Just on a short break. Be back this Sunday!

Hello to all of my faithful readers out there. I just wanted to let you know that I haven't gone away. I just took a break for a week. Sometimes in the ebb and flow of life, we just need to pause and take a breath. It's not a bad thing. I plan to be back this Sunday with a new post full of insight, encouragement, and things to think about. Then on Wednesday, it will be time for my May playlist. Remember, if you have songs you love, you can send me them. They just might make an upcoming playlist. You never know.

I hope you are having a great Spring season of refreshing newness and growth. The sun is out here and the air is warming up for a few days. Take advantage of what you have been blessed with. Spend time with someone you love. Do something you love doing. Make it a great weekend.

Thanks for reading,

How Old Is Your Brain and other things your cell phone may or may not tell you!

I got sucked down a rabbit hole. For the first time in a year, I played a game on my phone. I first saw it as a puzzle, but as I got into it there were obviously points and levels. I'm never sure with these phone games if the scoring actually means anything or not. They don't give a lot of instructions as to what I am getting points for. Is it speed? Is it the number of moves? Who knows!

Then there were the ads, so many ads. Ads for other games. How many games does a guy need on his phone? There were ads for Bitcoin. What IS Bitcoin? I don’t even know. It was worse than watching a show on Hulu. I could advance maybe 3 levels before I had to watch 3 to 6 ads for things I did not care about one single bit. Oh, I know that I could pay money to see fewer ads. I could pay money to get additional games and probably pay more money to avoid the ads on those games too.

As I was falling down the hole, the ads I came across were somewhat interesting but mostly annoying. I am sure that I do not need to play a game where I am hanging out in

an alternate world or acting as the great decision maker for characters in a story. I have already learned that God is God and I am not. No need to dabble in being God in a make-believe world. I certainly do not need to make the choice if a couple in the clearing are better off with an umbrella or a tent in the rain, the make-believe rain. What are they doing there in the first place? They're not dressed for these conditions. And who are they? Did they plan to get there? Why do I need to choose for them? I have enough important decisions to make in my own life, like where I’m going to eat before the concert tomorrow night or which coat I'm going to wear if it snows in the real world. First-world problems, I know.

I continued down the hole, though less rapidly than Alice did in her journey to Wonderland. That's when I came across WORD games. Now as for word games, let me be abundantly clear. I don’t like them. I don't want to play them. I don't want to watch others play them. I don't want to be invited to play them.  I don’t want to think about words

when I’m playing a game unless it's Cards Against Humanity Family Edition. That is not a cell phone came, as far as I know. I guess I'll play Quiplash too with the right people who play appropriately. I don’t mind numbers as part of games. I can handle symbols, pictures, and objects in games. Words do not a game make, for me anyway. Please don’t tell me to “Install Now.” As if Scrabble wasn’t bad enough, now it scrolls automatically. Does that mean it’s never-ending? Oh my! I am not installing this thing that will take up space and suck the life out of my phone and out of my brain if I ever try to use it. For all of you crossword puzzle enthusiasts and you BINGO aficionados, please forgive me for having such strong feelings about this. I have given it my fair shake. I've lost money at BINGO. I've left many a crossword puzzle unfinished. I've argued over my share of made-up words for Scrabble. You take your dictionary and go play in the other room. Thank you very much. Maybe I'm getting a bit opinionated as I grow older (my daughters hate it when I say that). This leads me further down the hole.

I must have been nearing the bottom the ads tried desperately to get my attention. “How old is your brain?” Really? I need this game to tell me how old my brain is? I know how old my brain is. It is as old as the rest of me. I’m pretty sure it was developing in my mother’s womb as soon as any other part of me was taking shape. My brain hasn’t aged any faster than my feet., my lungs, or my eyelashes. It has never taken a

sabbatical from life and is somehow younger than my kneecaps, my liver, or my wrinkled skin. My brain is 54 years, 1 month, 29 days (and I’m not sure what time I was born) old.

Now ask me how FULL is my brain? How tired is my brain? How messed up is my brain? Those are questions I’d like to see a game answer. The reality is that a game on my phone will not answer any of these questions about me. Some games on my phone might keep my brain functioning better as I age. I’ll concur that the ads that promote that may be correct. However, there are other great things on my phone that help me care for my brain.

YouVersion is a great Bible App. I can read the entire Bible on my cell phone. I can have it read to me and I can select from more translations than I care to even know to exist. I can follow reading plans, discover devotionals, watch videos, and so much more. I can even keep notes and highlight passages. I can do all of that on my cell phone.

I can access ALL of my recent photos (when I say recent, about 2008 on) with the phone that I carry with me in my pocket. I have so many photos that I took, including selfies. Who hasn't take a selfie? I have so many photos saved that others whom I know took. I have lots of photos that people I don’t know took of things I’ve never seen in person. Then there are photos others have taken of place that I have also been. Some of the places I can look at are Yosemite, CA, Disneyland, Kansas, Washington D.C. Actually, thanks to the internet, I can see almost any place in the world. With virtual GPS I might even be able to see into your backyard.

Spotify is my music app of choice thanks to my oldest daughter. It took me forever to get with the times but I now have too many playlists for my own good. She and I share a playlist. My youngest and I share a playlist. My wife and I share a playlist. I have Southern Gospel playlists, Country playlists, Classical playlists, Movie theme playlists, and the playlists go on and on and on. iTunes used to be my source for music. At some point and time, most of the music I purchased and put on iTunes has disappeared from my technology. Glad to have contributed to someone’s wealth, iTunes...Oh well. I did get a lot of enjoyment out of it. What I still haven't figured out is how music artists are making any money these days. I haven't purchased a CD, cassette, 8-track tape, or record in years.

Then there is my CPW Fishing app. This is the app I use in order to choose where I want to fish in Colorado. I can use this app to figure out what kind of fish I should be catching. I can get condition reports, find out bag limits, and even learn the latest fishing techniques. There is a section with the "Catch of the Week." On this app, I am able to discover when a body of water was last stocked with fish, how accessible the lake is, and if I were totally crazy, I could log all of my outings. Instead, when I fish I use my phone to listen to Spotify or to Podcast, which is a whole other function of the cell phone that I’m not really going to go into today.

So I thought that I was going to solve a puzzle that looked intriguing to me; how quickly and easily can I untangle several strands of rope. Instead, I have pulled you down the cell phone rabbit trail with me. I hope you’ve enjoyed the journey. You can invite me to listen to Podcasts you like. You can share music with me. You can send me fun, inspirational photos if you would like, especially if you catch a big fish. But don’t challenge me to any of your games on the phone. I won’t be playing!

Thanks for reading,

 

The Battle - Is it real, is it a dream, or is it a nightmare?

The Blessing - Chris Brown, Steven Furtick, Cody Carnes, Kari Brooke Jobe

(click the link to hear the song)

2020 has allowed the space for lots of songs to surface to the top of my radar and make an impact in ways that only music can. The song lyrics above are taken from a priestly blessing from the Old Testament book of Numbers chapter 6, verses 24-26. Deeply rooted in Israelite culture, to bless is to bestow power and once spoken, can take on a life of its own. As the lyrics of this song progress, one can feel the power of the words if one is allowing them to penetrate to their very heart and soul. The song's climax is the repeated refrain:

"He is for you, He is for you
He is for you, He is for you
He is for you, He is for you
He is for you, He is for you!"

I am sure you would agree with me that the human mind is an incredible thing. It is more complex than anything we have been able to devise, and we have created some amazing things; boxes that send and receive sound waves and communicate back and forth; winged carriages that propel any sort of payload to distant planets; tiny devices that can influence the entire world in a matter of milliseconds, and the list goes on and on. Yet nothing can rival the ability of a mere 3 pounds or 2% of the human anatomy with the texture of a firm jelly called the brain. When I typed into Google “What does the brain do?” I came across a website, “Making Headway Center for Brain Injury Recovery” https://mhwcenter.org/functions-of-a-brain/ and found multiple lists of the many functions of the brain, lists separated by sections of the brain, called lobes. The multitude of simple to complex things our brain does is astounding. It ranges from the tangible like controlling our sense of touch or our ability to walk, to the intangible like our dreams and imagination.

I found myself in an unfamiliar room in an unfamiliar place. There were several people I loved with me, including my youngest daughter. We were surrounded by a pride of wild lions, male and female, and it was obvious that they were not friendly. While I didn’t want my loved ones to be killed, I did not want to feel the pain of their sharp teeth that would likely puncture my neck. I didn’t want to experience the depth of their claws in my face or arms or legs. It wasn’t so much the fear of dying that I was feeling, but the pain I anticipated experiencing in the last moments of my life.

That event never actually happened to me, except in an early morning dream I had just last night. The dream I had was likely a result of a change of diet, which affects our dreams, scenes from a psychological crime show I had watched before bed, and a Facebook video post I had viewed yesterday about…yes, you guessed it…lions. The dream, that movie in my mind, was a function of that amazing thing between my ears. The mind is also the place where other types of dreams are created. While the situation with the lions was created by my subconscious, we have the ability to consciously create dreams, to create a future born in our minds. Just last night at dinner I was telling a friend about the horse ranch we intend to build in the beautiful hills of the front range between Denver and

Colorado Springs. Right now that dream has as little basis in reality as my lion dream, but our future is born in our minds and the battle to live and fulfill our dreams is won and lost in our minds. If I don't work for and fight for that dream of a home, a few horses, a pool and hot tub, and room for guests, I will lose that dream to the other negative thoughts that are trying to gain a stronghold in my brain.

We talk about our “gut feelings,” which is our intuition or instinct; our immediate understanding of something. We don’t think it over; we just know it. However,

we don’t actually think and come to any understanding in our gut but in our mind. The mind/body connection often causes our emotions to register a physical response as gastrointestinal distress. There is an actual phenomenon called The Mariko Aoki phenomenon referring to an urge to use the bathroom suddenly felt upon entering a bookstore. It is estimated that at least 1 in 10 people experience

this mind/body connection. One survey of working women in Japan between the ages of 22 and 33 resulted in over 26% having answered yes to experiencing this. I have to admit to having experienced the phenomenon on multiple occasions.

Then there is the idea of feeling emotions in our hearts. Love is a “heart-felt” feeling. Belief is something that is said we do with our hearts. As a child, I asked Jesus into my “heart.” That is really a 20th-century expression that does not occur in the Bible. Trusting Christ happens not in the heart, but in the mind. Friends, the heart is a strong

muscle that pumps blood all over the body. One of its connections with the brain is that it is crucial in supplying the blood that carries the oxygen the brain needs to survive. According to Fred Nour, M.D. and Neurologist, over 2,500 Hippocrates got it right when he said “Emotions emanate from the brain.” It would be more accurate to say “I love you from the center of my brain” rather than “I love you from the bottom of my heart” (truelovebook.net). Our emotional center is the mind, not the heart.

Finally, we can’t talk about the gut and the heart as emotional centers without talking about the soul. Britannica.com says “Soul, in religion and philosophy, is the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being, that which confers individuality and humanity, often considered to be synonymous with the mind or the self. In theology, the soul is further defined as that part of the individual which partakes of divinity and often is

considered to survive the death of the body.” It is not going to be the purpose of this post to dive into a discussion about the soul; what it is, how it gets into us, how it leaves, where it goes, etc. I have always oriented the soul with being near my heart, but different than my heart. Ancient anatomists and philosophers credited it with being in the lungs or heart, or as specific as the pineal gland in the brain (Renee Descartes). Based on what I believe to be true about the brain, I would have to agree that the soul is likely part of the brain.

We often think that we understand everything correctly from our vantage point. Our perspective, however right we think it is, is not always the whole picture. Writers of the Bible have things to say about our minds. The book of 2 Corinthians in the New Testament is a letter written by Paul, a follower of Christ, to the people of Corinth. In Chapter 10, verses 3-5 (NIV) he tells them, “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

2020 brought with it all the effects of isolation, loneliness, and the lack of purpose and drive. BMJ Publishing Group LTD states that “Widely reported studies modeling the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on suicide rates predicted increases [in suicide] ranging from 1% to 145%” (https://www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m4352). COVID-19, the resulting quarantine, and the economic recession have negatively affected many people’s mental health causing increased anxiety. Some reports say as many as 4 in 10 adults in the US have experienced depressive disorder, a number 4 times greater than in 2019. People report an increase in difficulty sleeping and eating, greater alcohol and substance use, and worsening chronic conditions.

Pandemic or not, we have always been prone to listening to the negative messages that bombard our brains at times. This incredibly fashioned device called the mind is the battleground for every skirmish that leads to either advancement of our cause or decline in our progress as a person. For every dream birthed in our imagination, multiple, if not exponential reasons flood over those dreams in hopes of holding us back. It's like a real-life Fantasmic happening in the recesses of our brains. The Apostle Paul understood that in the realm of our natural mind (call it our gut, our heart, our soul), there is a supernatural military campaign waged against us hoping to dismantle the defenses of our minds. He goes on to say that we have the ability to use spiritual weapons backed with divine power. The Passion Translation says “We can demolish every deceptive fantasy that opposes God and break through every arrogant attitude that is raised up in defiance of the true knowledge of God. We capture, like prisoners of war, every thought and insist that it bow in obedience to the Anointed One” (2 Cor. 10:5 TPT).

Friends, in 2020 I took up the battle of my mind and mounted a defense against the voices I chose to listen to. I insisted that my mind bow in obedience to God. With the very power of God at work, I demolished every deceptive fantasy; the fantasy that I needed to escape my feelings, the fantasy that the real me would not be loved or accepted, the fantasy that unhealthy things would make me feel better, and the list goes on. In 2021 I even attacked my habits related to food. And with the care and control of God, my mind is now blessed, not a constant battlefield.

98% of our body is designed to facilitate our brain. Think

about it. Every other part of our physical being is a slave to that 3-pound mass between our ears. Our eyes, nose, and ears receive information for our brain to process. Our feet work with our legs to get us where our brain wants or needs to go. Our mouths, usually with help of our hands and arms, take in nourishment so that our brain can function. There are even anatomical parts designed to simply bring us pleasure. Yet no part of the 98% of our body can, on its own, defend our brain against the mental/spiritual/psychological battle that takes place daily in our minds. It is our very minds that we must capture, like prisoners of war, and force into submission for our own good and God's glory.

If you have been waiting for a change in your life, wait no longer. If you have been growing tired of the battle that is raging within you, be on the defensive no more. Whether you are fighting imaginary lions or real loneliness, it is time to go on the offensive and take your thoughts captive. You see, life is too short to make excuses. Life is too short to fight battles that you already have the power to win. Life is too short to continue to defend yourself against the forces you could have defeated by now. You may not understand the battle for the mind completely right now. But Paul speaks to that, as well, in his first letter to the people of Corinth. He says, “For now we see but a faint reflection of riddles and mysteries as though reflected in a mirror, but one day we will see face-to-face. My understanding is incomplete now, but one day I will understand everything, just as everything about me has been fully understood. Until then, there are three things that remain: faith, hope, and love—yet love surpasses them all. So above all else, let love be the beautiful prize for which you run” (1 Cor. 13:12-13 TPT).

The messages you hear in your mind that are bathed in love are the messages from God Himself to you. He knows you completely. He loves you recklessly. He offers you all the power to win the battle, to accomplish the goals and fulfill the calling He set before you. You don’t have to endure stress. Love is patient. You don’t have to listen to the unkind messages in your mind. Love is always kind. You don’t have to wish you had what others have, or feel like you don’t have what it takes. Love is generous. You don’t have to try to convince others that you are the real deal. Love is humble. You don’t have to endure emotional rudeness and abuse. Love is not rude, does not manipulate others, and does not use shame to get its way. You don’t have to be offended or irritable. Real love is not offensive. You don’t have to hide behind lies or endure the dishonesty of others. Love celebrates honesty. You no longer have to settle for what you consider flaws, hurts, habits, or hang-ups. Love conquers and overcomes them. You no longer have to feel alone because love is completely and forever loyal. Focus your mind on love, the love you deserve whether you believe you do or not (1 Cor. 13 TPT).

"He is for you, He is for you
He is for you, He is for you
He is for you, He is for you

He is for you, He is for you!" 

Thanks for reading,

The Blessing - Chris Brown, Steven Furtick, Cody Carnes, Kari Brooke Jobe

“The Lord bless you and keep you, Make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you
The Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace

May His favor be upon you and a thousand generations
And your family and your children, and their children, and their children

May His presence go before you and behind you, and beside you, all around you, and within you
He is with you, He is with you

In the morning, in the evening, in your coming, and your going
In your weeping, and rejoicing, He is for you, He is for you

Amen, amen, amen” 

 

You Have the Power to Choose!

You have the power to choose. Did you know that? Have you thought about that recently? Just a quick moment ago you chose to open this blog and start reading. From the moment you awoke this morning you have been exerting your power to choose. You chose when to get up. You chose what you consumed for breakfast and how much. Almost all of us chose what clothes to wear today, how to fix our hair, and literally thousands of decisions already today. In 2018 researchers at Cornell University estimated the average adult makes about 35,000 remotely conscious decisions each day. That is over 6.5 million decisions in an average lifetime. It is estimated that 1.4 million of those you will come to regret. They say we make about 227 decisions each day on food alone (Science.unctv.org Feb. 2018). I bet those count for many of the regrets.  It can be said that all choices, whether you make them, someone else makes them, or a group makes them have a cost associated with them.  Economists call this an Opportunity Cost. We might call this consequences (Foundation for Teaching Economics 2021). One way to look at this is that “choosing is refusing;” one choice can only be chosen by refusing the other choices. Every choice will have a consequence, either negative or positive. You are responsible for every choice you make. That is not a popular belief in today’s culture, but if you have read anything of mine, you know that I believe in absolute truth.

I know that you are now chewing on these ideas, determining the validity, and thinking about consequences for choices that were seeming made for you by someone else, or a group of others, for instance, the government. In English, the word “victim” exists to describe a person harmed, injured, or even killed by an event or action, typically outside of one’s own control. You could say that you are a victim of a tax increase. However, we have come to use the word to even describe the results of actions we literally cause ourselves. An example is “He was a victim of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.” By saying it that way, we actually minimize the responsibility of that person for their actions, whether we realize it or not. Here again, I remind you that I believe we are responsible for our choices.

Another conclusion you may have reached regarding consequences for choices that were made for you involve the idea of addiction. Merriam-Webster.com defines being addicted as “having an addiction: a: exhibiting a compulsive, chronic, physiological or psychological need for a habit-forming substance, behavior, or activity. This definition leads us to understand it in terms of the physiological and psychological makeup of a person. It has been said that at least half of one’s susceptibility to drug addiction can be linked to genetic factors. “Studies have shown that genetic predisposition and family history play a large part in the addiction or addictive

behaviors. According to Addictions and Recovery.org, addiction is due 50% to genetic predisposition and 50% to poor coping skills. Both genetic and environmental variables contribute to the initiation of use of addictive agents and to the transition from use to addiction” (luminusdiagnostics.com 2019). While this research is extremely important to helping addicts recover and find peace, hope, and a better life, some would use studies such as this to abdicate responsibility for many types of addictions.

That leads me to look at still other consequences of choices made for you resulting even more obviously and directly by genetics. You’ve heard people talk about their chronic struggles in life because they are short, not pretty enough, “large-boned,” and the list goes on. Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification or genetic manipulation, is the direct manipulation of an organism's genes using biotechnology. As well as inserting genes, the process can be used to remove genes. Just Google the subject and you’ll find fascinating information, including an article titled “Technology Will Soon Give Us Precise Control Over Our Brains and

Genes.” Author Ariel Bleicher asserts that “The citizens of this future will learn early in life – through some combination of next-next-next-generation genetic testing and intelligence gleaned from their smart accessories – whether they are heading toward disease: depression, dementia, diabetes, what have you. More importantly, they will be offered an exit strategy” (UCSF.edu/magazine/control-brains-genes 2021). The ramifications of the manipulation of genetic influences are profound. At this point, most of us really only have the ability to react to the consequences of our genetics.

You have the power to choose. After all of the above commentary, I still believe in my initial assertion wholeheartedly. In fact, only you can move past the influences in your life and master your life. Christians for years have misunderstood this idea, believing it is somehow less “spiritual” to master a negative influence than to pray and ask God to turn it into “the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28 NIV). That verse has been used to relieve us of the responsibility and the consequences of things we refuse to master or are seemingly unable to master on our own. It’s been used as a copout for far too long.

Clear back in Genesis, soon after the creation of the world, after Adam and Eve passed off responsibility for their actions and felt the consequences of their poor choices, God is really direct about the fact that we need to master our act of decision-making. We need to be in control of our choices. The story of the Garden of Eden shows us that God has given us the ability to make choices. In fact, we need to recognize that true love demands freedom to choose or it isn’t really love at all. God exemplifies that in His decision to give us the freedom of choice. He could have made us robots that automatically obey Him, but where is the love in that? Now look at Gen. 4:6-7 NIV, “Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.” The New Living Translation says that sin is “eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master.” That sure sounds to me like God is telling Cain and telling you and me that we have some action that we need to take, some responsibility we have to own, some power over our choices.

There is an amazing song I sang years ago. The lyrics are almost pure scripture taken from a famous Psalm of David, Psalm 121 NIV, “I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.” Lord, I Run to You David knew that left to himself, he didn’t have the power necessary to be the man he was called to be. He didn’t have the power to live out his purpose and his calling. He didn’t have the power to make the best choices when faced with temptation. We see that in his vulnerability to share with us his choices of adultery and murder, to name a few.

But accessing God’s power doesn’t relieve you and me of ownership or responsibility for our choices. It doesn’t give us the permission to blame others for consequences or to pass on the responsibility for our decisions. God says I have the responsibility so I have the power from God to make the right choices if I master the ability to rely on His power to choose. Ruling over the human desire to make bad choices is mastering the ability to connect with the power Christ wants you to have. We too often turn to God at the wrong time.

Our tendency is to make bad choices, do the wrong thing, and then try to involve God in our consequences. Why wouldn’t we rather involve God in your choices and skip the whole negative consequence drama? That is what David is trying to encourage us to do when he shares where his help comes from. What we learn is that David accessed the very power of the Creator of heaven and the earth. The Apostle Paul in Romans 8:11 NLT tells us that “The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.” Now THAT is some power. That is enough power to make the right choices rather than wrong ones.

The creators of Alcoholics Anonymous and the 12 Steps of Recovery understood this idea that left to our own devices we are prone to make bad choices, decisions that will have negative consequences, choices that we will regret. They went so far as to say that our lives are unmanageable (Step 1). They also knew that you and I matter to God and they knew that God has more than enough power to help us (Step 2). In fact, life without God, to them, equaled insanity and there is only one way to gain sanity back. They logically concluded that one must “make a decision to turn our lives and our wills over to the care of God” (Step 3). In other words, let God give us the power by giving ourselves to Him. These are the first 3 steps to recovery and to mastering the decision-making process and begin making good choices.

As we begin to recover from the poor choices we have made, we recognize the impact of the actions and influences of other people and other things in our lives as well. As we recognize those things, we are able to see that which we are to take responsibility for, that which we need to master, and that which we have the power to change. Instead of blaming others, we see that we did have a choice in how we reacted and responded.

When we come to the healing place of forgiveness, we are growing in our ability to take responsibility for our actions to whatever circumstances have hurt us or caused a hang-up we haven’t been able to get over. In fact, our responses shape our future. They always have. The power of God is not magic fixing the consequences of every bad decision. The power of God is healing and it is mastering our lives in ways we may have never imagined. Imagine what healing could do for your future.

You have the power to choose. You have the power to overcome the circumstances and consequences of the past. You have the power to receive things that you may find lacking in your life; hope, clarity, acceptance, compassion, accountability, gratitude, humility, community, mercy, honesty, and joy.

The Alcoholics Anonymous Big Book states “If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are halfway through. We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness. We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it. We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace. No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others. That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear. We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows. Self-seeking will slip away. Our whole attitude and outlook on life will change. Fear of people and economic insecurity will leave us. We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us. We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.

Are these extravagant promises? We think not. They are being fulfilled among us - sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. They will always materialize if we work for them” (p.83-84).

Who among us would not what all of the gifts talked about above? Having the power to choose truly begins when we take responsibility for our actions, for our reactions, for our choices, and our responses to whatever circumstances we encounter. Whether you are held back by dishonesty, sexual impurity, alcohol, intimacy issues, drugs, emotional abuse, anxiety and depression, pride, cowardice, smoking, fear, co-dependency, low self-esteem, physical abuse, financial dysfunction, a poor relationship with food, any hurt, habit or hang-up, you have the power to choose. In fact, you have a wonder-working power available to you through the Son of the Living God. I know that from experience, as I have overcome

poor choices in several of the areas listed above, most recently, my relationship with food. I have relied on God’s power to help me lose 18 pounds since January. Better yet is the fact that for far too long I have known that I have been in the Diabetes range and was needing to address that consequence of being overweight and eating poorly. I’m thrilled to say my a1c numbers are now below the Diabetic range and that correction was completely due to new choices I have been successfully making.

You have the power to choose. My “just one voice” blog is full of insights on having the power to choose. You’ve made a good choice to read this entry to the end. I encourage you to read my other entries and you might gain additional insights into choices and consequences and decisions you might need to consider.

Thanks for reading, 

Jesus is NOT dead, but some Christians act like He never lived

Today is what is known as Easter, a day Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. For others, it is a celebrated tradition of ushering in Spring by the Easter mascot, the Easter Bunny. It is an opportunity to gather as a family and enjoy fun traditions such as coloring, hiding, searching for, and finding eggs. It’s a time to enjoy chocolate and other candy. Grandma had a tradition of giving us those chocolate Easter Bunnys and I looked forward to them (and Peeps). For many, Spring represents new life and renewed beauty. Things begin to turn green again. Flowers begin to show their colors. Animals begin to scamper about. Temperatures start to rise as the sun warms the air anew.

Long before Easter was a thing, the writer of the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy references new life as opposed to death; prosperity and blessing as opposed to disaster, destruction, and curses. It is interesting to me that in verses 16 and 17 of Deuteronomy 30, loving God is equated with living, and turning away from God essentially equals death.

Friends, let’s be honest for a moment. Death intrigues us. As morbid as it sounds, there is a natural curiosity surrounding death and the dead. As a child, when you see a dead animal, you want to look at it and you want to get others to see it as well. When a dead whale washes up on the shore, crowds gather to observe. When a tragic human death occurs, barricades have to be erected in order to keep people away.

I have already posted a blog about my hometown cemetery and the fact that I visit there when I go home. I’m not sure I told you I also visit cemeteries in other places, A Hot Summer Day at the Zion Church Cemetery There is a beautiful cemetery in Idaho Springs, Colorado situated on the side of a hill with a rustic path one can drive their vehicle on and take in the view. There are several old cemeteries

in Central City, Colorado with old tombstones for the curious to see. On the east coast of the US, there are lots of places where one can see where families gathered to lay to rest Civil War soldiers and others. When I visit these places of rich history, I never go to look for living people. I go to see the markers and imagine the dead, sometimes as they were when they were alive, and honestly, wondering what state the body is in now. You’ve wondered that yourself.

When those that deeply loved Jesus went to the tomb on that Sunday morning, they were not going looking for anyone living. An odd thing about loving someone so much is that we want to go to the place where their dead body has been laid in order to

honor them. Imagine the disappointment the Christ-followers felt the Friday Jesus died, and how lost they must have felt on Saturday, and the grief that had set in by Sunday. As far as they were concerned, nobody had lived like Jesus had lived. Yet He seemingly chose death willingly. They must have been so confused. Yet they loved Him so deeply that they honored Him anyway.

What they did not yet understand is that when Christ, who was fully man yet fully God, chose to show God’s love and freely choose death, He was actually choosing life for every single person who would choose God. When He said “It is finished,” what actually came to an end was the plan God devised to show His love to all He created to take care of the separation between God and man completely. What came to an end was eternal death for anyone who is willing to choose life by choosing God. In order to prove His power over death, that Sunday morning, Jesus came back to life, as the prophets had foretold, conquering the power of death once and for all. His followers just didn’t understand that they should have been looking for the risen Christ instead of a dead man in a tomb.

This is the most important moment in history, the moment Jesus stepped out of the grave, and showed us what it means to truly live. If you are reading this, you are physically alive, but many people are spiritually dead. We all want to appear to be loving life, yet some of us are carrying around a corpse inside. In Deuteronomy 30: 19 - 20 NLT we read, “Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life so that you and your descendants might live! You can make this choice by loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and committing yourself firmly to him. This is the key to your life.”

I want to identify something that bothers me so intensely and something that I feel keeps people from choosing life as I have described it. I believe with all my heart and soul and mind that Jesus is NOT dead. But so many Christians act like He never lived. What do I mean by that? I have found some Christians to be most unloving towards others. I am horrified by that. I am baffled by the words and actions of those who claim to be following the teaching of the Bible yet consistently act in unloving ways towards fellow human beings. I have to say here that I am not saying I am perfect and I fall short of my expressed standard too often. I have been working on my tendency to be judgmental and unbiblical in my thinking. It is impossible to follow Jesus' example perfectly. But here is what I now attempt to filter every word and action through. “Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins” (1 John 4:7-10 NLT).

I continue to see examples of Christians deciding it is most important for them to tell someone how they should live their life, what gender they should identify with, what political party they should subscribe to, who they should be in a relationship with, what denomination is correct, what school they should attend. In doing so, they fail to act in a loving way towards this person or group of people. What if Christians minded their own behavior and went overboard showing love to everyone around them, regardless of their behavior. The Bible is full of examples of people whose lives were changed, not by others telling them how wrong their behavior was, but by LOVE. Elijah was suicidal. Job was bankrupt. Moses had a speech impediment. Gideon was full of fear. Samson had sexual purity issues. Rahab was a prostitute. The Samaritan Woman was divorced. Noah was an alcoholic. Jacob was a cheater. David was a murderer. Jonah simply ran away from God. Peter denied God. Martha was a worrier. Zacchaeus was a thief. The Disciples lacked discipline. Paul persecuted Christians. The list goes on and on. As I reviewed these characters in my mind, I don’t recall God needing Christians to be unloving, cruel, unkind, and abstinent in order to give them life. It was LOVE that made all the difference.

Maybe I am being too judgmental in pointing out my frustrations. I just cannot blame those with unloving examples or experiences with unloving interactions with Christians for not wanting to choose life by choosing God. I acknowledge that I am equally as frustrated with those who reject God without having considered the life of Christ for themselves. The only way to perfectly know the love of God through Christ is to read about it in His Word. Yet many reject God without honestly considering what the Bible has to say for themselves. On that note, it would likely be helpful for all of us to consistently be reading the gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) and reminding ourselves constantly of the loving attitudes and actions of Jesus.

 

“Now listen! Today I am giving you a choice between life and death, between prosperity and disaster” (Deut. 30:15). You will find that trying to keep up the illusion of being alive will cause you to grow weary. You likely know in your heart of hearts, that though you are physically alive, you are dying inside. You may have watched me or talked with me and have heard unloving things come out of my mouth or observed unloving actions towards you or others. You may have had Christian family members or friends who have not been the best examples of the love that God supposedly has for us. You may not even feel worthy of reckless, unconditional love from another person, not to mention the Creator of the universe. Today, Easter 2021, take a few minutes to start reading the gospel of John in the New Testament. Take a look at the love of God for yourself, as firsthand as you can, by reading God’s word. See if it is time to choose life. If you are a Christian, commit with me to ask God to show you when you are being judgmental, when you are unloving, and stop judging, stop being unloving, and choose love. Your faith may be deep. Your hope may be in salvation and heaven. But is your love the love of God in Christ being shown to others? 1 Corinthians 13 says that love is the greatest of the three. Let’s practice love!

Thanks for reading,

 

HE WILL NEVER ABANDON YOU: BEEP BEEP I'M A SHEEP

There’s a great song in Despicable Me 2 by Pharrell Williams called “Happy”. Click on the link to hear it. These are some of the lyrics.

“It might seem crazy what I am 'bout to say

Sunshine she's here, you can take a break

I'm a hot air balloon that could go to space

With the air, like I don't care, baby by the way

Because I'm happy - Clap along if you feel like a room without a roof

Because I'm happy - Clap along if you feel like happiness is the truth

Because I'm happy - Clap along if you know what happiness is to you

Because I'm happy - Clap along if you feel like that's what you wanna do.”

Happy lyrics © Emi April Music Inc., Emi Blackwood Music Inc., More Water From Nazareth

Hope is a word that usually brings with it a feeling of happiness. Hope is defined as “a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen” (Oxford Languages). Most of us don’t hope for bad things or for negative circumstances or experiences that are unpleasant. So when we say “I hope so” we are anticipating happiness because the thing we are wanting is going to come to pass. Think about something you are hoping for right now. Maybe it’s something in the near future. Maybe you have to be patient for it to happen. Take notice of that positive feeling inside as you hope for whatever it is you’re hoping for. Now put that thought aside in a place that you can get to it easily because we are going to come back to it. However, in order to fully know hope, we have to know despair.

You’ve probably heard the notion that to fully know and understand and appreciate the light you have to know the absence of light, darkness. To fully appreciate health, you have to know what it’s like to be ill. To fully grasp the blessings of wealth you must know what poverty is like. It is the same with hope.

One of the most despairing realities of the pandemic has been the fact that many people have died alone. Because many hospitals could not allow even family members into patient rooms, many of those who were gravely ill, not only with COVID 19 but with other ailments, have died without their most precious loved ones by their side. I have never been with someone that died. I spoke to my dad on the phone just hours before he died, but I wasn’t able to be there. I was with my grandpa the day before he died. He wasn’t conscious and would not regain consciousness before he passed away. I’m fortunate to have not lost many friends or loved ones. I imagine that will change as I continue to get older. But to know that people died alone during this last year brings me great sadness.

Have you ever lost your kid in a store? You’re looking at something in aisle 12 at Home Depot and the next thing you know your child is not there? There is that moment of despair, panic, and all the horrible things cram your brain until you explode. Like the situation with the boy in the picture, it usually turns out to be mostly fine and innocent. Think about moments of hopelessness in your life that didn’t turn out fine or innocent. Think about those times you have felt deep despair. How many of those instances revolved around your feelings of abandonment? I have talked with and hear stories from many men and women who have said that abandonment has been one of the hardest things they have ever had to deal with. I don’t know what is a worse feeling, having felt like you have been abandoned or having caused someone else to feel abandoned by your actions or lack of action. Maybe you were lost in a store and couldn’t find your mom or your large family left for vacation and didn’t know you weren’t in the station wagon. Maybe you had to call off your wedding just weeks before because he left you and wasn’t coming back. It is a horrible feeling to feel abandoned. Mental Health professionals make their living counseling people for whom this issue is the core issue that every other hurt, habit, and hang-up stem from.

In Psalm 22:1-2 New Living Translation we read the words of David, a man described as “a man after God’s own heart.” Yet just like you and me, David had a time in his life that he felt abandoned. “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Why are you so far away when I groan for help?  Every day I call to you, my God, but you do not answer. Every night I lift my voice, but I find no relief.” David was really good at expressing his feelings. I’m glad that he liked to journal because what we read is the journal of his feelings of abandonment that are much too familiar to many of us. The Passion Translation says it this way, “God, my God! Why would you abandon me now” (Psalm 22:1 TPT)?

David begins this journal entry crying out to God with intense feelings of abandonment and goes on to describe the experiences surrounding this abandonment. “But I am like a worm, crushed and bleeding crimson, treated as less than human. I’ve been despised and scorned by everyone! Mocked by their jeers, despised with their sneers, as all the people poke fun at me, spitting their insults, saying, “Is this the one who trusted in God? Now let’s see if Yahweh will come to your rescue! Let’s see how much he delights in him” (vs. 6-8)!” He talks about every joint in his body being pulled apart. He describes being so parched and thirsty that his tongue sticks to the roof of his mouth. He paints a picture of his hands and feet being pierced and of being torn at by a band of evil men surrounding him like a pack of dogs. And in verse 18 he says, “With a toss of the dice they divide my clothes among themselves, gambling for my garments!”

Has anyone ever said to you that Jesus knows what you’re going through? Has it ever felt shallow or insensitive? I have to admit that those kinds of words often fall onto deaf ears because of the overwhelming feelings we carry during a difficult time. But it doesn’t make them not true. Jesus even knew abandonment at a disparaging level. For it was at His moment of death He felt abandoned by His Father, just like many patients in hospitals felt during this last year.

Today is what is called “Good Friday.” It is an odd label because it is actually the day commemorating the death of Jesus Christ. One might think it would be better labeled “Black Friday” but I guess that’s already taken. While death is horrible, and Christ’s death by means of crucifixion was one of the most horrifying ways to die, Christians know it to be good because it is what has reconciled us to God. But what I want to connect you to here is the despairing emotions Jesus Himself experienced, the feeling of abandonment.

1000 years before Jesus died, David wrote the very words that Jesus chose to use as He himself hung dying. Matthew 27:45 records “Jesus shouted with a mighty voice in Aramaic, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” “My God, My God, why have you abandoned me?”” Jesus was experiencing the very actions and events that David wrote about so long ago. There are so many details matching what

happened to and around Jesus at the time of His death it is as though David had been there 1000 years earlier. Those descriptions I presented earlier from David’s journal all happened as Jesus was put to death on an old rugged cross. David even closes Psalm 22 with another quotation of Jesus on the cross: “It is finished” (vs. 31)! If you read the gospel accounts for yourself, you will find all of these details. Look at Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 23, and John 19. It’s all there.

I told you I would come back to that feeling of happiness and hope you thought about a moment ago. In fact, in last week’s blog I promised something full of hope and happiness. I

promised to tell you how I know God will NEVER abandon you. If we stopped at the crucifixion, I couldn’t do it. If David had stopped journaling with Psalm 22, I couldn’t do it. But as evangelist Tony Campolo said years ago, “It’s Friday, but Sunday’s coming!” There is more to the story.

Chapter 23 of Psalms is often called the Shepherd Psalm because David was a shepherd at the time that he wrote that part of his journal. I think it would better called “The Sheep Psalm,” because in this famous journal entry, David has resolved the issues of abandonment as he opens with “The Lord is my shepherd; I have all that I need” (Ps. 23:1 NLT). Many of you once memorized this timeless piece of comfort and hope. David speaks of “He” meaning God Himself,

as providing rest, streams of water to replenish, renewed strength, guidance, protection, and comfort. He talks about a party that God throws and a ritual God performs actually making the him who once felt abandoned, now feel presentable and ready to enjoy overflowing beverages and blessings. He closes this entry with “Surely Your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever (Ps. 23:6). That is not the journal entry of someone abandoned. Regardless of what David felt when he wrote Psalm 22, it is more than obvious that he realized he was not abandoned and that God is pursuing him with goodness and unfailing love forever. Beyond this life, David has the hope and assurance of being with the Lord forever in the next. He understands that the Good Shepherd has laid His life down for the sheep, of which he is one.

If that is not enough proof, that Good Shepherd, Jesus, after dying on that Friday and being laid in a borrowed tomb, arose from the dead, proof of which is given by eyewitness accounts and can be further corroborated with other historical writing besides scripture. Rising from the dead is not congruent with abandonment when God is the only one with the power to raise the dead. Christ’s feelings of abandonment on the cross were Him taking the consequences of my sinful life so that I would never, ever be abandoned. Had Christ not risen and stayed in the tomb, I could not say to you today that God will NEVER abandon you. But Easter morning represents the single most important act in human history and provides the assurance once and for all that we are not only NOT abandoned by God, but that we shall dwell with Him in community for all of eternity.

So as the great storyteller, Paul Harvey would say, “And now you know the rest of the story!” Now, back to that feeling of hope and the happiness that accompanies it. There is a great song made popular by Jon Reddick and Mandisa called “You Keep Hope Alive.” You can click on the link and listen, but there is a lyric that I want to point out to you. It says “Hope in the sorrow, Hope for this moment, My hope for tomorrow.” Jesus is The Hope and God will NEVER abandon you. In fact, He is ALWAYS with you and you will be with Him forever. The New Testament writer, Paul, assures us of that with these words of contentment from God, "I will never fail you. I will never abandon you."

Remember, the Good Shepherd has laid down His life for the sheep. If you are a Christ-follower, you are one of those sheep. If you are not yet a Christ-follower, what is keeping you from becoming one, one of His sheep? I’d love to have that conversation with you if you are interested. Until then, let’s

end this discussion with hope and happiness. Watch this: Beep Beep I'm a Sheep (feat. TomSak &BlackGryph0n)

Thanks for reading,