Our Eternal Home

For the majority of the Christian world it may not really be necessary to understand exactly how salvation works, only that we are saved through the atoning work of Jesus. The gospel message is laid out this simply.

God loves us. He really does.

However there is a problem. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. That means that even though God loves us we cannot have fellowship with Him because He is a holy God and we are born sinners.

God provided the solution. He sent His only Son Jesus into the world to pay the price for us which as sinners we could not do ourselves. Jesus paid the price by His suffering and death on the cross, and because God raised Him from the dead that atonement can become ours.

This becomes real to us when we confess our sins to God and promise to try to do better, when we believe that Jesus death on the cross has paid the price that God demands for our sins, and when we then publicly proclaim Jesus as our Lord and Savior.

This basic outline with the supporting scriptures behind them have been presented to many hundreds of millions of people and many have come to a saving and life changing experience because of it. It is not the intellectual argument that makes the outline work so well. Rather it seems to be a framework through which the Holy Spirit can move to open up hearts to the truth.

The following post I wrote about 8 years ago goes into a little more detail on how I see salvation working. I wrote it because I believe that many in Christianity have a very limited view on what salvation really is. Not everyone will agree because (1) they have been taught different and that's a tall hill to climb (2) salvation by works has such a strong appeal to man and (3) it has been accused as being gnostic by making all Christians into "little gods" (that by a former pastor of mine).

Obviously I don't agree and hopefully, if you read it carefully, my viewpoint will help give a little more depth to your understanding of salvation.

What is not in this post and what really should be is a discussion on the difference between the body, soul and spirit of man and how the Holy Spirit works in and through each area. Perhaps another day.

Link to - Our Eternal Home

One Hundred Churches

one hundred churches
one thousand pews
ten hundred thousand
different views

sunday morning
saturday night
wednesday meeting
at first light

grand wooden doors
great walls of stone
or folding chairs
to praise or moan

a father's vestments
a reverend's suits
a doctor's robes
no substitute

young preacher's sandals
and faded jeans
loose fitting shirts
and modern themes

felt baskets brought
by usher's rows
plastic tubs passed
so no one knows

age old hymns
with numbered scenes
overhead stanzas
on video screens

chorus are sung
eyes are closed
some bring tears
just blow your nose

old men and women
to the organ sway
young guys and gals
hear the guitar's play

the word is read
from a big black book
or on the face
of a hand held nook

a booming voice
a keen whisper
where truth proclaimed
for hearts to stir

we sit we stand
some will kneel
even raising hands
has great appeal

we meet we greet
we get to know
sometimes it's fast
sometimes it's slow

walk the aisle
take the bread
drink the wine
or juice instead

some kids stay
some kids go
bible stories
colored so

babies crying
candies passed
hope they've learned
to make em last

visions shared
hearts are stirred
the word proclaimed
hope assured

decision time
altar call
no difference seen
for great or small

blessing given
before we leave
prayers are offered
for those that grieve

small groups gather
strong in prayer
to help and heal
the people there

do not forsake
that common tether
He is present when
we gather together

Watchman's Hut

The daughter of Zion is left . . . like a watchman's hut in a cucumber field   (Isaiah 1:8)

All the quotes in this post are from the 1st chapter of the prophet Isaiah. In this chapter he speaks of God's coming judgment of Judah and Jerusalem and of its future restoration. There are many applications here for us as well. But first my story for the past week.

Unlike most Saturdays this was one where we did not have to do any driver testing. So the Friday night before we were able to have most of our family over for a nice barbecue. The weather was perfect, we had a great time talking around the fire pit and all in all Jackie and I felt very blessed to be surrounded by our kids and grand kids. Considering all the sugar they consumed we smiled brightly as they drove off.

Saturday I was able to spend some time with one of my brothers talking and sitting beneath the shade of some stately old trees on top of a dune looking over the friendly waters of Lake Michigan. Again the weather was comfortable with a nice southwest breeze. I could not imagine anything being more pleasant.

Driving back home I noticed a bride with her bridesmaids getting their pictures taken by a grove of trees outside a North side church. Her full bridal dress was a beautiful ivory and the whole scene looked gorgeous.

That night Jackie and I headed to a deli down town for dinner and then sat at a nice little table on the sidewalk outside, talking and watching the wide assortment of people walking by. Holland has one of the nicest down towns anywhere and it is always busy with a lot of energy. We window shopped afterwards, had a little chat with a retired missionary to Mexico and his wife who were people watching on a bench outside their residence at the Warm Friend and then we went home.

The week started off great as well. Jackie and I went to a service at the church of one of our daughter's where a prophetic team consisting of 3 pastors from different churches come in to speak words of encouragement to people selected by the host church. Our daughter and her husband were one of the couples picked and in Jackie's and my opinion the prophets were right on. They confirmed for my daughter and her husband what they believed would be the Lord's direction for them in the future and we all were feeling good.

But then in the middle of the week we received shocking news. Joanna, a friend of theirs whom my son-in-law had known for years, whom Jackie and I had met a number of times and who had lived with my daughter for awhile before she got married to a man she met in India while on a mission trip there, had suddenly died at age 31. A throat infection had gone septic and quickly spread to her whole body. She and her husband had 2 young children, were living in India, planting churches and taking care of orphans.

(I will remember Jo the next time someone posts that being pro life should also include caring about people after they are born. Who do they think the majority of people are who actually volunteer their precious time to run food banks, mentor the men and women who get released from prison, care for the homeless and yes, take care of the orphans?)

I was struck by the contrasts. One the one hand - incredible beauty, close family, beautiful weather, bright hope and warm feelings. On the other - confusion, deep grief, crushed hopes and unfilled potential.

As it says in Ecclesiastes, there is a season for everything. The thing is, just as it is sure that there is a time for us to live it is also sure that there will be a time for us to die. One can hope that the seasons progress at a regular and orderly pace and we can enjoy things as we go but it is guaranteed that sooner or later there will come that one last season. We can never be quite sure when it will come. But when it comes, what will be our testimony to the One that made us and had a plan for our lives?

transgressors and sinners will be crushed together, and those who forsake the Lord shall come to an end. Surely you will be ashamed of the oaks which you have desired, and you will be embarrassed at the gardens which you have chosen. (vs 28 - 29)

The oaks and the gardens are passing things. It is foolish to pursue things to satisfy the soul if we forget that time marches on and there will come an accounting that has nothing to do with possessions.

Will it have helped to be religious?

I hate your new moon festivals and your appointed feasts, they have become a burden to Me; I am wearing of bearing them. So when you spread out your hands in prayer I will hide My eyes from you; Yes, even though you multiply your prayers I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood. (vs. 14-15)

Our ultimate accounting will have nothing to do with going to the right church, being obedient to the rules and regulations of that church or with any other religious things we have done. We are rebels and sinners and because of that our hands are covered with blood.

So what does the Lord then advise?

Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; (vs. 16)

This means to repent of all that we have done outside the will of God and to accept and confess that Jesus died for our sins. It is His blood that cleanse our bloody hands.  There is no other way around the block.

Remove the evil of your deeds from my sight. Cease to do evil (also vs. 16)

True repentance also means that we accept the Lordship of Jesus over our lives. We determine that to the best of our ability we will not continue in sin.

Learn to do good; Seek justice, Reprove the ruthless, Defend the orphan, Plead for the widow. (vs.17)

This is our obligation. This is the mission field for most of us. None of these actions are a weight on a scale that justifies us before a holy God but rather they should be a reflection of who we are in Christ Jesus.

In our church service this morning we saw 19 adult baptisms. It was quite a diverse group, race wise, experience wise, church background wise. Testimonies talked about everything from attempting suicide, losing a child, divorce, being filled with hate to trying to be as good as one could and still feeling empty.

One of the spontaneous songs we sang that resounded through the church after the baptisms was an old hymn that begins; "Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe, sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow." I smiled because many years before Jackie and I had visited this same building (then a different congregation) to hear Dr. J. Vernon McGee speak. He was a guy I had listened to often on the radio with his Through The Bible broadcast. That was the theme song of the program.

The watchman's hut in a cucumber field is a temporary structure. Hopefully the harvest will come in before the enemy steals or blight destroys but eventually if the field is protected there will be a harvest.

As I look out over the cucumber field I am aware of three things. The enemy is real, the blight can destroy, and many are there who will not be on the right side of the harvest.

God the Father in His great love sent His Son Jesus to be our redemption. See what He says to us in verses 18 to 20:

Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord,

Though your sins are scarlet, they will be as white as snow;

Though they are red like crimson, they will be white like wool.

If you consent and obey, you will eat the best of the land;

But if you refuse and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.

Truly, the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Communion

Today on my For Ex Catholics Only blog I gave links to 2 of my old posts on the background for holy communion.

If interested you can check them out here.

Happy Hearts

When I was a young lad
summers were spent at a cottage by Lake Michigan
when Spring came
the family dug out a foot of brown leaves from the back porch
shoveled drifted sand from cement walks
an older brother would open a small creaky door to get under the building
checking rusty pipes and valves
the spiders scared me so I only watched
and waited for him to get eaten.

True cottages smell musty at first
and sometimes a very dead mouse is finally found
stiff corpse in the back of the piano
windows opened
furniture dusted
counters washed
floors swept
fresh sheets on all the beds
we are ready for a different pace of life

Do you know what it is like
to get up just before the sun
and with the early morning chill
walk down wooden stairs
to sit on a mound of fine glacier sand
overlooking flat stillness for as far as you can see
nothing moves
the dune grass is still wet
and you think you could walk on the water

There was an old painted breadbox against the wall
at the end of the kitchen table
a place where we would chow down peanut butter sandwiches
Oreo cookies dipped in fresh milk
cinnamon toast
This was where with family and friends
we'd play long and loud group canasta games
eight decks of floppy worn cards
happy red threes, sad black ones

Our bathing suits and towels hung in a large changing room
just outside was a faucet, bucket and hose
to remove all that clung to our arms, feet, legs and hair
we thought we got it all
but my bed was always filled
it would not be summer
without sand in the sheets
and going to sleep
to the low and constant moan of the fog horn

The best dinners were in the back porch
same day picked sweet corn
shuck it, pick out the silk
boil till ready then roll those suckers on a stick of butter then salt
Dad would grill whatever he was grilling
Mom would fix what ever she was fixing
but you must always leave room for ice cold watermelon
if you curl your tongue just right around a nice seed
you can nail your sister in the middle of the forehead

Some days, if we were lucky, and had a little change
perhaps a friend,  a cousin or two
our parents would let us walk that long mile
down Lake Shore Drive
to the Kitchen Cupboard
pinball, pop rocks, long red licorice strings
all gone by the time we got back
we were good kids
and stayed off the road

An enclosed front porch kept out the mosquitoes
and looked straight West at the big lake
most evenings the family would sit on sail boat cushions
waiting for the fiery red ball to drop and light up the horizon
or watching far off lightning duel through thick black clouds
counting fireflies, listening to the ball game
Reader's Digest and cross word puzzles
chocolate ice cream cones to end the day
happy hearts

New Shoes

Every day at work when the weather is nice my feet are comforted by a pair of tennis shoes. My father taught me when I first started to travel as a salesman that it was best to bring two pair of shoes with you. Feet sweat, the inside of shoes get wet and if one rotates a pair each day both sets will last much longer.

So I have done this my whole working life in whatever type of work I have done. There are two pair of tennis shoes I rotate for Spring, Summer and Fall and two pair of more weather appropriate shoes durable for our Michigan winters. It so happened that both pairs of my tennis shoes wore out at the same time this Spring and were replaced by another two that cost twice as much as the old ones.

One of the old pair was still good enough to use around the yard until I did some power washing for a few hours last week and then they needed to hit the trash. Today, not wanting to spend a lot for a replacement pair to use in the yard, I went to the nearby Menards and got a slick pair for about $42. After the rebate - $38! If they last only through next year I will be happy.

Today I also started a new blog which is called - For Ex-Catholics Only

Having walked in the shoes of someone who has left Catholicism I understand that there is an awful lot of misdirected and unnecessary hate and suspicion directed toward both the Catholic Church in particular and Catholics in general. My theology has changed, it is quite different in many important ways from that which is taught in the Catholic Church, but I know many Catholics who love our Lord dearly and who live lives that reflect that love.

As a working guy I don't really have enough time to create new material for two blogs and so from time to time I am going to post there links to some of my old posts that hopefully will offer instruction and encouragement. In pursuit of that I have been going through some of the posts of my II Timothy 2:2 blog from some years ago.

Keeping with the Catholic theme, here is a post from 4/15/07 which gives my thoughts about praying to the saints and Mary and is called:  Saint Tifying Grace

P.S. So far the new shoes feel great. I'd let you know how they work in the yard but it's really hard to have two blogs and yard work.

August Dream

last night i woke
in the middle of a dream
looked out my window at an awesome scene
a million stars clumped bright way high
fireworks bursting across the sky
there were meteors streaking just everywhere
the large white moon was round and fair
all i could do was watch and know
that i was not this evening's show

how small am i
how grand the scene
how very vast is everything
one wonders if we even try
to contemplate the where and why
or take the time to sit and stare
humbly before him our souls lay bare
we do not need to always go
the night says wait and take it slow

Bus Stop Lady

I wanted to ask the lady
with the plunger
in her hand
from whence she came
or where'd she go
to unplug that stubborn can

She looked to me
a little homeless
and kinda lost as well
it seemed her hair
was three shades off
her age I couldn't tell

But there she was
just standing there
not far beyond the bend
a rumbled bag
a wooden pole
with that bright red rubber end

There are days in this world
that come and go
one layer upon another
as cars wiz by
we never know
our sister and our brother

Each has a story
some are sad
but every one unique
we cannot see
inside the soul
but sometimes get a peek

So as we passed
the plunger gal
my driver gave a clue
her mother's birthday
was today
she lost her mom at two

It happened when
at twenty five
having nothing more to lose
choked on her vomit
one sad night
caused by the drugs and booze

Her best friend
killed herself one day
bullied on the net
the creep then posted
glad you're dead
I too would be upset

But life goes on
it's twists and turns
as each one tries to cope
some end up unclogging
all that crap
and that's what gives us hope

I wish they knew
the One I know
to help them through the day
there is so much more
that's bright and fresh
and so I nod and pray

Dear Father
shine Your light through me
and help me love like You
and remember from whence
I came before
to do what You would do

It Will Hail When The Forest Comes Down

Here are some verses I had underlined in my Bible some time ago but felt led to share today.


Until the Spirit is poured out upon us from on high,

And the wilderness becomes a fertile field,

And the fertile field is considered as a forest.


Then justice will dwell in the wilderness,

And righteousness will abide in the fertile field,

And the work of righteousness will be peace,

And the service of righteousness quietness and confidence forever.


Then my people will live in a peaceful habitation,

And in secure dwellings and in undisturbed resting places;


And it will hail when the forest comes down,

And the city will be utterly laid low.


How blessed will you be, you who sow beside all waters,

Who let out freely the ox and the donkey.  Isaiah 32: 15 - 20


Isaiah prophesies above about the coming of Messiah. He will restore all things including the land but in that restoration there is to be judgment. The sense here is not just about land. It is also about restoring the hearts of man.

I find in these verses an application for revival. Indeed it is my prayer that the Father would pour the Spirit out upon us and our land in a new and powerful way.

When the Spirit is poured out the wilderness becomes a fertile field, and the fertile field is considered as a forest.. There is a transition here, from wilderness to fertile field, but then again from fertile field to forest. So what's up with that?

I see the wilderness as being our society. It has institutions, forms and structures, cities and village, all intertwined with the lives of the men and women who make up the whole.  The fertile field is the potential of the changed heart of man when the Spirit is poured out.  When the hearts of men are changed the land that we live in becomes that much less a wilderness.

But even though we see the promise of justice dwelling in the wilderness and righteousness abiding in the fertile field we also see the fertile field becoming a forest. Sure, one can grow things in a fertile field and one of those options could be trees, but what a waste.

The forest represents the pride of man. Hail represents the judgment of God. The city represents where ever it is that men live together in their pride. Revival will come when the Spirit of God lays low the pride of man, when the trees of the forest are stripped of their branches and the land and the people can be truly ready to bear the fruit of the Spirit. And it will hail when the forest comes down, and the city will be utterly laid low.

Look at the wonderful promise that ends the chapter. There is a prohibition in the Old Testament about plowing with an ox and donkey yoked together. Plowing is work and plowing with those two together would be like almost impossible work. And yet what is the picture we see? It is not one of plowing, of putting in a lot of work for little return. The animals are let loose, the seed is sown, a good return is promised. How blessed will you be, you who sow beside all waters. Who let out freely the ox and the donkey. 

Last week while driving I noticed a very faded bumper sticker. All the color was gone but you could still make out the outline showing the World Trade Center with the words, "Remember 911".

A 16 year old girl that I tested this week spent part of her summer visiting family who lived just outside New York City. One day they went into the city and this girl was very excited to have gone to the top of the new building(s) that replaced the ones destroyed by the terrorists back in 2001. I asked her if she was able to go through the 911 museum at the bottom and the answer was no. I was surprised because that didn't seem to be something that even interested her.

But of course, just like the irony suggested by the faded bumper sticker this young driver had no direct memories of that fateful day. Her mother, riding along in the back, told me exactly where she was and all about an uncle who worked at the Trade Center but was home sick that day and an aunt who worked in the city and had to walk all the way home that night. For her and for me this was more than recalling an event that happened 14 years ago. The images and emotions were seared into our memories.

Many felt that the events of 911 would permanently change the psyche of the average American. Our country was attacked, we felt first hand and up close what it would be like to be at war with radical Islam, something most knew little of and cared about even less. For the first couple of weeks attendance at churches soared and all news outlets ran story after story, video after video of what had happened.

The World Trade Center, The Pentagon, and the last intended target that ended up in a Pennsylvania field, the White House, were all symbols of American pride. They represent our financial system, our military and our political process. We have been blessed in all three areas but we must remember that blessings can be removed as quickly as they are given.

We pray for revival, but what might that mean? When the hail comes it will destroy forest and city. Perhaps, if the Lord delays, something is needed for a true national revival. And sometimes, revival comes, and then the hail. What ever, here is the promise if the Spirit is poured out, and it is good;

And righteousness will abide in the fertile field,

And the work of righteousness will be peace,

And the service of righteousness quietness and confidence forever.