Kill for food?

A couple years back, we gained some puppies. We already had 2 dogs, the puppies were somebodies "gift". We live in the country, a mom and pups ended up under our porch, when she saw us, she took off and we had puppies. Fortunately they were old enough to be on solid food. One big dish was good enough for all seven, but did cause consternation for our 2 older dogs. As the pups neared a year, we had progressively found other homes for all but 2. Now we had 4 canines. Feeding became a ritual with 4 distinct separate distant bowls. I emphasize distant because if they got closer than say 3 feet of each other, growling began. Without intervention a genuine serious fight would follow. Dog owners know all this and if you are willing to pay the vet bills to establish the hierarchy let'em work it out. I prefer to keep the peace. The point is, dogs like most animals will kill to get and keep food.

People are more civilized than that right? Go to Darfur or Samolia for 6 months and come back alive before you answer the question. Currently we fear the housing market crash here in America. If in the most unbelievable worst case-scenario the Dollar goes the way of the Dodo, some wise individuals will have foresight to store food in secure places in basements and such. This will be the life future of their family.

What will you do if your food stash is secure in the crawlspace and gun toting thugs threaten to enter your home to take what you have? Will you kill for food?

Can't cope with reality? Destroy it!

How many of you remember John Lennon? While I am no particular fan, I liked a couple songs, I remember his tragic death. His killer lived a delusion of being John Lennon. The fact that a real John existed, conflicted with the delusion, so I read, and that drove the killer to pull the trigger. The ending of a real person so that a fantasy could comfortably exist.
I just read about two Canadian and one British aid worker who were killed by Taliban gunmen. The aid workers were offering food and education (such a hostile threat), for such they were struck down. They were likely in the way of someone's delusion, just like John Lennon. Let me theorize. In the fanatical schools of the Taliban, all Westerners are evil, "the great satan". The image of the great satan is hard to hold up against people who offer you food. When the woman that gives books to children, and then teaches them to read, is pointed out as the corrupter of youth, the practicality of the real person in your neighborhood makes the words of the preacher seem kind of hollow.
When the reality around you challenges your delusion, there are two choices. The first choice is to surrender your delusion. The second is to destroy that which challenges your delusion.
Of course America is not free of delusions, we have our own racism, culture wars, and self-righteousness. After we have kneeled before God and confessed OUR sin, then let us learn to prove the Taliban wrong and love our fellow man.

The Trouble with 1-800-FLOWERS

A gifted advertising group came up with a great pitch to increase FTD's sales with the 1-800-FLOWERS. That way a guy did not even have to stop in to a flower shop, be bothered with selecting an arrangement, it was delivered for him, all on the credit card and his only question was "IT COST HOW MUCH ?!?!
I bear no ill will against a good company and a successfull campaign. I only mourn the loss of genuine human touch. All some guy now had to do was dial the number. Dial the number, back before cell phones, before touch tone, the phones had a wheel on the face that you turned to select the num...never mind.
It created a detached effortless way to say, "Here, I'm busy, so I let someone else do it, I just paid for it". How romantic. Hopefully it went a little deeper than that but much of our 20th century American society's mentality tracks on that same wavelength. Rather than get personal we would rather donate cash to a corporate entity that will handle the dirty work to leave us free to pursue our self interests with a relatively clear conscience. Perish the thought of actually touching a "needy" person ourselves, it might interrupt our schedule, or make images in our memory that don't comfortably go back on the tidy shelf.
In the books of Moses, the was a festival of booths, or "sukkot". It was to be a reminder that they were once wanderers, living in shelters, a time to be humble and have kind thoughts toward those who must still live in shelters.
Who of us can say that in a year or two from now, we might not be living on the kindness of friends and strangers. MAY THEY BE AS KIND TO YOU, AS YOU WERE TO OTHERS.

Are we hearing the Questions?

There is debate as to how to reach the lost world for Christ. In truth the people of the Church must make the Gospel relevant to each listener. Consider how Jesus approached the Woman at the well, the demoniac in the tombs, the Disciples prior to and after feeding the multitudes and how about the "Religious Elite" (as opposed to Nicodemus). Times of discernment call for hearing what questions are actually being asked, before we can tell them what needs to be heard.

One source of questions I have heard has come from a band I enjoy called "Linkin Park". One song is called Breaking The Habit part of it says;

Clutching my cure, I tightly lock the door
I try to catch my breath again, I hurt much more
than anytime before, I had no options left again
I don’t want to be the one, the battles always choose
'Cause inside I realize that I'm the one confused
I don't know what's worth fighting for
Or why I have to scream, I don't know why I instigate
And say what I don't mean, I don't know how I got this way
I'll never be alright, so, I'm breaking the habit
I'm breaking the habit Tonight

It is not hard to hear the lyricist's pain. Is this a cry for help that resonates with young and old (hey, I like the song, and 50 is just days away, old is a state of skate board proficiency). How many of us have figured out that we can't fight every battle, but we can't decide which? We look back at what we did, shake our heads and are puzzled at our own behavior, however we are clearheaded enough to tell anyone else how to clean up their act!

When we do find forgiveness, as hard as that is, we promise to NEVER do it AGAIN, but how long does that last?

Rather than a pointed finger, a broken heart/spirit needs an open hand, and a lift up as Jesus did for the Woman caught in adultery. After the accusers were gone, Jesus patiently waited then He said softly, "Go and sin no more," end of story. God welcomes the broken, contrite heart (Psalm 51:17). The proud, the self-righteous: whether they are religious or not, will find no mercy.

Face Time With God

In the last 20 months, part of what I deal with is called positional vertigo. What happens is, after sitting or laying down for a while, upon rising I have a lack of blood rush (?) from my brain. No warning it just happens sometimes. I can get up with no effect, I can get up and need to grab something for 3-7 seconds, or I can just pick a soft place to land. Having so much time on my face I have felt humiliated, hoping it would not happen in a public place. So far God has been gracious and held me up.

Just today it occurred to me, why haven't I used the "face" time to approach God's throne about some of the serious troubles I have seen in our world, nation, our church? If God is trying to humble me then I better listen! He seems to have gone beyond the still, small voice and moved to the 2x4 method. I don't want Him to get a bigger piece of lumber.

Saints in the Bible and in History, literally got on knees and on face in reverence to make appeals in times of need. Do we not have need?

SPEAK LORD FOR THY SERVANT HEARETH, the next step is obedience. Am I on the voice or stick level?

How about you?

Who Might Be Watching?

In my human development class there is a psychological term called "invisible audience". It is applied to adolescents who suspect they are the object of everyone's attention. It makes them anxious and tense adding to an already stressful time in life. Psychologists say it is only an illusion that passes with time and maturity.

I accepted this logic until a verse of scripture opened in a new light. From my earliest years I have been taught that people in Heaven are rejoicing with Jesus and are shielded from seeing this life due to the permeation of sin. But Hebrews 12:1 opened, as I said, in a new light. Hebrews 11 describes the hall of heroes whose faith (in spite of sin, failures, doubt, and weakness) allowed them to achieve great things for God. THEN comes 12:1, well here, read it for yourself;
Hebrews 11:32-12:1
And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated—the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.
These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect. Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

We are (present tense, NOW) surrounded by Witnesses. Not just God, but the Host of the faithful. Not Angels, though they are here, but MEN and WOMEN of FAITH.

Call a meeting and have this heretic tarred and feathered and run out of the church on a rail!

Witnesses, look up the term in the dictionary, and we are surrounded, not off in some distant somewhere.

Invisible audience indeed, We are being watched! The response? Throw off everything that keeps us from the course God has chosen for us to run.

Would you stop in front of the Grandstands to check your shoestrings or brush off some dust at a track meet? NO, when the home crowd is watching we run the race till the race is over!!

Does One Person Matter?

Does one person matter? Some people say they won't vote because one vote won't matter. They stay quiet because if they say anything one voice won't matter. They stay home because being there won't help, one more person won't matter.

Getting lost in a crowd is easy to do. In the mass of six billion people we can feel very insignificant. God says He counts the hairs on our heads and even some useless bird in the tree. But in the scheme of events of man, do you and I have impact? lets look at a few individuals.

Suppose Adam had said, "No, she looks nice but I will stay single till I find a brunette".
And what if Noah said, "Funny, I don't see any rain clouds".
Moses might have run for his life the other way, yelling, "Fire!, Fire!".
David (standing over Saul's body) plead, "It was self-defense" and in so doing compromised his commitment before God.
If Solomon was so wise, why did marry more than one woman? It was because he had a Y chromosome. He was just the wisest man, not the smartest, sorry.
What if Deborah (Judges 4) had simply laughed in Barak's face?
And Esther of course might not have gathered the courage to follow her uncle’s instructions.
Elijah really should have studied Freud or Erickson to find the source of Ahab and Jezebels inner crisis.
It would have been very easy for Daniel to say, "Hey, that pork looks pretty good".
I can imagine Shadrach telling Abednego, and Meshach, "Dudes, our sandals are untied", just as the music played.
Separation of Temple and State had to be considered and discussed extensively before any politically incorrect statements be made to Herod, John the Baptist, said to himself over, and over, and over, as he paced outside the palace.

Fools or Heroes, in the history of mankind there is but one judge. The curtain is yet to fall. Who among us can say what is the next act? What will be noted as the next great heroism? WHAT OPPORTUNITY MIGHT JEHOVAH PLACE IN YOUR HAND TODAY, TO CHANGE ALL OF THE TOMORROWS