Precious Oil For Your Lamp

Precious Oil For Your Lamp

Ringing ringing the bells are ringing
behind in the party they're singing such singing
the procession is leaving are you bringing oh bringing
some oil precious oil for your lamp
some oil precious oil for your lamp

It began years ago when you walked by the water
the waves were a churning for the wisdom that sought her
but you didn't understand that you couldn't have bought er
all alone you've no oil in your lamp
all alone you've no oil in your lamp

Now the rush is on to the nearest market place
and you're looking for the sweetness of amazing grace
wishing and hoping for any open place
where they'll be sweet oil for your lamp
where they'll be sweet oil for your lamp

As the darkness descends and night closes in
all the shops say they're closed not the time to begin
your light is still empty where the hell have you been
seeking something but not oil for your lamp
seeking something but not oil for your lamp

I heard a nice story bout a woman like most
who had realized one day that her life took a coast
received an invitation in the afternoon post
she went out to get oil for her lamp
she went out to get oil for her lamp

Then she waited some days till the groom wandered by
and he smiled so nice looked her straight in the eye
said we're leaving right now light your lamp hold it high
filled with oil plenty oil for her lamp
filled with oil plenty oil for her lamp

There will be a celebration for the wedding party
great food jazzy drinks even clothes will be free
b y o means your light for that awesome journey
filled with oil precious oil for your lamp
filled with oil precious oil for your lamp

Today Was My Worst Road Test Vehicle Ever

It was a 93 Saturn. The guy was 63 but looked like he could have been a 75 year old in very poor health. As we began driving and the car started bouncing and acting like the front wheels or axle might fall off at any moment I debated if I should just turn around and tell him to come back with a better vehicle.

"Will this car be able to drive on the highway?" I ask. "Dunno" he responds. Probably not. Just bought it. Do we really have to go on the highway?" 

Well, the car shakes a little less as we go a little faster, the alignment problem doesn't get any worse and my client is performing very well so I keep going but when we get onto the highway I am praying that everything holds together so I don't have to walk back to our test site. We make it home, the old dude passes and is very happy. I get out and would have kissed the ground but I didn't want my lips to touch any rust or engine fluids.

Creepy

junk key

clunky bunk key

engine filled with all things gunky

defrost blower worketh poorly

rattles prattles steering squirrely

bumping humping old rust dumping

Smells like gas and rancid smoke

shakes like jelly belly folk

carpet ripped, doors ajar

glad we needent travel far

old guy driving on the line

almost stalls it every time

pencil shaking but I'm fine

Actions Speak Louder Than Words

Actions speak louder than words
I'm sure from your mother you've heard
don't do as I do
just do as I say
and we'll all have a wonderful day

Actions speak louder than words
when your hopes are laying like turds
a bird in the hand
is worth two in the bush
enough to see at first blush

Actions speak louder than words
sometimes the boundaries are blurred
don't wander too far
when you follow your star
and they won't keep on raising the bar

Actions speak louder than words
in the theater of the absurd
a horse led to water
won't drink as he oughter
should have looked in the mouth when you got her

Actions speak louder than words
so you think you're the straw that has stirred
like a glassy house wall
pride is there for the fall
throwing stones when you don't know it all

Action speak louder than words
don't act like the clowns and the nerds
if you only go round
one time on the ground
your decisions had better be sound

Actions speak louder than words
let's hope that your worth is insured
on the wings of a dove
comes his pure holy love
please remember when push comes to shove

Nephews

Two calls remembered very clear
words no uncle wants to hear
sad and anxious tones too near
don't know what to say

One climbed mountains all alone
reached the top last light was shone
found in spring at lower zone
far so far away

One lived with parents loved so dear
lots of work but always cheer
special friends without a fear
life was washed away

Electric cars and generous sun
sailing boarding camping run
always striving never done
work was always play

Tandem bike and archer's bow
songs and rhymes he told you so
trains gave him a special glow
colors mixed with gray

Sisters teased but filled with pride
always liked him by their side
such a hole and still so wide
think they'll be OK

Parents lost without their boy
every season memories toy
precious was and is the joy
each and every day

Trust In The Lord

Can a man hide himself in places that I do not see him? Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?

Jeremiah 23:24

Recently some "Christian" rapper decided he was no longer "Christian" because he couldn't understand how a loving God could order the deaths of so many innocent lives in the Old Testament. It seems to me just from this little bit of information that he had things mixed up in at least two ways.

The first is that as an entertainer performing Christian songs he had been testifying to something he understood only by theology and tradition instead of by relationship and experience. Sadly, what ever background he came from, even if it was a church every night and twice on Sunday kind, had not actually led him to experience Christ as both Lord and Savior.

The second is that what ever background he came from had not properly taught and prepared him to discern and apply the Word of God to the great questions of the day. The shifting winds of present day morality were never buffeted either by true faith or by sound teaching. There was no sure foundation and thus in the end no sure hope that God can be both just and loving.

The purpose of the local Church apart from the gathering together to worship is to both evangelize and to instruct. A healthy Church continues to present the person of Christ to those who gather, it allows the Holy Spirit to be present in it's ministry, and then it lays from scripture a firm foundation upon which it continues to build the individual unto maturity. It is from the richness of a healthy and mature church that saints are equipped, trained and then sent out to serve but also to make more disciples of Jesus.

Over and over I keep reading about how the young are leaving the Church. These articles then provide suggestions about making the Church more relevant to the current generation. The answers seem to be to adapt to a certain form of worship, or preaching, or greeting, or fellowship, or service or whatever. I'm not against things being changed, updated or added as long as they are done with full consideration of sound theology and have the blessing and inspiration of the Holy Spirit behind them.

On the other hand I'm not for throwing out tradition just for the sake of making things fresh. Let me give you an opinion of an almost 66 year old man who grew up Catholic, became an atheist, found the Lord through the Charismatic renewal in the Catholic Church, eventually left Catholicism, worshiped in various Charismatic and non-Charismatic Protestant churches both large and small, and who was involved in home church for 7 years. - Sometimes I feel the waters of contemporary worship are very wide but it's depth is very shallow.

The problem of retaining the youth though is not solved by updating forms and methods. It is instead the failure to clearly present the person of Jesus in terms that our youth can understand and the failure to present both the Word and the will of God in all it's depth, in all it's power, in terms as well that our youth can understand. They need to know that God loves them and they need to learn to trust in the truth and wisdom found in the Word of God.
  

Shortly after I first became a believer I had a question about the inspiration of the Bible, specifically about whether there actually was an Adam and Eve or a Noah and a universal flood. Nothing I had learned in college or in life would have prepared me for accepting those scriptures as literal. But I'd been blessed since becoming a believer to have had a mentor who taught me how to read the scriptures in their context and who showed me how interrelated each part of the Word was with every other part.

Eventually I became convinced that I needed to believe in a literal Adam and a literal flood and hopefully God would someday provide me with an understanding of how they could be possible. This was not blind faith. It was trust based on whom I knew Jesus to be and how I could see the input of the Holy Spirit throughout the entire Word. Trust came first and then God opened my eyes to see and my brain to ask the proper questions.

There are many people apart from the rapper who do not believe that the Bible should be taken literally. For the rapper one problem was trying to align what he understood love to be with something like God's instruction to Joshua to wipe out ALL the inhabitants of Canaan. Perhaps you also are bothered by this and it is a fair question. Is it "fair" or is it "just" for God to want anyone killed, including innocent children and babies?

Now you should understand that the atheist who brings this up in an argument is not really interested in hearing the answer. He or she only wants to ask the question. Having judged God by societies standards they then think they themselves are justified. And it's kinda funny because part of the answer is that it is indeed a loving and a just God who will one day judge both the living and the dead. The fairness of the timing of the judgment then is really not relevant.

Scripture also portrays God as the potter and we as the clay. He designed us, fashioned us, placed us in time and space and has a perfect will for our lives. Life on earth is only temporary at best and it is His right to call in our earthly chips anytime and anyway He wants.

Thirdly there was a greater purpose for the Jewish nation in particular and for mankind in general involved in the conquest of the promised land. God in His wisdom and love wanted it to be a place free from the pagan practices, customs and idols of the Canaanites. By not doing what God commanded God's desires were corrupted and as a result the Israelites endured over the centuries tremendous suffering, death and destruction.

They did not trust that God knew best and so they could not understand what His ultimate purpose was for their lives.

The quote above from Jeremiah is actually one about trusting God. In the first sentence we see that because of sin man hides himself from God. From the time of Adam it has always been that way. We think before the deed that perhaps God will not see it and then afterwards we try to hide both deed and who we really are from before the presence of the Lord. All of us do this but God makes this statement: Do I not see?

Of course He sees but we, even as believers, still shy away. And the reason we do is that for some reason we don't fully trust Him. Maybe we don't trust that he can forgive us. Maybe we don't trust His ways will work out better for us. Maybe we don't trust that He can actually change anything in our circumstances.

God's second statement assures us that not only does He see us when ever and where ever but also that He is there in the when ever and where ever. He fills the heavens and the earth and if so then not only does He see us but also He is much more than an idol that one prays to hoping to get something from. HE FILLS THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH and so not only is He with us but it then only makes sense that we should trust one so awesome.

Learning to trust that God loves us, cares for us and has a plan for us is a life long process. Knowing that God is always in the process of teaching us to trust Him  helps explain the ebbs and flows that we go through in life. He is near, He is far, we rejoice, we don't understand, all are lessons drawing us closer. The earlier we prepare our children with a proper understanding of the workings of the Holy Spirit and the inspiration of the Bible the better it will be.

There is no way I can begin to understand the height, the width, the depth, the love, the purity or the holiness of Him who fills the universe yet knows me as a person. Still, I can trust that whether I understand them or not, His ways are righteous and true.

   

Illegal Aliens From Outer Space

If an alien from another planet managed to sneak into our country should he/she/it/them be eligible to receive federal benefits, get a drivers license, vote and have any offspring automatically become citizens? It seems this is a question Hillary Clinton may have pondered prior to her response to a reporter that when she gets elected she promises to find out for sure if there ever were aliens at Area 51 (or as Hillary originally responded, "Area 54". Maybe she does know something we don't.)

Before we get too excited there are a few things about space travel that make it, um, how do I want to say it?, very, very, VERY unlikely that aliens could have made it to Earth from another planet in a space ship.

The first problem is distance. The closest stars are Proxima Centarius, which is 4.22 light years away from Earth and Alpha Centarius which is 4.37 light years away from Earth. The best choice for a planet having the right size and distance from a proper star to enable life as we understand it to be possible right now is Kepler 452-b which is 1,400 light years away from Earth. It is not ideal, having 5 times Earth's mass and receiving 10% more energy from it's sun (hopefully the increased mass will keep the atmosphere from burning off) but it will have to do.

The second problem is the physics of moving mass at great speeds and physics govern alien travel as much as it does us. Moving mass requires energy and the greater the mass and the greater the speed the more energy is required. Energy requires fuel and some type of engine to burn the fuel and that also combines to increase the mass for a space ship.

We have sent out space probes using ion drive propulsion and although that is a very efficient way to travel to get from planet to planet requires speed. It would take an ion drive craft 81,000 years to make it to Proxima Centarius, our closest star.

Using improved current technology and sending our craft at 150,000 miles per hour it would only take us 19,000 years to reach Proxima Centarius,

Theoretically the fastest we could go would be using a Nuclear Pulse Propulsion (NPP) craft which if actually possible would get the trip to the nearest star done in 85 years. At that speed our trip to Kepler 452-b, the nearest possible inhabited planet would only take 28,000 years.

If we could somehow propel a craft at half the speed of light the trip could be brought to a comfortable 2,800 years. Just to be aware of the math the energy needed to propel 1 lb mass to half the speed of light would require the energy of 98 atomic bombs. Multiply that by the weight of a space ship, crew, engine, food and fuel and to get just to half the speed of light one goes way beyond the outer limits of energy we produce on our planet for domestic use. And that is to just get going. Braking the ship would require an equal amount of energy.

In other recent news you probably are quite delighted to hear that in the latest budget compromise there was quite an expansion of funds allocated to NASA. Not that a budget really matters per say because we always spend more than what we take in. But concerning NASA I'm sure they must still do quite a few wonderful things that don't get much press and so maybe their continued existence is justified.

To me it appears that NASA is driven by two major goals. The first is to create computer climate models that are politically correct enough to garner massive funding. I would have said they have been brilliant at this but lately the house of cards is starting to fall. Honored leaders like rats have started jumping ship and more and more honest scientists have begun to notice and identify publicly the massive data manipulation.

The second objective which is framed in every press reference that comes from NASA, whether it's mapping space or sending space probes is the golden grail of finding other life in the universe. What stars have planets? What planets have water? What star systems can support life as we know it? Could that life have somehow made it to Earth?

Personally I am all for finding out any of that. Theologically I do not have the least problem with there being material life outside our planet. I know that the Lord who made Heaven and Earth also made all that exists, has a plan for all of it and will have integrated it perfectly with our world as well.

The big catch though is that most scientists are atheists and so the existence of life by chance, evolution from random base elements to complexity, is to them both necessary and confounding. It is necessary because the other option is a creative intelligence and if that is so then logically the created might have an obligation to the creator. That's a scary thought. But it is confounding because spontaneous generation of life as of now has neither been observed nor understood.

So the main focus is to take the original theory, that life began on Earth in the primordial ooze hundreds of millions of years ago, and then look to find other places where there might be a similar primordial ooze. Maybe we can find there the clues we are missing here. That is why NASA wants to spend billions of dollars to look at planets like Mars because there is evidence of it having water, the universal solvent, a possible primordial ooze.

Now we all should understand that is not a matter of combining the right ingredients at the necessary levels under the proper temperatures, all mixed in a universal solvent like water, although that is what we are led to believe. To be considered alive even the most basic life forms require a massive amount of information placed just so to accomplish the multitude of functions required to come into being, survive and then reproduce. But if life has to have begun by chance against odds so great that there are a million zeros before them, and if we are up against a brick wall understanding how it could have been possible here on Earth, then the next logical step is to search for other sites which may better help us understand what has happened here.

OR - perhaps aliens seeded Earth. The least we can do is pick up their radio signals.

Shoe Box

The other night
as evening came
I had to wonder why
did I really care
if they would live
did it matter when they die

eternal night
eternal sky

It seemed for years
I placed their names
beside the sacred scroll
and asked for light
to pierce right through
both spirit and the soul

would dry wood spark
and fire glow

My thoughts were packed
inside a box
placed upon a stair
one way goes up
the other down
could either one be fair

I prayed for them
I prayed right there

Then late at night
my prayers did change
from mentioning the blind
when somber fear
would not give up
proclaimed my hopeful mind

awake thou host
there still is time

All those I know
both old and young
how well they seem to try
some more than me
but all ends dark
it makes my spirit cry

You chose the night
come choose the sky