Why couldn't I have been...

.Taller?

..Prettier?

...Richer?

....Older (or younger)?

.....Blonde (brunette, redhead, whatever)?

......Healthier?

...Almost everyone has asked these, or similar, questions at one time or another. Surely, we think, God could have made me more acceptable to ME. Why did He give me what I consider to be obvious defects?

...Perhaps we should look at His words on the subject; "I knew you before you were formed within your mother's womb; before you were born..." (Jer 1:5)tlb or if you prefer a more traditional; "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb..." (Jer 1:5)kjv.

...Now, He wasn't speaking specifically to you. His audience, at that time was a kid named "Jeremiah" who went on to become one of the great prophets of the Old Testament. Does this mean it cannot apply to you?

...God has made every single grain of sand, drop of water, plant, animal and human, since the beginning of time. If you think about it, He has the blueprints for everyone He has ever made, and ever will! If He really wanted another Abraham Lincoln, Queen Nefertiti, Alexander the Great or Marilyn Monroe, He already has that set of plans on hand. Nope, He wanted you! It is never up to us to second guess God's design.

...It tears me up to hear of a baby born deformed or retarded. My heart aches when I run across a deaf child or one with a horrible genetic defect that will make his or her life miserable. Through it all, we have to keep this in the forefront of our thoughts, "It is God's plan." Not yours, not mine... God's! It behooves us to remember that He has a reason... always. The reason may be nothing more than that we turn to Him more.

...You are unique for a reason. That reason is God's. He sees you a His wonderful creation. You are a joy He made because He wanted you. Most of all, He wanted you to be who and what you are. Is it so terrible to be a "God original design?"

...He loves you! You are a one-of-a-kind, limited production item. His effort went into making you exactly what you are. Be proud of who and what you are. Just remember to thank Him for all His work!

...Look at it from another perspective, you could have been a three-toed sloth, a slime mold or a malaria virus. He has all those plans, too.

Satan's "secret agents"

If you read the bible, you know the Antichrist is coming. He is bringing with him 7 years of horrible misery in preparation for Christ's return in glory.

Careful reading of the scriptures reveals that there will also be "antichrists" (lower case).

Just who are these? They will be precursors to the Antichrist. In effect, they will be forerunners, here to establish the playing field for Satan's attempt at a takeover of theworld. Keep in mind that the devil's goal is not to make the world permanently his, but rather, to keep souls from God. Period.

A while back, I worked with such an individual. Very abrasive, lied constantly, demanded his own way (no matter what), he brought misery to those around him. And yet, many others thought him God's gift to the workforce. He was very capable of making others see his way as the only right way. and was extremely abusive to those who managed to see him for what he was. I put in a lot of prayer time, trying to deal with this individual. I even received an answer to those prayers, although it was not exactly what I expected (or hoped for). I heard a brief flash of, "Be at peace, He has it under control."

You probably already have met with a (lower case) antichrist. They seem to be everywhere, even in politics. What you might not expect is that are quite a few who are active in churches. Think about it! Where else can Satan reap such a harvest? By working in churches he can strip away souls that might otherwise end up belonging to God.

If you run into an individual who lies with ease, is willing to emotionally hurt others (especially children), or tries to belittle others to his (or her) own benefit, that person may very well be a (lower case) antichrist! This may be true, even if he is a family member. Don't let the spiritual bio-hazard get you down. Take it to the Lord in prayer. Frequently. Oh, and don't expect God's answer to be just what you want to hear.

Watch out for the worm holes!

It has been a while since I've posted. I will explain why at some future date.

For some time now I've been wondering just how to explain the difference between good and evil to a child. We understand that God expects certain behavior from us, and mostly we try to live up to His expectations. But, how to put it into language that a little kid could understand?

Out of the blue, it hit me... We know God will not look upon evildoers. His goodness is withheld from them, they live in Satan's world, not God's.

So, here it is...

The ground is like the dividing line between good and evil. God is above, smiling down on His creation. The devil is below the ground, trying to trick us and lure us down, below the ground, away from God. We are all like happy little worms, wriggling along on top of the ground, enjoying the warmth of God's love. Now and then, we find a tunnel going down. It leads away from God, but we usually don't think about that. We just think, "Oh look! Here is this neat hole to play in." So, we go, just a little bit, away from God. Probably we don't think about it at the time, it just looks like a great way to have fun. Before you know it, though, you're in the dark, and away from God. Soon, you don't remember the way back up. Its OK down here, isn't it?

But, you are away from God, His goodness, His love and His blessings. You have to get out of the hole to get back to God. Sometimes He will help by putting big rocks in your way, so that you will remember just how nice it was on the surface. Sometimes, though, He knows you will ignore Him, because that is the way worms get when they want only their own way.

So, how does the little worm go back to being God's good little worm? It has to be sorry it went down the hole, tell God it is sorry, and then work its way back out of the dirt, back into God's love and light.

So, what's the moral?

- Be a good worm and watch out for Satan's worm holes! -

Witnessing in real life

A few months back, my much loved granddaughter wrote a letter to the president. In it she expressed her views on the environment and ecology, after which she wrote (exactly as shown here),
"I am a Christian. I love God. Did you know God sent His Son to die on a cross for our sins so we can be forgiven."

Incredible!

Absolutely amazing!

The vast majority of Christians NEVER get around to witnessing to anyone, and here is a 3rd grader witnessing to the president of the United States! Set aside your political feelings (whatever they are) and, just for a moment, consider the awesome possibilities here...

Remember, Paul was turned from persecuting, torturing and murdering early Christians into the greatest witness for Christ EVER! What could God work in our world with a man who became a true Christian while holding the highest office of the most powerful nation in the world?
It is totally humbling...

We've all heard the expression "out of the mouths of babes," here we see the true meaning of that phrase.

I am not one who believes in exposing children to even the slightest chance of personal harm, so allow me to address her in this manner;
"My Princess, I am so proud of you! I love you very much! You are the heroine I will always think of when I am faced with difficult tasks. I pray as constantly as I can that God uses your beautiful testimony to effect a change for the better in this man, and through him, our world."
I ask all who read this to join me in prayer that this happens.

"Father, thank You for the opportunity to see such sincere, simple faith in action. I feel overcome that You have allowed me to be even a small part of Your plan. Please keep Your hand of protection over this child, and all children. Please help me to love, trust, and follow You with a heart like that of this child. Amen."

Mr Mike

Witnessing 101

What is the most "emotionally difficult" thing you've ever done?

For most Christians it is achieving salvation, then we feel the rest is easy. Now we can kick back, relax, do a little church... our part is done! The problem is that Jesus expects us to be good stewards. He wants us to invest our "talent" on His behalf! Nearly everybody gets real nervous at the idea!

Does God really want me to talk to strangers? What if they laugh at me? What if they think I'm a nerd, or just stupid? I wouldn't know what to say! Hey! They've probably heard it all before, maybe they already know more than me!

What if the other person tries to convince me that I'm wrong? What a scary thought! Everybody makes fun of you if you're wrong! I hate to be wrong!

As many of you already know. I am rather multi-cultural. My ancestors are mostly Irish and American-Indian. I grew up in a town that was almost 3/4 Mexican-American. My best friend, of about 40 years, is African-American, and his wife (when I first met him) was Caribbean. I spent most of my service years in the Orient, Southeast-Asia, and Polynesia. I am pretty good at absorbing local flavoring everywhere I go, so I am something of a smorgasbord, maybe you'd call me culturally eclectic.

One thing that has always surprised me, is how similar the legends are in many cultures. Let me share a couple of examples with you from the Cherokee...



"The Legend of the First Woman"

For a time the man was very happy on earth. He roamed around and ate the fruits and berries and he visited the animals and he saw all his homeland. There was much to learn and the earth was beautiful. But before long the man grew discontented and he became very unhappy. He didn't know what his disease was, bit it was a disease that we still have. He was bored.

When he got bored, he used his mind and his strength differently. he shot arrows at the deer without really needing to. He picked the plants and didn't use them. He tore up the animals' dens just to see if he could do it. And soon the animals became concerned about the new creature.

The animals called a council meeting to try to determine what to do. They said they thought this creature was supposed to have respect for other creatures, that he was given a mind. A little insect said, "Wait, you haven't thought this out. The Great One made him; let's ask him what to do." This seemed to be a good idea. They called to the Great One to help them with the new "superior" creature.

The owl said, "You told us the man has a mind and he is to respect us."

The deer said, "I don't want to be disrespectful, but you told us the man would need more of us deer than any other animal. If he keeps killing us like he is now, very soon he won't have any deer left."

"Oh," said the Great One, "thank you, thank you. I had not thought about something I left out in this man."

The bear said, "Look at him right now. He's lying out in the sun with his face up. No animal will sleep right out in the open. We all know to go into a private, guarded place to rest."

The Great One said, "Yes, there is something missing because I was in such a hurry to make him. But I know what is missing."

"Stand back," he said. He made a green plant to grow up tall. The plant grew up right over the man's heart, up toward the Heavens. It was a plant with long, graceful leaves and then an ear and a golden tassel. Above the tall plant was a woman, a beautiful, tall, brown woman growing from the stalk of strong corn.

The man woke up and thought he was dreaming. He rubbed his eyes and said, "This is not true. In a minute I'll wake up and be just as bored as I was before. Oh, I am so lonely."

The Great One sort of kicked him in the behind. "Get up you lazy thing," the Great One said. "Be a man for your lady" Now no one had any reason to think this man was a mannerly individual. Recently he had certainly not been acting like a real gentleman. But we don't have to be taught manners: We need someone to expect the best from us and we use the manners the Great One has already given us. So the man got up, brushed himself off, and gallantly offered his hand to the woman who came down from the stalk of corn.

The Great One remembered that although each man will sometimes need to be alone, each man will also need companionship to be his best.

Perhaps, it will be just a bit more familiar, when told this way...

"Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, to the east, and placed in the garden the man He had formed. The Lord God planted all sorts of beautiful trees there in the garden, trees producing the choicest of fruit. At the center of the garden He placed the Tree of Life, and also the Tree of Conscience, giving knowledge of Good and Bad. A river from the land of Eden flowed through the garden to water it..."
(GEN 2:8-10) tlb

"And the Lord God said, 'It isn't good for man to be alone; I will make a companion for him, a helper suited to his needs. So the Lord God formed from the soil every kind of animal and bird, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever he called them, that was their name. But still there was no proper helper for the man. Then the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep, and took one of his ribs and closed up the place from which He had removed it, and made the rib into a woman, and brought her to the man. 'This is it!' Adam exclaimed. 'She is part of my own bone and flesh! Her name is "woman" because she was taken out of a man.' This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife in such a way that the two become one person."
(GEN 2:18-24) tlb


...and then we have...

"The Legend of the Deluge"

A long time ago a man had a dog, which began to go down to the river every day and look at the water and howl. At last the man was angry and scolded me dog, which then spoke to him and then said: "Very soon there is going to be a great downfall and the water will come so high that everybody will be drowned; but if you will make a raft to get upon when the rain comes you can be saved, but you must first throw me into the water." The man did not believe it, and the dog said, " If you want a sign that I speak the truth, look at the back of my neck." He looked and saw that the dog's neck had the skin worn off so that the bones stuck out.

Then he believed the dog, and began to build a raft.

Soon the rain came and he took his family, with plenty of provisions, and they all got upon it. It rained for a long time, and the water rose until the mountain were covered and all the people in the world were drowned. Then the rain stopped and the waters with down again, until at last it was safe to come off the raft. Now there was no one alive but the man and his family, but one day they heard a sound of dancing and shouting on the other side of the ridge. The man climbed to the top and looked over; everything was still, but all along the valley he saw great piles of bones of the people who had been drowned, and then he knew that the ghosts had been dancing.

Once again, there is a somewhat more familiar version...

"And God said to Noah, "I have determined to make an end of all flesh; for the earth is filled with violence through them; behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make yourself an ark of gopher wood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch."
(GEN 6:13-14)rsv

"For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life from under heaven; everything that is on the earth shall die." (GEN 6:17)rsv

"And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female."
(GEN 6:19)rsv

"And rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights."
(GEN 7:12)rsv

"And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, birds, cattle, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm upon the earth, and every man; everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died."
(GEN 7:21-22)rsv

"In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry."
(GEN 8:14)rsv

"So Noah went forth, and his sons and his wife and his sons wives went with him."
(GEN 8:18)rsv

You know these stories, and you know there is a lot more to them than any legend could contain. It is relatively easy to see why there are differences. Our Bibles' Old Testaments were originally written in Hebrew and Aramaic, whose written languages have existed for many thousands of years. Cherokee legends, on the other hand, were passed down from Story Woman to Story Woman for many thousands of years, and only became written down a few hundred years ago when their syllabic alphabet was invented. This made them much more prone to error. It is interesting to note that, even so, there is much similarity in the Indian legends, despite the separation of nearly half the earth, and countless generations.

But, what does this have to do with us?

If you were to go to the other side of the planet, five thousand years from now, and find that those people have a distorted view of what your country, and what your life were really like, wouldn't you feel the need to correct their misconceptions? To set your country's history straight? You bet you would!

And that is what God asks us to do; to set His record straight with people, and make sure they know the way to heaven, just as we do. He is counting on all of us. Make Him proud.

"And He was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled down, and prayed. Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. And being in agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground." LUKE 22:41-44 kjv

I have been "adopted" by several children. In each case, the kid said something like, "I wish you’d been MY grandpa. Could you, would you, be my grandpa?"

The emotional overload is incredible! My eyes watered up. My heart pounded! A wave of nearly indescribable feeling washed over me! I could not have said "no" to any of them any more than I could have flapped my arms and flown to the moon!

(A by-product of this is that I now understand how important it is to a woman to have someone ask for her hand, in marriage.)

Each of these children occupies a permanent, special place in my heart. Each is the subject of a great deal of prayer-time. I love them all just as if they had actually been my kids or grandkids. In some ways, perhaps a bit more, just because they asked. Because they are neither relatives, nor dependants, I can do nothing for them from a legal standpoint, so I worry about them even more.

When problems arise in their lives, especially because there is absolutely nothing I can do about those problems, it feels as though a tremendous weight has been dropped heavily onto my neck and shoulders. I wish I could take on their burdens. I wish there were some magic button I could push to fix everything instantly, but, of course, there is not. (A good friend once told me that I have the worst case of "White Knight Syndrome" he’s ever seen.)

When all you can do in this world is to hurt for someone you care deeply about, prayer is the first and only answer. Most guys aren’t made this way. We want to grab the problem by the horns, do battle, and emerge victorious!

All of us who are Christians are "adoptees" of Christ. By virtue of our asking Him to be our Saviour, and accepting His sacrifice, we have become His. He loves each and every one of us far more than I ever could any of the children who’ve "adopted" me. I know of no limit as to what I would do to protect any of "my kids," but Jesus did so much more!

What a matchless example of love our God is! Kneeling, praying in the garden, Jesus knew the trouble we would get into. He knew that many would fail and never make it to heaven. He knew the endless pitfalls that Satan has laid out for us, and He knew we would fail Him repeatedly. He still paid the price.

Are we worth it? Any honest person would have to say that not one of us is. Yet, He still paid the price! He carried our load of guilt, took the blame for us, and died in our place!

All you have to do is accept this incredible sacrifice, knowing that sin has made each of us unworthy, but He did it anyway! Then, get out and tell everyone else. God wants us all to be "adopted."

See you soon, in Paradise!

Keep OFF the Beaten Path!

Time to go to work… hop into the car and go! Shopping with the kids… into the SUV and away we go! Planning a visit with the in-laws in the next town is no problem, thirty-five miles is an easy drive, right? Some new pants and a blouse or two is just a quick hop over to Stuff-Mart. Life goes on, same as always.

All our day-to-day traveling needs, regardless of destination, involve transit upon streets and highways. We are very comfortable with this arrangement, so comfortable, in fact, that we often feel we could travel these roadways blindfolded.

If it were not for these wonderful streets and freeways, we would have to blaze new paths every time we needed to go somewhere. It is much easier to follow the existing pathways, isn’t it?

Our spiritual lives are very much the same. Doing what God wants us to do, that which we know to be the right thing, involves our blazing new pathways. We have to ignore the smooth, easy, wide thoroughfare that already exists. Many times this easy roadway, the path of sin, is the one we have followed throughout our entire lives. Great or small, we have all sinned, further "improving" the way "that leads to destruction."

What does the Word have to say about this?
MATT 7:13-14 "Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few." rsv

It is too easy to follow sin’s existing path. It is very hard to leave the trail behind and forge a new one where we’ve never gone before. In times of stress it is much easier to follow the familiar roadways.

So… where are we all going? And what are we doing in this hand basket?

I am as guilty as everyone else. Let your guard down just a bit, hard times, poor health, physical or mental pain, and guess what? Back to the old, familiar ways…

Fight the temptation to go the easy way! Get off the road! Search for the narrow path, the one that is difficult to travel. The reward is beyond measure!

See you soon, in Paradise!