Happy FATHER'S day!

⁹ “This, then, is how you should pray:
“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
Matthew 6: 9

I have a confession; I have become quite cynical of Hallmark holidays! Add to that the dilemma of trying to find a card that isn't nasty and stupid, and that cynicism can
readily turn to frustration.

However, Father's Day is one recognition that I have come to take seriously and to heart.
Now going to Hallmark or on-line to find an appropriate card for The Father isn't going to come out well. 

You see, the ultimate in Fatherhood is the God who created fatherhood. He created the family and placed at the head of that community the father, a combination of leadership and compassion. There is, in God's teaching, a structure to the family, placed there purposely to help ensure the success of that unit. All fathers, including my own who fell asleep several years ago, are insufficient because they are human. They come up short even when, as is the case with my own dad, they are wonderful, loving giving men. It's that sin thing again, and even when saved by free grace from God, they still harbor the curse of sinfulness, though forgiven for same.

God the Father is part of a family structure, having a Son and the Holy Spirit of God in His family which He enjoyed before anything was created. I believe His words prove that He loves those family members and wished to extend that love and that family structure to creatures He would create.  Talk about a task: He knows each of His created, saved and not saved, completely; He cares for each and every one and desires to be their Abba Father; He has even sent His beloved to die upon a tree that there might be reconciliation and an end to the wall that once divided Himself and His adopted, grace-filled, children.

So Happy Father's Day, Father God. How can I adequately thank you for the blessing that
is your caring for those like me, creatures created by You for Your glory? How can I thank you for not simply creating and moving on?  How can I thank you for Your strength, Your expectations, Your Divine Intercessions and Your love. There is no card, just a heart that loves you back!

Praise our God! 

Mr. " " tear down that wall!

It was by faith that the people of Israel marched around Jericho for seven days, and the walls came crashing down.


The Republican presumptive nominee, and it's hard to even type this, Mr. Trump, plans
to build a wall on the southern border of the US. I, frankly, do not expect this to happen
even if Mr. Trump manages to win in November.
Many walls have been built and destroyed in history. I think of the Great Wall of China, 
beautiful in photographs, and built, I am sure for military purposes. The walls of
Jericho brought down in strange fashion and, of course, the Berlin Wall which was
destroyed during Mr. Reagan's Presidency.

But none of these walls, however high, long or impractical, can compare to the
personal walls that man builds to separate himself from his creator, God the Father.
When the light of God's grace-filled message of reconciliation is brought into a discussion,
one can almost hear the construction equipment start to work. This wall building,
encouraged by our culture and the work of the Prince of the Air, hardens the heart
and effectively walls off  any chances for the redeeming message to reach into the
darkness and bring light and life. Defense mechanisms immediately surface,
and one can imagine hands covering the ears and a series of ."na,na,na,na's"
emanating from the wall builder.

Now this is not an easy wall to dismantle. No sledge hammer approach is going
to result in an opening in this wall. The heels are dug in, the listening apparatus
has closed down, and the excuses begin to flow like lava.

One problem is lack of understanding and knowledge, but the bigger issue
is a refusal to even consider surrender to a higher power, one who knows us
completely and who is sovereign in the events of our lives. People want to drive
the car. They want to work things out on their own and they do not want even this
glorious Creator interfering in their lives. 

So we have to chip carefully, here. We need to be humble and accepting of the
fact that the wall is there and seek to erode its strength through compassion mixed
with the truth. It may take a number of chips, but if this wall builder is important
in your life, eternity is in the balance. PLUS, the Holy Spirit Of God is there
with you. having tools we cannot even imagine to help erode the blockage.

It's our commission. It's the call of Jesus. No wall can stand against the
power and love of this Lord and King.

Praise our God.

There can't be more than one TRUTH!

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.


There are many people who struggle with someone claiming to know the truth. It is
a fact that our culture is rampant with 'truths,' each person claiming their own
truth. Relativism is the belief that everyone is entitled to have their own version of
the truth, reality, even what is right and wrong.

Well, I don't agree for one major reason. If there are a number of versions of the
truth, than there can be no truth. If there is no truth, then we are all in a big heap of
trouble. 

The basic push-back to the claims of Jesus is that we Americans are steeped in independence. We, quite frankly, do not want anyone, even Jesus Christ, declaring to us what is true. We will decide what we are comfortable with as far as truth is concerned. Statistics would show that fewer Americans are attending churches despite that fact that many would label themselves, Christians.

Jesus Christ is a historical figure that walked this earth with a message of hope
and reconciliation for sinners, that would be all of us, to a God who created us and
loves us. Does that mean that all will hear His message, that all will respond to His
message with repentance and faith? No. Does it mean that anyone whose heart is
called by a long-suffering God to a softening and a yearning for membership in
God's church family will be accepted? I believe it does.

So there is an independence, if you will, to consider this truth. Believing it requires
some study, some intelligent searching of scripture, some prayer and a willingness to
be open to the greatest calling ever given to mankind. Are we capable of being good
enough to earn our way into heaven? No. Are there a myriad number of ways to
protect our souls for eternity? Well, not according to the scripture above. 

For those of you simply not interested in considering Jesus, I will pray for you
and ask God to open your hearts. Independence does not provide a pathway to what
is truth. Driving our own bus through life will result in an unprotected soul.
One out of one dies. There is but one truth. May I pray that you will head in the
direction of the love of the Lord Jesus Christ, sooner rather than later

Praise our God! 

Does anybody really know....

What time it is?

It is very apparent that God has created, within the framework of our space-time
continuum, a linear element called time. Scripture suggests that this 'time' is not
necessarily the same for a God who is eternal and immortal. There are several
aspects of this that seem very interesting to me:

1) Time seems to speed up as we age. I know that is how it works for me! Seems like
each birthday comes along just a little more quickly, the days seem to speed by a bit faster, 
that component of our life called death seems to approach an area of comprehension more
frequently than when we were young and carefree.

2) God does things at a time which is right and appropriate for His goals and will. Jesus
appeared after a prolonged quiet time at the perfect moment for His arrival to be meaningful and successful. His second advent will come at a time known only to God that is the perfect
time in light of the finality of the growth of His church. 

3) Our time here on earth is limited, goes quickly and will end at a time known only
to our Creator. He is aware of all the days of our lives, from first breath to last. The ending
will not be a surprise to Him because our lives are like the pages of a book that eventually
runs out of pages.

4) In light of these things, there is no time like the present. Acceptance of salvation
through belief in the Lord Jesus Christ needs to occur prior to His re-arrival. The
importance of sharing the good news of the Gospel is enhanced by the realization that,
despite God's wonderful patience, there will be an end point to this free gift of grace.
Friends, loved-ones, co-workers who show no signs of being in Christ are in mortal
danger of time running out. While the Holy Spirit remains the element of salvation,
we are agents of introduction who can plant an important seed, start a wonderful
ripple and thus see the blessing of a soul saved, a heart softened and a life enhanced.

Take the TIME to share. Thank God for the time He has blessed you with and look
forward to the glorious time of His arrival to make all things righteous, to collect
His children and be given all things that belong to Him as King.

Praise our God!

Twice in the yearbook!

Revelation 20:15 - And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

I didn't purchase a copy of my high school yearbook... on purpose. I was the one beside
whose horrible picture were absolutely no words. No clubs, no meritorious achievements,
no awards, nothing. I would have been called the "student most likely to have not been
recognized in the hallways." I just wanted to survive, walk out with a diploma and move
on with life.

Alistair Begg (Truthforlife.org.) mentions a yearbook metaphor when discussing
Revelation that I would respectfully like to build upon.

If we imagine God's yearbook for a moment, and scripture assures us that there are
actually multiple books from which can be seen everything about our earthly lives, we
would discover that all of us, all of God's creatures, are in that book once. This is
because we are spiritually descended from Adam and Eve with the accompanying sinful
nature, baggage that many of us never manage to have removed from our backs through
the grace of God.  All that would accurately be included besides that name, and possibly a
picture, would be 'member of the human race, created by God, destined to die a
physical death by the curse of the original sin.

Now the key is getting our names in that yearbook a second time. Regardless of where
you stand on the concepts of election, free will, etc., there will be a moment in our lives
when we have the choice to accept Jesus Christ as our savior, Lord and King. Statistics
would seem to show that the majority of those found the first time in the yearbook will
reject the call to salvation, re-birth, justification and life offered as a free gift by a God
who is determined to build His church with believers destined to enter eternity in
his presence. In many ways, it is so very difficult to imagine someone turning his back,
closing his ears, hardening his heart and just saying, "NO!"

The "YES Lord Jesus" answer provides a second entry. Beside the entry would be
written,'Child of God, saved by grace, cleansed of sin, reborn into life, blessed
beyond imagination.' I would guess that the picture beside this entry would even
look a bit different. No personal meritorious achievements or awards would be listed
because only the Love of God could bring about this second entry. It's the Book of
Life, the Lamb's Book of Life. You need to be in there. I pray that you are in there!

Praise our God!  

How to kill your own zombie

For whatever the reason, Zombies never really scared me as a kid. They would be in
movies, etc. and I would simply find it ridiculous that anyone could, having been dead,
get up and walk awkwardly toward anything that seemed like food. Why would they
be hungry? Why could you only kill them with a bullet to the head when they were
already dead?

Well, it turns out that zombies are actually very very frightening because all of us have had first-hand experience being one. That's right. Zombie. Walking around this world, dead.
In our cases, unlike those in the movies, we are talking about spiritually dead. That
state of being describes each of us, descendants from Adam, full of sin and dead,
spiritually.  That would mean that 100% of those born of mothers into this world
arrive dead.

The big problem is that we cannot make ourselves alive, again. Try as we might,
doing the best that we can, doing what we feel is good and honorable just won't
make the grade. We can't fix this.

Through God's grace, here is a solution and a way that we can be made alive. It is
through acceptance in the redeeming work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross.
He said, as you remember, that we need to be born again, baptized by the Holy
Spirit into true life with Jesus. There is no application necessary, here, no
references, no resume. No one will be offended by the fact that you walk with very
stiff movements, unable to talk real clearly due to your zombie-ness. The fact
is that God, through His abounding grace, is calling for you to come. 

Our biggest problem as zombies is that we actually have the tendency to turn
in the opposite direction. We flee this life-changing, potentially eternal offer
because we are programmed to avoid God. Well, we would be better off being
shot in the head than to turn down life everlasting with God.

So take off those rags, loosen up and respond to God's call. Tell Him, from
your knees that you are a sinner in need of Grace and the Gospel of Jesus
Christ. Now would be a great time!

Praise our God.

God of light

From Rich Mullins' song Awesome God  "He spoke into the darkness and created the
light,"
John 8: 12  I am the light of the world.
Revelation 21: 23  The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory
  of God gives it light and the Lamb is its Lamp


I have a severe case of Seasonal Affect Disorder. I would never have survived in Seattle
or Portland. I had enough trouble in the mid-west with long stretches of cloudy
weather in the winter. I can actually see and feel the frown lines beginning to form after
a day or two of no sunshine. Light brings a sense of peace and harmony to me.

I believe that this plays out in the realization that ours is a God of light. As amazing
as it may seem, He spoke and light was. Into the void of darkness came what must
have been a shocking brilliance of light; His creativeness is unimaginable and something
only He could do. 

At the perfect time, He brought forth His Son into a darkened world full of
people darkened by sin, announced by a brilliant star shining in the firmament. Into 
hearts darkened by sin came a God-Man who experienced all the darkness this
broken world had to offer; yet He never turned from His task of providing
reconciliation and atonement to all of creation. Even the darkness of a tomb
could not contain Him as light shone forth, again, three days later.

He will, at the appropriate time, re-enter our world at a time unknown, in a way
that all will immediately recognized and all will have awareness. His eventual
judgement on all will usher in a Kingdom over which He alone will reign,
a New Heaven and a New Earth full of the Light of love devoid of sin and
evil completely.

The Prince of Darkness will forever be silenced. The world as it was meant
to be will return and be even more amazing thanks to the God of Light and Love!

Make sure that you are secure and ready for this eventuality. Death is not the
end of anyone. There are two destinations for all souls; one described above and one
unimaginably terrible. 


Praise our just and loving God!!