth; but “nobility” suggests to me, somehow, someone’s nose in the air over a self-professed value on ether end of the statement. I like the idea of “purpose”, of making an attempt to maintain direction while going somewhere. Mostly, however, it seems to me that what we usually get is “this moment” and it all comes down to giving it your best with all you got. Other than that, prayer (and a nap when you can get it) does wonders to keep it all in balance…..

"Transferral..............."

Our church school varsity boys’ basketball team lost the second round in the state tournament last week by two points. Last night junior varsity went down in their first game by the same amount. Previous success at the event for the last several years has brought home a number of trophies, so I know hearts are heavy this morning. My grandson plays this evening in the All-Star edition, but all these kids special to me. This old man is always concerned about their inner existence, that part of them being shaped every day by the world around them, life as it comes to them. Disappointments and achievements are part of it. The human soul is a precious commodity, a mystery in a myriad of forces acting upon it as we go. Each step brings to us multiple choices, paths to take, each leading to who knows where. Without an anchor-line providing us direction in our stumble forward, there is no meaning to it at all. Our mind can’t comprehend the magnitude. The numbers are beyond us. I read somewhere that there are nine galaxies for every person alive, each with at least one hundred billion suns. Consider, then, that Hitler’s Holocaust, approximately eleven million people were eliminated, one million of them young children. Stalin, about the same time of WWII, massacred more than ten million peasants. Pol Pot, during the sixties and seventies, wiped out a couple million within Cambodia; and, in China, Mao Zedong’s “Great Leap Forward” beginning in the late fifties would reduce that nation’s population by an estimated forty-five million. Numbers. Is really no more than a matter of numbers? I sat in a Science class Friday morning and watched a video with my students, one where a Christian scientist discussed DNA and RNA in terms of it having God’s thumb print there in the details. Each and every one of us know a different combination of what makes us who we are, but the schematics, in general, hold about three and a half billion specifics inserted into that microscopic piece of our identity. Does that make us “special” among everything else in God’s creation? A frog is put together in accordance with thirty-eight billion directional instructions; and a common fern requires much more than that! That which separates us from all else is not that which perishes, but that which is eternal; and, while it does not “elevate” us in any manner, it does “distinguish” us. We are made in His image, stamped with His signature; but, beyond that, we were created to know Him within our existence. In America, more and more, the next generation faces a struggle to retain that truth. They need more than our denominational statement of faith. Somehow Christ “in” me must be a reality that overflows into their vessel, not merely a message I preach, a demand for them to conform unto my thinking……

"Interrogatives........................"

The young Third Grade student was sorting ten different animals into their correct classification and, in identifying the snake as a reptile, assigned it, for a trait, the fact of having scales all over its body. Then he looked at me quizzically, wanting to know why that was so; and, me being wise in my seventy-three years of existence, I answered “because that’s the way God created it”. Enough said; or so I thought. A few seconds later when he tried to assign a whale the label of “fish”, my informing him that, because it needed oxygen to live and was actually coming to the surface to breathe air, it was a mammal, brought me another look. “Well,” he almost snorted at me; “God certainly messed that one up, didn’t He!”…. Amusing; but the story is, it seems to me, representative of all of us when it comes to whatever mental image we hold of this One who is said to have, in the beginning, formed this whole scenario out of nothing. We possess only the Word and the journey in as much as we have known it. The initial item gets filtered through our individual brains in as much as we choose to think for ourselves; and that process, then, tends to be influenced to some degree by the second, life giving us lessons that test what our church and our favorite celebrity preacher has stuffed into our reasoning. Questions? There will always be questions since the subject matter cannot be contained by any inclusive definition we attempt to give it. In truth, whatever form we presently maintain for our Maker must always be one under construction in as much each and every day is another step through the veil. We learn as we go if we remain open to His tug on our reins. This is as much a part of “encounter” as anything else! It speaks to us of “life” in our vessel beyond just “me, myself, and I”; and when circumstances beg for explanation, it is assurance that, whether or not I understand all that is going on around me, what is going on within me is a security unto my soul. This is what the old need to teach the young, not by thumping the Book, but by living the lesson before them. If I fail in that, math and science and all else falls short of giving them what they’ll need in the road before them…..