It's Not A Requirement To Have A Great Voice

The sun was shining Friday morning as I was driving from Kalamazoo to Grand Rapids.

Jackie and I had just finished a stretch of 11 straight evenings with family,  praying for our nephew Matt who is lost on Mt. Fuji.  As happens in situations like this, your world stops.  It wasn't just evening prayer.  It was through the day between work and in the middle of the night when you wake up prayer.  On top of that our daughter Becky set up a "Please pray for Matt Johnson" group site on Face Book that grew to over 3000 members.  Many people posted prayers, stories and encouragement, and I read them all.

It finally came to a point Wednesday night where searchers had covered all logical areas where Matt could still be found alive, but came up empty.  We believe that the God who made the mountains can move them as well, that Matt is with Him, and that He will be glorified through this.  But we grieve for Matt and for his family.

So I'm driving to Kalamazoo on that beautiful Friday morning, just praising God out loud, and this is lifting my spirits.  After I get to work I phone Jackie who seemed to be down that morning to tell her to get out of the house, get in her car, and drive somewhere like Holland and just praise the Lord.  She decides to take my advice and stops at Christian Family Bookstore to pick up two worship CD's to play during the drive.

I asked Jackie that night if the CD's were any good and that I would like to borrow one for my commute the next day.  She said that they were OK, not great, and which one would I like to borrow.  One was more old time traditional prayer meeting songs and the other was a CD called TOP 25 WORSHIP SONGS.  I took the TOP 25 and put disk 2 in my player for the ride home.

OMG!  Which in the case of this worship CD stands for - oh my goody good goodness :)  Here I was, in the mood for some raw, shout it out the roof to the Lord praise, and I get a disk that happened to ruin most of my favorite worship songs.  Imagine hearing DAYS OF ELIJAH done by a 4 piece band in the back of a nice restaurant, the drummer having one of those brushes that swish against the cymbals and the singer crooning "There is no God like Jehovah, um um um".

Slow beat, no emotion, just words to the god of commence by a studio singer.  Every song was that way.  No crying out to my precious Lord in the car today.  I told Jackie when I got home that if I'm ever unconscious in the CU, please play these.  I'd be sure to pop up to hit the off button.

On one of those nights when we were meeting as a family to pray for Matt my son-in-law Dave, who has a beautiful voice, came over to play the guitar and to lead our worship singing.  Sitting next to him was Matt's brother-in-law Ben, also blessed with a great voice.  Dave has played for own family meetings before and he was pleasantly surprised that he was sitting next to someone who could actually carry a tune.  I think Dave was looking at me when he whispered to Ben, "Thanks man".

I guess it's for the best.  Closing my eyes and raising my hands while driving probably beats texting as a dangerous driving distraction.  But I don't want to fall asleep at the wheel either.

For Matt On Mt. Fuji

Said the spider to the moth
Why go near that flame?
Come rest upon my cozy web
The weather's much more tame

Said the moth back to the spider
You think as well you ought
I could fly high and be myself
or be your food for thought

Said the spider to the moth
You'll never reach that flame
You've tried so hard with no reward
Come sit, enjoy the fame

Said the moth back to the spider
It's not the fame I seek
God made my wings to soar up high
He made your fangs to eat

Said the spider to the moth
It's lonely on your quest
I'll be your friend and tag along
I really think that's best

Said the moth back to the spider
You have a pleasant tone
But when I soar up near the flame
I never fly alone

Said the spider one last time
You're chasing after air
Come plant your feet and hold on tight
The world will think it's fair

Said the moth, it might be fair
And thanks for your concern
You sit and hope and may grow fat
I fly toward what I yearn

Faith To Move Mountains

Here is something I wrote in 2007.  May the Lord move in power today.

 Note: Shown to the right is Mt. Harvard, a 14,420 ft. peak in Colorado I climbed when I was 17. I was going through a boulder field on the way down and about a 1000 pounder came rolling by, just grazing me. When you are 17 you simply think; "Hmm, that was close."

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When Jackie and I resided in Kalamazoo we knew an older couple from the prayer meeting we attended. They had two sons, both rough characters and non-believers. One son, Mick, did the hitch hike out to California without any money thing, actually lived for several months in the large cemetery that is near downtown Kalamazoo, and was into tarot cards and other occult things. One day my father-in-law talked to him, led him to receive Jesus as Savior and Lord and as baptizer in the Holy Spirit. As a new believer he got rid of all the occult stuff, pretty much straightened himself out, and had a great thirst to read the Bible, although sometimes while high on drugs. At that point in his life it seemed like a natural thing to do. After a couple of months the Holy Spirit got to him and he gladly gave up the drugs.

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I remember Mick especially for two occurrences. We had a family prayer meeting for years that met every Friday or Saturday night with Jackie's parents and a large bunch of her sisters and brothers, spouses and other family. We included Mick and his wife for a time, and during one prayer meeting about a half year in, Mick said that he felt the Holy Spirit was telling him to ask that we pray for his teeth. Mick had a mouthful of really crooked teeth, and after we put him on the "hot seat" and laid our hands on him and were praying, his mouth started to quiver and shake like jelly. After a couple of minutes it seemed to me that there had been about a 70 per cent improvement in the condition of his teeth. I know now, after reading about spiritual giants in the healing ministry such as John G. Lake, that if we persevered longer with prayer for Mick that it was very likely that the healing for his teeth would have been complete. However, 70 per cent was a huge improvement, and it was really exciting because that was the first miracle I had seen.

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Awhile after Jackie and I moved to Holland there was a prayer meeting at the house of a couple we knew and I invited Mick to come and share his testimony. At the end of the meeting we had a time for prayer. One of the men there, Lloyd, had started coming to the Holland prayer meetings as an unbeliever a year earlier. He had also been a pretty rough character as a young man, and marriage to a believing wife had changed him quite a bit. He initially went to the meetings to be with his wife, but God got to him early on, and the fruit of accepting Jesus continued to change him. At this meeting Lloyd asked for prayer for his arthritis. Every morning Lloyd would need to place his hands under a hot faucet for 20 minutes to get his fingers loose enough to work well. Mick advised Lloyd that sometimes arthritis is the result of unforgiveness. That immediately struck a nerve with Lloyd, who felt that God was telling him that he would get healed from the arthritis after he sought out his father and another person with whom he had really bitter feelings for and ask for their forgiveness. Lloyd did as God directed and the arthritis was completely gone.

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Now back to Mick's brother. Eventually he came over to talk with my father-in-law, asked Jesus into his heart, and was filled with the Holy Spirit. He left the house flying high, got into his car, and found that the battery was dead. Thinking that this shouldn't be a problem for the God of the universe, he laid his hands on the hood of the car and prayed something like; 'Start in the name of Jesus'. He then got back into the car and it started. Mick's brother, unjaded at that point by theology or the world, could simply pray "without doubting" in commanding the battery to "move".

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It is interesting to notice the different aspects of faith present in the stories above. All three men saw something about Jesus that they desired enough that they were able to surrender the lordship of their lives to Him. They heard the living word about Him, and believed that He was Savior and Lord. And they heard the living word about the empowering of the Holy Spirit, and by faith willingly asked and received. The Holy Spirit was able, at the moment of salvation, and over time, to change the desires and thus the actions and lives of those men. Mick and Lloyd both sensed the Spirit's direction as to how to obtain healing, and by faith were obedient to the Spirit's leading.

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And of course there is the faith of the rest of us. Obedient at times, confused at times, sometimes strong in faith and sometimes weak. We grow in faith by trusting God when He seems both near and far, by taking time with Him in prayer, by searching the scriptures with a desire to know the truth, and by listening to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Through these things we know the will of God, and trusting that it is the will of God, we can say without doubt to the mountain Jesus mentions in Matthew 21: 21-22, "Be taken up and cast into the sea. And all things you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive."

Basic Skills Testing With Macy In January

Her face was brown,
Golden brown,
Perfect brown.

Her hair was blond,
Blondie blond,
Stylish blond.

Her teeth were white,
Brilliant white,
Awesome white.

She took her seat,
And smiled sweet,
Didn't cheat.

She hit a cone,
Not once but twice,
It wasn't nice.

She changed her course,
Then tried some more,
Was time to score.

I showed the chart,
Results were bad,
She left so sad.

They Eat Your Brains

A couple of months ago You Tube showed a clip of an Australian television reporter interviewing the Dali Lama with the help of the Dali Lama's translator.  "Do you mind if I tell you a Dali Lama joke?" asks the reporter, and he gets the OK.  "The Dali Lama walks into a burger joint . . . " which gets relayed from translator to an interested looking Dali Lama, ". . . and asks the server  'can you make me one with everything?' ".  The Dali Lama looks at the translator confused, who returns the same look.

The site that hosts my blog has a box entitled "Next Blog".  If someone happens to be reading your blog and they like the subject matter they can click on the Next Blog box and enjoy even more of the same.  At least that's what I think is supposed to happen.  There are millions of people who blog and there must be some algorithm that picks out key words and phrases and tries to match like subjects.

I figured this out after hitting the box from my own site.  If I just had a post where I happened to mention a monkey and a dog (Pogo) then the next half dozen blogs would center around someones love of their cats, dogs or hamsters.  I don't care much for dogs or cats but the hamster site was quite interesting.  Some lady from Wales or England titles her blog with a quote from a children's book that, and I dearly wish I could remember the actual phrase, talks about hamsters getting out of their cages at night and eating your brains.  British humor I think.

Back when I was posting on my 2 Timothy 2:2  blog I got a phone call from my tech conscious son-in-law who also happens to be involved in youth ministry.  He informs me that there is a site he found that can tell you how your blog does on a rating scale for youngsters.  Mine was rated restricted - for mature adults.  Why?  Those algorithms picked out words from a particular post I did on the blood of Christ.  It seems that repeated use of the words blood, sacrifice and death get one blacklisted.

I have yet to get "Next" to other humor sites so I'm thinking that either I'm not using enough funny words, or maybe the algorithms are as confused as the Dali Lama in Australia. 

When I do posts on spiritual subjects I can get connected to some really neat blogs, all of which (including the animal blogs) are far more beautiful than my site.   These are written by pastors and lay, conservative and liberal.  I tend to get connected to more conservative sites, I think because I quote a lot of scripture.  But even here one must be careful.

If you go into Barnes and Noble to look for Christian books you will notice that the New Age and Eastern Religion sections are twice as large as the Christian sections.  And mixed into the Christian sections are some pretty weird stuff.  And that's exactly what I find by next blogging.

I was just at a site which featured some really beautiful photos as well as some nice quotes from Psalms.  The author in that day's post was waxing poetic about a talk her husband brought back with him from an ecumenical conference he attended.  This conference featured the Dali Lama, the head bishop of the Episcopal Church in the US, a Jewish rabbi and some other notables.  The talk was by the Jewish rabbi and was on the redemptive power of kindness.  And I'm betting it was rated PG, redemption here not including words such as blood, sacrifice and death.

The conference reminded me about the story of the priest, the rabbi and the Pentecostal pastor who were out fishing on a pond.  After about an hour in the sun and each having brought with them and consumed appropriate beverages, the priest gets up and tells the other two that he needs to go to shore for a moment.  He steps out of the row boat, onto the water, and walks to shore, returning about 5 minutes later.

As soon as the priest returns the rabbi gets up and says;  "Father Ted, I think it's my turn".  He too steps upon the water, walks to shore, and returns a little later.

All this time the Pentecostal pastor is having an internal struggle.  "I've got more faith in my little pinky than both of these gentlemen combined" he tells himself.  Finally after about 10 more minutes he stands up and announces to the other two that nature's call has come to him as well.  He steps out of the boat . . . and sinks straight to the bottom. 

Father Ted looks at the rabbi and says;  "You think we should have told him where the rocks are?

Da Mo Po

Today I was thinking about the story where three little boys were arguing about what was the meanest animal in the jungle.  The first one says - "Da lion is da meanest animal in da jungle.  He got dis big head and big teeth and if he don't like you, CHOMP! you be done for."

"No No No" says the second boy.  "Da elephant is da meanest animal in da jungle.  If he don't like you he can just sit on you and, PHUTT! dere is nothing you can do.  It be da elephant dat is da meanest animal in the jungle".

"No No No No No" says the third boy.  "Da Mo Po is da meanest animal in da jungle".  The first and second boys say "Da what?"  "Da Mo Po" repeats the first boy.

"Tell us bout dis Mo Po"

"Well, he got dis great big head on one end and dis great big head on da other end and . . ."   "You say he got a great big head on both ends?" asks the first boy.  "Den how do he go to da bathroom?"

"He don't!   Dat whats makes him so mean!"

This was a good story to remember when our kids were young.   If someone got grumpy no one wanted to hear "Oh here comes da Mo Po".  But it now becomes more appropriate when one gets older and things don't work as well as they used to.

My mother used to say that "after fifty it's nothing but patch, patch, patch."  I don't think it's anywhere near that bad but try sitting around a bunch of relatives who are in their late 50's and into their 60's and the topics of conversations have sure changed.  You can thank me for not sharing any of the exciting details here.

I did have a 63 year old lady that came in for a road test today.  She gave up her driver's license seven years ago after she had back surgery and no longer had feeling in her feet.  However she recently had both knees replaced and this brought feeling once again to those feet.  Lynn was stuffed behind the driver's seat on this very mild January day and as we were driving through a residential area she pulls the car to the curb and rips off her sweat shirt, down to just a tee shirt.  "Oh that feels so much better!"  Thirteen years doing road tests and this has never happened before.   But I understand. 

Turns out that before she went on disability she was a traveling home visit nurse.  Lynn had a great story about one client.  The husband would leave for work and because his wife was not able to get up to open the house door the key to the house was kept in the dog house.  The resident of the dog house was Bruiser, a big Doberman Pincher.  Lynn needed to go into the dog house each visit to acquire the key.  Guess Lynn was lucky that is was only a Doberman and not a Mo Po.

Lynn and her husband now live in senior housing where she acts as the activities director.  "Such as?" I ask.  "Well next week we are having a pajama party in the third floor lounge.  All the women will come wearing pajamas, but linguine is not allowed.  We will do each other's hair and nails and act like we did when we were teenagers.  The men are also invited but they have to make sure that none of their junk is visible."

I was so sorry I asked.

He Is Faithful

What will this new year bring?  Last year Jackie and I claimed as a year of blessing,  and so it was in many ways, not least of which were the births of four healthy grandsons.  We were thinking of claiming this as a year of double blessings, but then again we don't want to put undue pressure on our daughters.

When I pray about God's direction for this year different people pop up in my mind, some whom I have not prayed for in a long time.  Maybe this will be a year of faith and the breaking off of the chains that bind.  That is my sincere hope.

The article below was a post on faith that I did several years ago called HE IS FAITHFUL.  Enjoy this as you too look forward to what I'm sure will be interesting times in the year ahead.


"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1)

Thus begins the great chapter on faith found in the Book of Hebrews. The word "now" brings us back to the theme found in the previous chapter. The people the author of Hebrews wrote to were enduring very difficult times. Jewish by birth or as converts, they had come, by faith, to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior.  Now, instead of being led to the knowledge of the truth by Jewish customs, laws and sacrifices, they had something much better; "And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us . . . saying, 'This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days says the Lord; I will put My laws upon their hearts, and upon their mind I will write them'". (Hebrews 10: 15-16)

The Jewish people had a temple which was patterned after the wilderness tabernacle, which itself was patterned after a tabernacle in Heaven. In the wilderness tabernacle there was a most holy place where the presence of God resided, the entrance blocked by a veil. Every year the Jewish high priest would enter through the veil into the most holy place to sprinkle the blood of a sacrifice as an offering for the sins of the nation. At the moment Jesus died on the cross the actual veil in the temple in Jerusalem, said to be two inches thick, tore from top to bottom. From then on all men, not just Jews, could come before the presence of God through the blood of Jesus; "by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh". (v.20) Jesus Christ offered His own blood in the original tabernacle in Heaven as an offering for our sins, and He becomes, for all who come to Him by faith, "a great high priest".

This high priest does not have to continually offer His blood as a sacrifice for our sins. It was offered, once for all; "But He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God". (v.12) When we come to Him by faith the Holy Spirit, because of the shed blood of Jesus, can bring the Spirit of Christ into our hearts so that we can become a new creation. The blood of Christ is not applied each time we sin. Instead, at conversion, it has changed who we are. We now have relationship with Jesus brought about through our faith in His shed blood. Out of that relationship develops fellowship with Him. Sin and rebellion affects the closeness of our fellowship. Yet the Holy Spirit is able to cleanse our body and our heart to restore any lost fellowship. The Spirit calls, revealing to us who Jesus is. We answer by faith, receiving new life by having a changed spirit. Our spirit, or heart, has now become a temple for the Holy Spirit, who will guide us and enable us to have fellowship with the Father.

God is now truly our Father, and Jesus, with the Father from the beginning but also called the first born of creation, is not only our High Priest, our Lord and Savior, but in a real sense is also our brother. Although Jesus became man, and lived among us in this physical world, experiencing the good things that the physical world has, He also was tempted as we are, and endured suffering and sorrow. Jesus, with a resurrected physical body, resides in Heaven, and although we still have an un-resurrected physical body our true citizenship is no longer in this physical world. Jesus leads us by the gentle prodding of the Spirit to a life that can overcome the world.

 

There are different kinds of faith. One leads to our eternal salvation, a salvation which we will know and experience in our lives now. It begins with faith, changes who we are, and positions us to be a holy people before the Lord for eternity. We are a holy people, not by what we do but by what He has already done. Through the blood of Jesus we have already overcome the world, but being in the world still affects both our walk with Christ and the fellowship that He greatly desires with us now.

 

A second kind of faith gives us the ability to resist the compromises of this world. We are confronted by attacks that are physical, mental, emotional and spiritual, and each one is a type of persecution designed by the enemy to take something away from us, and to rob us of our fellowship with the Father. The enemy wants us to focus on the pain and struggles at hand, or on the false promises of happiness and security that the world seems to provide. But God has provided for us another Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, who will help us through the struggles of today and lead us toward the direction that God has planned for us. The Hebrew Christians, being in a time of great stress, wanted the comfort of familiar customs and ritual. They were looking at their lives from the lens of where they were and not from the perspective of where God was leading.

 

Thus we see the context of the faith examples in Hebrews 11. Even though these are Old Testament examples, they are testimonies that God will reward those who have to make difficult choices because they saw by faith a greater reality. Many did not see or experience the full evidence of the promises during their physical lives, but their obedience to the word that God gave them made possible the plan that God desired for them and their offspring. Many had to wait until only a miracle of God could make happen His promise, and although discouraged, they still trusted, finally seeing in a physical sense what they through faith already saw in their hearts.

 

We live in a culture that does not trust that God knows what is best for us. Instead of searching the scriptures with an open and humble heart to hear the Spirit and discover the heart of God for us, instead of confessing our sins before God and man and taking steps to change as the Spirit leads, and instead of carving out of our lives the time needed to fellowship with our Father, we would rather have the comfort of religious laws and customs, with the option of disagreeing with the particular tenants that make us uncomfortable.

 

By faith we come to know God. By faith we begin to understand that His promises are just and true, and that He can accomplish in and for us all that He promised.

 

"Let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful". (v.22-23)