Welcome! Sit back, rest awhile, and enjoy some more thoughts about your favorite topic. Please email me if your favorite category or topic is missing. What inspires you and helps you to think for yourself without merely "taking the word of the experts?" What is your favorite THINKABLE?

Mountains out of Molehills

We can easily spot when someone is making a "mountain out of a molehill," can't we? You know, they just blow everything out of proportion, or get everything out of perspective, like straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel. They need a new paradigm, or to get their head on straight, or to focus and keep the main thing, the main thing! Maybe if they just stood on their head and inverted everything, they could "straighten up and fly right."

Does this sound like the way parents and teenagers often view each other? Or maybe it applies sometimes to bosses and employees, or to those holding different political or religious views? Aren't we all rather quick to spot people and their characteristics that are different from us?

Jesus' disciples were just like this. Their Master really bugged them by spending a lot of time with folks that everyone else ignored, put down, or thumbed their nose at. For example, how many of your friends work for the IRS or your county tax assessor/collector? How many are prostitutes? How many have been kicked out of the church? The disciples had great plans, agendas, and expectations for Jesus. Instead of listening to their advice, He just keep annoying them with His insensitivity to the reputations of those He treated as "best friends." The old movie"Guess who's coming to dinner?" couldn't hold a candle in shock value to the horror Jesus' disciples expressed when He wrote someone new onto His social calendar.

But if we could let this same inverted spot light shine on us for a minute, we might well ask, "what in the world do you think Jesus sees in me?" Surely there's nothing attractive enough or special enough to warrant God's own Son leaving all the glories of Heaven, to become vulnerable to all the tests and trials I face each day, is there? Or to finally submit Himself to the cruelties and self-centeredness of ambitious "leaders" as they beat, tried, and sentenced to a tortuous death, the creator-God of the universe.

But if we truly invert our views for a moment, we can get much closer to God's view of us. You see we indeed make mountains out of the "spec-sized" molehill faults we constantly spot in others, while ignoring major flaws in our own lives. We tend to condemn those whose interests, traditions, and life-styles differ from our own, remaining blinded to what might exist deep in the recesses of our own heart. Only God knows who is really wrestling and struggling to draw close to Him and become lost in His love and grace. We turn style, interest, and external differences into mountains. And we overlook what our own actions and choices demonstrate that we really believe about God. In contrast, God sees us all on a level playing field. Once we were all equally dead men, marching in synchronized lockstep to the cadence of the super salesman "god of this world." We all have expressed varying degrees of ignoring, disobeying, and disbelieving the only true and wise God, Who sees our individual rebellions as equally serious, stemming from similar spiritually lethal heart disease. Our spiritual highs and lows must appear to God a lot like the flat surface of a table, with only the redeeming presence of Jesus creating an infinitely high spike in the middle, for those who invited Him in to be their savior, friend, and Lord.

How about letting Him turn the mountains of your judgments of others into molehills, and turn your own spiritual molehills into infinitely high mountains which each week reflect the glory of Jesus, your savior and Lord, to those who come in contact with you?

Lookin' For Love In All The Wrong Places

The Urban Cowboy movie put a lot of gripping music, feelings, and memories into the phrase " Lookin' For Love In All The Wrong Places." But of course John Trivolta has no monopoly on this subject, because in real life there are more heart-rending accounts of relationships and love gone awry, than of "happily ever afterward" situations. Although the landslide of unhappy endings to well intentioned romances includes all kinds of failure factors, perhaps we can find some common patterns and maybe even find some warnings or prevention, to stem this tide of dissatisfaction, disillusionment, and heartbreak.

For example, let's begin from the vantage point of a well-worn cliché, "The grass is greener on the other side of the fence." You can just picture a cow illustrating this attitude, with it's head caught straining across a barbed wire fence. But humans also tend toward that "don't fence me in" syndrome. What others have, or what we don't have, seems strangely more attractive than what we do have. Accordingly, in romantic matters, quite often the pursued one retreats in response to the other person's advances, making them even more desirable. But ironically as the pursuing one abates, often the formerly reticent one becomes the pursuer, and vice-versa. It's very interesting how that often works. But a number of wise men have understood this well enough to avoid scaring off their current mates, by using cautious, sensitive, patience during their courting days.

Now it's time to burst a bubble or two by using a couple of questions, or maybe "break a piñata" to see if some goodies will fall out. How does love begin? What are its essential ingredients? And does it really have some persistent, enduring properties?

To rephrase the chicken and egg question, "which come first, love feelings, or love actions? Westerners tend to answer, love feelings," because that's what our movies and storybooks teach us. But much of the rest of the world is willing to trust the wisdom, experience, and many years of "shopping" of their parents, to identify marriage partners that are likely to successfully "go the distance" together. That amounts to saying that they put most of their eggs in the basket of observing character and behavior over a lifetime, rather than trust excited feelings that two inexperienced young people choose to call love.

This answer of emphasizing love actions, not only seems to provide longer lasting and better marriage relationships than those based on "falling in love," but it is also aligned with God's design and descriptions of His kind of love. Of course he is not only love's designer, but actually "He is love." He didn't merely declare His love for us in spoken or written words, but while we were still His enemies, ignoring Him, rebelling against Him, and cursing Him, He demonstrated His love for us in the fleshly form of His Son, the man called Jesus. His was not a comfortable, remote, aloof, uninvolved, "arm-chair love." Rather it took the form of blood, sweat, and tears. His love caused tears to flow for rebels who rejected Him and sought to kill Him. His redemptive love mission, to save us from the consequences of our sins, caused Him to sweat drops of blood as He wrestled in lonely prayer to God the Father, to see if there were any alternative to His tortuous death on a Roman cross. He actually became sin (yet without sinning Himself) to experience God's wrath in our place. "Greater love has no man than that He lay down His life for His friends."

As we consider life's stability, supported by the 3-legged stool of Faith, Hope, and Love, the greatest of these three, hands down, is God's love. His love gives, serves, and supports, and its' recipients know without any doubt that the giver puts them first. His love goes the distance. His love never fails, because His name is Jesus, and "Jesus never fails."

Now we know how to "look for love in all the right places" and when we look by faith at Jesus, we find His loving smile aimed right at us! "For God so loved the world, that He gave (love actions) His only begotten Son (His very best), that WHOEVER (you included) believes in Him should not perish (from His presence) but have ever lasting (unending) life!"

My Real Job

They say you can learn a lot about a person by observing how they spend their spare time, since that tends to indicate what is really important to them. Similarly we measure our integrity by observing our behavior "when no one is looking." Since these "special times" often reveal "different than usual" behavior, could this mean we all are Thespians, actors who play to an audience at times? Maybe that's why retreats often produce life changing experiences, by providing an escape from the pressures, busyness, and artificiality of the "daily grind." In the movie, remember how the "City Slickers" sought just such a solace and change of pace on their cattle drive experience in the middle of "nowhere?"

So how has your perspective changed on those rare occasions when you also escaped the "cares of this world?" Did it make you feel like "lingering longer" or like returning early so you could "get back to the office?" Generally such an experience tends to replace the "urgency of the office" with the importance of other things. Authors of many books will gladly tell you how they learned to slow down and smell the roses, fragrance and all.

But great as such times of retreat and reflection are, what is the most important INSIGHT that has changed your life so far? Did it come during such a retreat, or did it pop out of a textbook, or was it a by-product of deep pain and difficulty in your life? No matter where it came from, how long do you think it will last? Until your next job? Or 'til death do us part? Or through all eternity?

Before I became a Christian in college, I vividly remember a little old lady on my paper route who would invite me in to warm up while she went to get her money for her newspaper bill. Above her fireplace mantle were the words, "Only one life, 'twill soon be past; Only what's done for Christ will last!" Could it be that this simple warning can give our life direction, focus, meaning, and motivation?

Yes indeed! My new life, based on new life in Christ through faith in Him, has turned my life around. Though I've continued to study and apply physics and math, I am now motivated to please Jesus who held back nothing in His sacrifice on the cross for me. I am now motivated by an attitude of gratitude to Him. Encouraging others to slow down and smell the fragrance of His may love demonstrations for us, is my heart's desire, and my real job. Honk (or e-mail) if you too love Jesus.

Helping the Helpless

One of the best books I've read on " Helping the Helpless" is a NavPress book by William Fletcher called "The Second Greatest Commandment." It has a lot of wisdom and even has appendices with great "how to" guidance for how to effectively help the jobless, elderly, sick, and dying. I was even impressed enough with this book to teach it a couple of times in a Sunday School class. But the best way to teach it is to live it. I believe this subject is worthy of as much attention as one can give it. But today's subject has a different twist to this title. Today we are thinking together about the difficulties and roadblocks we can encounter when we attempt to extend help and experience to someone who is really not open to receiving any new ideas or resources (i.e. someone who I am calling "helpless" - not able to be helped at this time).

Who do you think of that tends to resist help. How about males? Would you dare to offer them directions or mid-course corrections? One time my work partner drove way up the seacoast north of Boston rather than stop and ask directions around the 128 loop. Males are trained to be independent, macho, and that "real men help others but don't ask for help and don't ask directions." No wonder so many of us go around like Mr. Magoo, lost and in a fog. But males don't have a monopoly on this deficit. Type A people in general have the great characteristics of driving toward a goal, achieving much, and getting a lot done for themselves and others. But it is very hard for them to even consider letting go of the reigns and letting a friend take care of them for awhile, even during periods of sickness, stress, or family problems. It is a strange paradox, isn't it, that such strong assets as independence and initiative can at times be debilitating liabilities.

So how does God feel about us being independent, macho, and thinking that "real people help others but don't ask for help and don't ask directions?" Surely "God helps those who help themselves", right? This is a good example of the claim that if you repeat something long enough people will believe it. Not only is that often the case with this popular saying, but many quote is as scripture, but of course they never give it's Bible reference since it can't be found there. Actually just there opposite is found there. We don't fool God. He knows that we are rebels against Him at heart, believing lies in place of trusting Him, from Adam and Eve to the very present day. He knows we are in desperate need of being restored to fellowship with Himself, but that requires heart surgery and cleaning, that in turn requires us to receive help so powerful that only God can supply it. And He did supply it in the human form of His Son Jesus, who willingly spilled His blood on the cross so all our sins could be cleansed forever. He knew that most ("helpless people") would reject His help, some for reasons we have been thinking about. But why would any reasonable person refuse the only help that can solve their otherwise unsolvable problem?

So when you are tempted to continue in your tradition of feeling independent, macho, and that "real people help others but don't ask for help and don't ask directions," remember that this works even worse with God than it does with your peers. Humility, openness, lowered defense mechanisms, listening instead of proclaiming your rights and responsibilities, admitting you could be wrong at times, and actually speaking the words, "I need help" are characteristics so unlike many of us that their absence blocks out the help we so desperately need. So how about you? Are you in step and feeling secure with the majority who continue to "do it my way" and miss the pattern God provided us at great expense? Or have you found the Pattern, whom to follow is to have eternal life? Jesus is our pattern who submitted His will to the will of His Father. Once you become courageous enough to open yourself up to asking for and welcoming help you will find some experienced people who can really help, and you will find your new life in fellowship with Christ to be way beyond what you could ever ask or think. He longs to hear this prayer on your heart; "…help of the helpless, O abide with me."

Surprise Trap

What you don't know won't hurt you. At least not for awhile. Most of us have been blindsighted before, where someone's agenda was quietly at work, unknown to us. Then suddenly WHAM, it struck like lightening and got its intended purpose before we knew what hit us. We've talked about surprises before, and to recap, often they are surprises we don't like, although sometimes they are surprises that we do like. But some of the unwelcome kind are like a double-barreled shotgun. Not only are we unpleasantly surprised by the unannounced agenda, but also they come with motives and judgments that also catch us by surprise. It's something like being caught in a mousetrap after which we read the sign, "guilty until proven innocent," and we wonder if we'll ever get out of the trap.

This is just the opposite of having someone in our corner, encouraging, supporting, helping, and cheering us onward. Folks who accuse us, judge us, and are anxious to show how superior they are to us, would likely find it hard to get behind any program we are endorsing or supporting. Again, they work quietly behind the scenes, until the steel trap springs shut, and we are caught in the well-planned agenda they secretly published long ago.

We are advised to not fret our pretty little head over such folks who plot to do us in, because after while we will look around and be unable to find them. But right now that's hard to imagine, as we see wicked and conniving folks prosper, while we struggle and are pushed to the side as we try to do what is right.

But not only should CEOs and directors take the long range view in order to successfully stay in business over the long haul, but God promises that He and His way of right and justice will eventually prevail. Meanwhile if we see jerks promoted and righteous men trodden under foot, it's hard to patiently endure without whining "poor me" or even joining with others who impatiently criticize God.

But what is the "rest of the story?" Who gets caught in the ultimate trap? Actually it's the "trap-setter" that gets caught in his own trap. For example, Queen Esther risked her life as she sought against impossible odds to extricate her people (the Hebrews) from the murderous plotting of Haman. Even her uncle Mordecai was only a word away from the king's orders to hang him on gallows built by his enemy to humiliate and kill him. But God took both deliverance (of His people the Hebrews) and revenge (against this enemy) into His own hands, and He caught enemy Haman in his own trap. Haman's gallows-trap snapped shut on him, as God turned the tables on those who tried to exterminate His people.

Misperceptions about how to get "My Way"

How did you feel when your parents or some group you belong to laid a whole lot of rules on you? Like the neighbor down the street with the big sign, "Keep Off the Grass!" Did that almost seem like a challenge, beckoning you to ride your bike on a detour right across his yard? Human nature is that way, isn't it? We are just independent enough that we tend to resent folks who try to "tell the cow how to eat the cabbage." That illustrates the case where someone wants to exercise control of us by prohibiting and limiting our behavior.

But what about the case where someone tries to "improve" the behavior of others by controlling what is allowed and legal via legislation which applies to all in that group. This introduces the fine line of trying to balance conflicting goals of encouraging improvement of behavior while protecting rights for everyone. What is some of the typical backlash to such rule-making attempts?

The committee or group which produces the proposed legislation comes under attack with familiar accusations like:

You are a special interest group, hand-picked to produce a pre-determined result

You are not appropriately appreciative of the tradition and heritage behind the document or legislation you are trying to change.

You are trying to subvert and harm what was intended by the original group who prepared the current document or legislation.

You are trying to pour us into your own mold.

The people with an opposing point of view try to push documents or legislation, which supports their agenda, thus adding fuel to the fire.

Such opposing attempts tend to escalate into increased polarization, opposition, and conflict, which tends to undermine members of either "side" from providing sustained creativity and energy to work on positive alternative helpful solutions.

If the above approaches to promote and encourage improvement have so many potential hazards, what then can be done? Here are a few things that have a good track record of favorable time tested results.

Seek first to understand the viewpoints of the "other side;" i.e. walk awhile in their moccasins, before seeking to be understood yourself. At the very least, make sure you can state the main points and rationale behind those with whom you disagree.

Get involved in providing positive support and alternatives so that you are convincingly part of the solution, not merely one who escalates the problem and "throws gas on the fire."

Make sure that your motives, style, actions, and words stem from respect and love for those with whom you disagree. Never talk down to them, nor try to coerce or pressure them to change. Rather treat them as you would like them to treat you, independent of how they treat you.

Formulate a rationale of how and why you came to your conclusions so others who wish to can walk down your path to understand your position. Such consideration for "the opposition" can even allow you to remain friends and maintain mutual respect with your opposition.

Keep the number of rules to the fewest possible, sticking only to essentials. Remember the goal is to encourage others to freely choose improvement, rather than to try to force, coerce, demand, or legislate it.

So you guessed it. How does Jesus demonstrate for us to treat our opposition? I see His style as extremely patient, gracious, and instructive with those who were willing to maintain a dialog with Him. But for those committed to fight (and kill) Him, He spoke very directly, calling a spade a spade. He showed us how to serve others, to patiently and graciously educate others, and to respect and love even our enemies.

As we stand in awe under the shade of His example, we see that even our most revered Christian leaders still have a long way to go before anyone mistakes their behavior for that of Jesus. But thankfully many unknown and unheralded servants of Jesus do focus primarily on Him, which accounts for wonder examples of taking criticism, persecution, and even death, and returning respect, love, forgiveness, and prayers.

Choose Wisely

By now many of you have heard about the 60-year-old couple that were celebrating their 40^th wedding anniversary, when a Genie showed up. You've done such a good job with your marriage she announced, that you each have one wish that I will grant immediately. The wife knew just what that was, two tickets for a celebration trip around the world. With a wave of the wand the Genie produced two such tickets. And what is your wish sir? Well, uh, I was just thinking I'd like a wife 30 years younger than me. Granted, said the Genie, and with another wave of her wand she announced, You're 90! Don't you just love Genies? Some things are just too good to keep in a bottle.

But surely we are wiser than that with our choices, right? Or stated another way, what is it in your life that you would like to re-wind and make a different choice? This is like my mother repeated so often, if only I could do that over again. Others of us spend enough time wondering how to make the proper choice that life and certain opportunities seem to pass us by. What would you say if I told you that you can choose even more wisely than Solomon? Remember how God granted him a choice, and instead of wealth he chose wisdom to know how to properly lead Israel as he inherited that role from his father David. That was such a wise choice that God threw in wealth on top of wisdom, just for good measure.

Just how valuable is our capability to make choices. For many, options for choice are severely limited. For example, those living under a repressive government have far less choice in matters such as travel, speech, press, voting, jobs, and worship. Sometimes we must lose something before we quit taking it for granted and learn to really appreciate it. Our founding fathers came from backgrounds of severe restrictions, which fueled their passion for doing their best to ensure that our citizens could enjoy many freedoms, including choice, which their fathers never knew.

But even the man sentenced to life in prison has many choices. Under the most restrictive and torturous prison conditions, prisoners have chosen ways to maintain their sanity, their dignity, their priorities, and their purpose. Others who tend to take such things for granted can live in relative freedom while they squander the most important choices by default (failing to make them) each day!

So where does the basic ability and opportunity to make choices come from, anyway? Why from the very source of our life and all our attributes, God Himself. He created us in His image, which includes choosing to do things in accordance with the "good pleasure of His will." Some people like the sign "God don't make no junk." I have yet to see the sign, "God don't make no robots." But it is equally true. He neither forces nor coerces any of us to choose Him or His ways. His design does include severe consequences when we make bad choices, and great rewards when we make good choices. But like the father in the story of the prodigal son, God patiently waits for each of us to have our fill of poor, self-centered choices and their consequences. Then when we get our fill of rebellious "My Way" choices and come to our senses, He lovingly, mercifully, and graciously welcomes us home and throws a heavenly party!

Why wouldn't you want to make Jesus and a squadron of angels joyful by making a "wiser than Solomon choice? I don't want to make you mad, but I do want to shoot straight in case you miss your best choice. We all do start out as robots, marching lockstep with the purposes of the "god of this world," Satan, "taken captive by him at his will." But he is so subtle and powerful, and our blind spots are so significant, that we don't even realize it. Only by catching a glimpse of the beauty and majesty of Jesus, and His magnificent love and commitment for us, and responding by choosing Him as our Lord and savior, can we be transformed from unsuspecting robots to persons with all the potential, dignity, and bright future God intends for us. Some say a mind is a terrible thing to waste. Others say we only show our appreciation of freedom when we care enough to vote. I say that to exercise your opportunity to choose Jesus is to choose even wiser than Solomon, but to fail to do so is a failure you will regret throughout eternity. No one else can make that choice for you!

Who or What is in the Driver's Seat?

We've talked about "back-seat drivers" before, but today we consider who is in the main driver's seat. Many of us are defined and refined by our jobs and our tasks. For example instead of sleeping in or calling our own shots, we typically march to the drummer of our alarm clocks, work hours, and assignments. How else do you explain all those early morning traffic jams and the rush hour congestion? Actually our commitments are in the driver's seat, because without commitment we will soon be identified with a new job, having lost our prior one.

Especially for the male, our job also tends to define our identity. Why else does our introductory conversation include, "and what do you do for a living?" If I am wrong, then please tell me how you want to be known, or what you are most proud of. You have to admit though that it is a rare tombstone that bears the inscription, "Wish I had spent more time at the office!" So it is an irony that we often take our identity from our job, but still admire those who work for themselves, or those who are retired. Several folks told me they would like to exchange places when I retired, and I can remember having similar longings myself, before I retired this year.

Surely our likes, interests, spare time activities, priorities, and commitments describe us better than our job title. A good way to think about this is how would you like to be remembered? Or what do you want inscribed on your tombstone? But there is a much bigger, but related irony than the source of our identity. That is the amazing fact of just how closely and deeply Jesus identifies with all those who choose to trust Him as savior from sin and "driver" of their life, entrusting themselves into His care and keeping, those who form an intimate relationship by faith with Him whom they have never seen physically. A great example of this is the account of Saul of Tarsus. We can see how closely Jesus identifies with His believing "passengers" (Christians) as we observe how He spoke to Saul (whom He transformed into Paul) in a blinding light, as Saul went to Damascus to imprison and persecute early Christians. Jesus said, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute ME?" Not only does He identify Himself with us so very closely, but also He anticipates eating a meal with us so much, that said He would wait until we get to heaven with Him to share that meal.

Jesus does not demand to be the driver of our life, but He has the car all clean and gassed up, ready to drive us down the road He has planned for our good, as soon as we are ready to get. But as we said awhile back, once we get in, things go a lot better if we refrain from "back seat driving" (trying to grab the steering wheel away from Him). With Jesus in control we have no problem realizing all of our worthwhile identity is completely tied up in Him, who He is, and what He has done for us! So here is a final irony. We have the opportunity to be defined, not by our job (or lack of one), but by whom we choose to work for, that is, God or man. That is because this closest of relationships (with God Himself) speaks the loudest about our identity, who we really are, how important we are to Him, and what is most important to us. Will the real you, the one He intended you to be, please stand up, by moving over and inviting Him to drive?

Shame & Blame

When is the last time you wound up with "egg on your face?" You blew it and the degree of your embarrassment was indicated by the shade of pink-to-red on your face. Blundering into the wrong restroom door would be a mild case of this. Leaving your wife waiting for a long time, even with an excuse, registers MUCH higher on this scale. Since we all have blind spots, here's another approach to identifying with this topic. Think back over the past month. Who got really upset with you and why? Could it be that you treated them in a shameful way, or they felt that way, even though you might not have intended it that way?

The next topic of blame is much easier to identify with. I feel sure you could construct a long list of folks you could blame for shameful acts toward you, or maybe failing to act in accordance with what they promised you. Let's face it, we are all pretty adept and practiced at blaming others, sometimes known as "passing the buck." How did we get so good at this? Well, it's built in, and it starts being perfected about the time we can speak, especially if there is another sibling to blame around the house. After all, why should we get punished when our brother or sister seems such a likely target? It's also inherited, since our initial ancestors perfected it. Adam blamed Eve (and God with the phrase "the woman you gave me"). Eve blamed the slick serpent, and the serpent (Satan) has been blaming God all along with his distortions and deceptions, even though his goal was to "be like God." He sure missed the mark, and so do we when we get distracted into shame and blame games.

Now for the really good news. God's ways and plans for us do NOT include either shame or blame! For example He tells us that He planned even before He created the earth for us all to be holy and without blame. Again, our ancestors and ourselves blew that idea by rebelling against God and involving ourselves actively into the shame and blame game. So has God's plan gone awry? Well we did de-rail it, but Jesus put it back on track by His death, burial and resurrection. He took all our sin and the blame it deserves on Himself as He hung on the cruel and torturous cross in our place. So all who accept His payment for our sin have diverted God's wrath against sin to our scapegoat, His only Son Jesus. Satan can try to blame us, but God turns a deaf ear when He sees the sacrificial blood of His Son.

And having become free from blame, we need no longer experience shame. This is obviously not to say that believers in Christ live without times of sin and displeasure to God. But we have the conviction of His Holy Spirit and His written Word to correct us and work repentance and restoration in our heart. Our fellowship is restored when we recognize, admit, and confess our sin to Him, so that we walk in accordance with the forgiveness He so freely provides. Shame is Satan's game! Christians have no business dabbling in that. To do so is to degrade the payment Jesus made for ALL our sin. But we need to be men and women enough to truly allow the Son to make us free, and to live like it, admitting when we fail our forgiving Father.

Your Pet Peeves

What are your top three pet peeves? How about some of these? Someone dashes around your car and cuts you off on the expressway, almost causing a wreck? You have a "one-way" judgmental conversation where you are presumed guilty and your responses are neither solicited, heard, nor deemed applicable (you know, the attitude "Don't confuse me with the facts, my mind is made up"). It seems that the harder you try to please Mr. or Ms. X, they continue to find fault with what you haven't done yet, and find flaws in what you have done. You make repeated phone calls to arrange a service appointment, and three weeks later you seem farther from your original objective, than when you started, in spite of repeated promises that "our service organization will call you today." You go out on a limb for someone, risking reputation, money, and investment of time, but later on there is no evidence of appreciation. It's just like it never happened. I'm sure you can top these with some of your experiences of injustice. Whoever said this world is fair. But upon closer examination, I'll bet there have also been occasions where we have been on the offending side of the fence. It may even be that we were so insensitive as to not even be aware how intensely we offended someone else, and got on their pet peeve list.

Now lets move to a higher perspective on this subject of pet peeves. How do you suppose God might feel about how mankind, the pinnacle of His creation, has responded to His love-based initiatives in our behalf, and treated Him in return? Our track record is pathetic! Our ancestors started the pet peeve ball rolling by trusting an impostor, a liar, a charlatan; someone steeped in denial, deception, and death, instead of trusting God. They spurned the sure and certain promises of God, and "bet it all" on the lies of a slick super salesman. Those consequences ushered in physical and spiritual death for all of mankind. Soon man's behavior began to mimic that of the super salesman, with brother killing brother, resulting from anger because God established a specific blood payment to atone for their sins.

Repeated and worsening rebellion against God resulted in a worldwide flood to rid the earth of mankind who had progressed into continually and habitually doing wicked things out of a heart of evil, like their original deceiver. Fast forward this downhill slide, and we find God making a final valiant attempt to find a way to restore a world, bent on continuing to go its own way, independent of God. In the fullness of time, he sent His own Son to suffer a continuation of injustices and anger against God, which resulted in a fickle angry mob shouting for crucifixion of God's only Son who had taken on our human nature. Finally the world's biggest injustice occurred as Jesus willingly forgave His murderers, died without help from God the Father, and voluntarily paid His perfect life for all of our sins as He took our sins upon Himself. Once again, the majority of those He came to buy back rejected Him, scorned Him, and even today become angry at the mention of His name, except as an expression of their own anger and profanity. So does God have any reason to be "peeved" or angry with us? You bet He does! But it is for our own good that His anger is revealed against our insensitive and offensive choices and behavior. Anger can serve as a wake-up call before it is too late.

So next time someone offends you, makes you angry, and gets on your "pet peeve" list, please look in the mirror and let that remind you of how severely you and I have offended God in our independent rebellion against His repeated initiatives to treat us in the very best way. Once you invite Jesus to be your Lord and savior you will never be quite as upset about others offending you, since you will be reminded that its not a drop in the bucket compared to how you treated God when He went all out on a limb for you!

Stuff It

There are lots of ways to "stuff it" aren't there? One way is like the bumper sticker says, "Get in, sit down, shut up, and hold on!" Sometimes we consider ourselves rather pious when we "stuff it" rather than dump or explode back at someone who upset us. But if we "shut up" for too long it eventually comes out all at once in a loud surprise, and most of us don't like that kind of surprise.

And then there was that famous song line, "Take this job and shove it." Most can relate to this sentiment after being treated poorly by a boss or company. The irony is however that many of us may have treated others or our employer equally poorly at one time or another.

Some also adhere to the Lane Bryant line that "Big is Beautiful." Calvin must have understood this as shown by his special treatment of Hobbs in the following comic stripl

And finally there is the famous excuse, "A cluttered office is the sign of an organized mind," under the false premise that "I'm so busy working that I don't have time to put things away and do a proper daily filing job. I've managed to straighten up my desk top once or twice after a move, but just a few engrossing tasks later, I amaze folks if and when I can find something I "filed" amid the clutter.

Listen to what the Lord showed the Psalmist about peace (with anger, stuffing, and clutter missing):

Just a few terse verses from God and we see that He has the enduring solution to problems we face, like anger, stuffing, and clutter, when we demand to be in charge. His ways include speaking the truth in love instead of stuffing, not letting the sun go down on unresolved anger, and the paradox of wonderful simplicity "in Christ" which is so profound that those who bow to Him in this life will get to explore His multi-dimensions throughout eternity.

So let Calvin (the Holy Spirit) fill (stuff) you (Hobbs) FULL of the "riches in Christ Jesus" today. Today is the day of salvation, not tomorrow which may never come for some of us.

The Fast Track to Long Range Satisfaction!

Have you ever just rolled over and slept in, like on a weekend? Or even more likely, have you ever FELT like just rolling over and sleeping in? Or how about taking shortcuts in your business "to save time or effort?" Or have you ever known someone who settled for a short-range goal at the expense of long range consequences? Our current generation has been repeatedly trained to grab whatever is in sight right now, with little thought to alternatives that require a longer-range perspective, patience, and willingness to put off "instant gratification."

A couple of decades ago, an entrepreneur named Arthur Collins tried to use his success in communication computers to take on the fledgling computer industry in the domains of computation and process control. He did also have a little success in automated control of satellite antennas, but I can remember testing a FORTRAN compiler, whose execution not only ran a LONG time, but also failed to produce the benchmark numbers required for its verification. In a time of business downturn around 1970 his cash outlay from taking on all competitors in all computer markets forced him to first lay off good engineers to try to rescue his cash flow position. When that measure became inadequate, Collins Radio was finally taken over by Rockwell International. They sent in one of those "short term heroes" named Robert Wilson. Within his one year tenure his claim to fame was to sell off acres and acres of antenna range and other facilities around Richardson, TX which later became the gold mine of real estate known as Telecom Corridor. His next one-year tenure was at Memorex where he pulled off another short-term coup before moving on again. We all are tempted to similarly make decisions that appear to benefit ourselves in the short term, with little consideration of the long-term effects on others.

That is one of many reasons why it is such a refreshing contrast to read about God's LONG range plans in our behalf, and His faithful execution of those plans, exactly as planned. As much as mankind disappointed God by throwing away perfect intimacy with the creator of the universe, man has never surprised God who knows the end from the beginning. We read that before He ever laid the earth's foundations, He planned for us to be holy and blameless before Him in love. But when our forefathers bought Satan's lies about God holding out on us, He began to unfold His plan to restore us back to our former position of trust, obedience, intimacy, and faith. This costly plan which was pictured in Abraham's willingness to obey God and sacrifice Isaac, the son of his old age, came to fruition as God the Father told His only son Jesus to become a sin offering on a tortuous Roman cross, to pay a debt we could not pay, a debt He did not owe. Jesus' resurrection from the dead provides objective evidence that His payment of our sin debt satisfied God's holiness, and was successful in restoring an intimate relationship by faith with all who humbly reach out and take His free gift of eternal life with Him.

One irony is that God's long range plan enables all who hunger and thirst for eternal life and intimacy with Him to reach out by faith and immediately begin to experience a foretaste of heaven. At that point the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit take up residence in us to lead, guide and direct us, blessing us and making us a blessing to others. At the same time, we are seated with Christ in the heavenlies, beginning to perceive things with "the mind of Christ." Old things are passed away, and behold ALL things appear in a new light. Its as though "Jack Frost" painted everything we see with the color "new," and we see clearly that ALL things are of God - He is in control of everything. Such intimacy with God is certainly the best opportunity of the ages. So why aren't more folks experiencing it? It has to do with "that other salesman" blinding our eyes to what our original ancestors lost, and what we can actually have back right now! Sometimes we fear what we might have to give up to get that intimacy, but it is precisely the giving up of our greed, our grabbing, our proud independence, and our demands to be a rebel and do things ""my way" that makes it possible for us to navigate the narrow passageway from spiritual death to spiritual life! Bon Voyage!

Highs & Lows

"Some mornings I wake up grumpy! But then other mornings I just let him sleep." It's safe to laugh at poor old grumpy because he is someone else's problem. But other mornings we look in the mirror and as Pogo so wisely said, "We have met the enemy, and he is us!"

We've talked before about the staggering paradox of mankind's great achievements in so many arenas, like walking on the moon "before the next decade," cracking the human genome codes, and learning how to successfully transplant a human heart. Of course if you step way back and look at this you may see a little resemblance to your son being VERY innovative with the new tinker toy set you gave him. But the flip side includes scapegoating and murdering over 6 million Jews, and imprisoning or killing those who would dare to shelter them. Tortures, intimidation, burning at the stake, etc. has frequently been man's way of dealing with perceived threats to man's power and control.

You and I too have had our highs and lows. Neither as high nor as low as those above. But certainly we've accomplished some things so remarkable that now we even wonder how we pulled it off. For example how would you like to try to raise your kids all over again, especially in today's environment? And of course there are other things we'd like to forget.

But just as it looked impossible to stop Hitler as he invaded Europe and turned English cities into blazing infernos, we actually face an even more desperate need for help today. We all face the certainty of death, with only one witness who has actually experienced death and still lives today to talk about it.

Only a few of us are super heroes like Sergeant York in World War 1 who took no thought of his personal safety as he risked his life to capture or wipe out all the local German machine gunners who were slaughtering his buddies. Impossible odds, but his compulsion to save lives on both sides and save his otherwise helpless buddies saw him through to victory.

Man can only vaguely comprehend his helpless condition as he faces a perfectly pure and holy God. And if he can't stand in His presence after death, where is he to go? Someone infinitely braver than Sergeant York saw our helpless human plight, and not only risked, but sacrificed, His own life to rescue us from our hopeless, impossible condition. Jesus not only paid His life's blood for the sins of every human, but He clothed us all in His own perfect Righteousness - all that is, who welcome Him into their lives, accepting the Lordship of their Creator, and the redemptive price paid by their Savior.

Would Sergeant York's buddies ever dream of saying, "we don't want your help, just let us die?" Would Jews who escaped Hitler's extermination camps say they are sorry they were hidden and saved by Gentiles? Finally, what help then is there for us if we ignore or reject such great salvation from such a brave, compassionate, heroic savior, Jesus Christ? The answer is simple, "NONE!" You don't really want to spend endless eternity in self-contempt for calling God a liar (concerning what He said about His Son) and rejecting Him, do you? To avoid or ignore such strong demonstration of God's love for us is to confirm Pogo's wisdom. That would certainly make us our own worst enemy.

Intimacy

Women may think of intimacy first in terms of companionship, open sharing, and deepening friendship and trust, while men may think of physical intimacy as a barometer of their core relationship. In both cases commitment for your lifetime deepens the relationship, builds bonds and trust that can endure storms and circumstances, and removes barriers to growing together and meeting needs. But during our lifetime we must "take time" to be with our friend to solidly build our relationship. As we actively and consciously avoid taking them for granted, they will feel our appreciation of them. Should they be taken first, in our loneliness, we will never regret precious times spent together. God said, "It is not good for man to dwell alone," and our designer knew what He was talking about.

A few years ago we had a series of THINKABLES that included the simple concept of making deposits and withdrawals in and out of the love bank of our spouse. Consistent deposits build interest. But conversely, withdrawals promote withdrawing. Just couldn't resist those two puns. Or in terms of my unpublished book title on my favorite topic, "Real Relationships Require Respect," we all know a lot about respect and use it a lot, but we're never wise enough to use it to its full potential in our horizontal and vertical relationships. Who do you know, including Rodney Dangerfield, that ever got too much respect?

Did you ever notice that intimacy and relationships tend to travel up and down like a roller coaster? In other words we don't just maintain the status quo. We either move closer and warmer, or more distant and colder. That is partly due to the fact that no one likes to be taken for granted, and "no change" or "status quo" can feel like you are being taken for granted. Does that help you understand what Jesus said to the church of the Laodiceans? "I want you to be either hot or cold, but because you are lukewarm, I will spit you out of my mouth." How could the God of the universe desire a growing and increasingly intimate relationship with someone like me? We won't answer that one even when we leave time and travel into eternity. But what we do know about our human intimacy and relationships can help us marvel, if not understand, at God's deep desire for us to be more open, honest, and intimate with Him. For example He tells Christians that husbands are to treat their wives with ultimate respect, dignity, and love (independent of their looks, behavior, attitude, and treatment of them), BECAUSE this is a picture to onlookers of the husband's comprehension of how Christ loved His body (the church) and gave Himself for us, unconditionally. Paul succinctly says, "while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." In other words, while we were on our worst behavior, God gave us His very best gift! Talk about ultimate respect, love, and intimacy initiative, that's the highest example and pattern there is!

So, to average Joe or Josephine reader, how often do you set a priority to read about and ponder what strong, serious, steps of commitment and sacrifice Christ took for you? Notice I did not mention what others told you ABOUT Christ or others, nor what excuses you may have used in the past to avoid looking at the gift of Himself, squarely in the eye. You may pride yourself as more fair, considerate, and respectful of others, than some of your Christian friends. Indeed I'm sure this is often the case. But rest assured that if you continue to ignore exploring God's very best gift to you, you are cheating yourself much worse than

by burning a winning lottery ticket, or slamming the door in the face of Ed McMahon, trying to make you a sweepstakes winner. Would you ignore, reject, or slam the door in this guy's face? Don't slam the door in God's face either, because God cared enough to send you the very best (Himself), wrapped in the flesh of His only Son Jesus, and if you do you are calling Him a liar about what He said concerning His Son.

And to average Christian reader, how often do you set a priority to read about and ponder what strong, serious, steps of commitment and sacrifice Christ took for you? We have an advantage because Jesus taught us to jog our weak memories by pondering His death and resurrection as we eat and drink the Lord's Supper. But a big danger we face is taking Him for granted, perpetuating the status quo, and becoming so lukewarm that it nauseates God and those who look to us to reflect some of the majestic grandeur of "Christ in us, the hope of glory." So would you please pray about spending more private time with God so He can deepen your relationship with Him? You'll never be sorry or feel that time could have been better spent.

Who Really Believes In You?

Who Really Believes In You? Think back for a moment to yesteryear when you knew for sure that someone believed in you. They turned to you to solve a problem, to show some leadership, or to just plain help out. They knew you could do it, and you knew they trusted you and had confidence in you. Chances are if you worked at a place like that, you would return there today, at the drop of a hat if a comparable job opened up. That's because such environments, where we really feel wanted and appreciated, are few and far between. It's somewhat akin to the ratio of times someone catches us doing something wrong, compared to the number of times someone catches us doing something right. Most of us are a lot more experienced at negative criticism and fault finding, than at reinforcing, encouraging, and showing appreciation. Isn't it strange how slow we are to learn to treat others as we wish they would treat us? It's doubly destructive when we go the next step and criticize those who go against the flow and demonstrate their belief in "losers" whom the rest of the world has discarded.

But that is precisely the kind of person Jesus is. One who risked and endured criticism from His closest friends to seek out, affirm, and demonstrate His faith and trust in persons who were discarded, downtrodden, and despised by most everyone else. It was His initiative in seeking them out, demonstrating His love and trust of them, and seeing their future potential, that fueled their turnaround, new life, and transformed behavior, that so far exceeded that of their accusers and critics.

Which is harder, to criticize, or to trust and affirm? For instance, ponder for a moment the tremendous difference that affirmation and trust make, compared to criticism, fault finding, and judgment. The effects on our motivation, self esteem, and behavior under these two extremes of treatment couldn't be more different.

Jesus has the advantage of seeing outside of our time dimension what people will yet become and do, as a result of His belief in them. When we see someone respond and place their belief and trust in Jesus, we know they are merely responding to the great love, forgiveness, trust, and belief He already showed to them. What do you suppose would be the result in our family, our neighborhood, community, workplace, and organizations, if we began to consistently treat others as He treats us?

Open and Shut Case

Today we are contrasting two common life experiences that can help us chart our course for the future. By starting with the down side, that will set the stage for us to appreciate the corresponding positive side of the coin.

First, stop for just a moment and recall someone whom you depended on, but they let you down, disappointed you, and hurt you. Unless you deliberately dealt with that, it most likely is still very painful even today. Many of us find it difficult to become open enough to identify, face, and resolve our hurts by forgiving those who have hurt us. It takes deliberate effort to take the initiative to patch things up, and replace the broken relationship with openness, especially when you are the offended party.

The positive side of openness can result from such a restoration of relationship, but regardless of how it occurs, being open and receptive to someone produces enjoyment and pleasure for them. We have four grown children who were generally cooperative. But one of them sometimes said he wasn't going to do what we asked. Yet typically when we got up next morning we found he had chosen to do as asked. This is a good example of DELAYED openness that takes a little longer to produce an enjoyable outcome.

In summary, being open does not come naturally for most of us. But whether it comes sooner or later, when it does arrive, it always produces enjoyment and pleasure. We should not be surprised then to find that our openness with God also produces enjoyment and pleasure for Him! That is truly mind boggling that our choices and attitudes can "make God's day!"

We may typically think of God as self-sufficient and in need of nothing. For example, if we fail to pass on the good news about Christ's payment for our sins, we can be replaced by another messenger, or He can even cause the rocks to proclaim His glory. With God nothing is impossible. Although God can certainly manage without us, yet we are the beneficiaries and inheritors of His choice to use us.

But the flip side of that coin is that we are His inheritance. This message is sprinkled throughout the Old Testament, and is repeated as the second of Paul's three petition prayer…"that you might know what is (1) the hope of His calling, (2) the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints (believers in and followers of, Christ), and (3) the power of His resurrection."

Those who are married, know by experience, the delights and pleasures a wife who is open brings to her husband. Once believers in Christ die to the law, we are married to Christ. As His bride our openness to Him truly brings Him pleasure. That is why He so looks forward to when we shall be like Him (transformed) and see Him as He is in all His beauty and glory, and share our "first supper" in open, unhindered fellowship with Him!

True Love

A recent THINKABLE explored a "search for love in all the wrong places." Today we move along another similar trail. "What the world needs now is love, sweet love," used to be one of our favorite songs. Even today, we wouldn’t argue that we don’t need this remedy, it's just that we don’t know how to get there from here. But even more basic is the fact that different folks have different ideas about what love really is, and just how powerful it really is. For example, for some love is a warm fuzzy feeling that just comes over you and takes over. Like a dust devil whirlwind that appears suddenly out of nowhere, creates a spectacular sight, and then is gone before you know it. Such a person might say, "we just fell in love." Others might dig a little deeper and describe love as a bond of closeness that sustains friendship across space and time, enduring separation in distance and decades. An example is the autobiography which includes a family bond which experienced a loving reunion of a father thought dead in Siberia, who was allowed to travel to the U.S. to briefly visit his family that he never expected to survive World War II. But a much rarer form of love is all about selfless action, chosen to be given to another, solely for their benefit, independent of personal gain. Usually such love costs a lot to the giver, sometimes even death. It also can be greatly appreciated, but sometimes is spurned or even ignored.

In the first example of love, its about as easy to "fall out of love" as it is to "fall in love," since it is based on feelings which move up and down, come and go, like the rhythm of the stock market. The second kind of love has the staying power of a mother’s love for her child. It can even produce selfless acts, such as laying down the mother’s life to save her child. But the consistent daily choice of love actions which places the welfare of another ahead of our own convenience, needs, and desires, is surely a gift from God. This should not surprise us since "God is Love." This special kind of love so strongly desires the very best for its beneficiary, that it motivates selfless sacrifice, even unto death. In other words, it is so strong as to motivate and empower the actions of a hero to save another, except it operates and endures day in and day out through all the tests of disappointment, unrequited expectations, misunderstandings, denial, desertion, and even rejection.

This is why Jesus had descriptions of demonstrating this kind of love here on earth written about Him so very long before He ever came here. For example Isaiah called Him a "man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief," describing His inward feelings which were never obvious, even to His disciples who experienced His love each day. Their disbelief, misunderstanding, hard hearts, and denial of Him certainly contributed to His inward grief, but this never diminished His love for them. His great compassion and love feelings caused Him to weep over Jerusalem as His heart longed to gather them under His wing as a mother hen gathers her chicks for protection. Such feelings fueled His choice to "learn obedience through the things He suffered," and to "become obedient (to the mission planned by God the Father) unto death, even the death of the cross." He came to "seek and save that which was lost," even though the majority of us remain in denial that we ever needed His sacrifice for us. And He had no delusions about the fact that the majority of mankind would ignore or reject His love actions, since He fully knew what is in each man’s heart. He came "in the fullness of time" at mankind’s darkest hour of need. "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." "For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."

Such love is very serious, since He has written us so many love letters in His word. If we deny these records that God has given us about His son, then we are clearly calling Him a liar. I would not want to be in a position of the clay calling the potter a liar. Nor would I want to reject such a powerful and consistent demonstration of God’s love for me, would you? The crowd you run with, and even your mate, will let you down. But "Jesus never fails." "This is a faithful saying:

For if we died with Him,

We shall also live with Him.

12If we endure,

We shall also reign with Him.

If we deny Him,

He also will deny us.

13If we are faithless,

He remains faithful;

He cannot deny Himself."

Unconditional Love

Unconditional love and unconditional acceptance, who needs them anyway? That's easy to answer - we all do. Because we all at times are so inconsiderate and insensitive to others that if others treated us the way we treat them, we'd soon be hollering for help.

So how can I get unconditional love, and how can I pass it on to others? A lot of this has to do with expectations. For example, what are your expectations of your spouse, or of a good friend? Although you've learned to get along, you likely experience some occasional disappointments and letdowns too. That's because you expect one thing and sometimes you get something quite different. But what if you gave up and released your friend or spouse from all your expectations? I know, you're wondering who would then hold them accountable? But can you just imagine how that would free you up from your vulnerability to get hurt or disappointed? Next, suppose you were to place all those expectations for your spouse or friend on Jesus, who NEVER fails. Now your spouse or friend is free to be themselves without hurting you or incurring your judgment or correction, and Jesus can get proper credit for supplying your deepest needs, in His way, and in accordance with His schedule. Doesn't that sound like a win-win decision? You guessed it. That takes all the fun out of fighting and all the fighting out of fun together. Isn't it better to have our expectations placed on Someone who NEVER fails? Then we can treat others like He treats us, with unconditional love.

Depending on an undependable person is worse than pinning all your hopes on winning the lottery with a single ticket - it's unrealistic. The resultant disillusionment can create unresolved anger in you, which can in turn lead to crawling into a bottomless pit with such steep sides that you feel no hope of ever getting out alive.

But no matter how deep the pit, when you turn your spiritual eyes upon Jesus by faith, you see the One who planned and made preparations before He created this world, for you to be holy and without any blame, dwelling with Him in Heaven, and experiencing His unconditional love, forever "accepted just as God the Father accepts His Son Jesus." Now that's real unconditional love and unconditional acceptance! Once you've tasted it for yourself, He empowers you to pass it on to others! Go for it; the world is sure in need of it!

Here Doggie-Doggie; Nice Doggie

Some of you have likely heard about a young married couple who each had very high expectations for their partner to be the answer to their needs so they could live happily ever after. Their focus on what they expected from their mate seemed to blind them to what they could supply in the marriage. This is called "the 2 ticks and no dog" syndrome.

As you see, this week we're looking at problems we cause, and we'll see this against a backdrop of things that work very well. For example, our own human body can certainly get sick and disabled at times, but generally speaking the members of the human body are amazingly well coordinated, functioning together with remarkable unity. It's a great picture of each member quietly performing its own function very well for the good of all the members. No single member tries to mimic another member's function, and it selflessly operates to benefit others, rather than showing any sign of competition, a power struggle, or an inflated view of its own importance. A person as a whole may make choices so adverse with respect to another person that we can describe it as "cutting off our nose to spite our face," but individual body members never operate like that. On the contrary, when one member is hurt, sick, or not able to operate at full steam, the other members quickly pitch in to compensate and to carry an extra part of the weak member's load. Such unity, dedicated behavior, and support of the other members are all the more refreshing against a backdrop of our society's self-centered "me-now" generation. But all too often this contrast carries over to some groups of people "called Christians" who are not only known for divisions, disputes, and a lack of unity and love, but also for "shooting their own wounded." Our marriages can become like that too, can't they?

As parents we inform our kids that they will become like those they hang out with, good or bad. Only close encounters with the supernatural One can influence our behavior in a supernatural way, to achieve results similar to the highly effective functioning of our body members. Of course characteristics like those observed among individual body members are supernatural because of the supernatural One Who designed and created them. Only as we get in step with Him and His ways can we experience His results.

But He promises to live in us and change our behavior from the inside out, for all who will welcome Him and yield control of themselves to Him. That's why you've also met real Christians who are very giving, loving, contented, and focused on serving others. That's because God who lives in them, is the source of the fruit that comes out of their lives. The Head director and motivator of such folks is their Lord, Who demonstrated His love in His ultimate sacrifice for our sins on the cross. When He becomes our Lord, He turns us into lovers, not fighters; givers, not takers; and persons so liberated that we become free to truly serve Him and others with thankfulness. He stimulates appreciation, not duty, obligation, nor trying to earn His favor. You could say that a marriage union of such Christian partners is more like "2 dogs and no ticks," rather than "2 ticks and no dog." But married or single, our greatest opportunity is to be married to Christ Himself, becoming His bride, and experiencing union and unity with Him under the control of the dowry of His Holy Spirit. Is it time for your trip to the altar?

Actions Which Can Be Ignored, But Cannot Be Denied

"Flattery will get you everywhere," some women believe, and some demonstrate. Most of us like to feel special, which can make us suckers for flattery. And on the flip side, some girls build up so much desire to get free from their past painful home life, that they romantically picture the first boy to verbalize his love for them, as their one and only "knight" in shining armor.

Once we step back a little from such circumstances which can harmfully control us, we see more clearly and can sometimes look beyond flattery and your "saying what I want to hear" to detect selfish manipulation and ulterior motives. I am not setting up a case for judging each other's motives, but I am suggesting that we often could benefit by setting aside our rose colored glasses, distinguishing between flattery and genuine concern for our well-being, and recognizing genuine selfless love feelings.

Especially as we apply the test of time, true love, like cream, rises unmistakably to the top. Listen for a moment to God's 1 Corinthians 13 definition of love.

4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. 6 It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

8 Love will last forever. (You may substitute Jesus for Love, re-read this passage aloud, and you will better understand how wonderful He is, and why we love Him so!)

As we said earlier, words are one thing, but actions are the proof of the pudding.

In contrast, note how shallow are the alternative attractions of this world, wrapped in cheap, temporary TINSEL. Promises of Fame, Fortune, "Freedom," Knowledge, Possessions, and finally, Power. But none of these can pass the test of satisfaction or permanence after even a couple of decades of time. Faded, fraudulent deception is the long-term assessment of those who take such BAIT!

So what, in contrast, has God said and done about His love for us? He said that His love is so unfathomably great for us that He gave each of us the life of His only Son, in sacrificial death to pay for all our sins, taking our place, so we would never have to die spiritually, or to experience separation from God's supportive care. But most important, what He said, and what He promised, He performed, exactly in accordance with the myriad of detailed forecasts about exactly how this would happen.

There is no way all these predictions could jointly come to pass exactly as God's prophets said they would, except under the plan and performance of the almighty, sovereign, loving, forgiving God, ruler of our universe.

He does not want anyone to perish by failing to trust Him. But He won't force anyone to even acknowledge Him either, because He places such great importance upon our free choice of Him. "Greater love has no one than to lay down their life for another." But that same love respects the free choice His creativity gave us. Our forefathers failed the test of trusting Him, but He is the God of 2^nd chances to all who reach out by faith to grasp the free gift of sins forgiven, and eternal life with God in Heaven for all who trust the redeeming love action of His death and resurrection for us.

Straddling

Today we'll get some insight from Albert Einstein. Some of you may know these things, but they should help us all with some additional insight. In physics I learned some equations that included e=mc². When we consider that c, the 3 x 10⁸ meters per second speed of light, squared is 9 x 10¹⁶, we are astounded at the huge amount of energy e, bound tightly in just a kilogram mass, m, of uranium. As I said, I studied that in physics, but where did Einstein learn that? And where did he get the unconventional idea that time is relative to speed. For example in a wonderful book that provides a simplified understanding of physics principles, "Mr. Tompkins in Wonderland," by George Gamov, a man goes to a physics lecture and then has a separate dream about each topic. To illustrate relativistic time he dreams about a man that speeds off in space travel at nearly the speed of light and returns to earth to find that his twin sister is a white-haired old lady using a cane, while he is still young. So maybe Cortez looked in the wrong spot for the fountain of youth? According to Einstein, time doesn't pass as quickly as you approach c, the speed of light. He may have had trouble in school with conventional subjects like his abc's, but he hit a home run when he finally got to "c," the speed of light which he held to be constant (invariant). You have to admit he certainly got a lot more out of "c" than most of us. I think his willingness to look more closely at ultimate questions is why he saw so much more than "the average student." The following quote captures his attitude well. "I want to know how God created this world. I am not interested in this or that phenomenon, in the spectrum of this or that element. I want to know His thoughts; the rest are details." -- Albert Einstein

Listen to his slow start. After his family moved to Milan, Italy, still without having completed secondary school, Einstein failed an examination that would have allowed him to pursue a course of study leading to a diploma as an electrical engineer at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. He spent the next year at a secondary school, where he enjoyed excellent teachers and first-rate facilities in physics. Einstein returned in 1896 to the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, where he graduated, in 1900 as a secondary school teacher of mathematics and physics. Then he began to take off like a rocket in physics prestige.

After two years he obtained a post at the Swiss patent office in Bern. The patent-office work required Einstein's careful attention, but while employed there (1902-09), he completed an astonishing range of publications in theoretical physics. For the most part these texts were written in his spare time and without the benefit of close contact with either the scientific literature or theoretician colleagues. Einstein submitted one of his scientific papers to the University of Zurich to obtain a Ph.D. degree in 1905. In 1908 he sent a second paper to the University of Bern and became a lecturer there. The next year Einstein received a regular appointment as associate professor of physics at the University of Zurich. By 1909, Einstein was recognized throughout German-speaking Europe as a leading scientific thinker. In quick succession he held professorships at the German University of Prague and at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. In 1914 he advanced to the most prestigious and best-paying post that a theoretical physicist could hold in central Europe, professor at the Kaiser-Wilhelm Gesellschaft in Berlin. Later Einstein even wrote a very instructive letter to U.S. President Roosevelt that included a heads up on the atomic bomb potential inside uranium, a warning, and some recommended action plan steps. But his thoughts also came with a certain distraction at times. For example when staying at the Waldolf Astoria Hotel in New York he would walk around the block and have great difficulty remembering what hotel he was staying at.

Einstein's thoughts on relativistic time triggered the following quantum leap thoughts for me. Jesus is both THE constant light of the world Who lights (inspires) every human being, those who recognize Him and those who don't. Jesus is part of the Godhead who created all we know about in the universe, "in the beginning." So He existed as God before our concept of beginning, "from everlasting to everlasting" as the psalmist David wrote. But we humans live in time while we only guess at eternity, which we have not yet experienced. That must mean that when Jesus chose to leave heaven to become a personal human sacrifice to pay for our sins, He had one foot still in eternity as God, and one foot in time as man, thereby straddling time and eternity. Since God cared enough to "send the very best," why would you not pay the utmost attention and respect to His promises about eternity, since He is the authority on eternity, and we have not yet experienced eternity? Many physicists have chosen to run experiments to show Einstein's relativistic theory is valid. Is there any reason that you should not ask Jesus to be your own savior from sin now, to show that you trust Him with your eternity? Who is better than Jesus to entrust your eternity to?

Geometry Revisited

Some of you may have bumped into geometric conic figures like the ellipse, parabola, circle, and hyperbola in school. If so, you may recall that the distinguishing factor is the value of the figures' eccentricity. For example eccentricity ratio values of e<1, e=0, e=1, e>1, correspond to the ellipse, circle, parabola, and hyperbola, respectively. The common factor is that each of these has a focus (focal point) but each figure surrounds that focus in a unique pattern, governed by the eccentricity. Some of you may have been like me in school and asked, what good is geometry and what is it used for? I don't recall much of an answer to those questions in school, but when I worked as an engineer I revisited these geometric figures plus additional physics and geometry as I progressed in one of my specialty areas, satellite orbit determination. A short course on that subject plus mathematical estimation theory at U.C.L.A. in the 1960's gave me a jump-start in subjects I used throughout my engineering career. For those who missed out on the intricacies of such subjects, you may only identify with this by considering folks that delve into these things as "eccentric" themselves. By the way, at that class I also learned the answer to "what do you see when the smog lifts in L.A.?" Answer, "U.C.L.A."

But the use of such general terms is of interest to us in today's discussion, as you will see. If it doesn't make sense you can call it an elliptical subject, merely skirting or orbiting your real interests. If it seems over your head, or too theoretical, you can just write it off that I am speaking in hyperbole. Or maybe you can catch me making a circular argument. But today's subject is about communicating in parables. Why would Jesus choose that way of story telling so very often, instead of just coming right out with it? You may recall that Jesus told the Jewish leader Nicodemus that he might be a leader and understand many things, but that he was "pre-kindergarten" spiritually since he didn't have any equipment to understand spiritual things, since he had never been born spiritually. So Jesus explained that parables enabled those willing to become involved in a personal, deep, meaningful relationship with Him to experience Him in ways that surpass mere human understanding. The same parable will leave in the dark, those who are unwilling to participate in such a relationship. Parables either shine new light and insight or they are dismissed as "interfering" at best. Parables are intended to stimulate questions that provide more light and insight. Parables are drawn from everyday common life experiences.

Similarly THINKABLES move from understanding and agreement on from everyday common life experiences to give a peep under the cover of similar or analogous spiritual realities that may have previously been shrouded in an impenetrable cloud. People often ask me how I get ideas for THINKABLES. Certainly it is a gift from God. But you can also mine the wealth of helpful observations all around you too if you are not too distracted by your own problems and self interests to observe them. The second requirement is to be obedient and quick to write down His thoughts when He gives them, so you can expand them later. Some people call that journaling, but it's more like a scribe that's ready to write when God impresses His thoughts on you. "How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them!" (Psalm 139:17)

The world is full of parables and THINKABLES that surround us every day. Why not commit to take time to smell the roses, start becoming aware of your own daily parables and THINKABLES, and see where your understanding of them can lead you? It's exciting, fresh, and richer than any novel you could read, or movie you could watch! It's the Lord Himself who lifts the fog to illumine your understanding. He does this after your spiritual birth that occurs once you invite Him to be your savior. If that seems foreign to you, you can read about a Jewish leader who needed help getting his spiritual fog to lift too, in the Gospel of John, Chapter 3.

The Root Cause

Raytheon Six Sigma (R6s) is a continuous process improvement cultural attitude and set of tools that can be used to empower workers to improve their work processes. For example here are the R6s basic six steps, applied at a high level to Raytheon's Integrated Capability Maturity Model (CMMI) best practices business modeling.

1. Visualize - an organization or group attaining a higher level of CMMI
2. Commit to organizational goals and supporting improvement "infrastructure"
3. Prioritize a roadmap to improve a sequence of Process Area maturity to fulfill the vision
4. Characterize current status via an Organizational Assessment
5. Improve by making the needed changes
6. Achieve by measuring and assessing the impact and effectiveness of the improvements

Suppose that during the step 4 assessment, major cultural attitude roadblocks were discovered. This would be a good place to apply one of the many R6s tools like Root Cause Analysis. One of those simple but effective tools is the "6 Whys." For example let's imagine the problem discovered during the assessment is that macho managers attitudes resist organizational improvements, and insist on making decisions "by the seat of their pants. Then by using the "6 Whys" approach we continue to ask, "Why is that?" until a root cause is discovered. For example the first why response might be "we've always done it that way". The next why response might be "we don't know any different way." The final why response might uncover the root cause response, "we've never been trained any different, or shown a new way that really works."

We've talked about blind spots before. Usually we are blind to our full potential and to the root causes that are keeping us from realizing that potential. Many R6s tools can help achieve improvement results much better than skeptics might imagine.

For the Christian, the Holy Spirit shines His light into our blind spots so we can respond and eventually see that we look just as beautiful to God the Father as our beautiful savior Jesus does. That's because He sees us through the sacrificial blood of Jesus, washed white as snow from all our past, present, and future sin. Not only that, but He sees wonderful righteousness in our life because Jesus Himself is our "wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption." Jesus can be your "root cause" also, but ONLY when you invite Him to be. And then He will become the SOURCE of your "wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption" too.

I know you chemistry buffs thought it stood for magnesium. But today we're thinking about myasthenia gravis. The distinctive feature of MG is fluctuating weakness of muscles, made worse by use of those muscles and improved at least partially by rest of the same muscles. The "gravis" or seriousness of myasthenia is particularly noticeable when muscles we use in breathing are affected. Ocular myasthenia involves the eye muscles and eyelids. MG remains confined to the eye muscles in about 15% of patients who initially present with only ocular myasthenia. Within the first year after onset about half of the ocular MG patients will go on to experience involvement of other muscles, and another 30% do so during the next two years.

However, the vast majority of MG cases are autoimmune, in which the body's immune system mistakenly attacks and destroys special proteins located on the muscle surface where the nerve attaches to the muscle. These proteins respond to the chemical acetylcholine that is released by the stimulated nerve, and this response starts the process, which causes the muscle to contract. These special proteins are called acetylcholine receptors. No one knows what sets off the autoimmune reaction, but if some acetylcholine receptors are missing because of it, the response of the muscle to nerve impulses is poor and weakness may occur. Neurotransmitter chemicals make the connections across each nerve-muscle junction. Improper functioning of these neurotransmitter chemicals is what causes my friend to have ocular myasthenia, resulting in episodes of "double vision." Just imagine the frustration and disabling experience of not knowing when, and how intense, your next bout with double vision might be. Note also that such episodes of double vision are both real (sensed by the brain) and debilitating to my friend, while those around him experience none of his perceptions, and we only know what he experiences when he tells us.

The physical mechanisms behind MG are very similar to those that result in mental illnesses. As an example, schizophrenia can cause someone to hear voices, smell "formaldehyde," or have thoughts like the TV is controlling my mind, or that the man next to me really works for the CIA and he is trying to kill me. This is due to improper functioning of neurotransmitter chemicals like dopamine across nerve-to-nerve junctions. Too much dopamine causes a "real" perception of "extra information" that is NOT observable or confirmable by anyone else. Medicines like "dopamine blockers" are used to keep receptors from receiving too much dopamine and stimulating sensing inside the brain which does not correspond to any stimulus outside the brain.

To summarize, both MG and schizophrenia are physical illnesses, related to similar mis-functioning of neurotransmitter brain chemicals. Medicines try to restore normal brain chemistry balance. But a major difference is that MG is accepted as a physical illness, with no STIGMA, while schizophrenia and other mental illnesses are often mis-understood and erroneously viewed as a fault of the sick person or their family. Hopefully this brief description and comparison will help increase understanding and reduce the stigma associated with mental illness.

Now to extend our understanding for the rest of us "NORMAL" people. Have you ever sat outside the closed office of your boss and felt your boss was talking about you in a derogatory way with his visitor? Or have you ever become confused, frustrated, or irritated, by multiple concurrent interruptions, such as trying to visit with a friend while bombarded by the TV, someone knocking at the door, and the telephone demanding attention at the same time? This might provide some insight, understanding, and compassion for persons with mental illness who "hear voices," or who can't concentrate due to confused and interrupted thoughts.

Now let's consider what goes on in the "Invisible War" that Donald Gray Barnhouse wrote about, being waged for control of our minds every day. First we must understand the hierarchy of power. Satan is stronger than I am, and Jesus is stronger than Satan is. For example, the Bible says that for the Christian, "greater is He that is in you (Jesus), than he that is in the world (Satan)." If you have not invited Jesus into your life as your savior and given him authority to control your thinking and resultant behavior, then Satan will often let you alone to your own devices, since you are no threat to him. But if Jesus lives inside you (only by your invitation) He wants to renew your mind to think Godly thoughts each day, and Satan wants to confuse, disrupt, and distort your thinking to keep you away from reality and spiritual thinking. So now we see that a non-Christian is deceived and doesn't even know it. And a Christian must deliberately depend on Jesus to have a mind open to thoughts that produce spiritual growth, gravitate to helping others, and that are open to ways to spread God's good news. This includes planting and watering seeds of thoughts in others so they can see how really, fully, and beautifully Jesus loves us - enough to die in our place to pay for our sins and provide re-connection with God, thus re-balancing our spiritual brain chemistry.

When was your last visit to the eye doctor?

My last week of work before retirement, I taught four DOORS classes in Indianapolis, Indiana. "What's that?" Dynamic Object Oriented Requirements System (a requirements management tool). You may still feel like repeating, "What's that?" Or maybe you feel sorry you ever asked. But speaking of doors, we've all experienced a variety of feelings as we encountered both open and closed doors. It can be discouraging to have a door slammed in your face. And an invitation to "come on in" can really make our day! But have you ever stopped to ponder what words and actions tend to open and close doors?

For example, it's good to have a clear purpose, objectives, and approach to getting things accomplished. But often our approaches and styles are so different they even shut the "door" on relationships. Willingness to admit that I am prejudiced toward MY way of doing things, to the point of expecting and even directing others to do thing "my way" has the potential to cause a previously shut door to open up. Lectures, telling others what is right, and expecting conformance, is a pretty sure prescription for shutting a relationship down and maybe even causing it to be padlocked. VHAT (vulnerability, honesty, availability, and teachability) on the other hand can be refreshing enough to cause a previously slammed door to open up a crack.

Next time you gear up for a lecture, to tell someone else how to behave, use this as a red light signal to stop. Then step back and take a deep breath. Then instead of teaching, preaching, commanding, or demanding, turn the tables and tell the other person an example of how you have blown it by exhibiting the same characteristics you were about to "correct" them for. You may be pleasantly surprised how freeing, helpful, and motivating this is to the other person. I was.

James summarizes this by encouraging us to "confess our (own) faults to each other, and pray for each other, so we can be healed." Jesus similarly instructs us to first extract the BEAM from our own eye as a prerequisite to effectively helping our buddy get the "spec" out of their eye. More frequent trips to "eye Dr. Jesus" would sure help correct our myopic condition and help us avoid masquerading as Eye Doctors trying to correct everyone's vision but our own.

Healing is in the Eye of the Beholder

Who could imagine that a tiny atom could leverage a release of energy proportional to the speed of light squared (i.e. 300,000,000 x 300,000,000 = 90,000,000,000,000,000 {meters/sec}²) times its mass, if its particle binding energy could be released. As we now know, Albert Einstein could imagine this, and enough decision makers also believed it was possible (or at least feared the consequences if our enemies believed it and proved it first), to fund the Manhattan Project and test the first atomic bomb. Instead of splitting matter to release energy, others later took a clue from our sun (and other stars) where almost unfathomable energy is released through hydrogen fusion, by combining matter.

More often than not, when something outside our current belief/unbelief system or our comfort zone comes along, we deny its possibility, try to ignore it, or attack it as heretical or dangerous. Such departures from the norm often are dangerous to those who are experiencing something new or "outside the box." But precisely because we're often like the guy who went wading in a river in Egypt, doesn't make us right, or let us get away clean. Why? Because that means we are in "De Nile" (pronounced "denial"). Hopefully this will help us laugh at ourselves and open us up to admit that even we can on occasions be dead wrong.

Jesus put it this way to the religious leaders of His day, who tried so hard to deny that He had just given a man who was blind all his life, the wonderful gift of sight. Instead of celebrating with the man and his parents, they ruthlessly grilled them all, essentially demanding that they deny the fact of this healing (that only God could do) so they wouldn't have to change their belief system and admit the obvious, that before them stood "God in the flesh." So Jesus finally had to tell them that "IF they could admit (come out of denial) they were blind (spiritually), then they would be able to also be healed and see (spiritually). But since they kept on stubbornly extolling their perfect vision, He told them they would remain blind (spiritually) and still in their sinful condition. In so much of our human experience, real healing starts only after admitting we have been wrong and have been in denial. Jesus never goes where He has to overpower someone who remains in denial and stubbornly rejects Him. But words can not adequately describe the love, joy, peace and forgiveness experienced by those He heals from their sins at their request!

Topsy Turvey Measuring Tools

What's all this hype about faith, miracles, and emotional feelings, which are supposed to "prove God?" Just give me the reality of things I can see and measure, and I'll be content!

Oh really? Have you ever spent even a brief period reflecting on how much you know vs. how much you don't know? Or how much you can really measure vs. how much you can not really measure? As scientists and researchers explore progressive details in any physical discipline, they soon reach limits to their understanding of how and why things work as observed. Even their ability to observe reaches fundamental limitations, as noted long ago in the Heissenburg Principle. At that point honest people become humbled at the imbalance of how very much greater is that which we don't know, compared to that which we do know. For example, with the exponential growth of "new information," why do we seem to be getting farther, rather than closer, to a full and complete set of universal knowledge? And why do our parents seem to increase in wisdom as we grow older? Surely if seeing and measuring are going to be our panacea, then our current space telescopes and our atomic clocks should be closing in on our universe, shouldn't they? If so, why do the boundaries of our universe seem to keep moving beyond our ability to see or measure them? Could that be a clue to our limitations?

So much for mankind's sophisticated attempts at self-discovery of answers to ultimate questions. But in contrast, even a young child can understand, accept, and have his life transformed, by forming a relationship by trust and faith in the promises and performance of the creator-redeemer God of our entire unfathomable universe.

Faith is the substance of things man hopes for, and the spiritual evidence of things not seen, for those who believe God and honor Him by taking Him at His word (trusting Him). So whereas man's physical instruments have failed to plumb God's universe and to produce any ultimately satisfying answers, God's simple gifts of trust, faith, and obedience, have unlocked the secrets of His spiritual universe to disclose spiritual treasures beyond our wildest dreams. Spiritual feelings follow faith, and perception of timeless truth and spiritual reality come from our wise choices to respect, honor, love, and worship God who is Himself Truth indeed. With such a God, ALL things are possible, so the word "miracle" is found chiefly among those who don't really know God or His power personally.

If you want something temporary, take a Physics degree (like I did originally), then close your books and study Physics no more for the rest of your life. By the time you die, most of the things you were taught as fact will be overtaken by new ideas, principles, and theories, and the number of unanswered questions will have increased. But the young man who commits his life to Christ and faithfully follows Him, will increase in wisdom, favor, satisfaction, and spiritual insight. It's not too late to trade in tattered, prideful, physical tools of understanding, for spiritual spades from which grow sparkling surprises - God's rewards that result from personally experiencing His grace, forgiveness, mercy, love, and Presence. Who could want anything more?

Is the camel coming or going in your tent?

At Colonial Williamsburg this week I had the privilege to listen to Rev. James Wadell, a boys tutor and itinerant minister who lived around 1774. The Virginia surveying he taught was only required by law to be accurate to 5 acres in 100, which was a big improvement in accuracy, intended to avoid land disputes. Just give me some steel pins, a "reverse direction" sighting compass, steel chain, pole and a Tally man equipped with pencil and field notebook and I might cause a land dispute myself.

Rev. Wadell is a licensed dissenter (convenient label for all but Church of England ministers), so it is legal for him to preach at any pulpit where he is invited. At the age of 7 he became aware of his own sin and of God's remedy. So after talking with mom and his pastor, he asked Jesus to be his savior. After completing his training to be a boys tutor his pastor said he should preach the gospel, so he studied under another pastor while also tutoring boys. At one point he wept bitterly, as he felt totally inadequate to minister like his mentor did to the sick, hurting, and dying. But at that very point he found that Jesus' strength, allowed to minister through James' weakness, was entirely sufficient for such tasks.

Thus God's grace that had protected and carried him to that point, now became a filling, satisfying, and central facet of his life. James had spoken briefly on occasion with Patrick Henry, but had not shared spiritual discussions with him, even though Patrick Henry's mother was a Presbyterian.

But we did get to talk with Patrick Henry under a very large Oak tree behind the Governor's Palace. Mr. Henry was the 8^th Governor of Virginia, between Lord Dunsmore of England, and Thomas Jefferson. Mr. Henry spoke with passionate and persuasive arguments and warnings against complacency (as freedoms eroded) and dependence on comforts from Britain. He warned that the entrance of a camel's nose into their tent (unless driven out) would proceed until the camel is entirely in the tent, with the Virginian's entirely outside the tent. He said that a union of the colonies is essential to their survival. He felt that God was leading him to help the Virginians escape slavery very similarly to the way Moses led the Israelites out from Pharaoh's hardened heart and the cruel slavery that Pharaoh imposed. These convictions, passions, warnings, legislative actions, and his courage were fueled by Mr. Henry's daily reading of the Bible, one hour in the morning, and one hour in the evening, and by his desire to serve Jesus Christ.

Obviously there was great debate, division, and differing opinions regarding the dangers and liabilities of being labeled as a law-breaker in association with those who brewed more than tea on the Boston Harbor. But wise men in Williamsburg called for a day of fasting, humility, and prayer at Bruton Parish Church, and thereby became united. Within 2 months the First Virginia Convention at Williamsburg elected their representatives to the First Continental Congress. So there is a lot of history, inspiration, and obedience to God behind the UNITED States.

When You Experience a Servant, You Won't Want Them to Leave

When is the last time you benefited from someone with a servant's heart? You know, someone who puts your interests ahead of their own. Someone who identifies and meets needs on their own initiative, while others are oblivious, ignoring, or avoiding the need. When you hear what they have done for others it brings tears to your eyes. And when you are around them you don't want them to leave. While others are so busy seeking their own interests that no one can even see the struggles that an "outsider" is having, a person with a servant's heart and the gift of mercy will become their advocate.

All of us need someone "in our corner," someone like the following. Paul knew that Timothy had such a servant's heart. Philippians 2:19-21 (Amplified Bible)
¹⁹But I hope and trust in the Lord Jesus soon to send Timothy to you, so that I may also be encouraged and cheered by learning news of you. ²⁰For I have no one like him [no one of so kindred a spirit] who will be so genuinely interested in your welfare and devoted to your interests. ²¹For the others all seek [to advance] their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ (the Messiah).
Luke 7 ²¹In that very hour Jesus was healing many [people] of sicknesses and distressing bodily plagues and evil spirits, and to many who were blind He gave [a free, gracious, joy-giving gift of] sight. ²²So He replied to them, Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the good news (the Gospel) preached to them. ²³And blessed (happy-- with life-joy and satisfaction in God's favor and salvation, apart from outward conditions--and to be envied) is he who takes no offense in Me and who is not hurt or resentful or annoyed or repelled or made to stumble [whatever may occur].

Despite strong criticism and misunderstanding, Jesus deliberately sought out the "outcasts" of His day and showed them caring, understanding, compassion, healing, forgiveness, and a brand new life in the kingdom of God, something that many who looked down on them were unwilling to admit their own need of, and receive it for themselves.
Luke 7 ³⁶One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to come to his home for a meal, so Jesus accepted the invitation and sat down to eat. ³⁷A certain immoral woman heard he was there and brought a beautiful jar filled with expensive perfume. ³⁸Then she knelt behind him at his feet, weeping. Her tears fell on his feet, and she wiped them off with her hair. Then she kept kissing his feet and putting perfume on them. ³⁹When the Pharisee who was the host saw what was happening and who the woman was, he said to himself, "This proves that Jesus is no prophet. If God had really sent him, he would know what kind of woman is touching him. She's a sinner!" ⁴⁰Then Jesus spoke up and answered his thoughts. "Simon," he said to the Pharisee, "I have something to say to you." "All right, Teacher," Simon replied, "go ahead." ⁴¹Then Jesus told him this story: "A man loaned money to two people--five hundred pieces of silver to one and fifty pieces to the other. ⁴²But neither of them could repay him, so he kindly forgave them both, canceling their debts. Who do you suppose loved him more after that?" ⁴³Simon answered, "I suppose the one for whom he canceled the larger debt." "That's right," Jesus said. ⁴⁴Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, "Look at this woman kneeling here. When I entered your home, you didn't offer me water to wash the dust from my feet, but she has washed them with her tears and wiped them with her hair. ⁴⁵You didn't give me a kiss of greeting, but she has kissed my feet again and again from the time I first came in. ⁴⁶You neglected the courtesy of olive oil to anoint my head, but she has anointed my feet with rare perfume. ⁴⁷I tell you, her sins--and they are many--have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love." ⁴⁸Then Jesus said to the woman, "Your sins are forgiven." ⁴⁹The men at the table said among themselves, "Who does this man think he is, going around forgiving sins?" ⁵⁰And Jesus said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace."

We had someone with a servant's heart in our home last week, which prompted this THINKABLE. Her stories of caring about and serving others in dire need brought tears to my eyes. We didn't want her to leave. When is the last time you allowed the ultimate servant, Jesus, close enough to meet some of your needs? He longs to, is fully equipped to, and certainly has the compassionate servant's heart to. He has done it for millions worldwide, through the ages, and He will do it for you. But only when you ask Him. He is BOTH a servant and a gentleman.

Who would you leave "In Charge?"

Let's say you were a CEO, vice president, director, or other such leader at work. You need to take a leave of absence, but just whom will you leave in charge? Who can you trust to run the ship, so you will find things in good shape upon your return? Typically you would pick someone you had trusted before, and found them to be reliable and faithful. Even without a leave of absence, increased delegation of responsibilities and trusted assignments usually come to those who have shown themselves able to "make the boss look good," focus on solutions rather than excuses or complaints, and please the boss rather than bring him bad surprises and ulcers. Simple as it may sound, dependability and reliability are characteristics often rewarded, even above exceptional skills, intellect, and abilities.

But Jesus seems to break the rules of common sense by investing the last three years of His life in men who rewarded His trust in them with desertion, cowardice, and denial. None had a track record of success in understanding their teacher, or demonstrating dependability or the kind of leadership that would make a leader willing to delegate to them. At the time Jesus was ready to leave this earth to return to His Father in Heaven, there was little evidence that His investment and teaching would bear any fruit, much less accomplish persistent results in accordance with His teachings and assignments. His disciples seemed instead to be prime candidates for awards like "least likely to succeed." So why would Jesus be so vulnerable to trust the continuation of His earthly ministry to such an unlikely group of men?

Actually the same question can still be asked today as to why someone who merely asks Jesus to be their Lord and savior would be counted worthy to represent the God of the universe. I had this dramatically focused to my attention tonight as I attended the final night of preaching by a friend of mine. He began last Sunday with an appeal to us to diligently seek God with all our heart, soul, and mind, and not to be satisfied with anything less. His Wednesday night message emphasized the flip side of that, stressing the persistent, gentle, attractive wooing of God as He pursues each one of us, inviting us to come back into a delightful, loving, intimate relationship with God the Father, Son and Spirit.

Around 25 young people prayed and asked Jesus into their life as their savior. I had the privilege of counseling two 11 year old twin boys from this group. They felt God calling them to respond, even though they had invited Jesus into their life before. And they obeyed that call. As a result I was able to provide them God's promise and assurance of salvation in response to their admitted concern about whether their destination was heaven or hell. They also received affirmation that Jesus would welcome them into heaven based solely on their faith in His payment for their sins on the cross, not on anything that they had done.

These two boys remind me a lot of Jesus' disciples. One talks with a lisp, and the other is shy and walks with a limp. Not too much to look at right now. But just wait. I plan to pray for them daily, and I believe they have the right stuff for God to use them; obedience to his call, a desire to please Him, and not ashamed of Him before men. That's the kind of raw material He can and does use. Just look how His first set of disciples finally turned out. Where would we be today, without them?

Leaders Show and Tell

Thanks to our Raytheon Management Club, November 7^th was a day of privilege for me to attend the 6^th Annual Worldwide Lessons in Leadership Series TV reception at our workplace. This year's focus was "The New Leadership Challenge: Teaming Principles with Practices in a Time of Change." Renowned leaders spoke, like the "1 Minute Manager" author Ken Blanchard, who said he is surprised so many businesses still mange to side-step application and benefit from his simple 3 steps. The first step, "1 Minute Goal Setting," is SMART (sensible, measurable, relevant, and trackable). On the first day of a course he taught, Ken said he gave out the final exam and spent the rest of the semester supplying answers to those questions, because life is about getting A's, NOT about producing a normal distribution of class grades. Step 2, "1 Minute Praisings," is where you catch workers doing something right and praise them, accentuating the positive. For example, when Sam Walton would visit a WalMart store, he first asked the store manager to take him on a "praising" tour to show off what was working best. Only then did he ask for a briefing on what was NOT going so well. By then the manager felt "safe" to share the negatives. The 3^rd step is "1 Minute Reprimands," or Re-direction, to help workers see and correct their behavior misalignment to their job goals. A recent 4^th step addition is to apologize quickly when wrong. The "best minute" is one you spend investing in people. This could be called the "Mordecai Minute," referring to his challenge to Queen Esther to risk death to intercede with the King, to save her people, the Jews, from death.

Here are a few nuggets from the closing panel. Tom Peters says to "hire for attitude, and then train for skills." The panel admired Jack Welch's (previous GE CEO) focus on only 1 major initiative per year, and his balanced objectives of BOTH achieving the business plan numbers, while living by the Corporate Values. They felt the Board constituency should resemble the customer base (to stay in touch). Also the Board and CEO should "complete" each other, not "compete" with each other. Dr. Stephen Covey spoke of bottom-up influence stemming from "I need…" statements to management, and top-down instilling of loyalty by listening to workers and supporting their initiatives. They felt that goals, meaningful performance measures, and rewards need to be used to reward actual performance. They all felt that challenges, like the tragedy of 9/11/2001, call for new ideas as illustrated in Albert Einstein's quote, "The significant problems we face cannot be solved with the same level of thinking we were at when we created them." They asked us to think "out of the box." Maybe that's why they fed us lunch "out of a box."

Martha Rogers gave several illustrations of the ability for CEO's to react almost immediately to help after the 9/11 crisis, based on "in-place" CRM databases. For example Hewlett Packard quickly identified all its server customers in towers 1, 2, 6 and 7, and were able to ship in servers to NYC to help restore customer operations in alternate locations very quickly because of their customer configuration database. Dell sent 10's of thousands of PC's to NYC to help customers resume operations from their homes via Virtual Private Networks. GE converged on NYC and its hospitals with 70 portable generators. Many CEO's identified and supported both employees and customers, getting employees to share their emotions, and harnessed their resources so they felt they were helping to make a difference. Radical Tom Peters pointed out that: women managers outshine their male counterparts in almost every measure, leadership is all about love, and leaders give respect first and then gain it in return. GE's CEO Immelt balances the short vs. long range dilemma by making timely short-range decisions based on long range vision.

I was surprised at the consensus and similarity of their ideals. I was not surprised that most of their basic recommendations align closely with the simple but profoundly revolutionary, impacting teachings and mentoring of Jesus. Goal setting and counting the cost, praising, repentance and alignment with God's values and principles are basics. After that, a focus on the main thing, that which is eternal, helps us invest in people to help them see how much Jesus loves and respects them, that He would die to solve their otherwise impossible sin problem. Good CEO's care about people (employees and customers) but no one has yet demonstrated such love and commitment as Jesus did when God became a man (Emanuel), experienced our trials (yet without sin), died for those who were His enemies at the time, and rose so all who accept His payment gift can share richly in His victory, His righteousness, and His abundant eternal life. By the way, November 7^th was also the 83^rd birthday of Billy Graham, one of this century's best proponents and beneficiaries of these qualities, because he follows THE leader.

Where Was God on SEPTEMBER 11, 2001?
Many of us have asked this question:

"Where was God when the twin towers in New York, and the
Pentágon, were attacked?". Well let me tell you where God was.
I know where God was on September 11, 2001. Our God
was very busy.

God was distracting the people that had planned to take the flights
on American Airlines and United Airlines. The four airplanes together
had capacity for 1000 pasengers, and that morning, only 266 people
were on board.

God was onboard the four airplanes flying to the tragic destination
calming the terrified passengers in each airplane.
None of the families that received cell phone calls from the airplanes
rrom their loved ones said they heard screams from the passengers.
God was comforting each of the passengers.
Furthermore, God was giving strength to the three passengers in
the airplane that crashed in Pennsylvania, so they could oppose the
terrorists and avoid a bigger tragedy.

God was very busy creating obstacles for thousands of employees
in the twin towers. As it turned out, only 20,000 people were in
the twin towers when the first airplane hit.
The twin towers had close to 50,000 people working there, but
many were late because of flat tires, their alarms didn't ring,
or they missed their bus or train, and they were late to work, and
thus they were saved.

After the airplanes struck the twin towers, God held them up so
thousands of people could escape, and when the twin towers finally
fell, they collapsed down, and not sideways. If the towers had fallen
sideways, more than twenty blocks would have been struck, and
thousands more would have died.

And when the twin towers collapsed, God took up thousands with
him into heaven telling them that the worst was over, and they were with him
now, and they would suffer no longer at his side.

Once taking his charges to heaven, God sat and cried for the 19
terrorists he could not save, and who went to hell for having
lived with so much hate in their hearts.

And then God returned to comfort the widows who lost husbands,
husbands who lost wives, children who lost their parents, and
parents who lost children, and he stayed with them giving them
strength to continue with their lives.

And likewise God helps all of us, and never abandons us. So when
you are asked "Where was God on September 11?" - God was
everywhere, in spite of the tremendous tragedy of that day.

Turning Tragedy Into Triumph

We have thought together before about the great disparity between mankind's highest achievements and contrasting despicably hateful atrocities. The events of September 11, 2001 certainly encapsulate examples of both. The deliberate disregard for the value of human life and family relationships, fueled by terrorist's single-minded objectives to cause pain, death, terror, disruption, and destruction, graphically illustrates some of the depths of man's depravity. But these same events also brought out the highest in man's choices, in the many examples of sacrifice of life in attempts to save others. New York City firemen, police, and paramedics, realizing that the twin towers would most likely come down soon, nevertheless charged up those smoky stairs in heroic attempts to save victims. "Greater love has no man, than to lay down his life for another." So many responded to the emergency request for blood donors that several blocks of donors at one hospital were bussed to other hospitals to process and eventually supply blood to other regions in need. Countless people stopped their busy activities abruptly to compassionately pray for victims, rescuers, our nation, and world leaders.

Some may ask, "Where was God during this tragedy?" Such questions have some general answers, some answers way above our finite mind's capacity, and some specific answers whose details will only become known with the passage of time. The general answer is that God was right there, compassionately involved with all those who experienced the tragedy, patiently waiting for those who would choose to open their hearts to Him. Our finite minds cannot now comprehend the vast scope and complexity of God's perspective. But we do know God is the world's authority on experiencing tragedy. That is because the world's greatest tragedy occurred the day that self-serving religious leaders finally fulfilled their oath to rid the world of their competition, One who spoke like God, acted like God, and claimed to be God in the flesh. Most everything Jesus said and did flew in the face of the man-made traditions, closed-club power hierarchy, and control and intimidation of the people, promulgated by the religious leaders of Israel. They finagled the fickle political leaders and crowds to carry out a cruel, tortuous, public execution, by hanging Jesus on a cross until dead. Since Jesus had no sin guilt of His own, He chose to take the burden of bearing all the sins of mankind in His own body on that tree. For the Son of God who was perfectly innocent to be crucified for false, trumped up charges, was indeed the world's greatest travesty of justice, and hence tragedy. But God turned this apparent tragedy into the world's greatest triumph when Jesus rose up from the dead. This meant that His sin payment for you and me was accepted by God the Father, and that all who choose by faith to accept His payment are freed from the guilt and slavery of sin and it's consequences.

Later on, I believe that details will show that God also graciously averted additional tragedy, such as keeping the plane that crashed in PA from hitting its target of intended destruction. I also believe that these terrible terrorist events will eventually cause some to seriously ask ultimate questions such as, "Who am I, Where did I come from and where am I going, What is my purpose?" And some of these folks will likely thus become open to God Himself, finding that His word provides unique, clear, purposeful answers to such questions. Becoming thus enlightened, some will begin to trust God enough to begin a personal relationship with Him by faith, and look forward to spending eternity with Him. So we see that the worst that mankind and Satan can dish out, terrible, destructive, and cruel as it is, it can't hold a candle to the obvious answers to a few ultimate questions. "What (or who) shall separate us from the love of God?" "If God be for us, who can (effectively) be against us?"

In conclusion, we might easily anticipate even worse terrorist attacks in the future. But rather than focus on them in fear and worry, let us rather be encouraged by the best that is in mankind and the kind of heroic responses and unity that such tragedy evokes. Because our own best choices, compassionate sacrifices, and demonstrations of courage, provide just a glimpse into the vast unconditional love and acceptance God has offered to each of us through the willing sacrifice of His Son, to allow us to appear before Him in eternity, dressed in the perfect righteousness of Christ. Let Him turn this tragedy into triumph for you too today!

Unconventional Warfare

"America's new war" has been the caption most prominent at the bottom of our CNN TV screens since September 11^th. In President Bush's address to Congress and the American people, we witnessed new U.S. resolve, leadership, and unity, as well as elaboration of some of the parameters of this new war. The terrorist attack employed dedicated suicide bombers, well trained in unconventional warfare. As we considered last week, their tactics include surprise, terror, deception, and disregard for civilian life, as well as their own lives. Instead of having any human feeling, compassion, or sensitivity to suffering, they instead derive joy, pride, defiance, and celebration, in proportion to the amount of suffering, death, destruction, grief and loss they can inflict on others. And they claim such cowardly sneak attacks on civilians provides them a "martyr's badge" to escape Hell.

Our president said that their unconventional war calls for America's New War to be uniquely different from what we have experienced before, but also to be uniquely different from that of the terrorists. While they fight to inflict loss, destruction, and fear, we declare war and pledge our resolve to free those they intend to make or keep as their captives and hostages. The best way to replace fear with freedom is to truly trust God.

So what does God have to tell us and teach us about unconventional warfare? He tells us and shows us that "God is love," and that "perfect love casts out fear." Such love is so strong, powerful, and overcoming, that enemies are disarmed by it, and have no answer against it. To personally love and pray for our enemies preserves us from the cancers of bitterness and unforgiveness. Jesus' prayers for those who crucified Him pled for forgiveness. "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing." Even those terrorists who diabolically seek to deceive, disrupt, dishonor, and destroy us, can hold no power over those who are strong enough to return love for evil. We are not free from them if anger takes us captive to employing their own tactics against them. We can and should employ every resource wisely and judiciously against terrorists, as our president outlined in his speech tonight. But we must guard our attitudes and motivations so that God is in control, not man, as we fight them. In other words, "the wrath of man does not work the righteousness of God." "Vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord." "Love covers a multitude of sins." Love keeps us humble and empowers us to unleash God's power and wisdom against our enemies. "When evil is resisted, it will take flight."

Thus we see a variety of different weapons as we focus our view on God's unconventional warfare. He is able to tear down walls and totally route enemies, as at Jericho, and more recently during the 6-day war against Israel. He models praying for our enemies and turning tragedy into triumph. For example He permitted His enemies to crucify Him and then rose triumphantly from the grave, overcoming death, sin, and Satan forever. We know that He will yet come with a 2-edged sword emanating from His mouth, as His word slays His enemies in judgment. Such diverse weapons have a common denominator, love, as He administers mixtures of lovingkindness and judgment, justice and grace.

Our president enlisted God's aid as we fight to replace fear with freedom and cruelty with justice. Our world's strongest freedom fighter, Jesus, has long been at war with (and has utterly defeated) the world's master terrorist Satan, as he sought to stealthily take hostages to fear, armed with cruel and hateful destruction. Soon Satan will have no place to hide from the righteous exposing "light of the world," "Jesus the Son of God." May God use The U.S. to drive those who mimic Satan into confusion, division, defeat, and destruction. Remember, "if the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed."

Be Prepared

Most folks know the Boy Scout motto, "Be Prepared," even if they did not have the opportunity to become an Eagle Scout like Ross Perot and I did. Actually that helped me get all the way through my EDS interview process long ago, but that’s another story. Sometimes its hard to get fully motivated to study and prepare some subject matter since we are tempted to question when and if we will need that information in the future. The other side of that coin is that sometimes we experience a very stressful situation and find ourselves being carried along by events outside of our control, wishing we had some preparation and training to have prepared us for that situation. But looking at both kinds of situations, we have to admit that there is no substitute for good planning and preparation.

It is in that spirit that I am writing today. Clearly when terrorists have spent years planning and preparing, driven by heinous intents to cause pain, suffering, and destruction, the elements of surprise, suicide, and disregard for human life, catch us off guard, and can even end our lives without any warning or opportunity for us to prepare. So I am recording some thoughts today about opportunities for future preparedness that we who are living today have available to us.

The 9-11 terrorist war on the U.S. gave us first hand experience of an adversary so ruthless that most of us previously had almost no comprehension of the depths of depravity that spawned their surprise attacks. But given their horrendous wake-up calls on Tuesday, we are scurrying to study, understand, and prepare against additional attacks in the future, even now trying to anticipate other diabolical attacks which might otherwise again take us by surprise, due to being so far outside our value systems that we could not imagine them. The U.S. is now learning how to prepare to fight terrorism, having experienced it on our own soil, in ways similar to Israel who has lived with imminent terrorism since their rebirth as a nation in 1948. But this wake-up call to heighten our awareness of preparedness opportunities can be processed in both physical and spiritual domains, if we are wise enough to consider it. Many of us previously thought our main enemies were folks like "the other political party," a competitive co-worker, even our spouse, or others with a "differing viewpoint." But this terrorist attack quickly reshaped our priorities so that such minor differences became trivial, prompting prior "factions" to take united action against a clearly more severe enemy. For example, both houses of Congress now speak with common purpose and resolve.

The terrorist’s disregard for life, values, relationships, property, decency, and all we hold dear, provides us a glimpse of our common spiritual enemy. The same enemy that unsuccessfully worked night and day for 33 years after the birth of Jesus, to destroy Him, or at least distract Him from His mission to planet earth to provide His perfect life to pay for all the sins of mankind. Satan still is just as persistently working to destroy our possibility of experiencing spiritual life, or to at least distract us from learning about and benefiting from Jesus’ payment for all of our sins. Satan is much more secretive, seductive, treacherous, and deadly, than all terrorists combined, past and present. That is because he attacks something even more important than our physical life, our spiritual life. His success is quite phenomenal, e.g. he has managed to take the majority of humanity hostage without them realizing it, or putting up a fight until it is too late. We can now see that by coming to their senses and putting up a fight, the 45 United Airlines flight #93 passengers averted much additional destruction, even though their plane crashed in PA. But the passengers on the other three hijacked planes never realized the horror of their destination until it was too late.

While we were still so overcome by sin that we wouldn’t or couldn’t cry out for help, Jesus saw our plight and our ultimate destination. His resultant mission from Heaven, to earth, to the sacrificial cross, to His reassuring visits to disheartened disciples after His resurrection, and back to heaven to intercede for us as a sympathetic, victorious high priest, resulted in His free offer of the gift of eternal life to all who choose to prepare by reaching out in faith to receive it. Now is the time to study and understand Jesus’ mission, His gift of eternal life, and to prepare and get free from the chief of all terrorists, Satan. This master terrorist has been defeated, but not yet put out of commission. He still takes plenty of hostages without them realizing it, every day. So, may you begin your preparation for freedom today, without delay! You’ll never be sorry you took time today to prepare and claim your personal gift of eternal life. Read all about it in the Gospel of John.

Return On Investment

9-11 was devastating to the twin towers, the pentagon, those on the passenger planes turned into guided missiles, the valiant self-less rescue servants who sacrificed their lives, and the friends and families of the thousands who died and were injured. And our losses would have been even worse without quick acting heroes on the ground and in the air. 9-11 was also devastating to our economy. For example, airlines still suffer today as many choose cars over jets, especially for trips under 400 miles.

But a far greater hit to our economy is from the enemy within. CEOs who put self interests above corporate and employee interests have so undermined the stock market that it may be some time before we see a recovery. Other CEOs with integrity have established checks, balances, policies, procedures, and reports that protect themselves and their companies from any perception of misleading or questionable accounting practices. But a few rotten eggs ruin our appetite for even looking at the rest of the menu. Just like the Nile virus, we don't know where CEO greed will strike next.

Some may argue that Wall Street expectations of next quarter's Return On Investment (ROI) cause CEOs to "cook the books." Certainly such pressures are real and intense. But that argument sounds to me a lot like "the devil made me do it." Adam and Eve came up with a lot of excuses and blame of others, including "the devil made me do it," but nevertheless all parties paid a terribly high price in terms of pre-promised consequences. But expectations about ROI are confined to Wall Street aren't they? Surely a God full of mercy and grace doesn't keep books on His investment in us does He?

There is no greater investment than the unconditional gift to us of the very life of God's only Son Jesus, to pay our otherwise unpayable sin debt. But we have tried to do things our own way, while effectively calling God a liar, just like our ancestors did. We just don't take His promises seriously either. We'd rather invent our own lifestyle than find and follow His plan for our lives, even though the consequences are just as severe as they were for our ancestors.

God expects us to gratefully accept and respond to His love investment in us. He knows that the proof and verification of all who receive His investment is visible returns in the currency of changed lives that reach out in love, forgiveness, healing, and service to hurting neighbors all around us. Jesus is truly the gift that keeps on giving, reaping dividends beyond what we could ever ask or think.

You haven't buried God's investment in you have you? Or even worse, never even bothered to take His check for eternal life to the bank and cash it? Next time you want to irately hold a greedy CEO accountable, remember God is still looking for His Return On Investment in you!

Zero Tolerance

We know about the importance of zero tolerance in programs that take a realistic approach to getting someone "unhooked" from substance abuse. That means breaking through the habit-forming layers of denial, deceit, and doing anything to get what you want and crave. The deceitful lie and denial expressed by "just one more" is met head on by zero tolerance. Why? Because anything less than that enables the perpetuating victim to continue his lying, denying, and deceit, and it makes recovery less and less likely. We are all very adept at rationalizing and concocting "cock-and-bull" stories in an almost believable style to get people to give us what we want, and sometimes what we are "hooked on." But the addict has honed such skills to the ultimate because his habit drives him to do it, even beyond his own awareness, control, or concern for the high cost he is extracting from others who care about him.

Tom Landry had a simple but challenging job description for turning talented, individualistic showboats into Dallas Cowboys. He said his job was to get men to do what they did not want to do, in order to become what they did want to become. This prescription description can be used to help substance abusers work through their 12 steps of recovery. But first they must hit bottom sufficiently to want to save their life and break their addiction. Even though we are all used to considering compromises in many areas of life, it is clear that substance abuse recovery with no recidivism requires a no nonsense approach with a zero tolerance backbone. Results from successful business programs such as Total Quality Management, Continuous Quality Improvement, and Six Sigma have astounded even their strongest advocates by getting serious about zero defects.

So even the most entrenched of us who are steeped in compromise, denial, deceit, and lying (such as "what I do with my life is my business, and it doesn't affect anyone else) should not be too surprised to find that the holy, righteous, creator-redeemer God of the universe has established a policy of zero defects for our own good, way before we were born. In the New Testament book of Ephesians He tells us that "before the foundation of the world, He chose us to be Holy and without blame before Him in love." To those who trust Him He tells us to "be holy, for I am holy." That's like dividing by zero to our finite fleshly mind. But we can at times grasp that God's holiness is unlike ours since He is THE light that lights every man that comes into this world. He is perfect and without flaw, something we have never experienced. We compare ourselves with other men and sometimes come out smelling like a rose. But if we ever dare compare ourselves with God we find our stench sickening and unbearable. Perhaps the best way to catch a glimpse of this comparison is to explore the unfathomably costly payment Jesus, God's only Son, paid for all our sins on the cross at Calvery. Just anticipating this payment caused Jesus to sweat great drops of blood. He had to endure "becoming sin for us," crying out for God the Father to deliver Him, and having His Father deny that cry and forsake Him, so that the full spiritual and blood payment could be made for you and for me. We know His payment was acceptable to God the Father, because He raised Him from the dead, to die no more. We also know it was acceptable because Jesus is the only man who ever lived a perfect, holy, zero defect life. He is the sacrificial lamb, without any blemish.

So the conclusion is obvious. No way can you or I achieve the zero defect life God requires to enter heaven and stand in His perfect presence. But when we choose to get out of denial, deception, lying and compromise, and reach out by faith and grasp the payment Jesus made for our sins, God clothes us in a brand new robe of perfect righteousness, because it is stained red with the blood payment of His own Son. Welcome to the real world of Zero Defects!

Communication Gap

Failure to communicate "on the same page" is very common, isn't it? For example, just look at the diversity of "accident reports" written by multiple observers of the same traffic accident. "Are you sure this is the same event?" an investigating officer might readily ask. And surely every husband and wife you know has been exasperated by the differences between "what I said and what he/she thought I said." We're not only on different pages, but more typically on different planets (Mars and Venus, the book says). And then there is the classic "communication game" where a message is whispered around the circle and the returning message is compared with its original. The result is almost certainly going to get a big laugh because somehow our listening and playback equipment (or the use of that equipment) has such low fidelity. GE has it right with their slogan; "Communication is our most important product."

But just how seriously would you like to improve your communication skills? For example would you be willing to attend and faithfully do homework on classes in listening, caring, and seeking first to understand before seeking to be understood? This is a serious matter, because even those of us who have spent hours studying, pondering, and applying such topics, can still get very low communication and caring scores from our mates. Or for example, consider your annual reviews at work. The evaluation criteria can change with who is in charge and what is currently popular, but can you remember anytime in your career that communication was not one of those criteria? Aren't there just some bosses, employees, doctors, teachers or students, mates, kids or parents that you just cannot communicate with? Do we have any examples of "bridging the communication gap" where a nearly impossible gap has indeed been successfully bridged?

How about the infinite gap between an infinite, holy, perfect God, and his creation, man, who severed the relationship through mistrust, rebellion, and disobedience? Did you ever try to talk to someone who wasn't interested in the conversation, who tuned you out due to their total preoccupation with their own agenda and perspective? That's likely where some of our sayings came from like, "Don't confuse me with the facts, my mind is made up!"

In the fullness of time, at man's greatest need of re-establishing open communications with God, Jesus left heaven to communicate eyeball-to-eyeball with the human race. Although God is too magnificent and holy for man to survive in His full presence, Jesus took on flesh and blood, as well as our vulnerabilities, to show us what God is like, especially in His sinless behavior. Nowhere else can man find the absence of self-centered motives and actions! Nowhere else can we find an undiluted high fidelity audio visual of God living sinlessly in human form. There is no better communication than that, which includes Jesus' outstretched hands of love on the cross, and His dying words of forgiveness. His death split the thick temple veil of restricted communication between God and man, from top to bottom. And His resurrection stands for all eternity to announce and prove His prophecy, "I am the resurrection and the life!" The world's biggest communication gap has been bridged by the God-man, but are you listening? It's time to stop talking, and stand in awe of Him, look at Him, and listen to Him. Stop, look, and listen, and He will change your life for eternity!

Communication At It’s Best

This past week I had the privilege of participating in continuous improvement training at my workplace, called Raytheon Six Sigma training. Many tools and training sessions allowed us to identify root causes of issues and problems which bug us and remain unsolved. Do you have any reoccurring annoyances like that? Like the pop-up heads at Chucky-Cheese Pizza, no matter how hard you hammer them down, they just keep right on popping back up, right in your face. Although I could tell you a lot about the tools, and what we discovered from them, I think you might be most interested in a few special insights our last speaker gave us in the areas of communication and persuasion. His introduction came on the heals of this famous quote from Tom Landry. "Motivation is getting people to do what they don’t want to do, in order to gain what they do want."

Jeff said that our primary behavior and tone springs directly from our privately held ideas and beliefs. Perhaps that is what led to his first of three main points.

Keys to improved communication include:

Since God created us with characteristics like these, how did He take them into account when He came to earth to communicate with us? Here are a few of them.

You and I would be very foolish to ignore or turn a deaf ear to God’s personal invitation, which He communicated through the flesh, blood, and Spirit of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.

Will the real Impostors please stand up?

"That's a cryin' shame." "A mind is a terrible thing to lose." These are a few of the sayings that describe "unfair" situations that can cause us to join someone's pity party with so much energy that we never even stop to think how we might get involved to improve the situation. Some such sympathetic causes can be pretty polarizing too. That is why I try to adhere to a policy of generally not choosing up sides and criticizing others, but rather carefully choosing really important issues to get involved with to work hard to improve things or at least provide positive alternatives. For example we are willing to be associated with stigma in order to seek and stimulate ways to provide richer lives for persons who have biological brain chemistry disorders called mental illness.

If you do get embroiled in polarizing issues and start playing the blame game, pointing fingers, making judgments, and attacking others, it tends to often generate more heat than light. But even sadder is the situation where sometimes our identification with an "unjust" act or word gets us so bent out of shape that it keeps us from benefits and opportunities that we would explore and experience if we weren't so emotionally crippled by marching lockstep behind a passionate leader without so much as checking out their credibility, claims, and experience. For example, Hitler youth groups could be riled up to intimidate others into joining their ranks and shouting anti-Semitic slogans, rather than standing out from the crowd and thinking about the good they could do for others, and how they would like to be treated. We are all susceptible to such "herd instinct" following and mimicking of a Pied Piper, rather than standing up for what is right and good. Mother Teresa showed amazing independent stature in overcoming the herd instinct, as this petite woman offered the nations of the world positive alternatives for unwanted, unborn babies. She offered to take them and find them loving homes. Many recognized the difference she showed them that God's love can make in this twisted world. But others turned a deaf ear, with a mind already made up, unwilling to allow an unborn baby to experience the same opportunity to life that they had.

Let us focus for a moment on the terrible price we pay for following a Pied Piper without checking him out. For example, a number of "philosophers" and "scientists" have tried to dissuade others from seeking and finding God. But in what other situation would you ascribe credibility to someone who said you should not even consider trying to experience what they themselves had never experienced? This would be like a self-made swim instructor asking someone not to try to learn to swim because the "swim instructor" had never even tried to learn to swim themselves. Or it would be like claiming that eating Blue Belle Ice Cream might poison you, since they had never eaten any and had not been poisoned.

Jesus left heaven and met all our needs and requirements necessary for us to know Him (God) in a personal and intimate way, by faith. He claims to be the ONLY way to God, to be God Himself, and to expect us to trust Him more than anyone else, based on His perfect track record. He has "been there, done that." He left Heaven, experienced the same kind of tests we all do, yet without any failures, and returned to Heaven to prepare a place for all who trust Him without reservation, just as He sacrificed His life for us without reservation. Would you trust a so-called theologian, politician, scientist, or philosopher more than Jesus? If so, please at least check out His credentials and His track record in the Gospel of John, before you let one of these impostors rob you of an eternity with the most delightful and awesome person in the universe.

Good Luck

Good Luck! How often we hear that parting ring, as someone wishes us well, and really doesn't know what else to say. And what is bound to happen once we find that 4-leaf clover? Why Good Luck, of course. Everyone knows that luck comes packaged in "streaks" of good luck and "streaks" of bad luck. And what nationality has an inside track on luck? Why 'tis the luck of the Irish, of course! And we have lucky rabbits feet and a whole variety of "good luck charms" that are known to bring good luck.

So with all that folklore and "evidence," how could anyone fail to believe in luck? Well, it's easy to disbelieve in luck if you are versed in the Bible. That's because the God of the Bible is so much bigger, better, and more dependable than luck. What He plans, comes to pass - ALWAYS. Just look for example at all the prior promises concerning His Son, before He ever showed up on planet earth. You can take His promises to the bank.

The truth of the matter is that God wants MUCH better things for us than we could ever imagine, or want for ourselves. For example, do you typically wish good luck to your hardened enemies? Well, even though Jesus knew that most of mankind would exhibit the same kinds of attitudes that put Him on the cross, He went right ahead and gave the gift of His life to pay for the sins of all who would eventually turn around 180 degrees and trust Him. He provided eternal life together with Him in heaven for all who reach out by faith and take His gift, paid in full with His own blood, without any uncertainty, second thoughts, or chance of failure. We have His word on it, His blood on it, His resurrection on it, and the sworn testimony of God the Father and God the Spirit.

So now you can see why I cringe inside when I hear someone give the well-intentioned common wish for good luck. I'd sure prefer to hear you say that you are praying for your friend, or refer them to a passage chock full of encouragement and God's heart of forgiveness and reconciliation for all who will follow Jesus, like John 17.

Just remember that luck is man's currency, riddled with happenstance and uncertainty, and rock solid promises are God's currency, because the One who promised is the solid rock Himself. No man, or man's religion, can lay any lasting foundation comparable with Jesus Christ. There are no accidents, no surprises, and no luck with God. His choices and plans are never thwarted. This may sound like quibbling to you. Or maybe it seems unimportant, or maybe you just don't believe it. Then I recommend as strongly as I can that you read the gospel of John and get to know Jesus personally by His gift to you of faith. Then He will teach you personally about His wonderful attributes that secure His promises to us. Then you will be applying His promises with thanksgiving, including being thankful that your eternal future depends on The Solid Rock, and does not depend on luck!

Procrastination

All of us have dabbled in the realms of procrastination. We even add our own personality traits to it, and sometimes sell it to ourselves and others as normal, to be expected, and even part of our job description. For example, do you typically dive right in to your toughest task once you reach your office? Or is it easy to find lots of little tasks to chew up your time, so you just don't have time to get started on that tough task? Did you ever notice that the longer you put that task off, the bigger it gets and the harder it is to get started on it? It is true that a few tasks become overcome by events and disappear after you have procrastinated long enough. But most of them just seem to get bigger and harder with the passage of time. To cut across the grain, how often does the task you are trying to put off, become smaller and easier?

Procrastination is common enough that some of us have developed techniques to try to navigate around it. For example, do you ever reward yourself with a tasty goodie after you make some progress on that tough task? Or do you bargain with yourself, like not permitting yourself a lunch break until you have made some progress? By now we can almost admit that there is a high price to pay for avoiding tasks, and for procrastinating in hopes they will be overcome by events and just go away.

But we had better watch out because procrastination is even more costly in the spiritual domain. Although Jesus' life was steady, dependable, relaxed, kind, and gentle, we never catch Him procrastinating, or taking a vacation from His mission. Yet He was never overbearing, pushy, or insensitive to others, but He kept right on target, continuing to do things He saw His Father doing. However we can easily get in trouble by carrying over our procrastinating habits into spiritual areas. A prime example is procrastinating about investigating for ourselves whether Jesus' unique claims are true. By putting off your own investigation, you may accept the claim of someone else who doesn't know Jesus personally, that He is a fake or a liar, instead of discovering for yourself that He is the real thing - Heaven come down to earth!

Now you begin to see why spiritual procrastination can be so costly. Josh McDowell is an example of someone who did not procrastinate with respect to investigating the claims and life of Christ. He set out very deliberately to discredit and disprove Jesus' claim that He is the Son of God. But before long he found that all his evidence demanded a verdict of "guilty of being exactly what He claimed," Emanuel, God come in the flesh, to sacrifice Himself to pay for all our sins. If Jesus did not procrastinate to help us when we were without hope, why should we answer His sacrifice with the indifference and lack of respect shown by procrastination?

AA

AA might bring to mind American Airlines or Alcoholics Anonymous, but today we want it to stand for Ambiguity and Accountability, because those are the two words that came crashing out of an after hours discussion with two colleagues at work last week. This followed a meeting that is convening to improve some of our processes and ways of doing business. In an attempt to justify this effort our improvement expert explained that some of the problems we are trying to fix relate to the "comfort of being ambiguous." By that, she explained, I mean that a common human approach to avoiding personal accountability is to remain somewhat fuzzy and ambiguous in things like specification of detailed work tasks and expectations, and job descriptions. A popular saying in the 80s was "if you can't measure it, you can't manage it." A paraphrase of the similar point above is, if your responsibility is not well defined, they can't hold you to it. So we understand that some try to gain job security by avoiding accepting well-defined responsibility, so they cannot be held accountable.

On the other side of the coin we find those who not only seek to obtain a well defined job description for themselves, but they also want to see a crisp definition of the roles and responsibilities of ALL of their team members. How else do you know who can best help when you hit a snag in your "daily grind." You often find such folks asking others to hold them accountable, i.e. seeking to improve their own accountability.

There is nothing like running into a major problem and then finding out that one of your friends has faced that same problem and come through it AOK. When you have a clear road map which defines roles and responsibilities, you have a head start in finding those who can really help. The Bible is such a road map that is very clear about roles and responsibilities. It is also chock full of examples of both ambiguous people who avoided responsibility, and accountable folks who were very dependable and respected. Many people through the ages have found Jesus, the Bible's subject, to be the ultimate dependable and accountable person, which led them to know and trust Jesus as their savior, and as the motivator and Lord of their life.

People who do not know Jesus might try to claim that His words are ambiguous, because they themselves seek to remain ambiguous and thus avoid accountability. But those who know and follow Him find His words very direct and clear, the ultimate in instilling integrity and accountability, transforming loud boisterous boasters into humble, dependable servants, who in turn motivate others. If you really want to be a leader, avoid ambiguity and open yourself up to accountability. And if you are willing to lead by serving and example, you can do no better than to become a disciple of the Master servant of ALL, Who was perfectly accountable (in love) to the mission His Father planned for Him before He ever descended to planet earth. His accountability resulted in an enormous deposit of His righteousness to cover each of our bankrupt accounts of sin, as He willingly laid down His life for us ALL, Jesus the Son of God, savior of all who trust Him.

Time To Quit The Union

What does it take to get us to appreciated things we often take for granted? For example, are you more thankful for good health just after you recover from a serious illness? Or do you realize that some folks carry years of regret on their shoulders, that they didn't treat their mate better when they were alive. Often it takes loss, to teach the true value of what we take for granted! Similarly a willingness to focus on our abilities rather than our disabilities, helps many people find favor, achievement, and satisfaction. But the flip side of that can cause people to gripe a lot as their attention is drawn to what others have that they doe not have. It's as though we have a sense of "My Due" and "My Rights" which tends to rob us of what we do have.

Such was the backdrop of Satan's successful sales job on Adam and Eve. Although they had everything going for them, by focusing them on doubt, mistrust, and a desire to grab onto a "Brass Ring" they hadn't yet experienced, Satan successfully broke their trust relationship with God. In effect, he got Adam and Eve to form a new union and picket in the garden. Can you imagine some of their signs? "My Rights Now!" "Stop Holding Out On Me!" "More knowledge now!" "Die is a Lie!" "Equal Rights With God" "Down With Restrictions" "Onward & Upward With the New Age."

We not only inherited these attitudes from Adam and Eve, but we've seen many variations on their themes through the ages since. "Every Day, in Every Way, we're getting better & better," was pretty popular before World War II. Our current generation, raised without the Bible and prayer examples in public schools, is knnown as the "Me-Now" generation.

It's just as hard on ourselves as it was on our forefathers to let God pry loose our tight-fisted grasp onto "My

Rights" and what is Mine. But ironically, when we ungrasp our attempts to demand, control, and hold onto things that we think will make us secure, God is able to fill us with the love, forgiveness, and mercy provided by His Son Jesus, through His death and resurrection which blotted our sins off God's record book. When we are full f ourselves, and full of angry demands for "more," there isn't room for God. Only as we come to an end of demanding more and admit our desperate need of Him in a brand new trusting relationship, will He enter our lives and restore that kind of relationship which Adam and Eve gave up. The torments of Hell are intended for Satan and his angels who "demanded more" and "wanted equal rights with God." Although it didn't work for them, the've been selling those same wares ever since. You're not buying that destructive stuff, are you? If so, you'll get to join them, banned from God's presence, for eternity.

Where Is Your Buried Treasure?

Antiques, collectibles, a special set of books, keepsakes from past generations. Such treasures can bring warmth, enjoyment, pleasant memories, and sometimes they are worth a lot of money. But what would be first on your list if one day your house was on fire, and you were dashing through the flames to escape? We actually might not know until it happened, but today we're taking a little inventory to find out what really matters most.

Most folks would carry out their family members before they would grab onto one of the keepsakes we just mentioned. But in our daily life are we consistently showing that we value people above things? Or do we sometimes get so focused on obtaining an objective, like getting a promotion, or getting a task done, that as a means to those ends, we become blind to how badly we are treating people. If people and relationships are really most important to us, then taking time to listen to them, care about their hurts, treasure their ideas and input, and patiently waiting, listening, and growing to understand them, will be enjoyable for us, not an impediment or a distraction from our own agenda. Such differences in attitudes make it plain that some folks love things and use people, while others love people and use things. Or in "tar-baby" terms, "Do we have things, or do things have us?"

Another issue with things people treasure is understanding their true value. As shown above, sometimes things control us to the point that the less important blocks out the most important. And the flip side occurs when we are ignorant of the great value of something, perhaps being misled by its unattractive exterior appearance.

Jesus taught and showed us that while man pays a lot of attention to exterior appearance, God looks inside at the heart, soul, and character, and is not distracted by outward appearances. Man can count the seeds in an apple, but God can look ahead and count the apples produced from a single seed.

Jesus counts all who will trust Him as His treasured inheritance from the Father. Just how valuable are we, you ask? So treasured as to cause Jesus to leave the perfection of heaven, take on our human condition in all its vulnerabilities, tests, and weaknesses, and endure humiliation, mockery, and a tortuous death on a cross. His love feelings and His love actions for us on the cross demonstrates His 100% commitment to rescue us hostages from the captivity of Satan and hell. He held nothing back when He came to save all who will truly trust Him. Neither did those who sold all in order to purchase "the pearl of great price" and the "treasure hidden in a field" which He used to teach about the importance of heaven. Neither should we hold anything back when we invite Him to become our Lord and Savior. He wants us hot, or cold, but never sickeningly lukewarm! If we treasure Jesus as He treasures us, we will have all of eternity to experience the glorious dimensions of His love, forgiveness, mercy, grace, and creativity. Our friends, mates, and buddies may let us down sometimes, but "Jesus never fails!"

Choices For All

Everybody is Pro-Choice, aren’t they? Before I polarize folks, please read some more and check me out. For example, when you were in the military, how long did it take you to get an attitude adjustment toward all that your First Sergeant, Corporal, or Captain etc. told you to do? Never experienced the military? Well then I’m sure you got even better On The Job Training in attitude adjustment whenever you choices ran into conflict with those of your boss.

You see it’s easy to vote in favor of "my freedom," "my choice," and "my way." But the fact of life for all of us is that every once in awhile "my choice" collides with "your choice," but only one of those two choices can be fulfilled, since they conflict. Obviously sometimes our choices don’t conflict, other times some compromise is possible, but sometimes the actual situation requires YES to one and NO to the other. What we do then reveals a whole lot about our basic character.

So in this common arena of conflict of choices, which CHOICE wins? The choice of the STRONGEST, the choice of the oldest person, or of the most influential? Well, at times of such conflict of choices its possible to see folks migrate from "choice advocate" to just "Plain Old Selfish (P.O.S.)." Probably a lot of folks would feel comfortable with "Pro-Choice" on their Tombstone, but I wouldn’t expect many to choose P.O.S. But isn’t that the label well deserved by folks who demand their way in such a conflict with a weaker person? It’s certainly natural to be out for #1! Such self-centeredness is often tolerated, but when it conflicts with and steamrolls over someone who is unable to speak or present their own case, the vivid colors of P.O.S. emerge clearly.

One of the instances of such conflict and steamroller attitudes toward it, is of course, the polarizing consideration of human abortion. We wouldn’t dream of asking a newborn baby to vote on a substantive or critical issue. At least not until they had a couple of years under their belt and we knew they could communicate and understand our questions and their consequences. In other areas we seem to generally believe that "planning with margin" is a good thing, helping eliminate a rash decision, or a choice made merely because of the pressures of the moment. But when it comes to choices about abortion we are sometimes scared, pressured, concerned with how to satisfy the wishes of (some) others, and often just P.O.S. But if you merely take the same approach you are used to depending on to relieve stress and avoid costly "quick fix" decisions in other areas of life, please consider the following.

Choose magnanimously to let your baby be born and live, i.e. just give him or her the same opportunity your parents gave you (pass it on). Several birthdays later actually ask for THEIR input as to whether they think you made the right choice. That’s also a much more objective time for you to again ask yourself if you feel you made the right choice by deferring to the unspoken choice of your baby.

If you are unable or unwilling to parent your baby, please let someone find a home where your baby is considered and treated like a treasure gift from God (as it truly is). I am appealing to your generous nature and your ability to reflect the generous spirit with which God treated you when He chose to give us His very best gift, the life of His only Son Jesus, to pay for all of our sins. How much better to reflect His generous Spirit, rather than be influenced by friends or family who might encourage you to make a quick fix P.O.S. decision which you may regret later when you have the rest of your life to reflect. Good choices make for good sleep and happy memories. President and Mrs. Bill Clinton did NOT listen nor stand when Mother Teresa offered to take care of all of our unwanted children, as a positive alternative to abortions in our nation. But the REST of those in attendance stood and applauded her enthusiastically. May you too later experience great corroborating applause and affirmation that you made the right choice. Thanks for listening!

Grasshopper Chicken Rugby Football

Grasshopper Chicken Rugby Football! What in the world is that, you ask? Well, I have been observing it for more than a month since I got my chickens, and I still don't know all the rules. Maybe that's because it's a lot like Outback Steakhouse; you know the ad, "No rules, just right."

Well here's the way it works. You catch grasshoppers and toss them alive or dead into a pen of chickens. The one closest catches it on the fly or at most on one bounce, and then darts around the pen to protect his prize catch, followed closely by all the other envious chickens. There are no face mask rules. Actually you get extra points for "in your face" attacks, and may even be successful at causing a fumble of the coveted prize grasshopper. Aggression, size, and bold guts win. Once you can achieve a little space you stop and drop the grasshopper for a few quick pecks to cut that tasty morsel down to swallowing size, but this is risky to turn your back on chickens. Grasshopper Chicken Rugby Football is no place for the meek, gentle, well-mannered chicken. But I observe it is a great exercise program for ALL participants.

But let me ask you, how is the pecking order around your office, organization, or house? We may be a little more refined or subtle in the way we play Grasshopper Chicken Rugby Football, but there may be something for all of us to learn as we observe unbridled nature at work. For example, whom have your bosses been willing to put down or grab from to advance their own interests? Have you ever witnessed others working behind the scenes to maneuver others to "their side?" Has your spouse ever complained, "Come on, get off my case?"

I observe that perhaps the more important the organization's mission is, the more intensely some of the participants play the game of Grasshopper Chicken Rugby Football. In contrast, if your organization is more of a social club, the game might be played with less passion, but even there you are not exempt. I am certainly not exempt. My wife accuses me of often treating her with inadequate respect. And my son seems to have been an understudy of Rodney Daingerfield, since his frustration with me often spouts out, "I get no respect, from you. You should never have written a book on respect. You don't know the first thing about it."

Labels and accusations are much easier to sprinkle around, than to even consider any corrective or pro-active action on our own, right? It's a lot easier to point an accusing finger at someone else to blame, while ignoring the three fingers that point back to me. But surely the most aggressive chicken that finally swallows the grasshopper wins, doesn't she (my chickens are hens)? My assessment is that anytime we belittle another person we lose and they lose. Yes we all have faults and targets of opportunity, but when is that last time someone caught you doing something good and let you feel their appreciation? Food, sex, and pecking order are expected in the chicken pen as major drivers. But what helps you rise above the level of "chicken?" Stated another way, "You're not 'chicken' are you?"

God's perspective on this subject is so refreshing! He asks us all the embarrassing question, "How can you claim you love God whom you have not seen, when you don't show love to those neighbors around you whom you do see?" Actually it helps me a lot to realize I have the opportunity to show love and service to Jesus, just as if He were my neighbor, precisely by the way I treat my family, friends, and neighbors. With this attitude I have discovered some very neat neighbors hidden behind my prejudices, criticisms, judgments and prior failure to even notice them. I have found that the same God who said to love Him with all our heart, soul, and strength, also is the originator of respect for all His creation, which motivates His love for us. All we have to do is respond to His respect and love initiative. Sounds easy doesn't it? But allowing Him to work it out through our choices, words, and actions will keep us busy until we meet Him face to face. That's why I wrote "Real Relationships Require Respect" about 15 years ago, so I could refer back to it and take corrective action to improve in respect for God, self, and others in accordance with what I know. Copies available by email.

Time Before Timelessness

It’s said that "time flies when you are having fun." Or as the southern hemisphere version goes around central Australia, "time’s fun when you’re havin’ flies." Isn’t it strange how we don’t seem to have enough time when we are engrossed in an enjoyable activity? But tasks or obligations that are laborious, tedious, or considered drudgery, seem to stop the clock, or at least put it into slow motion. Years ago a technical spoof article got a "best article in magazine" seal of approval. Craftily tucked inside the article was a description disclosing the secret of speedy computing. The secret was to perform the software execution on an imaginary ordinate axis so that no real time was used during program execution. A nice abstract thought, but no one can build such a computer, even with all the technological advances of today.

These thoughts do give rise to the question, "is there a way to leverage time?" In other words "how could one get more output or results per unit time?" That, of course, has some dependency on what kind of result is attempted. Planning, preparing, sequencing, restructuring ingredients and work tasks, all such kinds of approaches have been studied to increase productivity. But when your life is over, will total widgets, or widgets per hour really be very meaningful to you? Or could some widgets or activities be more important that others as you look back? It is often said that no one will wish they had spent more time at the office. But it is rarely considered WHERE else one WOULD wish they had spent more time.

To help further that thought, let me ask where are you planning on "spending time" in eternity? Of course we won’t be "spending time" in eternity because that is the closest we will experience to that "imaginary time axis." That is to say we can experience activities and fulfillment without ever experiencing any grains of sand dropping down to the lower part of the "eternity hourglass." But let’s go back to the present, where we do experience lots of grains of sand dropping down to the lower part of the "hourglass" every single day. We quickly get the picture that some activities are indeed more important than others as we watch our expenditure of non-recoverable sand running through our hourglass. Each person is free to "take time" to ponder and choose activities which are most important to them. But it’s wise to listen up to what the one who lives outside of time tells us on this subject.

King Solomon was wise enough to ask for wisdom and knowledge to lead God’s people, instead of riches and fame. God granted his request, with riches and fame thrown in to affirm his wise request. He wrote in Proverbs 11:29-30 "He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind: and the fool shall be servant to the wise of heart. The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise." This fits in with Jesus’ mission to teach his fisherman disciples how to fish – for men. Tom Landry said his main job as Cowboys coach was to teach men (whet their appetite) to do what they did not want to do, so they could achieve what they did want to achieve. Similarly man tends to have an oppositional attitude toward God, like feeling God is out to get him, or that He will eventually pull out His bottle of castor oil, or that He wants to force us into something we just don’t want to do and wouldn’t like. That is because the fallen angel Satan has done such a mind job on us so that instead of enjoying God’s gift of manna from the sky, we fall for propaganda like someone who believes the Taliban claims that food from the sky must be bad or poisoned. In fact, God never forces Himself or His ways on us, but once we actually try them we find them sweeter than honey.

To help or encourage someone to overcome their destructive prejudices, fostered by Satan against God, and to help them "taste and see that the Lord is good" for themselves, is a wonderfully wise way to leverage our time against the backdrop of our pending eternity. We can help make an eternal difference by whetting their appetites to experience forgiveness through Christ, instead of seeing them choose separation from God, experiencing shame, self-contempt, and slavery to Satan in eternity, where it will seem like the clock is standing still, forever.

How Hip Are You?

A couple of years ago I visited my orthopedist. I can't even remember what he treated me for, but he always does a good job. I must have mentioned a couple of difficulties because he soon took and explained two X-rays to me. "The good news is we can operate on your shoulder and help you" he said, "and we can even help your hip joint, but the hip replacement surgery will take longer to heal." He said the picture showed "bone on bone" so he suggested I think it over. I could tell he thought two surgeries were the right answer. But my assessment is that to a hammer everything tends to look like a nail. So I procrastinated until recently I began to have difficulty crawling out of the car, and now when I stand up I have to kind of shift gears to get my right hip socket aligned for confident walking. So I started thinking about hip replacement surgery again.

I found a couple of very informative web sites on the subject, including lots of questions and answers. That study plus prayer has given me a whole new appreciation for yet another body part, the hip and socket. My Subaru is going to pass 200,000 miles this month and we plan to drive it until it succumbs to our country road and no longer works. That's about what I am concluding about my hip. Putting up with a little slower gear shifting and slowed performance, along with a small amount of discomfort, seems better than a gamble on poorer performance, possible pain, and an average of ten years until the new part wears out. As my wife reminded me, the ten year estimate is for the average guy who has slowed down a lot and now puts less stress and demand on his parts than he used to. When I retired in January I started driving less car miles, but have put a LOT more miles than before on this old body.

Just a couple of weeks ago my son and I visited a friend who used to work for my son. His legs were terribly swollen (about double) with poor circulation and the toll of diabetes. My son was sure he would have to have a double amputation so once again I prepared him a notebook of services, options, information, and help from the Internet. I also told him what Jesus has done for all of us, and encouraged him to invite Jesus to be his own personal savior from sin. I asked him to read about it in a Gospel of John that I also gave him. He read the amputation information and the Gospel of John and asked Jesus to come into his life as his savior. He has now graduated from the hospital with both legs and has new physical and spiritual life. Fear and despair are gone. Happiness and thankfulness have replaced them.

Have you gotten serious about your own spiritual surgery? God has just the right new replacement heart for you, one that is able to forget about the wrongs others do to you, filled with the same kind of forgiveness that fueled Jesus' love for those that the rest of the world wouldn't even spit on. His words on the cross, "Father forgive them for they know not what they are doing" can be yours too, once you taste the riches and sweetness of His love when you invite Him to forgive all your past, present, and future sins. Some physical surgeries like mine can be deferred; others like my friend's can be canceled due to healing. But to put off your spiritual surgery that Jesus already paid for is one of the few things fully deserving of the label "fool." It's a matter of spiritual life and death. Don't go through eternity hating yourself as a fool for ignoring, rejecting, or putting off Jesus. Today He is knocking at your heart's door and He KNOWS you are home, but only you can answer!

Hi Fi

As a freshman at Rice in 1954 I lived next to someone I looked up to. Sophomore Ernest Severin was big and tall which matched the robust dorm-shaking sound of "Rock Around the Clock" that came out of his 100-watt amplifier. Being overdriven, it was not exactly Hi Fi, although the frequency response was not bad. A more classical introduction to Hi Fi came later when I attended the University of Texas at Austin and spent time in the 20 x 20 music room of Campus Guild Co-op, known affectionately as "the Kremlin," in honor of the president of the student Communist Party who had been booted out of the co-op the year before. You can see from this introduction that today we are thinking about High Fidelity. That leads me to ask if you know how the FBI is taught to recognize a counterfeit bill? Not by studying counterfeit bills, but by studying the REAL THING so that the brain quickly detects any deviation from the genuine article.

Hi-Fi can certainly qualify as a major hobby for some. But is there really any substitute for the real thing? Coca Cola doesn't think so even though Walmart and others hope there is not enough difference in their cola to warrant paying more. Many sports fans and orchestra season ticket holders obviously find no satisfying substitute for the real thing.

But let me switch for a moment to the subject of our reputation, and then return to make a connection. Some families hold their name and reputation so dear that they will try to cover-up wrongdoing by their kids to protect the family name. To them, their reputation is more important than teaching their children responsibility and right from wrong. President Nixon got into a similar box by feeling only he could steer our country through international minefields, and to him that justified the Watergate cover-up, an off-shoot of "the end justifies the means." As much as we would like to keep our kids out of trouble and also protect our family name, those who don't cave in to "the end justifies the means" type rationalizing actually wind up with a better reputation in the long run, even if their reputation is tarnished in the short run.

When Jesus left heaven he humbled Himself and "became of no reputation." Having not witnessed His glory with God the Father, we can't fully appreciate how He put His reputation on the line by taking on all the limitations and vulnerabilities of humanity. But He risked His reputation, the reputation of God in an even more dramatic way, when He allowed those who become His disciples by faith in Him to take His name (Christians) and represent Him to the rest of the world. Just imagine being known by others by a very imperfect representation of what you are really like. We might call a Christian representation of Christ, Low Fidelity. Yet Jesus entrusts to us the mission of making Him know by our behavior, choices, words, and commitments. He trusts us to love each other with such commitment, action, and fervor, that onlookers will be attracted to the same kind of love that exists between God the Father and God the Son.

Our challenge then is to study the real thing, Jesus, through the record of His Word, and allow Him to change us into His likeness to such a degree that others can catch a glimpse of "God with skin on." Just think for a moment how embarrassing it can be for you to be known by the commitments, actions, choices, and behaviors of your children. Sometimes you may wish you could distance yourself from them, disown them, or at least explain how different you are from them. Many kids have the further disadvantage of having an irresponsible father who distorts their picture of God the Father's true nature and characteristics.

Part of the answer is for unbelievers also to study the real thing, and to realize how vulnerable God is to allow "Low Fidelity" believers to mar His reputation, and give a distorted picture of what He is really like. Another vulnerability is for God to allow liars, skeptics, and those who have never known Jesus to pretend to be authorities and experts in God's word, while never having experienced its truth, power, and ability to transform those who trust it, yet turning others away from exploring His unique qualities for themselves. The worst problem is when such folks keep others from experiencing what they also have never experienced, eternal life as a gift from the eternal Son of God. Jesus is the Hi Fi image of God the Father. Look at Him in prophecy and performance, and you will never find a friend so faithful, satisfying, inspiring, and so worthy of all your devotion and emulation. Jesus will never fail you because He is the real thing. Don't just read ABOUT Him. Invite Him into your life and get to know Him personally.

Adapting to Challenges

My oldest son John is growing red oaks and live oaks from one-gallon size to sell in 5 years. But additionally he is experimenting with growing his own stock from acorns. The experiment focus has inadvertently switched from tree growing to wildlife devastation avoidance. He began with Styrofoam seed pot blocks (60 seeds per block) on top of our hay wagon next to our pond, thinking this was a safe "altitude." But he has progressively seen his acorns delicately nibbled open, and in other instances pulverized. Further research has determined that the culprits include mice, rats, squirrels, and raccoons. Possums have visited but are probably not guilty. Part of the evidence includes raccoon and possum night visitors he trapped in a live trap. Each of these visitors got a free trip to Lake Fannin, where they were delighted to make their escape.

The first acorn victims were the live oaks, but later they attacked the red oaks. We draw the analogy to our local lunch specials where we prefer pork chops, but when not available, we settle for chicken fried steak. These varmints prefer pork chops (live oaks) but will not turn down chicken fried steak (red oaks). The best climbers are the raccoons. Unfortunately they also pulverize the acorns. The squirrels take the daytime shift. Their specialty is uprooting the acorns. The mice, rats, and raccoons cover the night hours. Various experiments with adding height and restricting vertical climbing access have all ended in failure. The raccoons are not to be denied. So John has concluded that an enclosed greenhouse is the only way to go. Today he ended all experiments, admitting that his wild life foes are too powerful, and he moved all seed pot blocks to our neighbor's greenhouse.

So what are some of your areas of defeat, where you finally admitted you had come up against a foe you could not overcome? It's not fun to admit defeat, is it? But sometimes it is both wise and productive. Continued losses are not only demoralizing and discouraging, but in the end they are devastating. We could try to apply the Churchill formula of "Never, Never, Never Give Up!!!" But it is likely all acorns would be destroyed long before we had made a dent in our culprit wildlife population. Prior attempts to grow acorns merely fed wildlife, including wild hogs that rooted them up from the ground.

What is worse however, is when we can't really determine who our enemy is. And worse still is the situation of failing to even recognize our defeat and our enemy's propensity and potential for destruction. Most of us are glued recently to TV reports of suicide bombers in Israel. We wonder how peace could possibly come to this region of continual conflict. This is a set-up for the future when regional peace is declared and the world community will be so relieved that they will gladly yield allegiance and appreciation to this world peacemaker. But this will usher in a combination of political and religious control by those who will eventually show their true colors, that they are against God and plan to control mankind, without tolerance for any independence.

But even before that unfolds (possibly in the very near future) there is a more subtle controller of our total world system. He likes to remain incognito, but you can see his disruption, especially when God's people behave like it, and begin to help make Him known to others. No one likes to think they have been duped, but please listen to the reality of what has been going on in our world since Satan first deceived and duped our ancestors, Adam and Eve. II Timothy 2:24-26 - . . ²⁴The Lord's servants must not quarrel but must be kind to everyone. They must be able to teach effectively and be patient with difficult people. ²⁵They should gently teach those who oppose the truth. Perhaps God will change those people's hearts, and they will believe the truth. ²⁶Then they will come to their senses and escape from the Devil's trap. For they have been held captive by him to do whatever he wants.

Hopefully you could chuckle at my son's experiments and adaptation (admitting his foes were more powerful than he was). Similarly, only when we can admit Satan's superior power over us, can we experience God's greenhouse effect: "Greater is He that is in you (God), than he that is in the world (Satan)."

Crises Can Create Compassionate Crossroads

My mother spent the last years of her life in several supported living environments, each with additional support and restrictions. This downhill slide away from her prior successful independent living was triggered by a series of small strokes, or TIAs. Her last facility was a Nursing Home. It was there that a nurse confided in me one day with a smile about a characteristic of Mom, "she sure knows how to tell the cow how to eat the cabbage." I'm sure that saying has been around a very long time. But it should still bring a smile to our faces as we realize that any cow can manage and enjoy cabbage eating without any help or advice. Nevertheless some of us feel we owe it to the cow to train, teach, motivate, and instruct it on "the fine art of cabbage eating."

Another perspective on the same issue is the plain fact that our speaking skills far exceed our listening skills. It is a rare person indeed who has in depth experience at "seeking first to understand before seeking to be understood." I was in a board meeting today where tempers and temperatures heated up so quickly and intensely that the building fire alarm was triggered several times. It is much easier for all to focus on the faults of others, choose up sides, and cast stones down at each other, rather than to see the strengths in our adversaries, listen patiently without rebuttal to their viewpoint, and find common ground to work together. A final description of such maladies of the human race is that our personal mirror usually reflects the blemishes of others in amplified detail, while totally obscuring our own glaring faults.

Such were the characteristics of the prejudiced group of men who had been able to catch a weak woman in the act of adultery and overlook her needs as they used her in yet another attempt to back Jesus into a "No-win trap." Would He join their suggested heartless discipline of deserved death by stoning, or would He succumb to the spineless, permissive path of pretending nothing was wrong? First He dealt bravely and decisively, by polishing each man's mirror so that each could see his own sins more clearly than the woman's sin. Jesus risked her life and His reputation as He said that anyone there without sin should be the first to crash his poised stone into her skull. His "mirror magic" was so effective that every man there was able to see that his own sins far exceeded hers. In the light of Jesus' calm, quiet, compassionate demeanor they were able to glimpse the holiness of God with His non-tolerance of sin alongside His mercy. Such a view so altered their lives that they were able to turn away from this holy compassionate God-man to deal with first thing first, their own sin.

The meeting I mentioned earlier had goals to serve people in need. But we had become so self-centered and focused on what and how we wanted things done, that it took a brave and chastening speech from one whom we serve to shake us to our roots. She focused us on our own faults so graphically that it caused us to repent and be revived to live up to the needs and expectations of those we are supposed to serve. The rest of the meeting was like a breath of fresh, fragrant Spring air.

Similarly God offers us all a clear view of our sins, against the back drop of His holiness, as His Spirit causes the truths of His word to come alive to us. Honest folks will return to the mirror of His word for even more light, while those set in their ways and their own agendas, like a thief, will retreat from the light into further darkness. But anyone honest enough to admit their sinfulness and ask for a personal pardon based on Jesus' sacrificial sin payment on the cross, will find the same compassionate mercy that woman found as He told her, "has no man accused you? Then go and sin no more!"

Footnote: Read "the rest of the story" in the 8^th chapter of the Gospel of John.

What's The Difference?

In most areas today, we have learned to become comparison shoppers. Our Walmart even says "bring us our competitor's price and we'll match it," in their "falling prices" campaign. Others wisely urge us to take function and quality into account, as well as price. Some call it "Bang for the Buck!" So, in economics we have learned pretty well to detect differences in price, quality, and function. In other areas our personal tastes often tend to blur economic, functional, and quality differences. We just know what we like and that is what we shoot for. But even in such areas as house or car style we still distinguish what we like from what we don't care for. For example, some Chevy truck guys wouldn't be found dead with a FORD (Found On the Road Dead).

But what about bigger picture, longer-term issues and the conclusions we reach? We've discussed before how passionate we can become in our "due diligence" to study an issue, find a bargain stock or value, or determine the most healthy life style to follow. But when it comes to eternity, it can seem like dividing by zero to even consider what will we be doing then? Maybe that's because it's easy to extrapolate the fact that we have no consciousness prior to conception or birth, INTO a gut feeling that there is also no information we can bring to bear on "life after death." After all, Houdini's widow never heard from her man after he departed this life, did she? And in 1961 Yuri Gargarin said he didn't "see God" as he orbited our planet, so far away from even the earth's orbiting moon. No matter that God is Spirit, and "no man has seen God at any time," or that we aren't yet equipped for that view any more than we are able to view an unfiltered atomic or nuclear matter-to-energy transformation. Such may have been some of the simplistic "reasoning" (or avoidance of it) which caused my cousin's husband, Stanley Marcus, to proclaim himself an atheist. He said he wished to give something back in return for his productive 96-year life here. But he so undervalued his real worth that he completely discounted his own eternal existence and its potential. Art, symphony, and library, as well as Nieman Marcus patrons will fondly remember Stanley Marcus. But I pray they won't buy his cheap, shallow façade that can lead one to sell (or give away by inactive default) their spiritual worth and birthright for a brief, temporal, unsatisfying bowl of materialistic pottage.

For example, just look at the difference between Stanley's view that his spiritual worth was zero, in keeping with his materialistic instructions to "just flush my ashes down the toilet," compared to the heritage of my son-in-law's grandfather, Armin Gesswein. Who, you ask? If you dig behind Billy Graham's success and behind last century's spiritual revival you will find him there as a catalyst for revival prayer. He died last year at age 93. Armin challenged Christians to more deeply experience their worth to God, as empowerment to extend that experience to those who remain skeptical about God's care, concern and provisions for mankind. God permits people world-wide to experience severe difficulties to stimulate our search for meaning, and for the God behind ALL meaning. Armin continually urged Christians to represent God with increasing fidelity so the world could see God's love, forgiveness, grace, and mercy with "skin on." Jesus continues to be our main example of doing just that, some 2,000 years after he returned to His glory seat which He left unreservedly to purchase eternal life for all who similarly would merely trust Him unreservedly.

If you want to know the difference between the legacies of Stanley Marcus and Armin Gesswein, merely study some of their legacy statements and of similar atheists versus believers (who become available for God to transform them in this life, as a down payment taste of the glory they will experience with Him throughout eternity). Despair, futility, and "nothingness," compared to exciting new eternal life, purchased with the world's most expensive commodity, the sacrificial blood of Jesus Christ. Imagine bright hope for tomorrow, anticipating resurrection unto the glorious freedom in Christ, transformed to be like Him without our baggage of sin, self-centeredness, and Satan's temptations, lies, and accusations. I know you can catch a glimpse of the night and day, life and death, differences in the legacies of Stanley and Armin. Please spend enough time with one of us believers so we can help you discover your own worth to God and to us, both now and forever, before it is too late, forever.

A New Perspective

I had several new experiences my last week at Raytheon. It was my final week of work before retirement, and a very busy one. I had been so busy several months before, that we had Capability Maturity Model Integrated (CMMI) luncheon meetings from 11 - 1 each day, with catered pizza, sandwiches, or salad almost every day. The last week I flew to Raytheon at Indianapolis, Indiana to present 4 different classes on a standard Requirements Management tool called DOORS, Dynamic Object Oriented Requirements System. I enjoyed the classes, but I had a real surprise my second day there.

I was right on schedule, up and in the shower, and would have arrived to teach early, BUT. As I was going to turn off the shower I happened to glance down and was shocked to see the entire floor of the shower was covered with blood, MINE. The next thing I noticed, even without my glasses, was a VERY thin stream of blood shooting out several inches at a right angle from just behind my left ankle. I covered it with my wash cloth, but when I removed it the stream continued. I applied more pressure with the cloth, but was unable to get it to stop even after I managed to get out of the shower onto the commode. I dried enough to get to the bed, prop up my ankle on a pillow with a towel under it, and call the motel operator for some Band-Aids. Over 20 minutes later, they came with the Band-Aids and I was patched up and ready to go. My host was just ready to dismiss the class when I showed up. So from that point my day settled down with no more surprises or scares.

When is that last time you experienced something out of your control that surprised, shocked, and scared you? As I pondered this experience I found that I don’t do well when I feel so helpless, with my life's blood spurting out, and no way to stop or control it. At that time my thoughts were totally on me and my problem, without much thought for the students I was to teach. I can imagine that many men in battle have been mortally wounded and have seen their own life's blood drain from their body with no way to control it.

But this gave me some new insight and appreciation for One who willingly and knowingly faced such a situation, and let His life's blood drain from His body until He was dead, because He loved us so much and knew that was the only way to save us from eternal separation from God. Jesus not only chose to become so vulnerable and experience the draining of His life's blood for you and me, but He also experienced His Father turning a deaf ear and forsaking Him as He cried out to Him. Greater love has no man than that he lay down his life for another. A few rare war heroes, firemen, and police have done that for others. But Jesus also became sin for us as He took the unimaginable burden of our sin upon Himself on that cruel cross. The Psalmist provides the answer to Jesus' Why and to our Why? "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me, and from the words of My groaning? But You are holy!" There was No alternative answer for our sin problem that separates us from God, except for God the Father to sacrifice His only Son to pay in full for all our sin, past, present, and future. "While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us!"

You may yet await such a vulnerable, helpless experience like I had in the shower filling up with blood. But my prayer is that when you do, it will also help open your eyes to the great love and sacrifice, beyond our comprehension, that God the Father and God the Son demonstrated for all the world to see on that cross of shame, judgment, and condemnation where Jesus hung and died in our place! The song writer experessed it well, "I hear the words of love, I gaze upon the blood. I see the mighty sacrifice, and I have peace with God."

I Won the Lottery, and didn't even buy a ticket

I won the lottery! I won the lottery! Just imagine having the winning ticket and not even realizing it. Riches all mine, with enough left over for whoever wants some. How would you like to have that experience? Bring it on, you say?

Well this is not a drop in the bucket compared to the riches I discovered in 1955 at Bastrop State Park, TX. How unlikely that a freshman at Rice Institute in Houston would cut Saturday R.O.T.C. drill practice, receive the associated demerit penalty, and travel to a new place, with an unknown driver, to meet with an entire group of strangers. But that is exactly what I did. Why, you ask? Because I had found a couple of Rice students so very different in the way they cared about others and helped them that they really stood out from the crowd. And because of them, I was compelled to take some risks and go to Bastrop to a weekend conference to try to find out what made such Christians tick.

And how unlikely that the main speaker would have grown up in the same church denomination where I was confirmed, and had similar experiences and feelings. He told how he looked around in church one day and the question popped into his mind. "If all I have been taught about Jesus Christ is true, why aren't these people all around me different due to His impact on them? But finally the real question surfaced and he said, "why am I not different? As he told about then inviting Jesus into his life as his own savior, it became crystal clear to me that I had not done that either. I had known ABOUT Jesus, but I had not personally experienced him as my own Lord and savior. And why was that? I found out later that He is such a gentleman that He never forces His way where He is uninvited.

The building where I worked had a strange conference room just off a hall intersection. It had no doorknob on the hall side. You had to either go around inside the work area to get in, or have someone open the door for you to enter from the hall. See if that doesn't sound like the door Jesus talked about in Revelation 3:20. He said, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door (of their heart to me), I will come in to them and will fellowship with them, and they with me." That is what I knew I needed to do, so I rushed out into the woods, knelt down and asked Jesus to come into my life as my very own savior. I didn't know what would happen, but now some 46 years later I can tell you that my obedience to His prompting brought me riches, joy, satisfaction, and the capacity to begin tasting eternal life which He purchased for me on the cross, and began unfolding for me that very day. When I returned to Rice, they asked if I would like to share what happened to me at a girl's Bible study meeting at the Fondren Library. So I did, and was told that just like me, a girl there came to the same realization, that she had heard ABOUT Jesus, but needed to personally invite Him into her own life as her own savior.

Since then I have mostly planted seeds, like THINKABLES, to help people consider how beautiful Jesus is, ponder His great love and sacrifice for us, and encourage them to submit their life to Him so they can experience the peace, joy, and satisfaction of living under the control of their designer, creator, and redeemer. "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, sweetest name I know; fills my every longing, keeps me singing as I go!" Come join His song. You'll never be sorry you did. Now that's the best lottery of all, and Jesus paid it all!

What's Next? (Thoughts on my retirement after 40 years work)

I actually saw more of the world while working over 20 years for E-Systems/Raytheon, than I did during my U.S. Army Artillery tour of duty. For example my military sight seeing was limited to the white sand "beaches" as I guarded the artesian wells around McGreggor Range, home of the annual service practice firing in those days of the Nike family of missiles, and Raytheon's HAWK. I taught the fire control systems (radars) for these systems, and moved from there to modeling and calibrating similar tracking systems to correct and improve their accuracy. But my E-Systems/Raytheon sight seeing included: New Zealand, Central Australia, Hong Kong, Williamsburg and Fairfax, VA, Brazil, the redwoods around Sunnyvale, CA, and the Riverwalk at San Antonio. My last paper is for Tucson, AZ, site of my first job overseeing radars that tracked drones for Pan American World Airways Guided Missile Range Division.

Many projects here were challenging and fun. To start, they gave me a small group to develop an emulator for the Motorola 6809 microprocessor. It emulated all the 6809 instruction set and was a test tool par excellance. Later our Software director said he wanted a test tool to run the test and print out a test report showing all errors, resulting in my Automatic Software Test & Evaluation Program. Another memorable time was working one year on the Constellation Consortium Sat-Phone in Fairfax, VA with several satellite vendors, preparing successful filings to the FCC. Next was Commercial Remote Sensing System that resulted in a successful launch of the Ikonos polar LEO satellite which provides 1 meter resolution commercial imagery. I have concluded my Raytheon tasks in the areas of developing, teaching and mentoring Requirements Management through the use of DOORS (Dynamic Object Oriented Requirements System), and the areas of process development and institutionalization, with the efforts to advance Garland in its level of Capability Maturity Model Integrated (CMMI). The best part of the DOORS class is reviewing Revelation 3:20 where Jesus says, "behold I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and fellowship with them, and they with me." Ham that I am, I have enjoyed giving 7 technical papers during the past 20 years. And I had fun and challenges during the first 20 years of my career too, but that's another THINKABLE.

Embedded within these activities were interactions with people that brought even more enjoyment, respect, and growth through new ideas. Even before I arrived, they had noon weekly Bible studies, with a lot of graduates who retired or went on to other assignments. It's very encouraging to see spiritual growth occur over the years. I have found a lot of Christians at our workplace with a wide variety of views, sensitivity, and eagerness to share Christ. Over 5 years ago I realized that the relationship I experience through faith in Jesus might NOT be experienced by others unless I could share my experience more openly and regularly. That was the motivation behind writing and emailing Weekly Workplace THINKABLES around the world.

To keep in touch and to receive a one page Weekly Workplace THINKABLE from me each week, please send an e-mail to me at

If you are interested in a farm tour or going out to eat catfish, also request a map to our farm.

Thanks for the memories!

Story Time (The next one explains this one)

Want to hear a true funny story about ego adjustment? Well back when Mohammed Ali was at the prime of his boxing career, he was about to take off on a plane flight. After the briefing with a reminder to fasten seat belts, the stewardess did a last minute check. Sure enough, Ali had not fastened his seat belt so she politely asked him to do so. He proudly snapped back, "Superman don't need no seat belt." But you'll remember her reply a long time. "Superman don't need no airplane! Now please, fasten your seat belt."

Ready for another true story entitled, The Power of a Letter, about John Wayne that you may remember for eternity? Most of you know John Wayne as an actor. You may not know what happened to him before he died. This is that story! Robert Schuller's teenage daughter, Cindy, was in a motorcycle accident and had to have her leg amputated. John Wayne was a big fan of Robert Schuller. He heard Dr. Schuller say on one of his TV programs that his daughter had been in an accident and had to have her leg amputated. John Wayne wrote a note to her saying: Dear Cindy, Sorry to hear about your accident. Hope you will be all right. Signed, John Wayne

The note was delivered to her and she decided she wanted to write John Wayne a note in reply. She wrote: Dear Mr. Wayne, I got your note. Thanks for writing to me. I like you very much. I am going to be all right because Jesus is going to help me. Mr. Wayne, do you know Jesus? I sure hope you know Jesus, Mr. Wayne, because I cannot imagine Heaven being complete without John Wayne being there. I hope, if you don't know Jesus, that you will give your heart to Jesus right now. See you in Heaven. And she signed her name. She had just put that letter in an envelope, sealed it, and written across the front of it "John Wayne" when a visitor came into her room to see her. He said to her: What are you doing? She said: I just wrote a letter to John Wayne, but I don't know how to get it to him. He said: That's funny, I am going to have dinner with John Wayne tonight at the Newport Club down at Newport Beach. Give it to me and I will give it to him. She gave him the letter and he put it in his coat pocket.

There were twelve of them that night sitting around the table for dinner. They were laughing and cutting up and the guy happened to reach in his pocket and felt that letter and remembered. John Wayne was seated at the end of the table and the guy took the letter out and said: Hey, Duke, I was in Schuller's daughter's room today and she wrote you a letter and wanted me to give it to you. Here it is. They passed it down to John Wayne and he opened it. They kept on laughing and cutting up and someone happened to look down at John Wayne. He was crying. One of them said: Hey, Duke, what is the matter? He said (and can't you hear him saying it), " I want to read you this letter." He read the letter. Then he began to weep. He folded it, put it in his pocket, and he pointed to the man who delivered it to him and said: "You go tell that little girl that right now, in this restaurant, right here, John Wayne gives his heart to Jesus Christ and I will see her in heaven." Three weeks later John Wayne died.

You and I are either like Mohammed Ali, or John Wayne; Which one?

Wake-up Call For My Integrity

In the past I have included a line requesting a wake-up call if I act out of line with the high calling to be transformed to become more like Jesus. This note is about such a wake-up call. A few weeks ago my THINKABLE, titled Story Time, included the following account. If you read to the end you will find my apology and commitment to do a thorough investigation yielding positive results, prior to sending something on to you.

Ready for another true story entitled, The Power of a Letter, about John Wayne that you may remember for eternity? Most of you know John Wayne as an actor. You may not know what happened to him before he died. This is that story! Robert Schuller's teenage daughter, Cindy, was in a motorcycle accident and had to have her leg amputated. John Wayne was a big fan of Robert Schuller. He heard Dr. Schuller say on one of his TV programs that his daughter had been in an accident and had to have her leg amputated. John Wayne wrote a note to her saying: Dear Cindy, Sorry to hear about your accident. Hope you will be all right. Signed, John Wayne

The note was delivered to her and she decided she wanted to write John Wayne a note in reply. She wrote: Dear Mr. Wayne, I got your note. Thanks for writing to me. I like you very much. I am going to be all right because Jesus is going to help me. Mr. Wayne, do you know Jesus? I sure hope you know Jesus, Mr. Wayne, because I cannot imagine Heaven being complete without John Wayne being there. I hope, if you don't know Jesus, that you will give your heart to Jesus right now. See you in Heaven. And she signed her name. She had just put that letter in an envelope, sealed it, and written across the front of it "John Wayne" when a visitor came into her room to see her. He said to her: What are you doing? She said: I just wrote a letter to John Wayne, but I don't know how to get it to him. He said: That's funny, I am going to have dinner with John Wayne tonight at the Newport Club down at Newport Beach. Give it to me and I will give it to him. She gave him the letter and he put it in his coat pocket.

There were twelve of them that night sitting around the table for dinner. They were laughing and cutting up and the guy happened to reach in his pocket and felt that letter and remembered. John Wayne was seated at the end of the table and the guy took the letter out and said: Hey, Duke, I was in Schuller's daughter's room today and she wrote you a letter and wanted me to give it to you. Here it is. They passed it down to John Wayne and he opened it. They kept on laughing and cutting up and someone happened to look down at John Wayne. He was crying. One of them said: Hey, Duke, what is the matter? He said (and can't you hear him saying it), " I want to read you this letter." He read the letter. Then he began to weep. He folded it, put it in his pocket, and he pointed to the man who delivered it to him and said: "You go tell that little girl that right now, in this restaurant, right here, John Wayne gives his heart to Jesus Christ and I will see her in heaven." Three weeks later John Wayne died.

This is the response Dr. Schuller referred me to when I e-mailed him to try to verify the account above.

I did search the Internet prior to including that account and found no disclaimers at the time. But in my era of "not being as sharp as I used to be" I forgot what I already knew, that it was CAROL Schuller who experienced the loss of her leg.

A very good friend of mine asked me to check this out and to positively confirm it, and Dr. Schuller's office sent me a URL where I found the information quoted above. So I am sending each of you THINKABLE readers my apology for passing on something I had not positively validated as true. I would like to regain your willingness to read and pass on THINKABLES in the future, with my new promise to NOT include another account of someone else unless I have confirmation it is true.

Now for a few related comments. Even with my new commitment to improved integrity, I can add unintentional bias or error. You may also realize that what I do write is based directly on what God tells us in His Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth (BIBLE). In it, God who cannot lie, says that we have His word on it regarding the predictions, descriptions and approval in it, regarding His son Jesus. So putting these two conditions together, I urge you readers, even if you are not a follower yet of Jesus, to be like the early Berean Christians and daily search the scriptures to see if what you read from me or anyone else really aligns with what God has written to us with such integrity, precision, and harmony. Another reminder is that you and I are not the final judges of our neighbors. God is. Only He knows for sure the integrity with which another human (including John Wayne) has humbled himself and depends entirely (sink or swim) on the righteousness of Christ, offered freely to all who ask Him to be their savior from sin, self, Satan, and their wages.

In summary, I ask you to forgive my passing on of unsubstantiated information, and to accept my commitment to not send anything in the future I cannot positively substantiate. I express publicly my gratitude to my brother in Christ who held me accountable and urged me to check until I reached definitely true or false evidence! And I urge you to find and cultivate a friend like that (to hold you accountable), and to adopt a similar commitment to resist the convenience of forwarding e-mail without first checking it out. Thank you, John Hoelzel

How Do You Feel When You Hear, "Time's UP?"

"A cat has nine lives." Most of us are quite familiar with this concept that you could throw a cat out the second story window and expect it to land on its feet and be able to walk away. And when you repeat this experiment nine times you might expect the same result. A similar saying is "a stitch in time saves nine." But what you are going to read today you never heard before, even though it is similar to the above sayings. "A stent in time saves nine." What in the world is a stent? You ask.

Well on St. Patrick's day in 1997, after analyzing my EKG during a treadmill stress test, my heart Dr. signed me up for a coronary angioplasty via cathiterization, "just to go in and see if there was any heart artery blockage. Sure enough, there was, he cleared it, and put a cylindrical supporting stent in that area of the artery to make sure it did not collapse. But in the recovery room I became extremely nauseous and could not seem to get their attention while trying to throw up. When I finally got their attention they rushed me back into the operating room, and I found out later the Dr. found the stent had split the artery, causing internal bleeding, so he put TWO more stents in to repair the tear. How that all works I have no idea, but it will help you understand two things. One is that "a stent in time, saves nine (not that I'm planning on any more - actually I didn't even plan for the first one). But hopefully it will also help you understand why I write THINKABLES, and try to be alert to opportunities to share with others how richly Jesus loves us, and how unconditionally He offered His life to pay for all our sin, to demonstrate that love in unmistakable action.

So even though I'm just like anyone else and am often inclined to take "the path of least resistance" or "the easy way out," the Lord is changing me into one who does not want to waste time. Instead I want to stop wasting time, and redeem the time and make it count for eternity, and find ways to make His precious gift of time and life to me be as productive as possible. I want to tune into God's ways which are so different from mine. I want to exchange my way of looking at life and what is important, for His way. "I AM the way, the truth, and the life," Jesus said, and I'm so glad He allowed me to meet Him by faith, as a freshman at Rice Institute in Houston in 1955. The God Who lives outside of time, has invaded our time and space to redeem us and pay with His own blood so we can stand before His judgment, dressed in the perfect righteousness of Christ. He has motivated me to the highest degree by His example of servanthood, love, and forgiveness. When you find me behaving differently from His example, please give me an immediate wake-up call, so I can get back on track and live in accordance with the new eternal life He has given me. Eternity with Him is obviously forever. But down here, time's too short for me to be taking it for granted, squandering it, or just plain goofing off.

Making A Difference

This week I had the privilege to experience several stimulating challenges during a workplace conference held in San Antonio, TX: to make the most of the moment, to commit to make a difference, and to help others improve also.

The first challenge, to make the most of the moment, was from Navy Captain Gerald Coffee, keynote speaker at our conference in San Antonio this week for users of a suite of System Development Tools. In Feb. 1966 his RA5-C Vigilante aircraft was hit with artillery fire over N. Vietnam and he was miraculously able to eject at 680 mph and parachute to a safe landing. The N. Vietnamese quickly captured him and gave him a 7-year residency in a 3 x 6 foot cell at the "Hanoi Hilton." He was released along with others who flew to freedom at Clark AFB in Feb. 1973. His ways of surviving prison grew mightily in number, variety, and maturity. For example his prayers progressed from "why me?" to commitment to go home as a better U.S. citizen, soldier, Christian, and husband and father. He helped invent numerous inter-cell communication techniques and he helped build morale which withstood intense, continuous interrogations and torture. The basis for this was the increase and growth of his faith in himself, others, his country, and his God, all of which he related in a way that held us on the edge of our seats. Because of his commitment to come out of Hanoi better than he came in, he has survived to share and help us to reach deeper and also live above, rather than under, our circumstances. Humor and poetry played their roles, shown by his first impromptu prison verse, "Little weevil in my bread; I think I just bit off your head." Also a simple row-column code mapping to our alphabet allowed messages to be transmitted throughout the "Hanoi Hilton" via knocks, coughs, sneezes, snorts, or any other audible sound. Eventually the guards learned to punish those with "code calluses" on their knuckles.

His prior cell occupant had left him the heritage of this equation, scrawled on their wall: "God = Strength." Among the most common verses traveling the "Hanoi Hilton" were: The pledge of Allegiance; The Lord's Prayer; Psalm 23; and God Bless America (GBA). The steady diet from their captors was negative propaganda concerning "what is wrong and bad about the U.S. He said we today have to combat the negative messages from our free press. He encouraged us to celebrate our proud history and successes, not taking our freedoms for granted. He asked us to commit to mutual trust and partnerships, and to replace cynicism and sarcasm with hope, love, and a recollection of our many successes.

My second challenge, to commit to make a difference, was from those 189 heroes (including 32 volunteers from Gonzales who arrived late) who willingly laid down their lives inside the Alamo, like Daniel Cloud from Kentucky who wrote en route to the Alamo: "If we succeed, the Country is ours. It is unmeasured in extent, and fertile in its soil and will amply reward all our toil. If we fail, death in the cause of liberty and humanity is not cause for shuddering. Our rifles are by our side, and choice guns they are. We know what awaits us, and are prepared to meet it." Alamo heroes from the shores of Scotland, England, Ireland, Germany, Wales, and Denmark shared this dedicated attitude. The defenders, under Commander William B. Travis, held out for 13 days of siege from Santa Anna's army.

I issued the third challenge, help others improve also, during my conference presentation. I related how we found 27 ways to improve the use of our workplace Requirements Management Tool, and have already implemented over half of them. I issued the challenge and encouragement that if we could do it, others can too.

Now for the greatest challenge I know, from the greatest hero I know, coupled with the greatest encouragement I know. Jesus saw us as prisoners to self, sin, and Satan. But He voluntarily stepped across the line between Heaven and earth to lay down His life so we could live forever. He offers payment for all our sin to all that commit their lives to Him as their Lord and trust Him as their savior. Faith in Jesus alone, empowers us to "walk in His steps," be translated from spiritual death to spiritual life, begin to receive and send life-giving messages, and encourage others to also make a difference, forever. Those who already know Him by faith tend to make the most of each moment, to commit to make a difference, and to help others improve also. Now that's real living, and that's also what is worth dying for.

Who Sees Your Future Best?

Years ago our family attended a country church in Maryland, on the way up toward Gettysburg, PA. One summer they invited Rev. Hatfield to come down from Niagara Falls and speak to us for a week. We enjoyed his down to earth practical messages that most likely stemmed from his background. He was from the original Hatfield and McCoy feudin' families from West Virginia. But he had obviously broken the feudin' family heritage. In contrast, the city fathers of Niagara Falls knew that when they ran across a young man who seemed incorrigible and "unsalvageable" they could bring him to Rev. Hatfield and would often see that boy's life turned around for good. To have that kind of reputation and track record, its obvious that Rev. Hatfield had the ability to look past the recent failings, destruction, and hopelessness, left in the wake of a "prodigal son" and respect their worth and their future potential for good. Rev. Hatfield's belief in these young men was catching, and many began to see that it was possible to make something out of the broken pieces of their life and to begin a new life in the light of that dream.

How about you? Are you one of those who easily joins the chorus of those who can quickly spot what is wrong with someone? Quick with "I told you so," or even faster on the trigger finger to shoot someone down? Unfortunately, churches are often known as the only group that shoots its wounded. Surely we know from our own experience that those who are having the toughest times, rebelling the hardest, or are not only upset and angry, but ready to pass it on to others, are the very ones who need the most loving kindness, care, and attention. Surely if we thought about it, we'd know that someone who gives us a piece of their mind that they can't afford to lose is really crying out for help, love, and for someone to care about them. Not only the melancholic, creative, genius-type artists who get easily down and depressed, but all of us, need at times to feel that someone is "in our corner," down under us, lifting up, caring for us and supporting us! The independent, macho, choleric temperament is so busy climbing the ladder of his own self-interests that he might be in denial and not admit it, but even he has unguarded periods when he would like to be treated more kindly than he treats others.

So does anyone really care about us? Does anyone really understand us well enough to reach out and meet our needs? Our best friend or mate can often do this at times. But if we look to them as a life-long panacea we are surely in for a let-down, disappointment, and perhaps misplaced anger at both them and ourselves. But the kind of love and support we all need is God's love, defined in chapter 13 of 1^st Corinthians, and lived out day by day for 33 years on this special planet in His universe, by His Son Jesus Christ. Don't you feel great when your children show their love, trust, and respect for you in paying attention to what you told them, and in obeying and pleasing you? God's only commentary about His Son's earthly life was "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen (closely) to Him." Out of this perfect Father-Son relationship we can tune in, listen up, and become inspired and empowered to treat others like They have treated us, and like we would like to be treated. They believe in us so strongly that they planned and executed the most painful sacrifice that exceeds mankind's comprehension, to pay for ALL our sins. Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all!

Who Should You Believe?

Who Should You Believe, and Who Should Believe You? Very important questions, but today we'll stick to the first one. Most of us develop opinions about who we should believe and who we should NOT believe. For example, think of your favorite and least favorite TV newscaster and TV weatherman. Past accuracy, willingness to research things, and even willingness to admit past mistakes all figure into deciding on our favorites. For some of us, a bold, blustery, confident attitude is important, while such characteristics may turn someone else off. Those who pride themselves on thoroughness and integrity may tend to trust someone with traits like their own. Some may prefer a "salmon" who swims upstream and usually goes against the flow of politically correct perspectives.

But belief can transcend easygoing "armchair" preferences. For example, remember (in a prior THINKABLE) how easily everyone responded "yes" when the Great Wolinda asked the crowd on one side of Niagara Falls if they "believed" he could navigate a repeat trip across the falls and back on his tight rope, pushing his wheelbarrow. But the same crowd gasped, recoiled, and withdrew in panic when he responded, "if you really believe I can, come on, get IN the wheelbarrow." Such risky action, based on belief, should really give us new insight into what we truly believe and what we merely pay lip service to.

For example, the Bible says Satan's demons believe in Christ and tremble. As we learned in math, that's "necessary, but not sufficient." But so far they have aligned themselves on the side of Satan's proud and defiant counterfeiting of God, unwilling to admit their folly and submit to God. In a similar vein, one of your heroes you've found especially credible might be Frank Sinatra with his golden voice and independent spirit. Macho males may especially find themselves to be a kindred spirit when they listen to him sing about "My Way." But it is precisely because Eve, Adam, and all their offspring chose to do things "their way" in direct opposition to "God's way" that Christ had to suffer the agony of the Friday cross, to provide payment for "our way." He offers a second birth experience in union with Him for all who really believe His Sunday resurrection so much they entrust their life to Him.

In the last chapter of the New Testament book of First John, God the Father makes it clear that each person either believes the record that He has written concerning His Son Jesus, or the only alternative is "calling God a liar." "He that has the Son has life, and he that doesn't have the Son doesn't have life." How do you feel when you are summoned to appear before the judge, such as for a traffic ticket adjudication? Defiant, mad, self-defensive, sorry, humbled, repentant? Some of these attitudes would be foolish if we were guilty and appearing before a truly righteous judge, wouldn't they? But the main consideration which we can make now, before we appear before God's judgment seat, is what evidence can we show Him to convince Him we truly believe in the death, burial, and resurrection of His Son to pay for our sins? Put differently, if you were on trial for following Christ, would there be enough evidence to convict you?

Hide and Seek Revisited

Milton Bradley game prices just keep on going up in price each year. But you don't have to have a bundle to have fun. I remember my best buddy and I made our own board game as young lads and had fun both making it and playing it. But some of the best games are simpler, and just as much fun to watch as grandparents, as they were to play as kids. Hide and Seek is where we usually start, and one of my favorite variants was Kick the Can. There is nothing quite like the glee of finding that special spot where your sibling can't locate you, until it just gets too much for you and your giggle gives you away. Of course the "glee is on the other foot" when the seeker cleverly spots a color or shape that is just a bit different from the normal lay of the land, revealing a new hiding occupant.

With the passing of years we experience other forms of hide and seek. For example we can learn to wear a mask that hides our real feelings for various reasons. Masks are great for Thespians, but can really damage communication and relationships when used to avoid closeness. You might think of the seeker as one who is building up expectations in a relationship. Sometimes a donning of the hiding mask provides some intrigue and mystique, but unmet expectations can put a real damper on meaningful relationships after while.

Some folks may feel that God is also in the Hide and Seek business. Actually He is, but in a different way than we might think. He is the master of relationships, and as such He has taken great initiative to disclose much of Himself to us. He picked special people of diverse background, occupations, temperaments, abilities, and outlooks to write through their perspectives (which He guided) many aspects, objectives, characteristics, and axioms about Himself. Later on He also even took on the form of human flesh, was born, lived, died and arose as the God-man Jesus Christ. What better way for an everlasting, changeless, infinite and holy God to communicate with mankind, locked in time and space with so many limitations? Reading the Bible can be like having a personalized video or CD to see how God walks, talks, cares, and acts.

But the CD is actually encrypted so only those with the key can really see and comprehend. That’s' where the hiding comes in. God knows what is in each of our hearts. He will only come into our heart when we invite Him in. Similarly He will only truly reveal Himself to those He knows will trust Him. So He amazingly remains hidden to all who selfishly demand to live life their own way, trying to create their own little empire, wearing a mask which effectively keeps God and others out. But even children whose heart is tender toward Jesus and who are willing to love and obey Him, can most easily see Him and find Him in His miraculous orchestration of world-wide hide and seek. God desires no man to be left to his own devices, to remain in his sin, and to be lost forever from being allowed into the presence and intimacy with God. But for those who make that choice, they are actually the ones who are trying to hide from God. How very foolish.

Filled Or Fooled

The world looks different this Christmas to Americans since we joined other terrorist victim nations like Israel, by surprise this fall. Threats from enemies are NOT new to us. Some of us are old enough to remember how popular backyard bomb shelters were several decades ago. Could they really withstand a nuclear blast? Popularity showed by their sales that many folks were placing their money on these hopes for survival, in the face of an enemy whose goal was to bury us. But now we face those who have been led to believe they can gain special privileges from their god if they merely sacrifice their own life while murdering as many of the "enemy" as possible. And they train to use the most available and lethal weapons-whether airplane, chemical, biological, or nuclear device, to destroy their enemies. How long would you like to be around a god who passed out rewards in proportion to your cruelty to unsuspecting men, women, and children? Most of us would start looking for the back door fast.

None of us like to be surprised, caught off guard, taken advantage of, or defeated without a chance to defend ourselves. Since we have a sense of fair play, we expect our enemies to play fair too. But that is part of what we painfully learned about terrorists. They don't play fair. They surprise us, catch us off guard, take advantage of us, and can defeat us without any chance for us to defend ourselves. So how do we win against them? We stay vigilant while learning their tactics and strengthening our defenses against their sneak attacks.

Similar to the way Mohammed Atta passed unnoticed in our midst until it was too late, our very worst enemy has the protection of a nearly perfect camouflage. He has most folks convinced he doesn't even exist. Should we penetrate that outer layer, his next camouflage layer makes him appear very beautiful, desirable, and able to satisfy even the biggest of appetites. His promises are somewhat like winning the lottery, giving the appearance of "something for nothing." But the reality is just the opposite. Those who listen to his sales pitch, wind up losing everything of value, with nothing to show for it.

Such was the experience of our forefathers who had to leave the lush Garden of Eden to keep them from living forever in their wretched experience of believing their sneaky enemy Satan, rather than God. None of us likes to have the wool pulled over our eyes. So why not today place unconditional trust of your life and your eternity in the finished work of Christ on the cross. He has once for all defeated our enemies of sin, self, and Satan. Victory only requires you to reach out by faith and trust the One who planned to give you a future and a hope before you were born, even though He knew you would begin life as His enemy. Now that's grace, offered as clearly and simply as possible. May you experience it so richly and fully that your cup won't ever stop running over!!!

The Blind Can See

We have debunked before the common colloquialism that "seeing is believing." But perhaps we are all ready for another round of refreshment on this subject. As I write, I am looking out my office window at a beautiful wooded clearing. I can see all the way through it to open spaces on the other side. Before my son John undertook this clearing project, my view stopped at the start of a big impenetrable thicket. It had cedars, honey locust trees with piercing long thorns, and poison ivy. It was so densely grown through the decades that you not only could not walk into it, you couldn't even see into it.

Such is often our view, as we focus on the many obstacles surrounding us. But we admire and follow those with vision who can articulate or at least repeat sayings like President John Kennedy repeated George Bernard Shaw, "Some people see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not?" Both reality and change are hard on us, and vision regarding needed change is even more rare.

We are all becoming aware that newer technology can help us "see" where human eyes reach their limits. For example, Infrared technology provides night vision to soldiers, based on its sensitivity to heat radiation. Similarly radar penetrates clouds that obscure optical system penetration. And for generations, the imagination of man has "dreamed" in the abstract world, only to have technology come along much later and find amazing ways to apply those theorems, axioms, and equations to expand man's reach.

So, to bring these thoughts together in a beneficial way, how do these ideas relate to us today? We must start with vision. "Without vision, the people perish," said the prophet of old. What kind of vision? Optical vision, night vision, or something greater? Yes, spiritual vision so great that it illumines areas of awareness and potential we previously could neither envision nor comprehend. For example it illumines the unseen spiritual clearing previously obscured by the impenetrable dark thicket! It allows people with spiritual "equipment" to see things others claim do not exist, and use them to rise above the surrounding thick and thorny circumstances which others see as impenetrable and impossible to overcome.

So what is the key to unlocking such powerful spiritual vision? It is Faith - the opposite of sight. as described in the 11^th chapter of Hebrews.

Candid Camera

Gardening With God

"Mary, Mary, quite contrary, How does your garden grow? With cockle shells and silver bells, all in a row." This well-known nursery rhyme triggers for many of you scenes of a beautiful flower garden in your mind's eye. But my own gardens are quite another experience. Crooked rows, only partially alive, due to grasshoppers, drought, and inconsistent care from the gardener. If only I had the gardening knowledge my wife has, and the stamina and discipline to carry through to fruition the picture of the garden in her mind's eye. My fruit orchards are only one step up from my gardens, due to the same negative influences. From the root, comes the fruit, my horiculturally savvy family says. For example, how do you create a delicate Bonsai tree? NOT so much from clipping its branches, but instead by clipping its roots, since the top-side growth mirrors the hidden root growth. Thus it follows that luxuriant, full potential growth comes from a healthy, well-tended root system.

Does this give you a glimpse of how inverted our approach is to so many facets of our life? Aren't we often more concerned with cosmetics, make-up, hair coloring, and outward appearance, than with the care and nurturing of the inner person? Although carefully crafted externals may attract "fan club" followings for awhile, a loving, caring, wise and giving inner spirit cannot hide, even under a relatively unattractive exterior. Inner beauty endures, while external cosmetic efforts fade.

Jesus was "a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. He had no external beauty or comeliness that we should desire Him. But the beauty of His love, care, wisdom, and sacrifice for us has endured over two millenniums, and continuously draw folks to trust Him today, even now. He taught exactly what we talked about today, that root impediments destroy the opportunity for a seed to grow. But good, well-tended soil produces healthy roots, with up to 100-fold fruit.

Reaching For A Star While Held In His Hand

One of the best articles I ever read was published over two decades ago in the Harvard Business Review. A young MBA graduate took his first job out of college in a prestigious company. As time passed he grew more experienced in his department, but was also anxious to try his hand in other "greener pastures" within his company. After several such migrations he sat back and realized had had not only spent time in almost every department, but as he move to each one he made the amazing discovery that "this new department was actually the 'central hub' about which the entire company turned," i.e. the most important place in the entire company! Haven't you ever felt that you were "hot stuff" even if others failed to notice? But often our striving for self-importance, significance, and recognition, gives away our concurrent conflicting feelings of low self esteem and wondering whether this planet will be any different once we're gone. So part of our common human experience is to strive to be a super star in some area, while seeking to salve our occasional feelings of inferiority, insignificance, and unimportance.

It doesn't help either if our best friend or our mate has a gift of special insight at seeing the truth and untactfully "telling it like it is." We all need accountability and regular honest feedback, but there is a difference in timing, tone, and bottom line intent, between constructive criticism and unforgiving, unending fault finding. Such folks will insist they are merely being real and objective, but why do they so often gravitate to a "worst case" scenario? "Guilty until proven innocent" is typically the way one feels on the receiving end of a steady diet of hoops you are required to jump through. We all talk and joke about a "mid-life crisis" wherein we feel life slipping away without any significance or impact to be remembered by. And sometimes our best friend or our mate just keeps on serving up that spoonful of Castor Oil reality.

These are normal concerns for a "flat-lander" whose world view says that upon death you just "drop off" the earth - The END - NADA - nothing more remains. But if you are awake enough, or if you've escaped some of the ostrich-like reasoning designed to avoid ultimate and instructive questions, you've likely had some ideas jump across your synapses which hint that there must be more to life than this. You've seen repetitions of creativity, achievement, admirable service and sacrifice, compelling you to believe this must have its roots in something higher than ourselves.

That is just the beginning of your experience of "knowing as you are known." The poetry of David in Psalm 139 beautifully details the intricacy and intimacy with which the God who formed us within our mother, knows, cares, and follows all our physical and mental activities each day. In college, my wife startled fellow Lutheran students by declaring how intimately God knew her movements as she stepped off of a curb. How similarly staggering to imagine the detailed planning required for the sacrifice of God's own perfect Son on the cross to pay completely for every single sin of every single human being who ever lived! Only the Creator-Redeemer could plan and carry out such a communication of the worth, dignity, and eternal significance of every human being. When we enter into some measure of awe and comprehension of this, we can never again glibly attack, condemningly criticize, disrespect or judge others, as unworthy to also experience god's grace and forgiveness. One we find our significance in Him, it will last forever in eternity. Or as the Bible says, "Godliness (through faith in Christ's righteous payment for our sins) with contentment is great (unending) gain!

Fishing

Do you have a favorite fishing hole? One that is almost guaranteed to get "the big one?" Why is it some fishermen can almost smell the right place to get their limit, while the rest of us just "practice" fishing? Way before the days of the GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) network (24 operational satellite constellation in six orbital planes), commercial off-shore fishermen used similar Transit satellites to yield the precise geographic coordinates of their personal lucrative fishing spots, out in the ocean. For some, fishing earns a living, for others it’s a sport, and for many it’s a pastime or hobby. I've found the best kind of fisherman to be a pal with is one who invites you to his fish fry.

Today we want to explore some new thoughts about fishing and about getting "hooked." We use a familiar idiom about getting hooked on something we really like. That covers a wide variety of things, from Blue Bell ice cream, to a special item at our favorite restaurant, to substance abuse, to a prostitute (AKA a "hooker"). As indicated above, we are susceptible to getting hooked on things that are hazardous to our physical and our spiritual health. In our recent THINKABLE about ROI we noted a common tendency toward excuses, including the common saying, "the devil made me do it." We recommended NOT using that excuse. But today we do want to go on record affirming that Satan does set hooks out for all of us to seriously see how many he can catch. He baits a wide variety of sizes of hooks with an even wider variety of enticing bait. Once you are hooked he has got you unless someone else gets you "off the hook." If you picture a big trot line stretched all the way across a stream, cove, or narrow bay, weighted down near the bottom and loaded with hooks with just the kind of bait you like, you have a small picture of his daily activities as he runs his "trot line" and collects all the "suckers" who bite.

But as usual, Satan is merely counterfeiting the Lord's ways. Jesus promises his disciples, who sign up to follow Him, that He will make us "fishers of men." This involves learning WHERE to fish, WHEN to fish, WHAT BAIT to use for each kind of fish, and how to LAND and DISCIPLE the "fish" once he bites. Satan knows all about this, so much that he copies but corrupts Jesus' fishing instructions.

So how could Jesus ever use a mediocre fisherman like us? First He must catch our own allegiance and commitment. Then we proceed to His Fisherman Boot Camp where He retrains us. If you are wondering whether you are capable of learning, just recall how successful He was in retraining His disciples who were mostly fishermen, into humble servants who could share the good news of sins forgiven, based on their first hand experience. Speaking of retraining, you aren't spending most of your fishing time where there are many more fishermen than fish are you?

So today's question is simple. Are you headed to get hooked on Satan's trot line, or are you about your Father's business, enjoying fishing lessons and catching men for the kingdom of Heaven, under the tutelage of the Master Fisherman, Jesus? He, more than any other, left his busy itinerary and went to where the fish were, took all the time needed, and caught them one by one.

First Impressions

How often do your first impressions hold true as you get to know someone better? For example, consider your first impressions of your marriage partner or your best friend. They say love is blind, and certainly love overlooks many blemishes. But during our courting days, weren't each of us also "putting our best foot forward" and keeping those quirky, spoiled, self-centered traits under wraps? Put another way, what per cent did you learn about your spouse post-marriage, compared to pre-marriage? I admit that question is not exactly fair, since we all change with time. But you get the point. Even those who can judge character the best can sometimes be fooled by a first impression. Or as my mentor Will Rogers said, "You can fool ALL the people SOME of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you can't fool all the people all of the time."

But there is a more subtle form of being fooled by first impressions. That's when a friend or "an authority" passes on their own ideas and prejudice about someone as true and accurate. I call this an "indirect" first impression. Aberrant forms of an indirect first impression include passing on our prejudice via rumors and gossip. For example, Jesus resurrection and missing body embarrassed the religious leaders (who finally had secured His crucifixion) so much that they fabricated the following "cover story." They paid the guards to spread the rumor that Jesus' disciples had stolen His body from behind the great stone that had been rolled down to secure the tomb they guarded. This is the only time I know that soldiers who slept on guard duty were rewarded instead of facing serious discipline, including death. But some people will accept an indirect first impression from those who pose as an authority without much independent checking, thereby incurring all the liabilities of a first impression.

A very interesting corollary of first impressions is the case where many men have set out deliberately to prove their apriori opinion and prejudice, only to come face to face with the evidence that just the opposite is actually true. A prime example of this is Saul of Tarsus who was so zealous to obey what he thought were God's rules that he persecuted people who professed faith in Jesus Christ. But once God got his attention through blindness and instruction that He was actually imprisoning and stoning Christ in the form of His followers, Saul changed more than his name (to Paul), and began to proclaim that Jesus is truly God the Son, and the ONLY way to have a relationship with God the Father. Many others have deliberately set out to discredit Christ and disprove His claims, only to find Him so real, compelling, and different from their prejudices, that they invited Him to be the Lord of their life, and their central reason for living. Given the fallacies of first impressions and indirect first impressions fostered by "would-be authorities" who themselves have never know the real Jesus, isn't it time for you to look seriously into His unique claims, instead of just being biased by someone else?

My own experience is that once I saw a glimpse of His character and reality, each of the next 47 years of closer scrutiny and of getting to know Him better has only shown Him to be more compelling and more worthy of my worship and emulation. As we look more closely at all others, we see more of their weaknesses and faults. But please look for yourself. You will find that "Jesus never fails!" You will never be sorry about taking a closer look at the "solid rock" who the minority will worship joyfully throughout eternity.

Spiritual Glasses Available; Are They Yours?

I have a difficult time remembering my past with a few notable exceptions. One of those is what a difference it made in the sixth grade when I occasionally sat on the front row and could actually see what the teacher wrote on the blackboard. She must have seen I was having trouble and suggested an eye exam. When the Dr. asked if I could see the "E" and my response was "what E?" I should have had a clue. But I honestly wondered if I REALLY needed glasses. With hind"sight" I can now grasp that my denial of my need for better vision was fueled by my resistance to the cure, wearing glasses the rest of my life.

Have you ever been in denial about anything, and used your resistance to the answer to fuel a false belief that the truth is really not the truth? Sometimes we can be our own worst enemy can't we? It can actually get to be so bad as illustrated by the following advice Paul wrote to Timothy and to us as we carefully work to help others in denial. He said that the servant of the Lord must not strive (with such folks) but be gentle, able (and prepared) to teach them, patient, instructing those that OPPOSE (or contradict) themselves with meekness, if God will graciously grant them repentance (a total change of perspective and heart).

But how does one come upon such change of perspective and heart? Not easily! That is because Isaiah's words are true in both his day and ours. "Our ways are NOT God's ways and our thoughts are NOT God's thoughts." As a matter of fact if we totally reverse our inclinations it can undo our own prejudice and viewpoint, transforming our perspective to become much more like that of Jesus. A case in point has been my failure to get to know our neighbor who lives in trailer amid blowing trash and five junk cars. That external view blocked my consideration of setting a priority to get to know my neighbor. When the Lord got my attention that this is exactly the kind of person He died for and that would likely appreciate His death on the cross for them, I began to try to make contact. Eventually we had our neighbor over for dinner and learned her husband had died of cancer last year and here meager nurses' salary was keeping her from getting her hot water heater working. Now we are acting like neighbors to see how to help and see God glorified, as we love Him and each other better. Now that I have tried on His spiritual glasses, I really like the new view and am looking forward to fresh vision and reduced blind spots.

As my friend says, "when we look up (at Jesus by faith), it transforms our view when we look down (at the circumstances and surroundings of our daily life). Corollaries include that without looking up frequently, we will miss golden opportunities to find and see God's will and way for us. Also we will remain in denial about our own needs and our own pitiful condition if we remain in denial of our desperate need for Jesus to control and fill our empty lives. Although a dear 91 year old man in my Sunday School class had lost his physical eyesight, he told us he would rather be physically blind than to be spiritually blind. He prays for me daily and as I prayed for him he said God had graciously restored a little of his physical eyesight. Are you sure you are seeing today all that God intends for you to see? I believe that we are ALL ripe for a new seeing experience much like the man born blind to whom Jesus gave both physical and spiritual sight. Read all about it in the 10^th chapter of John, and let me know what your new spiritual glasses are showing you. Thanks.

When is it time to go home?

When I was a small kid, growing up in our two-bedroom home in Tulsa, Oklahoma, we had a regular event around supper time, in the summer. We would sit down to the supper table, and outside our window would appear my back yard neighbor, Richard Lee. I don't know what fascinated him, or the attraction he saw in climbing up into our stone window sill, looking in, and watching our family eat. But one day he wasn't there. I don't know if my mom said something to him, or if he just decided there were more interesting things going on at his real home, just across the alley. I guess even ET knew when he needed to go home.

Last week two seniors in High school also went home unexpectedly. My friend Mike Crawford conducted the funeral of Mario Hernandez who had a heart attack in Bonham, TX. Kelly Fehr was electrocuted as he prepared to wash his dog, and unknowingly hooked the chain to a metal strap on their air conditioning unit in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. These are heart rendering losses for these families, effectively the amputation (without anesthesia) of a vital member of their family. We pray that God will allow them to go through the grief process, work through the numbness and shock, the denial, questions, and adjustments that are so necessary to eventually move ahead.

Last year Mike Crawford taught "Faith Classes" in Bonham about how to share our experience of eternal life with others. His team visited many, including Mario Hernandez, who chose to invite Jesus Christ into his life as his savior that day. Who could have foreseen how timely his decision that day was for Mario?

So the issue facing every one of us is "Where is our REAL home?" If you think it is here, you will be leaving it behind for others sooner than you think. But God the Son left His home in heaven, and came in human form and frailties to die in our place, making payment for all our sin against an absolutely holy God. God the Father accepted that payment, proving it by Jesus' resurrection from the dead. Now Jesus has gone back to heaven to prepare a home for all who trust him, like Mario and Kelly, who invite Him into their life to be their savior. Like Richard Lee, we don't know when it is time for us to go home. But we don't need to have any doubt about where our REAL home is. Our Lord and Savior Jesus has gone on ahead, is there eagerly waiting, and we have His Word on it! Mario and Kelly and Jesus, we'll see you there!

The Genuine Article

"When E. F. Hutton speaks, people listen!" There is nothing quite like the voice of authority to get our attention. There is really not a formula or a "one size fits all" description of what causes you to wake up and pay attention, but you know it when you hear it. One who speaks in such a way as to ring home truth and command respect, does so not with certain techniques, styles, or mannerisms, but rather with an indescribable resonance deep within your inner person. Such is the voice you never tire of, that you wish would never end. You just know its message compels you to respond favorably.

Such is the voice of Jesus, not because of erudite content, or special voice quality. Rather it is so different from the political, enticing, smooth, crafty salesmanship of man, that you know its source is God. It is so refreshing to hear from God and to know He is speaking, that our commitment to Him is the only response that makes sense.

Such was my invitation to Jesus to come into my life as my savior some 47 ears ago. Men had taught me ABOUT Him. But when I saw that He desired personal fellowship with me, but was such a gentleman that He would only enter into such fellowship at my invitation, I could in No Way stop myself from opening the door to my heart from the inside.

The contrast between making a decision in response to man's voice, and responding to the compelling call of God Himself, makes a life and death difference. I suggest that is why some windup controlling their own lives and living in a way that has no demonstration of God's power, transformation, or spiritual life stemming from a vital connection to the vine. But when God speaks to you and you respond, that transaction is eternal because it makes a connection between God who cannot lie or go back on His promise, and man who is lost without Him.

So let us not cajole, coerce, pressure, or even request that men obey our words to "make a decision" based on our reasoning or promise. Let us rather pray as Jesus' representatives that those who hear us would listen carefully for the authoritative promises and call of Jesus who sealed His words with His own life's blood. To respond to the words and wisdom of man is to set up future failure. God grant us clear discernment of the difference, and clear and unreserved commitment to the real thing. Open our ears Lord, we want to hear Jesus!

Beneficiaries

Is it possible to benefit from powerful results without understanding the vast detailed infrastructure that produces those results? You bet it is! By the time you finish reading this you can let me know if this page fits that description. Here are a couple of examples, as we get started. One common example is electricity, which is commonly broken into three main areas, generation, transmission, and distribution. Within each of these areas are vast infrastructures of technological equipment, procedures, and trained and dedicated workers, etc. And underneath these are basic physics principles that generalize man's understanding at macro and micro levels, which enabled his inventions and applications that make our widespread use of electricity possible. And even below that is the detailed atomic and nuclear physical reality and design (electron level) that makes all of this possible. But all I have to do is purchase an electrical appliance, cooperatively plug in and use the appliance, and pay my electrical bill each month, to benefit greatly from electricity. I don't have to understand any of those underlying models, subsystems, or physical realities. The same benefits apply to our use of many things today, like cars, airplanes, cell phones, satellite images - even our food, so conveniently available at our grocery store. There is a lot of special infrastructure contained in a beet seed, a watermelon seed, and a tomato seed, to allow it to assimilate what it needs from the soil and rain to produce faithfully after its own kind, isn't there? Do we understand all that, or don't we rather go ahead and use these in our recipes and enjoy eating them with their unique flavor and nutrition?

Similarly we can never plumb the depths of the great compassion, planning, and fruition of God's great desire for all mankind to be reconciled to Him. Nor can we grasp the patience Jesus exhibited with all those around Him as He lovingly listened to His Father's voice and modeled what He heard and saw, every day of His 33 year mission to planet earth. He not only invaded our planet, but the timeless "Ancient of Days" invaded time. Seeing the end from the beginning allowed Him to patiently plant seeds of truth and promises that would later raise a crop of believers, missionaries, martyrs, and lovers of God, who would cover the entire earth with a bountiful harvest.

Even though we comprehend spiritual infrastructure much less than we comprehend physical infrastructure, we CAN similarly cooperate with it and reap an incredible harvest. Jesus said if you have faith the "size" of a tiny mustard seed, He can cause it to grow up into such a mighty tree that birds of the air will come and sing songs of gratitude in its branches. When we see the results of God's marvelous design in the world around us we are free to enjoy it and delight in it. Similarly when we see by faith the agonizing payment Jesus made on the cross for our sin, the empty tomb showing God's acceptance of this payment, and Jesus living today in the hearts of millions of those who trust Him, we too can benefit by entrusting our own lives to Him as our Lord and savior.

We cannot imagine someone choosing not to benefit from powerful electrical appliances, or refusing to shop at a convenient local supermarket. But it is just as hard for me to imagine why anyone would spurn the gift of payment from all sin, which Jesus paid so willingly and completely. He longs for you to become a beneficiary, but He leaves the choice with you.

Well Done

Rare, medium, medium well, or well done? It’s enjoyable to see how diverse we are, and on the other hand, how similar. For example, most, but not all, DO like steaks, even though we may differ on how to cook them. But indeed, many are vegetarians. Most like to earn their own way, but in our country we also find many on welfare for various reasons. The Republicans tend to look skeptically at many on welfare as if they are out for a free ride. And the Democrats seem a little more compassionate in planning programs to help those who really need it. But I would say on average, around our entire planet, people tend to feel better about themselves when they are well and able enough to get along by doing something for themselves. Especially in our American culture, most folks have grown up with a strong work ethic. Men find it particularly hard to accept something given to them by another, or even to say "Thank You." A lot of the Frank Sinatra syndrome of "DOING it MY way" has rubbed off on us. So how well does this work ethic carry over to the spiritual realm?

But before we reach for God’s perspective on this subject, let’s just ask how popular it is for mankind to try to work hard to gain God’s approval. Effectively, all the religions of the world buy into this principle of working to please God. But this path is filled with embarrassing questions like, how many works are enough to please God? And just how do we know when we have met our quota? Or is it even possible to meet our quota?

The bad news is that we can never do enough to earn God’s favor. That is impossible because God’s holiness is beyond our comprehension. Our sins of commission and omission erect a wall that separates us from God. Strange as it sounds, that is good for us, since to come into His presence in our present state would cause us to be consumed by His brightness and holiness.

But the good news is that what we are unable to do, to do enough to earn to the right to come into His presence, He has done for us. That’s right, it is a DONE deal. His perfect Son Jesus saw our helpless condition, left the comforts of the glorious heavenly realm, and lived as a human to experience all that we do, yet without yielding to the opportunities to sin. Then in obedience to God the Father, He sacrificed His perfect life on a tortuous Roman cross, as a blood sacrifice payment for all the sins of all humans past and present. He added 2 letters to what man has tried for so long; He turned DO into DONE! All that is left for us to do is to invite Him into our life as our savior, taking His gift of salvation for our very own, by faith in His finished work. He will never force this gift of eternal life upon us, but He died to give it to whosoever wants it.

As a friend of mine said in our Bible study at work last week, when we make that transaction, a wonderful exchange occurs. Before that, we could see a picture of Christ hanging on the cross and we felt the burden of trying to keep the law, hanging heavy over our heart and life. After choosing Christ as our savior, Jesus comes to live IN our heart, the law is nailed to the cross, and we are now motivated to truly please Him by the new "law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus" as we are led and filled with His Holy Spirit.

Flying High

When is the last time you felt "free as a bird," flying so high you felt like doing graceful, lofty barrel rolls, way up in a bi-plane? Well, it’s true we all have our "ups and downs." And it’s also true that "whatever goes up, must come down." But most of us live "down under" our circumstances way too much of the time. However love, acceptance, freedom, reprieve from condemnation, and cease-fire from enemies, can each give us such a boost and relief, that it evokes these kinds of emotional responses.

It is a rare occasion when someone else sees right through us and uncovers exactly what makes us tick. It’s as though they are "walking in our moccasins" and can see secrets that we hardly know about ourselves, what we are really like, and what we really care about. When is the last time you met someone who had this much empathy, understanding, grace, and caring for you? Someone who really wanted to please you, and took the time to show you how deeply they understood and cared about your passions and your heartbeat, so that they made you feel like the apple of their eye?

This is the way Jesus made people feel in His day, it’s the way He makes me feel today, and it’s the way (beyond my wildest imaginations) He will make me feel throughout eternity. He told His disciples it was with great desire and passion that he ate that last supper with them, and that He would so look forward to His next meal that would be with them in heaven. He actually calls all who intimately trust Him, HIS inheritance, which He values greatly! Both those who are drawn to Him, who are genuine enough to follow Him, and even those too caught up and distracted with things and themselves, can feel His glorious gaze into our very soul. We know, that He knows, what is in us!

But the best is yet to come. "As the hart (deer) pants after the water brook, so pants my soul for you," wrote David, the man after God’s own heart. Jesus shows us the feeling is mutual. It was His great love, compassion, forgiveness, acceptance, grace, delight, and joy to call us His own, that drove Him to the cross to pay for all our sins with the sacrifice of His perfect life. But just as He rose up from that cold tomb, so right now when we trust Him, God raises us up with Him into the heavenlies "that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus." Now that’s what I call Flying High, Forever!

Alpha and Omega

Today we're thinking together about our beginning and our end. "Wait a minute, I've got a lot of living to do," you reply. That's right, we all want to fill our "beginning and ending sandwich" with some meaningful "beef." We can't do anything about our birth and early years, but we can make a difference with our remaining time. Have you heard this one?

Today we're sharing a few attitudes that can contribute a lot to the quality of our beef, like the following.

In this day of exercise fads, consider these options.

It's OK like Job to bring lots of questions to God, but

Along life's way remember:

And finally we all face the same end, death. But the issue is whether we truly face it and deal with it wisely, or whether we try to ignore, or even worse, run from it. Read on. A legend from the Middle East tells of a servant in Baghdad who came to his master one day with a great concern.

"Master," he cried, "Someone bumped into me in the crowded market place this morning. When I turned around I saw it was Death. I caught his eye and he gave me such a strange and terrifying look that I am now in fear of my life."

"Master, please lend me your horse so that I may flee; with your help I can be far away in Samarra by nightfall."

The merchant was a generous man, and leading the servant to one of his fine horses, he sent him away.

Later, the merchant was strolling through the market place where he noticed Death standing in the crowd and said:

"Why did you frighten my servant this morning and give him such a threatening stare?"

"I did not threaten him," said Death. "It was a look of surprise. I was astounded to see the man this morning in Baghdad when I have an appointment with him tonight in Samarra."

I pray that you are ready for this paradox of life from Jesus who is called the Alpha and the Omega. He is called the beginning and the end because that is as close as we can come to comprehending the One who is without beginning or end. Man says "life before death," but God says "death before (spiritual) life." Jesus came to die that we might live - forever without blame or us having to pay for our sins, since He paid it all with His sacrifice on the cross. There is no shortcut, no alternative "my way," and no easy path to heaven. We cannot earn or sacrifice our way to heaven. We can only survey the cross and see that we are the ones who deserved to hang there. Our sin was both judged AND paid for at the cross. As you survey the cross, can you see your sin and guilt nailed to the cross, so that you walk away, a new spiritual person, totally forgiven because Jesus died in your place?

Restoring Relationships

Over a week ago I made a decision based on "good business sense." It highly offended the person I was dealing with, so much so that he walked off in anger and shut down both our relationship and our project. Later I talked with him again, and I told him I was sorry I had upset him and we discussed some ideas to continue the project. Today his wife came by with a material receipt which I paid and I learned he was still feeling very hurt and it was clear to me that our relationship had suffered. As I pondered these things it became clear to me that this was an opportunity for me to take the initiative to restore our relationship. So I drove down to his place and asked to talk a few minutes. I told him I knew I had deeply hurt him. In our previous talk he had said he felt I didn't trust him. I told him the Bible says when you become aware you have offended someone, go and make it right. I asked what I could do to repair our relationship and make it right. He said it's OK and was ready to leave. Then I told him I wanted to ask him a personal question, "had he ever asked Jesus into his life as his own savior?" He said no, so I invited him to a Bible study on the book of John we just started in my home for a half-hour Sunday nights. I explained how important it is to seriously consider the unique claims and promises that Christ makes to us. He said he would think about it.

The reason for recalling these exchanges has to do with gaining perspective on our relationships. We understandably get "wrapped around the axle" with the details of our business deals and most of us can wax eloquent on what is right and proper to do. But in God's grand design of material things and of interpersonal relationships, there are important matters that greatly transcend the do's and don'ts of business deals. Please don't read this as me casting good business agreements and dealings to the wind. I am merely saying that if such dealings override and block out the opportunity to maintain and develop our interpersonal relationship we have missed the boat. God's principles are so wise that they will keep us from such blatant errors as long as our primary focus is on the importance of people. Sometimes those who need help the most behave the worst and we wrongly tend to deem them less deserving of our attention and kind treatment.

Jesus showed us what it is like to put people first! That means people first at any price. He tolerated deep criticism, ungodly advice, and judgment from many, in order to seek out and befriend those that the rest of society had written off as losers, not worthy of their respect or attention. But Jesus sat aside their words of condemnation flowing from a hardened, proud, self-centered heart, in order to extend God's love and forgiveness to them in Person. He never had to go and make amends for wrong actions that had offended others. But He took the initiative all the time to seek out those that had been kicked around and stomped on by others, to demonstrate to them that God was still in their corner.

Please don’t let His excellent example go unnoticed or unheeded. Its hard to follow God's instruction to step forward to restore relationships, especially when we so easily focus on "what they did wrong" and "how they offended us." But if you will just take a minute and physically point your forefinger at the person you think did you wrong, you'll quickly and graphically find that three of your fingers point back to you. It takes graphic designs like this to break through our blind spots, show us how different God's ways are from ours, and get us transformed into putting people first like He does!

What do you give the man who has everything?

My wife said yesterday as we shopped for our youngest son's 38^th birthday present, "It's so hard to shop for a man." On the other hand she could easily fill shopping basket after basket when shopping for her daughter, daughter-in-law, or grand daughter. We know what we like and that makes it a lot easier to imagine what "someone like us" would like also. By the way, at least for the near term, just get me fishing gear so I can help my grand kids catch "the big one."

Certainly some of us are harder to shop for than others. Especially those who are rather quiet, not too expressive or emotional, and who are not very giving or thankful. In other words, without clues and feedback we don't really know whether we gave a present that hit the mark or not. We all like to get feedback, even if it's negative, right? That's how we learn to do better next time. The classic example in our family is when our oldest son unwrapped his pajamas on Christmas from Grand mother, and promptly gave them back. You can learn a lot from kids, sometimes more than you wanted. Like when my youngest grandson announced to me one day, "you smell." I guess I have begun to resemble the irony my good friend jokes about when he says, "My nose runs, and my feet smell."

So how did God solve this major problem of what to give the man Adam, who had everything, or did he really? He had the world's best garden. Lush delectables, grown so far as I know without a Troy Built tiller. The world's biggest and best zoo. And Adam got to catalog and name them. They even submitted to his authority. And again so far as I know the rabbits and raccoons didn't uproot or demolish his garden. I'm not sure his garden had straight rows either, but I am sure it was beautiful. And he had undiminished interaction and mutual trust with the designer and creator of both the garden and himself, God. But something was missing and God knew it.

Adam saw that the animals came in pairs and produced offspring. Although he had authority over them, where was his counterpart? God put His finger on Adam's loneliness. "It is not good for man to dwell alone," He said. So He made a companion, a counterpart, not a duplicate but someone complementary to him. Eve was his counterpart and complement in body, soul, and spirit. Her body was made to embrace his and also produce offspring. Her soul could dream dreams for their future that Adam had never thought of. And her spirit could inspire and motivate her counterpart to heights he would never achieve alone. So Adam, the man with "everything," moved from follower to leader, from loner to lover, from very limited to one with vastly expanded horizons, from unfulfilled to running over, from relatively unemotional to excited, challenged, and joyful beyond description. His feedback left no doubt that God had understood him well, and had cared enough to send the very best.

Millenniums later, God again saw the desperate needs of mankind, lost, without a real future of hope of getting back into a perfect relationship with Himself. Once again He cared enough to send the very best, His One and only Son Jesus. They had jointly created everything, the world, the heavens, and the world's inhabitants. So they knew us very well, but had never personally experienced our pain since our forefathers broke trust with God. So Jesus came to experience all that we do, yet without sin. He continually did what He saw His Father doing, and said what He heard His Father saying. He learned obedience through suffering the disappointments, misunderstandings, and betrayals of even His closest men. His obedience passed the ultimate test when the answer was no, to Jesus' plea for some other alternate to dying on the cross, where He bore your sins and mine. God the Father, Son, and Spirit cared enough to send the very best for you. Surely you would not ignore, reject, or return unopened, such a magnificent gift, backed by such compassion, love, and desire for restored, rich relationship, would you?

Easter In Your Basket

"Easter In Your Basket…" says the sign I see up the Dennison Walmart aisle. And sure enough, Walmart has plenty of filled Easter baskets, as well as empty ones. Easter baskets with plenty of goodies to stuff them. That was the first stop for my wife's scooter tour of Walmart, gleefully planning goodies for our three grandkids. There's a lot of real estate here for her to cover and I think their sign said they are open 24-7, so I should be finished with this THINKABLE before I see her again. (Actually I had an hour or so to spare that I used conversing with at least three other "bench-pressers" who came and went). So, what comes to your mind as you think of 22 days until Easter? Ducks, chicks, coloring, hiding, or hunting eggs, Spring Ahead, blossoming trees, the barren, dormant winter transformed into new life?

Many of us have had reality refresher courses as we have buried a friend or family member. Such sobering events are reminders of our own mortality. But seldom do we ponder that just as life precedes death, so also death precedes life. Easter is the best time to ponder that, because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ that followed His voluntary crucifixion and death. We understand that a trivial operation is one that someone else experiences. But our very own operations tend to be critical and anything but trivial. Similarly it is quite difficult for any of us to comprehend what it was like for Jesus to die as a sacrifice for our sin, taking the sin of all generations upon His own body, hanging on that cross. For Him, Easter meant exchanging a Royal Throne in Heaven for a Rugged Cross on a despised hill, setting aside the comfort zone of the majestic Godhead, for the jeers, insults, and fickleness of the crowd, in order to make full payment for our sin, which no one else was qualified to do.

As a result of His Easter sacrifice you can have the Prince of Easter in your heart this year, instead of mere Easter goodies in your basket. As you see new life pop out all around you this Easter, don't forget to treasure new life in Christ that is yours for the asking. Without the reality of His successful resurrection, we would be of all men most to be pitied. But because of the resurrection of Jesus, and your personal invitation for Him to abide with you, you can have Jesus in your heart all year, forever! This year, will Easter be just another passing holiday for you, or an unforgettable Holy Day, now and forever?

Relationships

How have your past relationships worked out? Not all the same way, I'll bet. Some better than others. Some where you felt important, and some where you wished you were more appreciated and needed. For example, what job in your career did you enjoy the most, and why? Bendix Communication Division stands out to me because of how they valued my experience, capabilities, and contribution to their work. I'll bet that you too have enjoyed being appreciated at times even more than the pay you received.

And then there are likely times you wished someone cared for you as much as you cared for them. Funny how the pursuer's extended efforts are often rewarded by the retreat of the pursued. Conversely, when the pursuer slackens his pace or even gives up for awhile, that can reverse things and transform the pursued into the pursuer. But no matter how deep and meaningful the relationship, close observation usually reveals a "one-sidedness" illustrated by differences in expectations about the relationship. I believe that we often erroneously feel that an ideal relationship would occur if both parties had the same expectations for their relationship. What improves any relationship greatly, is a maturing of expectations, which recognizes and releases the different expectations of their partner. Relationships are always improved by refusing to try to pour someone into our own mold. Or as a pastor's wife wisely said of her husband when questioned about their differences, "if George and I were identical, one of us would be redundant."

So now let's consider an example of a one-sided relationship. Have you spent much time thinking about the one-sided relationship between man and God? God is eternal and complete within Himself. Since He doesn't need us at all, why do you suppose He spends so much time and attention on us, even giving us His very best gift, and the sacrificial life of His Son to re-open an avenue for our relationship to be restored?

Although He doesn't need us, we desperately need Him. He not only gave us our physical life and sustains it, but when we appreciate and accept Jesus' sacrifice for us, He also gives us spiritual life and a brand new relationship as well. He chooses to have a relationship with us, but leaves the final choice up to us. Our relationship is full of ironies, isn't it? For example, He pursued us by sending His Son to die for us, knowing that each person would start life as His enemy, not aware of His great sacrifice, and that most of us would reject Him, or remain indifferent to Him. And we who need Him so deeply, are typically too self-centered to appreciate what the prospect of our relationship cost Him. He sacrificed His best for us, and all we bring to the table is ourselves. Yet He is so gentlemanly that He never forces the relationship, and merely expects us to appreciate our opportunity to know Him better day by day. But our expectations can be based on His ironclad promises, which He wrote down for us, and backed up with an earnest payment of His Holy Spirit to live inside us and enable us to continually improve our relationship. Jesus is the answer to each of our individualistic relationship needs, even though many of us are very slow to even ask the right questions. In this relationship, the One who does not need us at all is the pursuer. But when we finally wise up, catch a glimpse of how magnificent He is and what all He has done for us, and begin to pursue Him in return, he meets us and embraces us, and does not retreat at all.

What He sees in us remains a mystery. But the satisfaction and enjoyment we find in our relationship with Him will be unfolded with new insights and delights throughout eternity!

The Perfect Gift for Christmas

"Have you got all your Christmas shopping done?" That is a familiar refrain this time of year. Have you found that perfect gift for your special friend yet? Some folks, like my wife and middle son, get great enjoyment from shopping for others and giving them gifts. Others of us are more into receiving gifts. But the Christmas season certainly focuses our attention on family, gifts, and enjoying time together.

Although some definitely have the heart and knack of gift giving, there is still the issue of matching the gift to the recipient so that they enjoy it and don’t even think about returning it to the store. Of course a home made gift avoids the second problem and usually means more to the recipient.

Although Christmas makes it OK to give and receive gifts, have you ever noticed that many of us have difficulty merely receiving a gift, when there is no occasion or opportunity to respond in kind. Especially as a macho male, we often tend to feel beholden to a gift-giver, and would feel better if we could pay them back. Being a joyful, thankful, appreciative recipient of a graciously given gift, when there is no opportunity for payback, is a rare experience for many of us.

Now listen to a true-life experience about the bottom line of gift giving and receiving. Years ago my teenage daughter went with me to a downtown city mission for street people. On the way, she asked me to stop while she bought a couple of candy bars. At the mission she shared her experience of inviting Jesus into her life to be her own savior, as a young girl. To illustrate her point, she walked up to the men on the front row and handed two of them a candy bar. One took it readily, while the other man hesitated. She told them all that only those who reach out and take the gift for their very own, actually wind up with a candy bar to eat. So it is with God’s free gift to us through the payment for our sins which Jesus made on that Roman cross. One criminal who was crucified beside Jesus believed Him and requested and received the gift of eternal life that very day. But the other criminal who was crucified beside Jesus ridiculed Him and died without accepting the gift of eternal life, even though Jesus died for him too.

God pulled out all the stops and withheld nothing from us when He planned to send us His very best, His Son Jesus to die for our sins and give us His gift of eternal life. This is the most expensive gift ever given. But we can reach out by faith and take it for our very own without paying a thing for it ourselves. Many things can keep us from experiencing eternal life for ourselves, such as pride, self-centeredness, ignorance, and failure to believe God. Please don’t let anyone or any thing stand in the way of you receiving your very best gift.

Many folks enter contests all their lives, trying to win something big. And yet some of them overlook God’s gift with their own name on it. I do not know anyone who has unwrapped the gift of eternal life for themselves who has ever even considered taking their gift back. Amazingly one gift fits all sizes, colors, shapes, ages, and temperaments; boys, girls, men and women. Only our creator could know us so well to give each of us the perfect gift for Christmas.

Plan A or Plan B?

When I transferred from Rice Institute to The University of Texas at Austin in 1955 I found that they offered a special liberal arts program for gifted students, called Plan A. I knew two people in Plan A, my cousin Linda (who later married Stanley Marcus) and my friend who lived at the same co-op with me, Tom McCall (who was disinherited by his millionaire parents for becoming a Christian).

Most of us started out in life focused on our own Plan A. We may not have written it down but we had it in mind. It may contain elements and goals our parents and teachers impressed on us, and it may be idealistic. But it tends to embody our ideas of what it would be like to be successful. But life has a way of surprising us with lemons we didn't expect along the way. Some folks take these and make lemonade. Others are made sour by them. Or as was said of Maureen Reagan at her funeral, "life gave her lemons, and she threw them back." These are just some of the alternative responses and actions we can take when our Plan A dreams turn to ashes. But in a moment we'll introduce Plan B that has stood the test of time down through the ages.

One of the most difficult blows to Plan A is in the area of life-threatening illness, such as cancer. Rather than a certain death sentence as in the past, today it summons all of a person's courage to fight for their life with grueling treatment. But when you add to that devastating blow, having a child with mental illness or with mental retardation, life can certainly seem overwhelming. You may have seen a table of stress numbers associated with such traumatic events, including moving, loss of job, and loss of spouse. As the points pile up, the likelihood of induced situational depression also increases. Part of the adverse effects of such an erosion of Plan A is the growing realization that even though I planned thoroughly and worked hard, there are just some things that are not under my control. I experienced just such anguishing realizations when our second son became ill with schizophrenia and we found ourselves at the mercy of private hospital and doctor situations that judged our family, rather than helping the patient. In my desperation, I cried out and yelled at God, telling him I had no answers, but only He could help. Fortunately He did not take my recommended alternatives. Instead He gave me a personalized course on His Sovereignty which is the most important training I have ever experienced.

So with this background, how do we find out about Plan B, when Plan A seems to be falling apart? To learn about Plan B, we focus succinctly on Jesus when He faced death on a tortuous Roman cross, and the unimaginable spiritual burden of taking on Himself the sins of all mankind, so He could be our burden bearer, and pay for all our sin as the perfect Lamb of God. The stress associated with such tests cannot be contained in any table. It produced great drops of blood on His brow as He prayed and struggled and cried out to God His Father, seeking alternatives. But precisely in the midst of that great wrestling match between Father and Son, we find the foundational words of Plan B,

"Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done."

Such are the words of one who chooses to submit to God's Plan, in our case without fully understanding it, but trusting that He will make it much better than all we could ask or think. As we unclench our tight-fisted grip on our own plans, expectations, and demands, God takes control from our relaxed open palm, and He transforms our trusting and entrusting attitude into unending spiritual benefits which, independent of the outcome, make us "more than conquerors." Getting in touch and in tune with God's plans for us produces much good fruit, including experiencing His promises like, "I will never leave you nor forsake you," and "if God be for us (and He is), who (or what) can be against us?"

Watch Out Next Time You Drive In The Country

A man and his wife were thoroughly enjoying a rare summer drive through the countryside on a rather remote highway, when suddenly she cried out "Stop, Honey, Stop!" He reacted quickly as though avoiding something dangerous, only to see that she was pointing back to two fruit stands. He knew she was quite a shopper and that they were in for a little comparative shopping. He also knew her well enough to just sit back and let her check things out, thinking he would wisely just go along with her decisions. After all he hadn't missed any meals for a long time, and she often came up with some very tempting dishes.

As they backed up to the first stand, they saw a big beaming lovely smile on the owner's face, and as he got up to serve them, they suddenly felt very welcome in his presence. The wife's countenance relaxed into a joyful expression as the husband peacefully sensed they had surely picked the right fruit stand. The wife began to bargain and badger the owner to get a better deal, but in spite of this the owner's expression and manner only grew sweeter as he patiently answered her questions and gently made her the best offer he could, of his produce that he knew would be very good for her and her husband. Even though she tested him beyond reason, he faithfully and meekly demonstrated at every turn that his best offer had her family's best interest at heart. But as she pushed and challenged him further to a still better deal, he excused himself to go up the path out back to maintain his self-control.

Just at that precise moment, the owner of the other fruit stand appeared so fast that he startled the woman. At first she thought he was making a pass at her as she thought she glimpsed a girlie magazine being stuffed into his slick jacket. Her keen sense of smell was repulsed at first by a noxious odor of something dead, but he quickly squirted a mist of an enticing fragrance over the entire area. He seemed almost to cast a spell over her as he hastily pulled her over to his fruit stand. His sales pitch was very smooth, but the husband thought he detected an almost hidden air of hatred, anger, and envy against the other owner, which made him fear for his safety. This second salesman quickly made a joke of the first owner's offers. "Did he REALLY say that? I know him. He just wanted to keep you from coming over here to see the really good fruit. Why just imagine how good this delectable one would taste and how wise you'd feel eating it, especially after the other guy claimed this one could even cause you to die. Obviously he is heretical and only wants to keep you from enjoying yourself. But you and your husband have certainly come to the right place. Here, this one's on me. Reach over there and give your husband a bite and let the party begin. Now the next one may be a little intoxicating, so you can enjoy it all yourself so your husband will still be fit to drive. Boy, I broke you away from that old fogy at the other stand just in time, didn't I?"

Such was the drift of things long ago in God's lush "Garden of Eden Fruit Stand." But Satan appeared masquerading as an angel of light, full of distractions, deceptions, lies, and fleshly temptations, which lead to the fruit of the flesh, described in Galations 5. 19 When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, your lives will produce these evil results: sexual immorality, impure thoughts, eagerness for lustful pleasure, 20 idolatry, participation in demonic activities, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, divisions, the feeling that everyone is wrong except those in your own little group, 21 envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other kinds of sin. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God. He must have been a super salesman because he persuaded Eve to try his wares in disobedience to God, and then her husband fell gullibly into the same trap.

How could they have done this after they had "tasted" of God's "fruit of the Spirit," also listed in Galations 5? 22 But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control.

But before we judge our ancestors too harshly, just how successful are we at exhibiting the 9 fruit of the Spirit by yielding to His fullness and control? Or do we ignore or grieve Him as we buy the slick salesman's lies and deceptions that he is still pedaling today? He was totally defeated at the cross and at the empty tomb, he knows his remaining time is short, and he has had a long time to perfect his sales pitch. So buyer beware. "By their fruit you shall know them." Which fruit stand is getting your business today?

The Sound of Singing Hearts

If I asked you what your main problems are, some of you would have a ready answer, and I'll bet others would have to scratch their head. But if I asked, "where do you spend most of your worry time" that might help those folks get in touch too. But today I've got a more enjoyable question, and we'll save those others for later, unless some subliminal answers just pop into your head at an unexpected moment, like while you are asleep.

Today's question is "what causes your heart to sing?" If it keeps right on singing when you reach objectives, then your answer likely relates more to your journey, than to your personal goal-type destination. Have you lived long enough to learn to take out time from your busy schedule, packed agenda, impossible task list, and stacked up "honey-Do's" to enjoy your surroundings, your relationships, and learned to be thankful for all this, including your ability to perform these tasks? If so, it may have taken a rather traumatic event that you would never have chosen to shake some sense of perspective into you, for example when you look back and ask this question at the end of your life. Sometimes we have to be deprived of something before we really begin to appreciate it, and learn to stop taking it for granted.

Just in case you are still playing dumb and haven't made the connection, see if you can relate to some well-known end of life comments. A friend wrote to Senator Paul Tsongas when the senator decided not to run for re-election because he'd been diagnosed with cancer: "No man ever said on his deathbed I wish I had spent more time in the office." Or what John Lennon wrote before he was gunned down: "Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans." Or the clincher: "Even if you win the rat race, you're still a rat."

So by now maybe we can all admit that our sense of urgency sometimes drives us right past very important parts of our life without us even noticing or having a clue. Why do you think our small children sometimes grasp our face in their hands, focus our attention on them, and verbally or non-verbally say "Pay Attention?" For most of you, your family is quite important to you. But if you died today, would you leave behind enough evidence and memories to convict you of clearly communicated love for them? As we have said a number of times, love feelings which are genuine, eventually express themselves in love ACTIONS which are much harder evidence, leaving no room for doubt.

This is of course why Jesus didn't just remain comfortably in heaven and tell us how much He loves us. Instead He spent 33 years of preparation, experiencing all (and more) of the difficulties of life that we do, until the perfect time to allow His enemies and the fickle crowd to cry out for His crucifixion. He stretched out His arms in love, sacrifice, and forgiveness for us, just as much as He did for the forgiven thief on the cross next to Him.

Some of you may wonder if you have really trusted Jesus' payment for all your sin, and some may wonder if it is enough. You should wonder no more. He always comes into a life when invited to be Lord and savior. But He never enters a life uninvited. And the proof of the pudding is when your heart fills with gratitude in response to His love