Creatures of Faith

Yep! That's what we are. We have tried to attribute our ability to achieve or succeed to things like positive thinking, over achieving or commitment but in reality those are just elements of faith. Faith is what sets us out on daring adventures. Faith is the kick starter of all our dreams. We first believe that we can achieve something and in response we appropriately apply action and commitment until we succeed. The Wright brothers first believed in the idea that man could fly. They observed the aerodynamics of bird flights and believed that they could create a machine that could duplicate the flight of a bird. In essence, they copied God's precision flying creation called the bird and made a man made version. They failed many times early on but stayed with it because they had faith in what they were doing. So yes, airplanes are here as an act of faith.

The Bible says that faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen. In other words, faith says, "Hang in there, you can't see it yet but it's right around the corner." The "hang in there" is our part. We are creatures that were made to believe that all things are possible and their is no limit to our faith. There are times when we mis-apply our faith. Bank robbers believe that they can pull off the perfect heist. That flaw in our being has been widely proclaimed as the "Sin-Factor" but that doesn't diminish the fact that God created us as creatures of faith and He has literally given us all the freedom in the world to excercise our faith.

Applying our faith to the right things is what we need to get a handle on. Everybody dreams about something. Everybody envisions themselves as somebody. Everyone that I know really love to see other people accomplish their dreams. We love to see people receive awards. We love to see a team win the Super Bowl. Why? I believe that it is because God made us creatures of faith. The worst thing that we can do to the human race is create an atmosphere of skepticism because that strips us of our God given desire to believe and live out our beliefs.

If you have a dream and the sin-factor is not involved then go for it and hang in there. It's a precious gift from a loving God. Now that is something to Praise the Lord about!

My Generation, The 1960's

Yep! That's my time. The 1960's were adventurous times for the young people of that era. I can remember growing up in the late 50's with a fear of Communist Russia. I remember the warnings that we were given all the way back to elementary school. The Cold War between the USA and Russia was a huge current event topic. The assassination of President Kennedy was another jolt to my generation along with killings of Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King. The Kent State University shootings along with the prolonged Vietnam war just added to the trauma that produced a fearful generation of young people.

We were primed to unify into something that would give us security. It turned out to be Rock'n Roll music and the philosophies of many of it's songwriters and in particular the Beatles. We didn't always behave properly but our unity was strong and we became a very close knit generation. We became anti-establishment because the things that were supposed to bring us security were scaring the daylights out of us with all those assassinations, killings, and especially the Vietnam War. Many of my generation felt that they were deceived and betrayed by Big Brother. The church got mad at us and the Beatles because we were questioning our culture and challenging some of it's core beliefs. There was a revolution going on for sure.

I envision this happening to the American church someday. A generation that will come and have a stronger voice. A generation that will demand to be heard. Maybe they too will have a different kind of music. Not the commercial renditions that you hear in the church today but music that will challenge the establishment. Songs that don't have to be recorded in a studio. Songs that will sing about the truth and freedom that only God can give. The truth and freedom that cannot be contained within four walls on a Sunday morning. A truth that when spoken will set people free.

Once a 60's guy, always a 60's guy I guess.

Oh Lord, Send us a generation of young people that can do that!

Thanks for checkin in'

Friendship...

Don't take for granted those that you call friend for God has given them as gifts to you.

In Him...

In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

Yes, in Christ we find that the essence of life and the spirit of life that exists in mankind is really Him and that He is the one that illuminates our being. He is the author of our being. Maybe now we can better comprehend why He gave himself as a sacrifice for our sin because He had to repair our broken relationship with the Father. He was the one called from the trinity to rescue us from our fallen state because from the very beginning in Him was the light of man.

Make no mistake about it, Jesus Christ has had total ownership of mankind from the very beginning and so some day whether on this earth or in the hereafter every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that He is Lord.

So when we read John 1:4, we really see the proclamation of Jesus Christ as not only the creator of mankind but the light that causes us to exist. In some ways it is a scientific explanation as well as a spiritual explanation for our existence. Literally, His life was the life that was breathed into the body of Adam that made him a living soul.

In Him was Life; and the life was the light of men

What is God Saying?

What is God saying and whose responsibility is it to communicate first? It is quite obvious to me that most folks really don't know what God is saying or what God is really about these days. I can identify with this clueless majority more often than not but it's not because I don't have a clue. With me, it's more about the business of life in America. Whether we are busy or not busy the question still remains. What's up with God? Are we afraid to know? Are we dis-interested? Is it hard to fathom that God would be interested in little old me when I am one out of billions walking the earth. All of these things tend to slow us down for sure. When I get stuck in understanding the things of God I always go back to his fatherhood and how and why he created us. It appears that we are the extended family of the triune God and that our natural family unit represents some sort of likeness to the family unit in heaven called the trinity.

When I look at the family unit and watch the progression in the relationship between the father and his children then I can see a hint of what God wants. When we are a child our mother and father initiate most of the conversations. Dar and I had our 18 month old grandson over the house yesterday and we are constantly trying to get him to say different things. He calls me PaPa and boy does that make my heart tickle. I believe that the natural family runs parallel to the spiritual family that God has as well. When we are young babies in the Lord we receive the benefit of Him talking to us more. If you have never experienced that then you really need to look and see if you were ever truly born anew. A child like response is quite evident when we are newborns in the Lord.

As we grow older in our natural family our conversations begin to change and they become more of a mutual exchange. When we leave our parents nesting place and go out on our own then it seems to be more of our onus to get in touch with them. Look at your spiritual life in the same way and you should be able to see a simaler time line and pattern. I find myself to be out of the nest for a long time now and so it is my responsibility to pursue God. This is maturity. This is what God wants for all of us. He always wants us to choose Him. He gets great satisfaction out of being our choice with our own free will. That is perfect love to Him. If we are expecting Him to force himself upon us then we do not understand the benefit of the freedom that He gave us and the reason that he made us that way. We really do make our own way. We are free because He made us free and because of that freedom we have made some costly mistakes but just like our natural father He welcomes us back and sets us straight because He loves more than we will ever know.

What is God saying? I know one thing that He is saying loud and clear.

He is saying "Come To Me".

He yearns to have relationship with each and every one of us but quite honestly for the majority of us it's up to us to seek Him out. The journey back to God is what life is all about and we don't want to wait until the end of our years to start the journey.

The Decision....

The fervor of a new life in Christ had ebbed a bit while trying to establish a fellowship with Carlo. I was tring to fit into what he was doing. I knew that he needed me and loved having our young crowd join in but I began losing patience with all of it. The passion for Jesus was still there but was severly interrupted by trying to interpret "church" the way Carlo was doing it. His preaching was long and boring but he seemed so impassioned by it all. We congregated in this big old white frame house right next to Carlo's gas station. We even had a Sunday School on the second floor. I began to resign myself to the fact that there apparently was a model or a system of church that was necessary to live out the Christian life in America. I was never raised in the church and so I knew little about it other than the obvious times that it met. I concluded that I was a novice in this area and that it might be good to try and fit into the systems that were already in place instead of just walking daily with Jesus. In my mind, Jesus must have had something to do with church in America. It was all supposed to be centered around Him anyway and so I began to make judgements based on this kind of reasoning.

As I looked at the situation, there were only two options. I could stay with Carlo or move back to Pittsburgh and join in on what Pastor Ron was doing. My heart was heavy. I loved West Virginia. I loved the culture. I loved the laid back feeling I got while hanging around the people. I had compassion for them. I just couldn't do the Carlo thing anymore and so I decided to move my family back to Pittsburgh. I have thought about this decision many times over the years. What would it have been like had I stayed?

Next up....

A New Beginning...

Food For Thought...

Here's some to start with....

1. Filet Mignon
2. Apple Pie
3. Lasagna
4. Roast Turkey
5. Pizza
6. Blueberry Pie
7. Pork Roast
8. Hamburgers and Hot Dogs
9. Ice Cream
10. Chili

Now start thinkin....

Could it be True?

The Bible says that the "Joy of the Lord is Our Strength".

This is found in Nehemiah 8:10. Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength."

Could this actually be true? One of my sons came up to me with a very revealing statement one day. He was in his teenage years and had been wrestling with all the things that young men have to contend with at that age. He said to me, "Dad, I love the two emotions that God gave us." "I love to laugh and I love to cry because it kind of gets everything out." When you think about it, it's true. Crying and laughing are kind of theraputic. They are real displays of raw emotion and we are no longer in hiding when they occur. We kind of get out of ourselves during those times.

I always feel a surge of strength and release after a good laugh. It seems to be vital to the human spirit. I think that it is true. Joy and hearty laughter were given to us to strengthening us and edify our being. If you are feeling weak, go find someone that can lighten things up a bit. They are God's gifts to us. God wants us strong so that we can endure a life full of obstacles. One of my favorites was Lou Costello. I would just look at him and laugh. Tim Conway had the same affect on me.

Yes, every once in a while it's good to party and draw strength from good fun loving relationships. A good joke can really get you going! Did you hear the one about the monkey?

Jesus As My Crutch.....

I remember many years ago how men in particular would often criticize religion and in particular Christianity. They would infer that religion was a crutch for weak people. It was all very manly and macho but in hindsight I now view the attitude displayed by those strong male critics as a clear indicator of what motivates self-made people. If it all begins and ends with us then we are the master of our own fate. That is partially true. If you look hard and long enough at what people are saying you can often find some truth. I think that the "Jesus is a Crutch" crowd really had something valid in their criticism while at the same time they were completely ingnorant of what a relationship with Jesus really means. The weakness that they perceived was probably irresponsibility. I know that I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt but underneath all the nasty stuff there lies some real truth. The Lord's desire for us is to mature and take on the likeness of His son. Mature son's and daughters no longer sit on the lap of their daddy. They are engaging life with all that they learned in their up bringing.

The relationship is different when we mature but we certainly can't go it alone without Jesus. As we mature we are now considered co-laborers with Christ. He actually elevated us to that level and yet so many of us struggle with the richness of our inheritance. We really can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens us and when that becomes active in the very center of our being we will see much of what has been lost completely restored. We lose strength and power apart from Christ. We fumble and struggle to live the Christian life without Him. It is impossible.

I am reading a book. It is fiction but it is full of wisdom and powerful trues. There is a chapter in the book about a man walking across the water with Jesus. When he was in partnership with Jesus he was able to walk across the lake right along side the master. Later on in the book he tries the same thing. He starts out on his own while Jesus was still at the shore. His first few steps weren't that successful. His feet sunk to the bottom. He looked back at Jesus and then saw Jesus step on the water and walk toward him. The closer Jesus got to him, the more his own steps started to rise up from the bottom until he was walking on top of the water once again. He didn't do so well by himself but he did just fine while walking with Jesus.

Jesus is not a crutch. He is our partner and brother as we mature. Yes, he is God for sure but remember Jesus became like us for our benefit and that still holds true today.

The Sacred Cow

I love to investigate the origins of some of the sayings that are deeply imbedded in our American language. For example; He couldn't hold a candle to him. I found the origin of this saying actually came from the medieval period. Kings lived in castles that were very dark inside especially during the night. The king had a special servant that would hold a candle to him at night so that he could find his way to the bathroom. If you were unworthy, then you couldn't hold a candle to the king. That makes a lot of sense and so now I understand what we mean when we use that saying.

We often use the word Sacred Cow to describe something that we hold close to our heart.

Here is the Wikipedia defintion of Sacred Cow

In Hinduism, the cow is often, but not universally, considered sacred and its protection is a recurrent theme in which the cow is symbolic of abundance, of the sanctity of all life and of the earth that gives much while asking nothing in return. Most Hindus respect the cow as a matriarchal figure for its gentle qualities and providing nurturing milk and its products for a largely vegetarian diet. It holds an honored place in society, and it is part of Hindu tradition to avoid the consumption of beef.

As noble as that definition sounds it really seems to be mis-applied. The cow's function in our world is selfless and nurturing to humanity but to make the cow sacred is really missing the point. The cow's creator had much more to do with the cow's function than the cow itself but what do we do? We worship the thing that was created, an all too familiar outcome.

I have observed and participated in the American Chuch culture for the last 35 years and I have seen what we hold dear to our heart. We have made a lot of things sacred in our churches that actually get in the way. Time honored sacred cows like Sunday morning church services, Sunday School, Bible Studies etc are deeply imbedded in our American church culture but do they play a larger role than necessary. None of these things are bad in themselves but I wonder what would happen to the average American's christianity if you took all these things away.

The real question that we need to ask ourselves is; What do we hold dear to our heart? If the culture that we have built is holding us together rather than our love for Jesus then we are just as deceived as the Hindu's are with their sacred cow. It really sounds sac-relgious to question the institutional church but the fruit of it's existence is becoming more and more evident to each new generation. We are losing ground with the young people. You won't notice the loss when you are plugged into the institution. It serves as a camaflouge to what's really happening in the world around it but most people are oblivious to this and are riding it out on the back of their sacred cow. There are many faithful to Jesus that still unselfishly give themselves to the institutional church in America. They are like missionaries and I am glad that they are there but God's desire is for us all to come into a unity of faith. We are just too scattered and divisive within the institutions. Take heart. The Lord is in control and our religious substitutes will all be gone someday and when they fall many will be devastated but the end result is that the church will become the bride that He wants and the one that He will eventually return for.

All Things...... John 1:3

A few weeks ago I posted an article about telephone poles and movies and traced their origin back to God. Communication is a human need created by the Lord and so we have just used God's creative genius within us to craft a worldwide communication system by connecting wires to telephone poles. Movies are stories and the Lord taught with parables and stories. Our modern day version of story telling has really expanded with elaborate technology and brand spanking new ways to bring movies into our home with huge flat screens and high definition.

There are those among us that look at the way we have advanced as out of balance and self-absorbing. Self absorption is a problem that never needed technology as a motivator and so I view our advancement as neither good or bad but rather the natural outcome of how we were created. John 1:3 says, All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. Most of us have looked at creation and often times been awe struck by what we see. One day I watched a bunch of ants carrying a pretzel. It almost looked impossible at first glance but the cooperative effort of about 200 of those little buggers did the job. It was amazing to watch. I wonder if they were singing a yo-heave ho(Volga boatman) kind of song while dragging that pretzel accross the hills and valleys next to my sidewalk. They could do that because they were "made" to do that. God gave them the ability to conquer the giant pretzel.

Think about it. Those were ants and look at what they were able to accomplish. The Lord gave us dominion over the critters and the earth and we too have accomplished a great deal with our authority over creation. I'm not going to go into a rant about the mess we have also made because that would be counter productive in viewing the 3rd verse of John 1. I am of the opinion that our God is extravagant in His love for us and because of that great love we have operated in such great freedom. Much of God's creation refuses to acknowledge Him but that doesn't stop Him from loving and watching every move that we make. Whether we acknowledge Him or not we are playing in His great symphomy called creation. He is the director and He knows every part that we play. His love for mankind has given us this great freedom to experiment with all that He created. All things were made by Him for our benefit. It's hard to imagine anyone having this much love but God so loves the world. It would be easy to reason that God made things and that we have made things as well but in reality nothing we made could ever exist had God not permitted us to inherit gifts and talents. We are made in his image, tarnished for sure but we live on this earth with an insataible desire to create and develop the world around us. This is all from God. He just let's us participate.

Going Back To the Burgh?

In spite of all the trials that we were going through, Dar and I, John and Marilyn planned on living our lives together somewhere in the panhandle of West Virginia. Dar and I just had our first baby boy and so we were serious about finding a new home. We loved our house in Follansbee but John, Marilyn, Dar and I wanted to live out in the country. John knew a place on Washinton Pike in Wellsburg called Shangri-la. Can you believe that name? There were lots for sale there and so we investigated the possibility of purchasing two lots side by side. The lots were heavily wooded and quite beautiful. It was our dream to raise our children together in the Lord and so we pursued the possibility of purchasing these two lots. Carlo knew a brother in the Lord who was a home builder and so we ask him to assist us in our pursuit. The home builder was very agressive and saw no problem with us building on these two lots. Before we knew it, ground was broken for John and Marilyn's lot while Dar and I sold our house in Follansbee and ended up living in a duplex owned by this builder. We were making this a temporary place to stay until our house was built. That's when things fell apart.

Apparently, the land didn't pass for a sand mound sewage system and so construction was halted on John and Marilyns house while Dar and I were stuck in this itty bitty duplex with a bouncing baby boy. Our dream was shattered and we just sold our house in order to make it all happen. I couldn't believe what had just taken place. Where was the Lord in all this? Why did this happen? All of those kinds of questions filled my head. I was in great despair over many things at this time. Our fellowship was absorbed by the Branch Christian Center. We lost our home. I didn't know what to do.

I would often make trips back to the Burgh to see Pastor Ron's new church. He had just left the Christian Missionary Alliance and was having church in a fire hall in the North Hills of Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh looked like a viable option. After all, that's where it all started. I was vulnerable and needy and desparate for some kind of leading. It finally came and to this day I cannot be certain that it was the Lord. One of the members of Pastor Ron's church was an ex-biker and long haired hippie. He came up to me one Sunday while visiting and said that he thought the Lord wanted me to come back to the Burgh. I was vulnerable for sure and pondered that invitation for several weeks.

You can see what life does to us and our decision making. Life fills us full of choices and the sowing and reaping of those choices determine much of our path. I was in turmoil over what to do. I loved West Virginia. I loved the friendships that I had there but it seemed like those were slowly being taken away from me. I was too young in the Lord to really understand spritual warfare but in hindsight I would have to say that the enemy was setting mine fields all around me back then. God in His mercy was protecting me from any major disaster but I can look back now and see that the real drama in life unfolds in these kind of situations. This is how our story develops. Our life is our story.

Next up.....

The Decision