Archived posts from October 2006
This world is full of religions—all makes, models, varieties, derivations.
Many teachers have come, teaching ways of living.
Buddha, Confucious, Mohammed all brought a new message which was embraced as wisdom by many. Jesus is often included in that list, but his message was vastly different—he didn’t claim to know a way of living, he claimed to BE the way.
Most people around the world would say that Jesus started the religion of Christianity. But much of what is commonly recognized as Christianity is far from what he taught. Jesus clearly taught that we must individually make the choice to follow him, that it has nothing to do with the family or nation we are born into. We must each come to the realization that HE is the way to life, and, as he put it, be "born again" as we make that amazing discovery! Being born in the West doesn’t make you a true Christian, but there are millions who think so. This is a horrible distortion of the message that Jesus brought.
What does it mean to be "born again"? It is to understand that everything we have known and thought must be reexamined and, if necessary, discarded in the light of his teachings. It is to start life all over in the biggest way possible. It is to acknowledge that we have sinned, that we have done everything wrong, that our way is wrong, that we can only experience REAL life if we, so to speak, let him live through us.
The Bible is God’s message to the world. It’s opening line—"In the beginning GOD". He has always existed, and is the creator of everything. He created the entire universe, the world we live in—mountains, deserts, oceans, forests, animals, and finally, people.
The Bible says people were his last creation, his crowning achievement, and he created them "in his image"—in some way like himself.
The opening chapters of the Bible tell a beautiful story of God and man interacting together in the garden where he created man, a paradise far removed from the world we live in today. And then the chilling tale of man rebelling and disobeying God, causing a rift that destroyed the wonderful friendship they had enjoyed.
Why would God, if he really is the creator of all and possesses all power, let everything go so wrong? The answer is amazing, although rarely understood. God made man in his image, which means he had a free will, and could make the choice to rebel. God intentionally placed in his masterpiece, man, the ability to choose to rebel against him!
God’s master plan went far beyond merely creating man. His master plan would create beings who had made the choice to serve him, far superior to beings who merely served him out of compulsion. And in order to do so, God himself had to become a man, to come to earth to die for the sins of man, and to redeem men back to himself! Jesus was God in the flesh, and the amazing truth is that God knew even before he created man that all this would transpire.
And so Jesus came in the most humble way, born to a poor teenage Jewish mother, born, it was rumored, illegitimately. He was raised in obscurity and became a carpenter. But all the while, he was overcoming all the temptations humans face on earth, and made the choice to fulfill the purposes for which he’d been sent. He became a sort of prophet at the age of thirty, teaching a new way of life, teaching there was another kingdom, a spiritual kingdom that could be entered and experienced through faith.
Many followed him, but hardly any understood him. He traveled and taught in the land of Israel for three years, and then, shockingly, unexpectedly, was crucified by the Romans. His followers were grieved, broken, and scattered.
And then the astonishing news—he wasn’t dead, he had risen from the dead! He had conquered death and thereby provided a way for us to do the same. He was seen by hundreds of people many, many times over the next forty days—this is extremely well documented historically as well as being in the Bible, and then departed to go back to heaven, with the promise he would return.
For two thousand years, the message has been shared. Four different accounts written on the life and teachings of Jesus are recorded in the Bible. His message has often been misunderstood and distorted. But there is a kingdom here on earth which he established, a spiritual kingdom that has no political or physical boundaries. That kingdom is huge, comprised of every nationality, and that kingdom is growing. It consists of those individuals who have made the choice to obey God by making Jesus their king. They have understood that Jesus didn’t just teach a way to live, but that he himself is the way. Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, Jews—there are people from every religion who have found that Jesus is the way.
Jesus said he would return and set up his kingdom on the earth. Those who follow him now are waiting for him to do that. His kingdom is here now, in a spiritual sense, but will become known to all when he returns in bodily form to heal the world by ruling the world.
That will be the greatest time the world has ever known! The Bible says the knowledge of the Lord will cover the earth like the waters cover the seas! Imagine a world—this earth!—free from war, from poverty, from oppression. We can all live and enjoy life the way God originally intended. It will be like being back in the garden he created for us once again, but even better.
This time we are living in right now is not just "sit around and wait time". It is time to share the good news with others everywhere, to let them know that this kingdom is real, that this way of life is the truth, and that NOW is the time for people to choose to be a part of that kingdom—to use the free will he has given us to decide to make him our king.
ok, pals, the only sports I like is the ones my kids play....I’m hopeless, I know, but I only have so much leisure time and no lack of things to fill it with....don’t try to convert me. BZ’s given up on it.
So today the Chiefs pulled it off in a real nailbiter. Lunch was sitting there getting cold but the boys were too absorbed to care, and I didn’t either. But after lunch, BZ said, "Now I can watch some football and actually enjoy it--those kind of games are just torturous." Weird. Quit torturing yourself. There are so many things I get worked up about, and disturbed about, I kind of like to just relax sometimes and not feel so tense and stressed and then unhappy if they do lose, which statistically happens about half the time. (Clue: it’s all designed to break your heart.)
I did watch the bottom of the ninth of the Cardinals last game in the division series...winner goes to the Super Bowl...it was really close, and BZ hollered at me to come watch. I sat through three outs and enjoyed watching the jubilation of the winners--what fun! Then they interviewed the manager of the losing team...his eyes were full of pain and disappointment. Dang. I hate that. The thrill of victory is overshadowed by the agony of defeat.
Would I rather watch mindless drivel? NO NEVER!!!! I cannot abide watch stupid sitcoms, stupid TV. Those things are never never on in our house, nobody watches them. American Idol? Never seen it. I did watch half of one episode of some country music version of American Idol, because someone was at the house and wanted to watch it. Sheesh. Yuck.
I do occasionally watch Discovery Channel things, or History Channel, or some things Aaron tapes--Dirty Jobs, the Deadliest Catch (crab fisherman!). I saw an interesting show recently about making cheese--HA! I guess I’m really hopeless.
And I love to watch a really good movie, usually something dramatic, the problem is there really aren’t too many good movies. The Lord of the Rings series was probably the best thing made in the last several years, and it was a hit because JRR Tolkien wrote such a fabulous story and they were faithful in adapting it to film.
Give me a book anytime! I love books. In my leisure time, when I’m not reading one, I’m browsing Amazon.com, always looking for something else to read. I love reading people’s booklists, seeing what appeals to certain people. I read lots of reviews. Books rock.
There is a Rocky Mountain climbers forum I’m part of....I go by Miss Lucy there. This is an account of a day in the mountains I wrote for that site:
CCY is one of our favorite hikes. I didn’t find anything much here on them, however. We access them via the Chapin Creek TH at the 7 mile marker on Old Fall River Road. That trail is high, and gets you even higher in a hurry. I love the trail to the peaks--I call it my "sound of music" trail. (Dorky, but just humor me.) It’s a beautiful trail with awesome views almost from the very beginning.
We’ve done all three consecutively a few times--it takes me, my husband Jinks, and our 14 year old son Jinks Jr. about 8 hours. But we can be on top of the first, Chapin, in an hour if we hoof it. The kid could be up there a lot faster if it weren’t for mom and dad slowing him down, he’s a billy goat. I remember what a big deal it was making it to Chapin my first time, maybe six years ago, as a newbie. I’m in so much better shape now than then, that’s for sure! I like to take other newbies up there and give them the thrill of a big peak without a long approach.
In 2004, we were trying to get all five summits for the first time (Chapin and Ypsilon each have two.) The clouds started coming in early, maybe 10:30. We decided to skirt Chiquita and aim for Ypsilon which I had never summitted. Maybe 20 minutes from the summit, we made the decision to turn around, a decision we loathe making, but hopefully have the brains to do so when necessary. I took a picture of the guys putting on their rain gear, a picture I later entitled, "Right before all Hell broke loose".
The storm came on with a vengeance. We were being pelted hard with rain and sleet, which wouldn’t have been so bad if it weren’t for the LIGHTNING BOLTS all around us. We knew we had to get down as quick as we could, and we started running through the boulders. I slipped and fell twice, once on a knee and once on my butt. The noise of the thunder and the storm was deafening. We were descending as quick as we could, not the same way we had come up, but just trying to get to lower ground. We were way above treeline, near the summit which is 13,514 feet.
We got into a bad place on the mountain. We were on some cliffs that were impossible to descend (now immortalized as the CLIFFS OF INSANITY.) Jinks was on a ledge about chest height above me and pointed to a talus slope about 20 feet higher. He said we needed to climb up to it, so that we could climb down it. I realized just then how exposed I was--it was a sheer dropoff below me. I felt a wave of panic come over me, and know that it was the grace of God that helped me climb up that 20 feet. I then crabwalked down that 200 feet or so of talus, and when I got to the bottom, I cried real tears of relief as I realized we were now safe on the tundra. All we had to do now was find the trail, and hike on out (still probably 3-4 hours).
We had a brief respite from the lightning, but the rain continued steadily. And then the thunder returned, and we realized we needed to get lower yet, below the treeline into the forest. And we still hadn’t found the trail....
An hour later, we STILL hadn’t found the trail. And now the entire area was totally socked in by clouds. We couldn’t see the peaks, we couldn’t even tell what mountain we were on. There were no landmarks. We didn’t have a GPS. All we had were a map and compass, and we had no real idea WHERE on that map we were!
We poured over the map, while the rain poured over us. (Thank God for waterproof maps!) The entire side of the mountain had turned into a stream, and my gore-tex boots were full of water--I could feel it squish with every step. At one point, I sat down, took off one boot, and wrung out my sock. I never did get around to doing the second one....
We charted our course, determined what direction we needed to be going, and didn’t deviate. We would look at the compass, and find a tree or a rock we needed to aim for, and get there. We climbed over trees, slushed through streams, and kept going. It was cold, but I was dressed for it. I knew, however, that moving was keeping me warm, and if we had to stop or even bivouac for the night, we would be really cold. And I hadn’t packed dry socks that day! We each had cell phones, but of course, exasperatingly, no tower. I at one point suggested to Jinks that we reclimb a peak to see if we could get coverage. "Who are you going to call?" he asked me. "A ranger!" I said. "I’d rather get eaten by a bear!" was his reply.
We kept on this course then for some time, and it rained on us the entire time. Maybe another hour went by, and we did some hard hiking. We finally topped out after a hard steep push, expecting to see the trail or at least some familiar landscape, but were disappointed again. At that point, we stopped and I prayed aloud for God to help us find that STUPID TRAIL--we went twenty feet farther, and were suddenly standing on it!
We rejoiced LOUDLY for just a second, and then started hoofing it on out! We were back to the truck in 30 minutes, having wandered for hours and covering lots of territory through the forest.
We got in the truck and turned the heat up as high as it would go. I took off my soggy boots and socks, and had a good cry. I’m not sure why, it was just pretty emotional. I thought for a while my hiking days were over, what I had enjoyed so much I would never enjoy again. What I needed was a hot meal, a hot bath, and a good nights sleep.
The next morning, as expected, climbers amnesia had set in. Jinks has a saying, "There’s never a bad day in the mountains." I guess he’s right.
What had seemed so bad wasn’t anymore. We got out of there, had a great story to tell, and a little more experience to draw upon. It’s funny, I don’t look back upon that day as a bad experience, but a good one. It was a good day in the mountains. CCY has become a favorite hike of ours. We went back the next year, and did all five peaks--we nailed them!
OK, I just figured out this "currently reading" function. And I have been CURRENTLY READING this book way too long....but it’s a LLLOOOONNNGGGGG book, 732 pages. I hope to finish it soon! In fact, I hoped to finish it today, but had less reading time than hoped for. The story of my life!
We went to see Pip’s freshman football game today--they won 16-0, and are now 6-0 for the season. Pip recovered a fumble, awesome! Enjoy it kid, because life ain’t always that good to ya!!
by C.S. Lewis
ok, if I had to say, this is my all-time favorite book.....
Imagine a bus trip from hell to heaven--stop, don’t freak, this is an ALLEGORY, not a theology book. Of course, you can’t really do this! Sheesh, give me a break! So these people are in hell, and don’t know it, but are given the opportunity to visit heaven. What happens?
The book opens with a vivid description of this hellish place....a grey, drizzly, dreary place where it is perpetually twilight, but never has yet become completely dark. There are blocks and blocks of deserted streets, filled with shabby homes which are also deserted--no one can get along with his neighbor for long, and always moves farther out into the country--those who have been there the longest are so far away they can only be seen with a telescope, isolating themselves from all others. A queue has formed, waiting for the bus to arrive (remember the Magic School Bus?) An interesting description is given of the motley crowd that has assembled. Several eliminate themselves before the bus even gets there--too consumed with themselves to bother about such a trip.
After a fascinating voyage, the bus arrives at its destination. The people exiting the bus are shocked to see one another, they’ve became ghostly, wispish, transparent. And the ground they are walking on is more solid than any they have ever known--in fact, blades of grass pierce their feet like knives, and flowers are impossible to pick, the stems seem to be reinforced with iron, and everything there is so HEAVY.
They soon began to meet their guides, and are surprised to find many people they have known in their previous lives. Some become angry to find certain people there that they don’t think deserve to be there. They are many, many surprises. Most turn away and get back on the bus. A few, a very few, have incredible experiences and end up staying.
At the end of the book, the narrator has an encounter with George McDonald, who was a mentor of Lewis. There is a fascinating conversation, and revelations about the nature of heaven and hell.
I have read this book again and again, and hope others will find the same joy I have in reading it.
I always have a hard time when asked my favorite....anything! I mean, how can you just pick one? Your favorite food? It would soon be my LEAST favorite if I had to eat it all the time! Color? I usually say green, but there are so many different variations, and I like them all. I would never say red, a little bit goes a long way, you can burn out on red in a real hurry. My favorite animal? Give me a break. I do think giraffes are totally cool, and I like penguins. I am not at all fond of possums, they’re disgusting. My favorite book? OK, I have consistently said C.S . Lewis’s
The Great Divorce for a long time, and it’s really special to me. I have recommended it many times to many friends, and am always disappointed when they can’t even get through it. It’s thrilling to me. I got Brian to re-read it again a couple of years ago after having read it as a teen. (We both read a ton of classic books in a big hurry at that time in our lives that we need to go back and re-read, because I’m sure we didn’t have sufficient maturity and understanding of life to get much out of them.) His reaction to his second reading of
The Great Divorce was more gratifying to me than any other friend’s, guess that ’s one reason I love him more than any other human--we connect on so many different levels. He agreed it was truly brilliant, we talked at length about it, and his inspiration for his message "The Tapestry of Grace" was somewhat inspired by that book.
Favorite Bible verse? I can’t even go there. I need it ALL! There are some special ones, like Psalm 119 (longest chapter in the Bible, and I reserve the right to like the whole CHAPTER as opposed to picking out any particular verse) I like Micah 6:8. But Brian told me a great story Thursday night about a favorite Bible verse. He posted a cool story on his blog
http://www.brianzahnd.com about an encounter with an Indian pastor in an airport. But he didn’t tell a really cool part, so I will!!!
Premraj Nag needed a visa to come to America. They are extremely difficult to obtain--there are one billion Indians, most of whom would love to come to the United States, and so very few can get the visas. When Premraj went to the American Embassy in Delhi to apply, he saw IT’s (those are guys who are really sharp on computers and want to come to the US to work), CRYING as they left the embassy, their hopes dashed because they had been denied.
He approached the official, who asked him why he wanted to come to the US. He told him he wanted to go to a church conference.
OFFICIAL: So you’re a Christian?
PREMRAJ: Yes, a pastor.
OFFICIAL: What’s your favorite Bible verse?
(Premraj thought to say John 3:16, but just as he opened his mouth, he heard the Holy Spirit say, "No, say John 1:12.")
PREMRAJ: John 1:12
OFFICIAL: Really? Quote it.
PREMRAJ: To as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become the children of God, even to those who believe in His name.
OFFICIAL: Well, I’m a Christian, too, and that is my favorite verse! I’m giving you a ten year, multi-entry visa to the US.
And he did! That is phenomenal, that is the Cadillac of visas, and very few people get those! And then to fly to the US, and have God provide for you by meeting at the airport an American pastor with such a love and passion for India, who volunteers to help him and take care of him while he’s here! It’s a great testimony when Brian tells it, but imagine the testimony Premraj gets to tell!
********
I have some more to say about my favorites, and will do a book review soon on
The Great Divorce , but that’s enough for now....
We have absolutely no idea how fragmented our lives are--but there is a glimmer called hope deep within that things somehow can be better and were in fact intended to be better. And of course our lives don’t get defragged immediately at conversion--it is only the beginning, something is awakened, i.e., reborn--potential happens. Computers are computers, and we are what we are--that analogy is only so good. Maybe a better analogy is trees, little baby trees, set out lovingly by hand, but so few of these tiny weak seedlings make it to maturity--remember the parable of the Sower.
Imagine that neighbor you have with such a troubled life--unhappy and the whole neighborhood knows it--always screaming at the kids and fighting with her husband, and talking to anybody who’ll listen about her sad life. You say to yourself, "What she needs is Jesus." You’d love to introduce her, but the problem is, you took her to church a year ago, and she "got Jesus." She responded to the altar call with tears, sincerely prayed, and then became a member. She is actually at services a good deal of the time. Did she "get Jesus, get saved, born again, whatever you want to call it?" Well, yes, she did, (probably!?) but not ALL of Him! What does she need? She needs JESUS! She needs more of the redeeming power of God working in her life, remolding, reshaping, reforming. When she was created in her mother’s womb, she had life, but there was so much more in store for her. There was a PROCESS that went on back then, and there is a process that needs to be happening now. That physical process that we think of as lasting nine months really is a process of a lifetime--of course you don’t stay the way you are when you emerge from that womb for your entire life.
The spiritual process mirrors the physical process, but one is automatic, and the other is much more intentional. This is where it gets tricky. What about all those "Christians" that are stuck seemingly forever at a low level of spiritual development, those that never seem to get any better. What happened? That’s a whole different discussion.....one I’m not up for this morning!
Have a great day!
PS--About defragging, did you know that is what happens to your brain while you are asleep? No kidding. Sleep scientists have used this analogy, they say people who are seriously sleep deprived exhibit similar symptoms as a computer that needs defragging--glitching, memory problems, running slow....so turn yourself off for 8 hours every night--don’t try to outsmart your manufacturer!
The creation story—Adam and Eve—we all know how it goes. A man and woman had a cushy job as caretakers in a beautiful garden, until one day the silly woman noticed the big, red, juicy apples hanging from a particular tree and struck up a conversation with a snake, and ended up getting kicked out of the garden. We’ve heard this story so many times that it’s become trivial, but there is so much we don’t understand about what happened that fateful day.
The owner of the garden had told them they could eat of any tree in the garden except for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The other trees also bore lush fruit, all sorts of delicious fruit, but this one was especially appealing. The woman "saw that it was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise." It matches up perfectly with what we learn in the book of First John is "all that it is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life."
Now the serpent was a crafty one, and confused the poor woman with his argument. He misquoted the owner of the garden, and the woman, who knew basically the gist of what the Lord had said, but had not taken Him so seriously that she could actually QUOTE Him word for word, was easily fooled. She became convinced the Lord was trying to hold out on her, to keep her from experiencing all life had to offer. She craved the wisdom the tree offered, and took and ate.
And in that moment, Death became alive, and began its destroying work. On that day, something in Adam and Eve and all creation began to wither and decay. The wonderful fellowship that Adam and Eve enjoyed with the Lord was gone immediately—it had been so wonderful, but so natural they had simply taken it for granted. Now that it was gone, it felt as if their very hearts had been ripped out, and a giant black hole left in the place.
No, Adam and Eve’s bodies didn’t drop to the ground immediately, and lie there dead, like Ananias and Sapphira so many generations later. Their death was far worse, far deeper than a mere passing away of the body. Something far more insidious happened the day that Evil was loosed upon the earth. The thief had been given license to steal, kill, and destroy, and he continues to do so with a vengeance today. The thief has many aliases--Death, Evil, the Father of Lies, the Destroyer. He wreaks his havoc not only on man, but on the creation itself. Thorns began to grow where only flowers had bloomed before; drought and famine and starvation were conceived on that day of infamy. The very ground was cursed. And to this day, creation groans and longs to be delivered from the bondage it came under the day man first sinned. (Romans 8:19-22)
Somehow I have always imagined that Adam and Eve were just a few days into their job as caretakers in the garden when they screwed it all up, for us and everybody else. But the Bible never says that. Maybe they lived for a hundred years in the garden, and enjoyed all God’s riches for all that time. Maybe time didn’t begin to pass until afterwards—they certainly didn’t age while they were in the garden, because aging is simply the power of death working in our bodies. But one day, sometime after being placed in that garden, maybe beholding God face to face on a daily basis, all that was ripped away. What agony did the two of them endure afterwards, knowing what was lost? How was their marriage affected? Did they talk later of the "good old days" or was their loss so hideous it could never be spoken of?
And what did Adam and Eve receive in exchange for all they had given up? They had always had the knowledge of good, but now they had the knowledge of evil, something they have handed down to their children, and their children’s children, to all generations. I am their great-granddaughter, many times removed, and I have a great knowledge of evil. I know all about hatred and murder and jealousy and war and poverty and emaciated starving bodies and slavery and prostitution and pedophilia and incest and drug addiction and a thousand other atrocities too horrid to name. And oh God, how I wish I knew nothing of these things, that we could live in a world that is pure and innocent and like the garden You created.
I have shared this article with several married friends, all who have said they’ve lived through way too many of those late night frustrating episodes, thinking they can’t let the sun go down on their anger, when in actuality the sun set HOURS ago, you’re too tired to think rationally anymore, and you’d admit to anything just for the chance to get some sleep. It’s another silly example of Christians taking the Bible WAY TOO LITERALLY.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/mp/2003/004/15.28.html
It is precisely because of the eternity outside time that everything in time becomes valuable and important and meaningful. Therefore, Christianity....makes it of urgent importance that everything we do here should be rightly related to what we eternally are. "Eternal life" is the sole sanction for the values of this life.
---Dorothy L. Sayers
Imaginary evil is romantic and varied;
Real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring. Imaginary good is boring; Real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating. --Simone Weil
