So Sorry for You !

      Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.  (Romans 12:9)

       God cares about us. That doesn't ring true to many today. When one observes the lawlessness, the pedophilia, child trafficking, random shootings, drug abuse, starvation, warfare, the general hurting and brokenness so rampant about us, one could presume God doesn't care. But, if you'll look at each misfortune listed above and add many more of your own, I believe you'll find that God is not the initiator of any of them---people are. God placed us in a world that we have gravely misused. God is not responsible for the "bad-ness" in our world---we are.

      God did not kill helpless humans recently in Paris in terrorist madness. Nothing, for that matter, would indicate that He would even desire such evil activity. Yes, He allowed it. But, if we are to have free will, He must allow such. Could He have intervened and stopped it. Yes. But, He chose not to, and I don't claim to know why. This world, for the time being, is subject to the negative forces of Satan (go ahead, scoff at this reference, but know that human understanding of the spiritual world about us barely exists. Label me illogical, unscientific---okay; but don't brazenly and incorrectly label me stupid).

      When Jan and I first moved to our rural home, I often, and sometimes still do, referred to it as God's Country.  Serene and isolated. Two, three, four cars passed our house in a day---one of those was the mail deliverer. Things have changed: traffic has increased including people we don't even know! New homes and families nearby. We live a far piece, a far cry, from Paris. We feel so blessed in our still peaceful territory---our very blessed home! But, we do have more evil about us, as more people are here.
       I'm sure many folks will always resent God's allowing bad things to happen in their lives. Many will interpret it as God's bad-ness. Many will choose to think of God as despicable, as the cause of their ill-fortune---and some will even tragically disavow my God as a result. So sorry for you! I, however, choose to focus on the many, many good things that God has heaped upon my life---the protection, the love, the comfort (none somehow personally deserved). I will insist that our life's evil activity is triggered by the evil within us humans.
      So, my rambling ends again, God is good, always was and always will be. We are warped. I pray for His forgiveness and blessings upon you.
      

Mizzou . . . Schizophrenia and Existential-Groanings

      Have you observed reports of the activities at Mizzou this week? Pretty weird, eh? It's difficult for me to ferret out all the necessary information down at the street level to grasp the significance of the matter. But, a football team threatening to boycott a game-day! And, it would seem, that menacing possibility becoming the tipping point in the decision-making process?! People fired? Oh, well---sports money ($1,000,000 plus for a forfeiture) speaks louder apparently than values, purpose, and objectivity once again.  Perhaps, more was there than meets my eye, but good grief, what kind of self-hating, warped, forlorn soul spends time drawing swastikas, much less using feces?!

      The female communications instructor---shrill and frenetic---now fired, was absolutely ridiculous. What does she indicate about the teachers and professors our university systems are hiring---and even paying. I would certainly loved to have been one of her students!  . . . and then the "News" making judgments about the University of Missouri based upon the one video of her screaming for "muscle"? Loose connections implied between events in Ferguson and these events!  My, my, my . . .

     What can we say? Basically, nothing. The insanity of those developing events and reactions is probably suggestive of some large generalization about our society, but I believe it's even more indicative of the state of the Individual within our culture. I marvel at how empty and peripatetic we have become morally. I was a young man in the "Sixties" and am aware that the loss of "grounding," though not always bad, certainly allows for existential-groanings---but, today, we have what seems to me almost a schizophrenic populace. Definitely, one that is so Me-first in most ways that it is exclusive of all common sense---perhaps, even hope.

      Sorry, for those of you super-people who believe that we e-van-GEL-i-cals, as you so disdainfully mouth, are so stodgy and un-educated---and, yep, even stupid. I won't call you "stupid," as you call me, but I believe a good dose of the Holy Spirit [of Jesus] could cure the disease you and your fellows (sorry if that word is too political incorrect for you) are suffering. I could more easily ignore your illness if it didn't manifest itself so often in my world.

      My friends, we need each other. We need peace. We need love. We need good-will. I pray for all of this. But, I realize, as long as humans are capable of evil, we will always have problems. Lawlessness is always a danger. Hurt and pain are everywhere rampant. Disagreement and division create difficulties. What do we not need? We don't need the incredibly foolish events like those at Mizzou this past week.  When people around you do destructive things, point it our to them. Have a spine.

and It Was Completely Calm

      I find it quite humorous to observe the awkwardness in the cynical political media's reaction to Ben Carson's occasional remarks about his conversion experience and how it changed his relationships and his life. The world, I suppose, has nearly always had an arthritic reception to any Christian's attempt to communicate his salvation event. To begin with, the supernatural element in it goes entirely beyond human analysis and makes the discussion stand finally outside rationality. To a completely objective person, then, the matter simply dies at that point. And so it does, I believe. Without spiritual intervention, salvation cannot occur. Human-inspired hyper-emotion, though dramatic, is not, in any sense, a viable replacement for the actual indwelling process of the Holy Spirit.

      Jesus plainly stated:  "with man this (salvation) is impossible, but with God all things are possible" (Matt 9:26). If one accepts that Jesus died and was raised from that death to a new life in a new body, then absolutely anything is possible through His spiritual intervention---absolutely anything, within the will of God! So, why do we so doubt? " '. . . you of little faith, why are you afraid?' Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm" (Matt 8: 26). Supernatural, right? I always think of Peter. We, like Peter, can walk on the water toward Jesus, but then we waver. I've always felt an affection for Peter---his histrionics, his aspirations, his willingness. And . . . his failure at the critical moment! That's me, all wrapped up in Peter's human-ness. Yet, I've accepted that Jesus is the bread, the living water, the Way---and everything's going to be okay. "In his great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" (1 Peter 1:3).
      Well, it's basically very simple, I guess. Yet, we humans can find a way to complicate anything. I wish I could "explain" to you salvation, but I cannot. You must seek your own. No, . . . no, you don't have to do anything; God gives us the choice, the option. I hope, though, that you will read the Gospel and let it work in the very depths of your being.  God bless!
      Please don't scoff when people speak of their salvation. It is a very intimate experience. It is very personal. It is the most important portion of their life here on earth. It's an ongoing experience, as testified to by the lives of Jesus' disciples. Be patient with yourself. Jesus in your life brings a sweet, sweet mysterious peace that you'll not know until you accept Him.