Disturb Us

I stumbled accross this today. It intrigued me as I read so that I read with increasing attention and interest, fully expecting to see that the author was some peer or contemporary of ours who clearly understood exactly the unease that comes with familliarity and smooth sailing.

As I write this, I think of a brother who was just lamenting how tall the waves are where he is, and how dark the night. Hang on, brother, God wants to reveal Himself to you there. Your difficulty is no accident and your family are needy to see you boldly holding fast to what you know is true in the absence of so much as a ray from a distant lighthouse.

I myself am in choppy seas with gusty unpredictable winds. I have sought familliar shelter through rest, through dear friends, through worship... but they have not satisfied me. Perhaps now I know why. My Master repeats His invitation to Peter to me, "Come" (Matt 15:29). Not so that I learn to walk on water, Peter failed there too. But rather that I learn to look to the Master.

Disturb us, Lord, when

We are too well pleased with ourselves,

When our dreams have come true

Because we have dreamed too little,

When we arrived safely

Because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when

With the abundance of things we possess

We have lost our thirst

For the waters of life;

Having fallen in love with life,

We have ceased to dream of eternity

And in our efforts to build a new earth,

We have allowed our vision

Of the new Heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,

To venture on wider seas

Where storms will show your mastery;

Where losing sight of land,

We shall find the stars.

We ask You to push back

The horizons of our hopes;

And to push into the future

In strength, courage, hope, and love.

Sir Francis Drake - 1577

Where do you think we go when we die?

I happened accross an interesting forum this morning, asking "Where do you think we go when we die?" I responded after reading the first page or so of responses with the following:

The fact that the question troubles all humankind so deeply suggests that it is not a cultural, geographical or age related question. It is born out of who we are and where we come from. I as an engineer and a student of nature cannot believe that things got better and better without any train wrecks until the amoeba that crawled out of the primordial ooze finally became a human. The idea of an intelligent creator appeals to me and I find it to be consistent with all that I see around me.

The Bible claims to be the self revelation of that creator to his creation and as has been mentioned above, specifies that there are two eternal dwelling places, to one of which every person will eventually go. It also lays out a history of how this came to be and a path to get to heaven. Heaven is desireable to me because it is "good". Therfore, if everyone gets in, including the Hitlers... it doesn't seem like where I want to be.

I understand that the idea of reincarnation or just ceasing to exist is desireable at some level, because it takes away eternal responsability for your actions and decisions... but again I cannot fathom that it is possible to live like I want without consequence.

THEREFORE, I believe that everyone will go either to heaven or to hell and I hope that you will pursue heaven... I'd love to meet you there.

What do YOU think?

Wonderful to me!

Your comments both here and to my e mail are so encouraging and I love each of you (even the ones that don't respond!). So many of your names cross my lips as I thank God for the people he has used to bless my life.

segue About 6 months ago, I had a dream that a brother and sister in the Lord were expecting. I mentioned it to them at the time and we all chuckled about it and I completely forgot about it. So imagine my surprise when they called last week to say that they are expecting!

There is an old Jewish saying, "Man plans and God laughs" In this case, I think we're all having a good hearty laugh because what for SO long seemed impossible has turned out to my faithless eyes to be possible with God (just as He said it was all along). So my friends who've been married quite a while are now in the throws of re-arranging their lives and their house to make ready for this new gift of God.

Sometimes, these little things just tickle me and I wind up driving down the road or in the middle of something completely unrelated and suddenly laughing out loud and saying, "WOW, God, You are so wonderful to me!"

These footsteps want to stay

Wow, friends

long time no writing from me. The light at the end of the tunnel is in view (and it is not an oncoming locomotive)

I have had the Jim Croce song "One less set of footsteps" running around in my head all morning and particularly the line

But tomorrows a dream away
Today has turned to dust
Your silver tongue has turned to clay
And your golden rule to rust

which I found easily at www.jimcroce.com. It is an interesting site as I had no idea about who he was, what forces shaped him and what legacy he (unexpectedly) left. But all that aside

As one with a 'gift of gab', I am wondering how easily I might lead someone to the same conclusion "Your silver tongue has turned to clay" and the one following it "your golden rule to rust" which really bothers me more.

I really am not all that concerned about what anyone thinks of me. I don't mean that as coldly as it sounds, really. But I do worry about the impact my life has on others' perceptions of the Golden Rule and all the good and godly things that reside nearby.

Have I ever ticked you off or let you down? Is there anything I can do to make amends?

Faithful is He...

I have a regular speaking engagement each month in the elementary chapel at my son's school. I have been working my way through the book of II Timothy with them under the title 27 Imperatives from Second Timothy. It continues to amaze the teachers, faculty and me that first through fifth graders can absorb and enjoy exegesis -- a literal verse by verse exposition of the Scriptures as described in Nehemiah 8:8

So last Friday was my first visit of this school year and after a brief introduction and refresher, we got to the topic at hand, chapter 2 verses 11-13. We can talk about this in detail if you like, but the bottom line is that this quotation is likely a Baptismal recitation of the early church.
- Verse 11 draws the picture of our decision to follow Christ and our transformation from death to life.
- The first half of Verse 12 points to the tie between suffering and reward
- The second half of Verse 12 draws out the reality that I can make a wilful choice for Christ for the wrong reasons or in a half-hearted way and wind up 'backing out' later
- Verse 13 is the Ah-h-h-h at the end of all that. 'If we are faithless...' It is were I live and probably where you live too. We've made a sincere decision to follow and yet we blow it. We don't set out to be faithless, but that is so often what I am. And to this Paul adds the comfort: 'He will remain faithful for he cannot disown Himself.'

It's insanely busy here just now and my quiet times have suffered and in the hunger pangs that surface from that, the Spirit brings back to me that "If (or more accurately for us: When) I am faithless, He will remain faithful for he cannot disown Himself."

Thank you, Oh my Father
For giving us Your Son
And leaving Your Spirit 'til
Your work on earth is done

There is nothing that is in front of you or I today that we cannot be victorious over. Not because we're all that, but because "He who promised is faithful, He will bring it to pass". Some stuff might not get done the way we think it should or when we think it should, we may hear about how we botched something up, but we can walk in the absolute assurance that being obedient to the Word and to the leading of the Holy Spirit as they together seek to conform us into the image of Jesus Christ is the Victorious thing to do.

Thank you for hearing me today

Don't watch if you want to be unmoved

This is a little grisley. I don't recommend it for young kids, though they've seen much more violence in their TV shows. But I titled it correctly: Don't watch if you want to be unmoved.

Your brother writes because I love you...

http://www.ksbj.org/eblogs/afternoonShow/?p=86

When prayers go "unanswered"

Today I write with questions and few answers. There have been any number of times in my life and doubtless yours too, when I have asked God to heal this person or change this circumstance and He has. And yes, I am grateful for every one. But the troublesome thing for every person on the face of the planet, I think, is "unanswered prayer" Now I'm not naive enough to think that they really are unanswered... I am fully aware that all prayers are answered it's just that some get answered "No" and others "Not now"

My brother and I lost our mom to complications of breast cancer when we were 19 and 21 respectively. She was 42 (same age I am now)

We lost dad in 2003 to complications of a heart attack and consequent bypasses (can't remember how many). He was 72.

Two months ago, my Aunt passed away after a lengthy and painful battle with cancer. We took it as a merciful answer to her desire to be done with the pains of this earth and be reunited with her Lord and her loved ones gone before.

Last week we lost my wife's 42 year old second cousin Amy to cancer of the uterus, discovered only 2 weeks ago.

In each case, the person lived a clear testimony of personal faith in Jesus Christ and therefore, we have the calm assurance of Second Corinthians 5:8 that for the believer to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord and of First Thessalonians 4:13 and following that we will meet again and share an eternity of joyful worship.

Yet each time this has happened, my sense of loss has been more profound than the last. I never met Amy. I had heard of her grim diagnosis and her progresses and setbacks, but her passing hit me like having the wind knocked out of me. I really expected a "Yes"

When my aunt died, I promised my uncle and cousin that I would call in a couple months when everything had settled down. That should be now. But I don't feel ready. Perhaps now is a good time because all the lofty sounding answers aren't there and I can say with them, "this hurts... a lot..." and "I don't know when the hurt will stop..." Thankfully I can also say that I don't remember how or when, but it does fade and the good memories don't (so much). So in balance, it does get better with time, I think.

I went to the hospital to see my mom on the morning she died. She was almost unresponsive... there are tears as I remember... I said, "Mom, it's Kevin..." she said "A, B, C, D..... Jesus loves me..." It was the last thing she said. I never knew her to lie.

Jesus loves me...

Your hurting brother is done rambling now.