Ignorance Is Bliss....um..not so much!!

That saying is from a Thomas Gray poem of long ago. 
Back in my name calling days, I frequently called folks "ignorant" when I was
angry. To me, it meant that they were just stupid, not so smart... Turned out it
was me who wasn't real bright.

The condition of ignorance is really referring to being unaware or lacking in
knowledge. "What we don't know can't hurt us," is another phrase that
really can cause trouble.

I spent 60 years of my life in ignorance when it comes to Jesus and the gospel
of grace. That is truly frightening. It wasn't that I was uneducated...I did go to
church infrequently, but my life was void of the understanding that there was
a God who offered a "sonship," a God who was reaching out to one who is
totally undeserving, a Holy, Regal, Transcendent, Majestic caring God who
created me. In looking back, I'm convinced that He was patiently tapping me
on my shoulder just waiting to enter into my life and my heart. How
fortunate I am!!!

I was also ignorant of the being who works within the boundaries of this 
world, having been thrown out of heaven. He's the former angel whose
agenda is to bring us down, to make us feel guilty, hopeless, evil, worthless..
I could go on. He has been defeated and sentence has already been passed.
His job, it seems, is to ruin souls, and he works in direct opposition to
the grace of God. The Resurrection of Jesus put an end to death, to Satan
to our inability to ever be righteous in the eyes of our Father in Heaven.
Yet, an unawareness that this being is working against us can effect our
lives and our eternal salvation.

When one is ignorant of the gospel, the hardships, the stress, the sadness,
the miseries of this life are daunting. We are left to stand alone, purposeless,
ignorant of the grace that exists within the loving hands of the Prince of
Peace.  

Turn to Him. Pray to Him. Glorify Him. Ignorance be gone..you too, satan.

Swiftly Tilting Planet

Madelline L'Engle wrote a book with this title. She passed on to write in heaven
recently; her creative genius will be missed!
The title came to mind while I was reading The Ragamuffin Gospel, by Brennan
Manning. let me share a brief paragraph from the book....

   The earth's weight has been estimated at six million tons (that's a six with 21 zeros).  Yet it is
perfectly balanced and turns easily on its axis. It revolves daily at the rate of more than 1,000
miles per hour or 25,000 miles each day. This adds up to 9 million miles a year. Considering
the tremendous weight of six sextillion tons rolling at this fantastic speed around an invisible
axis, held in place by unseen bands of gravitation, the words of Job 26:7 take on an
unparalleled significance: "He poised the earth on nothingness."    

I am sure that you have read many accounts of the unbelievable majesty of
God's creation. There are many many examples of our big blue planet being
just within the parameters of allowing for life. Many of these facts are provided 
by men of science who then go on to suggest that we are dealing with mere
happenstance.

The image of the earth taken at moon rise from the moon itself is probably one of
of the most amazing images I have ever seen. Yes, man made that trip to the moon
with scientific excellence, but he couldn't have even left the atmosphere without
creative genius provided by God.

At the other extreme, of course, is the amazing nano world; the cell, which when
one studies, becomes not only the building block of our existence, but also a
miniature "solar system" in itself.

These are simply a  couple of examples of the wondrous creative power of        
our majestic God. Sometimes we look at the enormity of the known universe
and feel small and insignificant. We ought to look at the immense power of
our Creator with the realization that each of us matters to Him. We are, after
all, His very creation.

Makes me just smile!

To Err is Human, to Forgive.....

Devine. (Alexander Pope)

Yep, we are pretty good at erring! There's not much doubt that the ability
to do wrongly, or to sin, is a part of our human dna. How we look at this rather
problematic component of ourselves is very important. Sin as quite simply
acting in a way that is counter to God's will and wishes. The middle letter
in the word sIn is symbolic of our acting with ourselves in mind. It is 
amazing that once we are made aware of our sinful nature, we see countless
examples daily of evil in the thoughts, words and actions of our lives.

It would be rather easy to allow this sin to overwhelm us, to make us
depressed, to feel that we are beyond hope. In some instances this might
result in the attitude that we may as well go ahead and live it up, since
there is little hope of finding forgiveness from a Holy God.

It is somewhat ironic that at the same time we are capable of sinning, we
find it very difficult to forgive others. Yet God makes it explicitly clear that
we must forgive others for His forgiveness to apply to our lives.

So the Devine part of the quote is tremendously important. God is fully
aware that we sin, yet He has provided the ultimate sacrifice to atone for
the sins of our lives. The fact that this sacrifice included His only son, Jesus,
makes God's love for us and his ability to forgive us abundantly clear.

The last words of our blessed Lord Jesus, John 19:30..."it is finished,"
indicated that the sacrifice was for all of us who would seek Him through
the blood of the Son. The plan was in place from the beginning. The
payment had been made. Atonement had been realized. Love had
conquered Sin, Death and Satan through the precious blood of Jesus.

Praise and Glory to God!

The Wondrous Hugs of Jesus

Matt: 11:28  Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you
   rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart,
   and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

So hold me Jesus 'cause I'm shaking like a leaf
You have been King of my glory
Won't You be my Prince of Peace
   Rich Mullins  "Hold Me Jesus"

My wonderful father passed from this world some three years ago, and I miss him each day! My
memories always include the times when he brought comfort, physical comfort. He smelled like
Cherry Blend pipe tobacco, frequently. I loved that aroma! Memories' focus from earliest on are
holding his big hands, riding up on his shoulders as we walked, being tucked in and kissed good-
night, but most of all, the hugs! Those were enveloping hugs, full body, lost yourself hugs, hugs that
took away any bad stuff and made the world just seem right!

Being a 65 year-old, divorced male causes a decline in "hug" possibilities, and when they do
occur, they tend to be polite sorts of hugs. Kind of..."How you doing?" hugs. Even hugging my beloved daughter must include a measure of care... after all she is my daughter.

Well, I have found someone not only worthy of hugging but someone that forces no limits on
the hug quality and length. Jesus. In scripture, He repeatedly tells us to hand over our cares,
our fears, our sadness and tears, our problems... you see the picture. He is not limited by time,
place, dimension... in any way. He gladly reaches into this world and beckons us to take
advantage of His love and care. His shoulders are broad, his arms welcoming. He wants and
desires to be the center of our lives and the place where we honestly share the things of our
heart.

Here's the great part. Open your arms wide enough, often enough and wish with your very
soul, and He will HUG you. It's a hug your soul can feel and, if you get quiet and just
accept, it's a hug that you can actually feel. No kidding. Just give it a try and love Him and
trust Him with all that burdens you. Smell that Cherry Blend?

on a "Need To Know" basis

I just love agent Jethro Gibbs. He's a tough guy with a warm heart. There
are many times when, during a typical NCIS episode, he is approached for
information. His usual response is ,"That's on a need-to-know basis, and
you don't need to know!"

Well, we are all on a Need to Know basis and we DO need to know! We
simply do not know when our time on this earth will come to an end. There
is no guarantee that we will be here tomorrow or the next day. That
realization brings to mind some need to's.

We need to make the most of each day we are blessed to live. 

We need to make sure we let those we love know that they are dear to
our hearts! May as well tell them you love them every day!

We need to have our "house in order." That has nothing to do with
how clean I am keeping my apartment (thankfully) but everything to
do with making sure important things are completed for when we are no
longer here.

WE NEED TO KNOW GOD!!!! 

This should be the number one goal in our lives; the relationship we
have with our God and creator, with Jesus our Savior and with the Holy
Spirit, within us. This relationship needs to be one we are building
each and every day of our lives. We should strive to pray, to read His
word and to praise and worship Him, bring glory to His very name. 

Eternity awaits us. It seems abundantly clear that we will spend this
post-life existence in one of two ways. We will either by taken to live in
Heaven with Jesus, whose blood provided a residence there, or we
will live eternity in the absence of God!  It's an easy and blessed choice!

I'll take "perfection" for $100, Alex

I appear almost daily at a local McDonalds for coffee and morning
paper. I try to avoid the food when I can.

There are a few folks who also frequent this restaurant in north
Texas, and I would describe them as conservative, Republican and
Texan, to the core. Most of the conversation, centered around Fox
News on the TV monitor, is such that I just keep quiet and read my
Columbus Dispatch on the Kindle.

One morning, it was announced that the current governor of Texas,
who I would also describe as a real Texan, had decided that he would
not run for re-election. This, apparently, was met with some consternation
by the group and the following conversation ensued....

Texan: Well I don't blame him for not running!

Texan 2: My neither! Why some folks seem to think he's way too
left and some not conservative enough.

Texan 1: Yes, it's as if people expect him to be perfect!

Texan 3: Yes and we all know that No one is perfect!

Well, at this point, because I saw an excellent opportunity to raise the
level of this conversation, a bit, I said...

Tom: Well, there was, of  course, one person who walked this earth
who was fully perfect, always.

SILENCE......

Texas 2: (After a protracted silence...)  Oh, that's right... Ronald Reagan!!!

Tom: Ah.... I was thinking of our Lord Jesus Christ.

SILENCE.. !

That's why I usually remain quiet!

Perfect: for one day!

That's the challenge. Care to try? Here's some obligatory information before
the start:

1- God cannot accept even one sin because he is Holy
2- God, through loving GRACE, and the blood of His son, Jesus, has provided
     an opportunity to have our sins forgiven
3- Those forgiven sins include sins of the past, present and future
4- We must accept our need for redemption, repent and turn to our Lord Jesus
     in a lifetime relationship of the heart wherein He resides as out Savior and
    Lord

Okay, those are some basic preliminaries. Now, the challenge. One full day,
from wake to sleep, of perfection...no sins. That would include sinful thoughts,
sinful words and sinful actions. 
After all, Jesus was able to do this for approximately 33 years. Okay, He may
have had some advantage in being fully God as well as fully man, but He
was perfectly without sin because He had to be.

I will confess that I'm just presenting this challenge with the full knowledge that
I have absolutely NO SHOT! In one of my previous blog entries I suggested that
I cannot make it from my door to the parking lot without sin. (keeping this
in the family frame, I will just hint at one of my personal problems...)

Poetry in Motion
Johnny Tillotson

..Poetry in motion,
  See her gentle sway,
  A way down by the ocean,
  Could never move that way.

Yep, it's a real problem, even when I try my hardest to have it not be.  But, I still
would challenge all to try.

Realistically, the goal, it seems to me, is to show appreciation for the GRACE given
through the loving-kindness of our Creator by making an attempt from the heart
to avoid sin, and when slippage occurs, to go to God, apologize, repent and move
onward. He loves us and knows we sin. We love Him by giving our all to be holy!