Wings and a Chain

WINGS AND A CHAIN

Mark F. Graham

I can't remember the first time I saw him, with his wings and chain. At first he always seemed far away and easy to ignore. But as time passed he seemed to move in closer upon me, and I became more aware of him, and more fearful. Wherever I went he seemed to have either just been there, was there at the time of my arrival, or arrived soon afterwards. I could often see him off in the distance, waiting and watching, his chain in one hand and the wings in the other. It was the chain that scared me. Whenever I saw it, I quickened my pace and tried to distance myself from him. Sometimes he came so close I could hear the tinkle of the chain, and would cringe in fear, hiding in frantic activity. He never imposed, but I always knew he would be there when I slowed down and looked around. He seemed to have incredible patience, and, despite my avoidance, pursued me relentlessly.

Along the way it began to dawn on me that it was not good for a man to run and hide. It was tough to face however, because I knew, deep down, that I would have to confront him - and the chain. And the closer I came to the knowledge of that confrontation, the larger and heavier the chain appeared. I began to spend most of my time planning how to avoid the chain. The wings, however, continued to attract me to him.

It finally happened. I had run long and hard that day only to find that he was already there at the end of the run. I tried to hide in my regular pursuits, but they were meaningless, and the meaninglessness frustrated me, and I lashed out at him in anger and frustration. I gave him no time to speak, but immediately lambasted him with my conditions of our relationship. I confessed to him that he was certainly fascinating, and that there seemed to be some truth in what he represented, but I made it clear that we would progress on my terms. I began explaining to him why I should not and could not be subjected to the chain. But before I could complete my lengthy rationalization, I realized that he was offering the wings to me. He was holding the chain partially out of sight, behind his back, as if he knew it was offensive to me, and he was holding the wings out, toward me. I don't know how long he had been holding them out in that way, perhaps from the beginning of my monologue.

Then, a most amazing thing happened. I can't explain it. It changed my life. It happened when, while reaching out to take the wings, for the first time, I looked into his eyes. He did not seem to be offended, as I had expected. He was not angry. His eyes were not scolding me. He was not trying to convince me that I should take the chain, and he was not shaming me for not taking it. There was understanding in his eyes. It was as if he knew about the battles inside of me. It was as if he knew about the war. His eyes captivated and penetrated me and drew me into a world that I never knew existed - a fascinating, dazzling world, the brightness of which I could only bear for a moment. I withdrew quickly, in fear and embarrassment, from his gaze. My eyes fell to the ground at his feet. I felt both warm and cold inside at the same time. I dared not look into his eyes again, but rather hang-doggedly took the wings and turned away.

After a while, with the help of my new wings, I was able to shake the feeling that he had left inside me: the feeling of inferiority, of cowardice, and loose-endedness.

I flew far and high. And it was exciting - really exciting - for a while. But after a while it seemed that each time I took flight the air was hot and stale in my face, and unrefreshing, like diving into a hot swimming pool. And, even though I flew into many strange lands where I had never journeyed, there always seemed to be something wrong - something missing. The water would be polluted, or the air, or the climate was bad, or the people wouldn't look at your face when they spoke, or they appeared weakly and sick. Many places where I stopped had beautiful gardens and orchards with flowers and fruits, and, just as it seemed that I had found the right place, I would learn that the flowers were plastic and the fruit poisonous or cancerous. I would then feel restless and compelled to take flight again, into the hot, stale air, searching - searching - for what?

I began to remember, more and more frequently, the encounter with him, and the look in his eyes, and the chain. Occasionally I thought I could see him, way out on some horizon, still waiting and watching, with his chain. Sometimes I would think about flying to him, confronting him again, and trying to understand him. Perhaps I could get a new pair of wings. Mine were worn, frayed and soiled beyond repair, and had the stains of the pollution of the lands into which I had flown. But these thoughts came and went. I wasn't even sure my wings could make it to him, he always seemed so far away now.

I eventually settled in a land. I knew it wasn't the right place, but I had come to believe that there was no right place. So I determined to make it right. I chose a place that was as close as I could find to my ideal, and began to work to change what I perceived to be the problems. It was a long, hard, fruitless battle, and it left me worn out, tired, hopeless, and feeling sorry for myself. A group of townspeople, angered by my attempts to change the system, had carried me to the outskirts of town and dumped me at the edge of a slimy, oil-slicked pool. There was nowhere that I cared to go, even if my oil-soaked wings would have carried me.

As I tried to gather my thoughts and set a new goal, some objective, even a short-term objective, a place to go, some direction, anything, as I was wiping the slime from my face and groping away from the pool - I saw him! He was more radiant than I remembered. Peace enveloped him and flowed around him like a living, glowing gaseous liquid. He held the chain in his hand. Suddenly I knew that it was what was lacking, what I had needed, and that now I was ready for it, and that he knew all of that too, and that was why he was here. I realized that he had never been far away, that he had always been there, very close, waiting and watching. I realized that what had drawn me to him was his love, and what had driven me away was his truth, and that now it was time for the chain.

I stepped forward, and with shaky courage looked again into his eyes. The intensity was the same as before - even more. I felt the necessary conflict of love and truth, and their oneness, in the highest form. I felt something high and holy that I had left far behind, or never known existed - something that is the object of all growth, the only legitimate reason for striving, and the only solution to strife. In his eyes I saw the beginning of the path that I knew would lead to the place that I had always searched for. Yet I saw also that this path led through lands in which there were battles to fight, far tougher than any I had yet fought. But they were meaningful battles! And the beginning of the path was the chain. The chain was before me, meaninglessness in all other directions.

As I took my end of the chain from his outstretched hand, I noticed that there was no key-slot on the handcuff. The other end was already locked onto his wrist. As I locked my end onto my wrist, I felt for the first time since I could remember that I had done something right, in the real sense of the word. I felt strengthened inwardly. And I was delighted to see that I had a brand new pair of wings!

I've been flying with him now for some time. The chain was quite cumbersome at first, and I kept flying off in the wrong direction, only to be snatched back by it, like a young dog his first time on a leash. But he has led me into some beautiful places that I could have never found on my own. And as we travel together, his way becomes my way, and I often forget about the chain, except occasionally when I see a place that looks so good as we travel by, and I think that I would like to stop in for a "break", or some "excitement"; it is the knowledge of the chain that keeps me from making those mistakes. I am thankful that there is no way to remove the chain, for there have been times when I would have, when he leads me into battles or over cold mountain ranges, and it seems that we are never going to arrive. But always we have arrived - in always more beautiful places. And something I had never experienced – joy – began blossoming in my soul.

The chain has evolved into an invisible living cord connecting his heart with mine. He flies into some places that I am not yet capable of going, and I am still unable to look into his eyes for more than a few moments. But I have learned enough about him to know that he is the way, the truth, and the life, just like he said. The chain, which I feared, has become my only freedom, giving meaning to the flight of my wings. I don't know exactly where he is taking me, but I travel on joyfully with him, learning more and more about him, taking more and more of him into me. I look forward to the time when my love and courage will be strong enough to face up to all the truth, so that I will be able to look into his eyes, fully and completely at one with him in his freedom.

Mark F. Graham

Truth Story

We talk a lot, but we don't really say that much. What do we talk about? Sports. Entertainment. Eating and drinking, etc. Fluff n stuff that occupies us but doesn't feed our souls. We have within us tho, a hunger for something. A yearning, because we know there's more available to us. And we are blessed if we tune in, consciously, to that yearning. If we try to figure out why we feel so sad, frustrated, unfulfilled. If we stop blaming other people for that, and take responsibility for what goes on in our own skin. In other words, if we become a serious truth-seeker. Then we hear about a man who said I am the Truth. And, of course, being a truth-seeker we focus on him—his life and teachings. And its refreshing, in all the fluff n stuff of human discourse, to hear some words of substance: Word like “In the beginning was the Word, and Word was with God, and Word was God, and it became flesh and lived with us for a time.” We hear this One say that he came from the place where everything has come from. And that its a lovely perfect place where this yearning that we have always felt in our hearts is fulfilled completely. A place where everything good and beautiful on this earth exists in magnified form, and all that is evil and wrong is burned up in a consuming fire of truth. We hear in the voice of this One something that resonates deep within us as being eternally and ultimately good. But we also see that he was hated. Because the goodness in him exposed the evil that had infiltrated the human family—the evil that loathed being exposed, because it loses its power in the light of truth; and power was the fuel that it operated on. And so, those who were blinded and consumed in this evil plotted against him, tried to trick him, trip him up, so he'd say or do something that was against the “rules” they'd made up, cause in that day, as in this day in some places, if you disobey the “rules” you get put to death. Problem was they couldn't trick Him because you can't trick Truth, 'cause any way you come at it, it is only the truth. So they trumped up some charges against him and nailed him to a cross. But not before they beat Him to within an inch of his life, spat on him, and made fun of him. None of it changed Him however, being the Truth: He prayed for them. And He had already sown the seeds into this world that continue to grow, and by any reasonable estimation, will always be growing in the human family. The seeds that bear the fruit in our souls of everything we'd been looking for in all the wrong places; the fruit that deeply satisfies the souls of those who sincerely seek and submit to it. But this Truth confronts evil. And we've all got some of it in us. And, of course, evil doesn't want to be confronted. We see that we have it because we don't love each other properly, and love is the essence of Truth. We hurt each other, we are selfish and self-centered, all the while bragging about how much we do. We work hard to get someone to love and admire us, and we don't lift a finger to do the work of loving others. We complain about how badly we've been treated because of the evil in this world—the same evil that we overlook in ourselves. We feel entitled to good service, and we hate to serve. We can be mean and insensitive at times. We want pleasure and comfort and we hate to work, even tho work is love made visible. We live in secret inner fear of what life might do to us, and about death. The Truth exposes all this in us. And so it's easier to keep our head down, not look too deeply into Truth, and hope that we can somehow muddle thru with the little human knowledge we've stored up in our little finite brains that we did not create. And evil loves that, 'cause it can only operate in the darkness of that blindness. And so we keep spinning our wheels, going down one dead-end street after another. And we become like those that He prayed for: Father, please forgive them, because they don't know what they are doing. And we sure need that forgiveness, if what He said is true. Because one thing He said is that we all, sooner or later must face that Truth in its purest and most powerful form. And there won't be any place to hide from it. And for those who have sincerely sought it and submitted themselves to it, that will be heaven. But for those who have fearfully avoided it, it will be hell. The same Truth: heaven for some, hell for others.

The Reconciling Power of Christ

Below is a link to Smithsonian.mag depicting an amazing WWI event that reveals the power of Christ to break down the dividing walls between enemies. It's as if for a few hours on Christmas Eve, the Eternal Truth of Christ emerged and transformed enemies into friends. How wonderful if we could live in that Reality [the Kingdom of God, ushered in by Christ] permanently!


http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-story-of-the-wwi-christmas-truce-11972213/?no-ist=

Growing More Mature: New Year's Resolution

Humans don't mature naturally.  We grow into adulthood physically without effort [except perhaps to stay alive and take care of ourselves physically]. But we do not become mature human beings without conscious effort and application of certain principles--the principles of Love and Truth. Unlike the other creatures of this earth, we cannot live by instinct, impulse or feelings. There are aspects of our personality that are not safe for us or others, and that are not conducive to ultimate happiness and peace.  When we look at our children and adolescents, we see these bad seeds of selfishness, judgmentalism, competitiveness, defensiveness, cruelty, hedonism, laziness, unfairness, and deceptiveness ["sneaking around"].  [It is why, for instance, that my eight year old grandson runs upstairs, as he did just now, when his grandmother started talking about certain chores that needed to be done.] This is why we consider parenting a necessity.   These traits don't simply fade away as we grow into adulthood. We recognize them in our adult selves also; and we know that we cannot give in to them. If we do not consciously weed out or suppress these aspects of our personality, we become adolescent-children in adult bodies; and we wreak havoc in the world. When we are born again in Christ, our first [painful] realization is that we are "sinners".  This simply means that we recognize the truth about ourselves.  We are not good. And no matter how hard we try, we continue to have the downward pull of these tendencies in us. We cannot eliminate them any more than we can eliminate gravity. Jesus' life and teachings are primarily to awaken us to this reality. We are not innately good. Thankfully we are offered His Spirit to enlighten and empower us to progressively overcome our sinful nature. This is called "sanctification" or the ongoing purification of our personalities. If we are not enlightened in this way, we continue to create many problems for ourselves and others, and usually either suffer chronic guilt or blame others for it. When we come into Christ and begin this wonderful, important process, we are repeatedly amazed at the depth and tenacity of our sinful nature. We see level after level of selfishness and myriad manifestations of darkness in us. As the Apostle Paul came to understand, we realize that we are "wretched" creatures.  The unredeemed mind refuses to acknowledge this reality--will not face the pain of it.  Indeed, without a sufficient realization of God's love for us, even in the light of His full awareness of the ugliness of our sinful nature, none of us could bear to look at it. This is the great wonder and beyond amazing beauty of  Christ's provision for us: He has taken all the ugliness of the sin of the entire human family upon Himself and destroyed it spiritually at Calvary. Therefore, when we enter into Him through faith, we are cleansed from all of it and become beloved children of God. We still have the sinful tendencies, but we are now capable, through His Holy Spirit, entering us through faith in Him, to progressively emerge from the darkness of its effects upon us, into the Light of Christ's righteousness. And even though we do not become perfect beings in that moment, we enter into His perfect Spirit that has "overcome the world", and we are delivered from condemnation without being in denial. The great paradoxical miracle is that we know that we are sinners; and we simultaneously know that we are forgiven, free, and clean in the sight of our Creator. In fact, the more in touch we are with the reality of our darkness, the more thankful and glad we are for God's love; and the more we are willing to love others with His Love.  We've done the best we can do when we acknowledge the truth about ourselves and received Christ as our Savior; and God, of course, knows it.
Then we start to become mature human beings--to fulfill the potential that God has placed within us.
What does this maturity look like? It looks like Christ Himself, Who went about doing good, washed His disciples' feet, came to serve rather than to be served, took pity on the downtrodden, loved the unlovable, served those who had nothing to offer Him, was not intimidated by the powerful, intelligent, evil leaders of His day, and lived in Truth even though it cost Him an excruciating death.  On a practical level, it means that we learn how to be OK when we do not get what we want [from our mate, boss, life, etc.]; it means that we do not return bad behavior [or attitude] for bad behavior [or attitude]; it means that we do not have adult temper tantrums; it means that we are able to serve [put dishes in the dishwasher, work, take the dog for a walk, clean up after the kids, etc.] without resentment; it means that we have concerns extending beyond our self and immediate family--concerns for those suffering in ways we have never had to suffer--and that we use the channels established to minister to those people; it means that we do not allow ourselves to be absorbed in meaningless entertainment; it means that we do not waste our time wishing we had somebody else's life [envying]; it means that we take time to step out of the busy-ness of life long enough to prayerfully evaluate our way of being in the world; it means that we practice compassion and gratitude as consciously chosen disciplines; it means that we discipline our anger and let go of or properly channel our frustration; it means that we stay mindful of the fact that, even though life is difficult, we are tremendously blessed to have been given this unspeakable gift, and that the Giver is good beyond all human good, and loves beyond all human love, and that, therefore, "all is well, and all is well, and all shall ever be well".  Above all, it means that we consciously choose, over and over again, in every moment, to love our people---the human family---with the Love of Christ; and that we refuse to allow anything in us or in others prevent that Love from flowing through us like a healing, cleansing river of Living Water that washes away everything in us that is not free, peaceful, joyful, and fit for heaven.
May we be resolved to become more mature this year.

Brad 2014

 

 Today marks the third anniversary of my son Bradley's death. I awoke this morning at 4:30 with these words in my heart:

Sometimes my heart feels like a wet rag being twisted and wrung out with the pain of him not being here; With the longing for him to come and fill up that gigantic vacuum he left in my soul—in our souls.

The only thing I can do to ease the pain, bring some light into the darkness, unclinch my heart, is to go into the Spirit, the Holy Spirit of Christ Himself, and His great Love, the same Love that was and  still is in Bradley; the Love from which all the various loves come. Then I hear His voice reminding me about the “many rooms” and comforting me with “fear not, don’t be troubled”* and I begin to know again, in an ever deepening way, about that Light that is the Light of man, the Core and center of the universe from which all has come, to which all will return, in which all currently resides; the God Who is Love, Who made Brad’s and everyone’s particular, unique personality possible; the One Who brought forth all that is and holds it together, on this side and the other side of death.

I have to and I want to let my heart be filled up and filled up and filled up to overflowing with that Love from which came forth Bradley’s laughter, compassion, humor, loyalty, and all the particular instruments in the orchestra of his personality that played such a beautiful series of compositions for us for a time on this earth. And I want to remember too that not all the songs were happy ones for him or for us in this world; that he had his share of that tribulation that Jesus said we would all have; like the tribulation of losing someone you love.  But how amazing, how amazing, how over-the-top amazing that He said, speaking with the voice of eternal Truth that transcends all truth, “nevertheless, be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”  There, you see, right there, is when I hear Brad laughing! And when I see him, like I did in the dream that God gave me, I see him winking at me, with Jesus standing behind him, a hand on his shoulder, smiling, and behind them the Light of God, the conscious Core and Fabric of this universe, shining brighter than the sun, enveloping me and all of us in Eternity and in Love.

*From John 14.

The Gift

There is something in me that is perpetually frustrated and disappointed by our failure to live the Christian faith---by my own failures to do so, and by our nation's and the world's failures to do so.  I think this is the frustration that was and is the fire in the belly of all the prophets through the ages. As a culture moves farther and farther from living the realities of the Faith, it deteriorates. Anyone who loves people and sees this deterioration is frustrated and seeks to do something about it. We are created in the image of God. We see plainly that humans are above all creatures on this earth in this regard; and we have responsibility that corresponds to our creative abilities and powers.  This responsibility involves sincere attention to life---what works and does not work for the human family--in other words, we are responsible to be sincere truth seekers.  In this light, it is fair to say that anyone who has not at least read the New Testament is a fool. I say this with no malice. One who ignores the words of the One Who said "I am the way, truth and life" can not claim to be an honest truth seeker. And if we do not seek, we will not find. And if we do not discover the Way of true life, we become a problem to the human family rather than a solution to the problems of humanity.  And we do not even realize that we are a problem---that we are bringing more suffering into life than healing and light.  Our lives become distracted by things that do not benefit the human family.  Our selfishness and self-centeredness, traits that we are all born with, will always win the day. 
Anyone who reads the New Testament, especially the teachings and life of Christ, in sincere openness to Truth, and is not inwardly transformed in a very positive way is spiritually blind. I don't know what hope there is for that person, and I pray God's mercy upon them. (Those who fall in this category may hear that statement as arrogant or condescending, though, God knows, there is no arrogance in it.) The wise of all ages have seen the solution to the human problems in Christ's teachings. To look elsewhere is futile unless and until it leads to the Truth of Christ. Christ is the center of the universe, as he is the center of human history---a fact that secularists, operating in spiritual blindness, have sought to obfuscate, an example of which is the changing of A.D. [Anno Domini,  in the year of our Lord] to C.E. [in the "Common Era"].  Anything that takes a culture away from the realities of the Christian Faith takes it farther into darkness. Anyone who suppresses the Christian Faith makes democracy a less tenable form of government, because spiritually immature people cannot govern themselves, no matter how intelligent they are.  Education does not substitute for spiritual maturity, and it takes a radical intervening Force, combined with sincere earnest seeking, to evoke spiritual maturity, which does not happen naturally or passively. Jesus said, "Unless one be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God."  and the Kingdom of God is the only solution to earth's human problems. Why is it so difficult for us to see that all our human efforts, uninspired by the Holy Spirit of our Creator, are futile? Has not history born this out ad nauseum? Why is it so difficult to realize that Jesus has solved the human problem in a single statement: "You are to love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use and persecute you if you desire to be the children of your Father in heaven"?  Those who see this as Utopian and unattainable, and write it off, and turn toward political and military solutions, simply prolong the human misery.  How long have we utilized those modalities fruitlessly? The difficulties of this teaching, and the fact that so few seem to be willing to practice it, combined with the ongoing hostilities and vanity in the human family, do more to validate than to diminish its veracity. What if we really practiced it as an ongoing conscious endeavor? No matter how far short we fall, any movement in that direction would certainly move us in the right direction. Instead of ignoring Christ and His teachings, and blandly or viciously suppressing Christianity, what if we elevated it to the forefront of human attention?  Instead of exclusively pointing out the hypocrisy in it [a perennial temptation in any endeavor] why not focus on the unquestionable good that has been evoked by it, realizing that hypocrisy is an aspect of the very evil it exposes and overcomes? As someone has said, [paraphrasing]"It's not that Christianity has been tried and found wanting, it's that it has been found to be hard, and not tried."
My hope is that our frustrations about the problems in this world will lead us ultimately toward the only true Solution, and into the endeavor of furthering His Kingdom, which will be the greatest gift we can give to those we love, and perhaps the only thing that will give us satisfaction at the end of our lives.




Response from James Willis:

Dec 29 at 9:44 PM

I realize your question is rhetorical, part lament and call to action, but I am prompted to respond to your question in part, below:

'Why is it so difficult to realize that Jesus has solved the human problem in a single statement: "You are to love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use and persecute you if you desire to be the children of your Father in heaven"?'

Sin, and resulting blindness. Generally speaking only people with a real problem look for a real answer.
God calls sinners to salvation through His Son in Grace, which brings repentance, salvation and sanctification, and restoration of fellowship with God.

 

Consider those whose ears are dull, eyes that have closed, with no understanding in their hearts:

Mat_13:15  For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

Act_28:27  For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

It's so important, it's in both Matthew and Acts.

 The verse above from Matthew follows the parable of the sower, and Jesus goes on to explain the role of the individual decision and of evil interfering with the hearing:

Mat 13:19  When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side.

This describes a process of struggle for the birth of awareness of truth. At any point in time it appears there are those that are dull of hearing, with eyes and hearts closed, and are unafraid. I'm very familiar with this condition in my own life experiences. Even so, there are voices calling in the wilderness to bring the truth by the Holy Spirit.

Some are unafraid of sin, unafraid of death, unafraid of God and His awesome power to spin the planets and know the hairs on our head. Perhaps in throwing out the superstition of the middle ages, and substituting science, materialism and consumerism we have thrown out the baby with the bath water, washing fear down the drain, substituting apathy for fear.

Of course fear can be an oppression, and it can be a terrible companion but when I climbed mountains fear was my friend and I would listen often times objectively. If I was having an off day climbing that bit of overhanging ice was maybe not a smart idea, better to eat first or maybe just go home and I've done both, and lived.

Today, fear is the enemy and is hunted down with empowerment strategies, personal talismans and idols, with secular poetry, with caffeine, alcohol and other drugs like money, even with Nike logos like "Just Do It". Perhaps fear is the wrong enemy. ["Twas Grace that taught my heart to fear, and Grace my fears relieved." John Newton, Amazing Grace] added by MFG.

Last week I offered some encouragement to a young man recently married whose father in law passed away unexpectedly. In support of his wife, I explained that during a crisis, the loss of a dear loved one, sometimes the past is temporarily jettisoned from our memory, and hope for the future is temporarily nonexistent, and we are simply left in an apparently eternal now-ness where we come face to face with uncertainty and doubt, prior to grief. In time through grief we have our dear memories restored to us, and they become an even more precious part of who we are, and hope for the future becomes an active part of our life and we grow beyond the chrysalis of the butterfly, but there are those moments of metamorphosis and apparent stasis when nothing seems to be moving or changing but where the real progress is made.

Those moments of now-ness I think are opportunities to meet God through His Grace. After all, He is eternally now, "I Am", so perhaps we can meet Him at those times without all the normal trappings of life. But it's the repentance, and the Grace that invites us that gives us the opportunity to step out in faith, and what is faith without a little fear and doubt to give us an easy out, a quick alternative, the very canvas of our weakness in the flesh that gives contrast to the bold strokes of faith. It's how we decide in those moments of invitation, those moments of encounter that determines our fellowship with God, indeed our salvation.

I heard yesterday on KLove that a Chihuahua was found in a house destroyed by fire, he was shrouded in house insulation and standing in a puddle of water protected from the heat. A man of science would say there's a logical explanation to this, that the human DNA double helix is a matter of evolution only and that the parting of the Red Sea and the fall of the walls of Jericho are not miracles but due to natural phenomena only. Putting aside the fact for believers that God is entirely 'natural', of course they can't explain away the exquisite timing of these events which gives us pause to reflect on the majesty of God's creation. Unless of course you are given to self actualization, can overcome all fear triggers real or imagined, and are literally hell bent to quiet that still, small voice of God calling unto God within us to be gathered unto Himself for His purpose. But even if one's eyes and ears are closed, there will be a time for reconsideration because of God's Mercy.

Your question of "Why is it so difficult..." though, hinges on the fact that the logic or mathematics of God's mercy makes little sense in the flesh. Love your enemies? "Hey, What about me??" Do Good to those that hate you? "Not on my watch, I've got my defenses up!" Pray for those who spitefully use and persecute you?? "Clearly you have a bad translation in hand..." Consider the logic of "be angry, but do not sin". It's perfect. For example, if a forest fire simply refused to spread from one blade of grass to the next blade of grass, or from one tree to the next tree, poof! there'd be no forest fire. The analogy breaks down because forest fires are sometimes natural processes and required, but if anger did not spread via sin what an improvement that would be.

This logic doesn't work because it requires faith in practice and we want to dig in and do things ourselves. Waiting on God is so passive, after all, when we can just dig in with our own tools and talents which may work with small problems but rarely with the problems that matter.

My hope is that your ministry will continue to move others through the work of the Holy Spirit for His purpose, and that it will be disruptive to Satan's plans for our destruction. The book "23 Minutes in Hell" tells the story of a man who says he went to hell, where he was in a dark cell carved in the side of a seemingly endless pit kept company by a demon with pure malevolence, who wanted only his eternal suffering. Do we believe science which maintains these images and experiences are the result of neurons firing and memories changing, or do we allow for the idea that we may not know what we don't know and would do well to have some appreciation or even healthy fear of our imperfect knowledge and turn to Christ our Savior and His Gospel. After all, it's not a weakness to be a lamb in need of a Shepherd, if in fact you are a lamb in need of a Shepherd.

In Christ,

Jim

Thanks Jim

What Ferguson Exposed

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are of God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit which does not confess Jesus is not of God. This is the spirit of antichrist, of which you heard that it was coming, and now it is in the world already. 1John 4:1-3


Mockers inflame a city, but the wise turn away anger. Prov. 29:8

In the aftermath of the Ferguson, MO riots, there have been many voices crying out to be heard. Some of them have been civil and level-headed; others fueled by fiery hatred. Some have been subtle and smooth, but dead wrong in their focus, and destructive of purpose. It's alarming how bereft of common sense many of these loud voices have been—how militantly blind to the facts and how quick to covertly or overtly justify lawlessness. Vicious statements like “Burn this b___ down!” [Michael Brown's step-father], and “We'll tear this g-- d--- country down!” [Farrakhan] are coming from a place in the soul that is contrary to all that is good in humanity.

We can see that there are many spirits that have been loosed in the world that are contrary to the peace-engendering love and wisdom of Jesus Christ. Many blanch at the mention of His name. An atheist group has posted billboards with a picture of a young girl writing a letter, obviously to Santa: “Dear Santa, All I want for Christmas is not to have to go to church.” An atheist spokesman for the group says the purpose was to help atheists or unbelievers to not “feel alienated”. The message sounds less like an encouragement to unbelievers than a slap in the face of the church---the church whose pope is currently in Turkey trying to garner support from the Muslim community in the work of condemning the Islamic State atrocities. The church that has spawned organizations like Samaritan's Purse, Voice of the Martyrs, the Baptist Disaster Relief, and thousands of other ministries to the sick, needy and poor. Perhaps these atheists could better serve humanity by organizing such ministries rather than attacking the church.

It has never been clearer to me that the Christian Faith---Christ Himself---is the answer to the problems of the world. And it is alarming to see how many loud voices there are in our country that are pulling society in the opposite direction of His Truth. It seems incredibly foolish—suicidal---to try to tear down this country or the Faith that has clearly been its foundation. It is an act of spiritual blindness and pure selfishness to release oneself into lawless behavior, rationalized by the false perception that the judicial system has failed. It seems evident that the energy of this anarchy was already smoldering underground, awaiting a trigger [and it was a hairline trigger] to be released. Militant blindness—the refusal to see the truth—is the essence of evil. Jesus said “I am the Truth...” Without the discernment of the Holy Spirit one cannot see the truth. Children who've not been given access to the Bible become fallow ground in which any wayward seed of deception may take root. Like zombies going after noise, spiritually blind people will follow any loud voice speaking with enough passion, no matter how far from the truth it may lead them. This is true because the human soul was created with the need for a purpose beyond itself. And if Christ does not fulfill that soul with His Love, Satan will fill it with hatred and misguided deception. Communism, Nazism, and radical Islam are all stark examples of what can grow in the fallow ground of unbelief in Christ as the Messiah. An honest objective study of what has grown in the fertile ground of the Christian Faith reveals immense good for the human family, including safety for and ministries to those who do not believe. [As long as that unbelief is not aggressively destructive of the Christian Faith, as in the case of the Crusades. Christianity has the right to protect itself from violent eradication.] If it were possible for the spiritually blind to see, they would realize that the Christian Faith is the only truly safe sanctuary for the human soul and spirit. All else becomes a struggle for power and control---something Christ possessed, but laid aside, becoming a servant of humanity and an example for His followers.

Spiritual blindness destroys all that is good in a society. There are no levels of education, political correctness, or military power that can compensate for spiritual blindness or prevent it from eroding a nation. It is suicidal to work against faith in Christ.