Previous Journal Entries: MAY 2011
SEP 2009 to APR 2011 | AUG 2009 | JAN to JUL 2009
OCT to DEC 2008 | JUL to SEP 2008 | APR to JUN 2008
| JAN to MAR 2008
June 25, 2011
In Search of People of Principle
If you are a citizen of the United States, you and I share a
common responsibility to guide our nation's actions. In the four decades of my adult life I have
been completely frustrated in all of my attempts to carry out that
responsibility. The Democrats and
Republicans have never fielded a candidate with whom I am completely
satisfied. I find myself more frequently
in alignment with the Libertarians but their isolationism, their love for
corporations, their tolerance for immorality, and their lack of concern for the
constitutional injunction to promote the general welfare make them very little
better in my view.
How are you
making out? Have you been able to
influence the course of events?
I am weary of
living in a country where I have no influence over the decisions and policies
of my government. The way this country
is run does not match the vision of our forefathers. I believe I am not the only one who feels
disenfranchised, but we don’t seem to be able to come together because there
are so many divisive issues there is no clear majority.
It is clear that our disagreement is used against us by the major
parties to keep us from having any real representation, but if we work at it we
can turn our disagreement into something constructive by electing some people
with alternative viewpoints to positions of real power - like members of the
House of Representatives.
On the web site http://www.politics1.com/parties.htm many
alternative political parties already active in the United States are
listed. Find one you like other than the
two in power and give them your financial support, and/or volunteer. In the voting booth vote independent, no
matter how odious. If you do not have an
independent for whom to vote, split your vote so that neither of the two major
parties can really get control of all three branches of government. Let the major parties have the presidential
office. We can’t take that from them
yet.
If the
independent parties focused on a particular district or a few districts where
they had a chance of winning we could take the House of Representatives away
from the Repuplocrats and Demopublicans. Then the wise and honest could repair the
damage done by the power addicted people who just do whatever is expedient.
Remember Nazi
Germany was born in a democracy. Don’t
let it happen here.
(See http://www.tntcarden.com/PeopleOfPrinciple.htm
for details.)
June 23, 2011
Problem Solver – A New Insight
Apparently
my natural response to everything is to regard it as a problem to be
solved.
For
instance, the other day someone brought up a situation they had and I offered
to help them solve it. Today I will
spend fifteen or twenty minutes helping them with it. I don’t mind, but in retrospect I should have
handled it differently. I should have waited
to be asked.
This
is not new for me. This little scenario
has probably played out a couple hundred times in my life. Each time I resolve to do better next time. I resolve to let them solve their own
problems, especially with people who have done it to me more than once, like
this person has.
That
has not worked for me, so I’m going to try thinking about it in a new way. I’m not going to try to repress my natural
reaction of solving the problem or my desire to help others. Instead I intend to define the problem
differently. When they do this I need to
see the problem as wider in scope. It
involves not just their current difficulty, whatever it is, but the way in
which they approach the difficulty. If I
solve their problem for them they will never learn to solve their own
problems. So I am going to leap to their
aid and help them solve their problem, like usual, it’s just I’m going to try
to focus on the larger problem. – their inability or
unwillingness to solve their own problems.
Give
a hungry man a fish, and he will be hungry the next day. Teach a man to fish, and he’ll never be
hungry again.
Lord,
help me to be truly concerned for others and useful to them.
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June 22, 2011
Prayer Partners Needed
It took longer than I expected but as of June 16th I have finally
placed all my ministry responsibilities in the hands of others except for
checking our post office box and distributing our mail to the various
volunteers.
As you probably know, my wife and I are taking a 6 to 18 month
sabbatical from the ministry. As a part
of this I intend to start to prepare myself for whatever the Lord has planned
for us next. I don’t know what that
is.
At first, I figured we would just re-start the jail ministry. However, God placed the jail ministry in good
hands and it is continuing just fine without us. Certainly some of the ideas I have for its
future may still be good, and I have every intention of continuing to support
it. Nevertheless, we have begun to think
along more expansive lines.
We are open to whatever God would have us to do – from becoming
missionaries in distant lands to living a quiet life as a Sunday School teacher and his wife or anything in between. We are
asking God to show us what. Please pray
that in the coming months He will show us clearly what He would have us to do.
I’m trying to listen to Him carefully so I might hear Him
clearly. As a part of that I plan to
read the Bible through in the next few weeks or months – the Old Testament once
and the New Testament twice. I am
reading 10 to 15 chapters per day. At
that rate it will take 96 to 145 days to complete it.
As David was confident before Goliath because of what he had seen
God do, I am confident that our next seven years of ministry will be as
fruitful as our first seven years – confident because of Him, not me.
Please pray that we hear Him and obey.
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June 21, 2011
A Boy Named Thor
Exodus 23:13 says, “Now concerning everything which I have said to
you, be on your guard; and do not mention the name of other gods, nor let them
be heard from your mouth.” Should I
consider changing my name? Nope, no more than I should consider sacrificing animals to atone
for my sins. Besides some
versions translate “mention” as “invoke.”
Clearly it is talking about praying to them, not just speaking their
names.
Conflict Management
A
friend of mine here at work is from another country. (Actually I have several like that – Iraq,
Egypt, Cyprus, Poland, Lithuania, and two from China.) This lady is having difficulties with a
family member still over in the old country.
I’ll not go into what it is about.
What struck me was the poor way the conflict is being managed. Instead of communication it is being managed
by silence. When she calls her family
member the response is to have the phone hung up in her ear. E-mails and letters are ignored and personal
visits are not financially possible.
I’ve promised to pray and ask that you pray, too.
The
only way a conflict can be resolved is with communication. If you avoid communication the conflict will
never get resolved and will probably get worse.
Lord,
help me to always have an ear that is willing to at least try to listen, no
matter what.
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More June 17, 2011
Tough Enough
Someone
asked C.S. Lewis, "Why do the righteous suffer?"
"Why
not?" he replied. "They're the only ones who can take it."
"Some
people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they've made a difference in the
world. The Marines just don't have that
problem."
..... Ronald Reagan
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June 17, 2011
Heaven is for Real
Yesterday evening I read the book Heaven is for Real aloud to my
wife. (See http://heavenisforreal.net/) It is a Christian non-fiction book that has
topped the New York Times best seller list.
I wanted to read it because I know it is going to come up in
conversations I have. I doubted it would
be good because it was popular. (Yes,
about some things I am cynical.) It is about
a four year old boy, Colton Burpo, who went to heaven
and came back. We certainly never
expected to think it was actually true.
1 John 4:1-3 “Beloved, do not believe every spirit,
but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false
prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every
spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; 3
and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the
spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it
is already in the world.”
We read it closely looking for a way
to debunk it or show that it conflicted with scripture. We ended up thinking it is true. It does make some extra biblical claims, like
the idea that we get wings in heaven, or that only men will fight at Armageddon,
but it no where contradicts scripture. (i.e. the Bible is silent on us getting wings in heaven one
way or the other and does not mention the gender of the warriors in the
battle.) We looked at some YouTube
interviews with the boy and his parents. They came across as credible. I have no intention of beginning to preach
from the pulpit that we get wings in heaven or that only men will fight at
Armageddon. A child’s report lacks the
context necessary to be sure new information is understood correctly. However, he got enough facts straight to
convince us it really happened.
This morning I looked at some
atheist/secular websites that attack the book.
They had nothing outside of their normal strident anti-supernatural
bias. If it is miraculous, in their
view, it cannot be true. The little boy
knew things that he could only know unless something supernatural happened, but
the secularists and atheists completely ignored the testimony of his parents. They claimed the parents were just gullible
because they wanted to believe it, because they wanted to make money on the
book, or both. That is a universal
attack you can make against any published author and is meaningless without
corroboration. It is certainly not the
way the parents, the boy, or the book comes across in writing or on video. A little boy visited heaven and brought back
a factual report. That is an
inconvenient truth for non-Christians.
Acts 2:17 “ ‘In
the last days,’ God says, ‘I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and
daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will
dream dreams.’”
Thank you, Lord, for this
inspirational book. Please bless the Burpo family and the others involved for making it possible
for us to read it.
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June 16, 2011
Caution:
Narcissistic post
Today
in Greek class a man expressed envy that I had so much knowledge. No, envy is not the right word. Admiration perhaps? He wanted me to recommend a book where he
could learn more about the transmission issues of the Biblical texts about
which I had been talking at some length.
He wanted to know what I know about this topic because he is convinced
it will help him. I had not really
thought of myself in that way, at least not recently. In my younger days I used to be pretty
arrogant about my intelligence, but I have been smacked in the face with my
ignorance too often and too hard to maintain that attitude. There are a lot of people in this world that
are way smarter than me, and I guess everyone knows things I do not. I’ve got a pretty good storehouse of
knowledge about a few academic subjects, it is true, but there is way more that
I don’t know than I do, even in those areas.
Lord,
thank you for what I do know. Please
help me to learn more, especially about You.
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June 15, 2011
I have been working on incorporating old journal entries into
this. The links above go to them. I had no journal entries for the period
September 2009 through April 2011. A few
minutes ago I wrote this to fill in the gap.
I
made another page with my favorite entries from the past: See my favorites
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June 13, 2011
Monks
A friend of mine loaned me a book about Trappist
Monks. He thought it would be of
interest to me. I read parts and scanned
the rest. It was kind of interesting. These guys live by some very strict rules
including keeping a vow of silence. The
book was 70 years old, so afterwards I did a little internet research to see if
they still exist. They have a
website.
What
???
Yep. -- http://www.monks.org/
On
the website they say "We
surrender Self:
Bringing our best effort to prayers, whether we feel like it or not, can
be costly. The relative lack of recognition for achievements that comes from
being hidden in a community goes far to tone down excessive self-concern."
I
would never say any of this to one of them unasked, but I'm not sure how being
content with a "relative lack of recognition" translates into
publishing a web site. Besides you don’t
have to be hidden in a cloister to have a “relative lack of recognition.” Most people live their whole lives that way.
They say, "being hidden in a community goes far to tone down excessive
self-concern." Hidden
except for being published on the internet. All I see is self-concern. I've never seen such a hot bed of
self-centered arrogant people in my life.
They say, "We surrender self" but to what? Surrendering comfort and pleasure is not the
same thing as surrendering self. They are
totally about themselves.
They
love everyone, they just don't talk to them. Funny sort of love. Good communication has to be a major part of
any good relationship.
They
live by a set of rules they made up which they think will please God and
impress everyone else with how holy they are.
I'm not impressed, and I don't think God is either.
When
I shared my thoughts with my friend he wondered if my difference with them was
more related to personality than world view.
He pointed out that many religions included some form of
monasticism. I responded to him
something like this:
Like
you say, it might be a personality trait that draws one to monastic life. However, I'm very drawn to it. I would like very much to hide in a
monastery. My reaction to them is not
based on my personality. In fact, the
strength of my reaction might have something to do with a little envy on my
part. I'm aware that Catholics are not
the only ones that have monks. I believe
the Amish and Mennonites are just another form of the same thing.
I
don't agree with my friend drawing a dichotomy between personality types. I see a different division. Self-worship vs. God worship - the only two
religions there are.
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June 12, 2011
Prayers based on James 2:17-18
In Sunday School this morning we studied James 2:17-18. “Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. But someone may well say, ‘You have faith and I have works’; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.’”
“Lord, please make my faith alive, please never let it die. Please help me have enough faith that it can be seen by others; not that I might be seen as good, but that You might be glorified. Father, make me a tool in Your hand to show Your love to others.”
“Lord help my weak faith. Make it a living faith. Give life to my faith in the form of kind words, in praise, in helping in testifying, in witnessing. Let my faith have feet & hands & voice. Amen.”
“In my past my faith has been dead because all I did was speak about a God I did not live for. They tell me now I have faith. I tell them, no. What I have is stuff to do. Show me faith that is not on the move, and I will show you mine, today, by how I live.”
“Father, I praise you and thank you for the faith I have to know I can call on you. Soften my heart, open my eyes, eyes that I may see the needs of others. That I may know Your will and be o0bedient, so that I’ll be in the place your want me, doing what you want me to do. Help me, oh, Lord, that my actions will bring you glory.”
“Father, first let me just say, ‘THANK YOU!!!’ and then let me say how much I really truly love You, as I sit in my Sunday School Class today & I hear the voice and laughter of the family you have blessed me with & then my heart sinks for just a minute when I come to understanding. I really don’t deserve this. I have taken advantage of it at times. I ve been self-centered at times. No matter how many times I mess up, you still come & rescue me, for everything I have ever done, Father, I am so very sorry. You are my best friend, You are my refuge, You are my life and most of all you are my Father. I know I say so many times, “I’m sorry,” and I tell you so many time, ‘I love you,’ but my prayer is that you know each and every time I mean it and that you know how grateful I am to you for making me your child. Father I will travel any road you put me on as long as I have you to go with me. Lord, only you know my trials and my tribulations. Only you know my pain and my sorrow. And only you can touch places in my spirit. I pray Lord that I never know a day without your precious love. I pray that the others in this world, that have never had the chance to know you like I have been so blesses to that they get that same chance, Lord. I ask & pray your hedge of protection around all of my family and friends as well as myself. Even my enemies I ask that we continue this journey together for eternity. Amen. P.S. Please, Lord help my heart to stay humble and my spirit to stay strong and my life to be with you and love always so that I might be able to love as well just like my heavenly Father.”
These are the prayers we wrote today. If you find this interesting you might look at the last two Sundays below. June 5th and May 29th.
Graduation
Friday night my oldest granddaughter graduated from High School. I’m very proud of her.
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June 9, 2011
Some Very Good News
A good friend of mine has Cystic Fibrosis. Today she found out they are very close to something that could extend her life into a normal life span and make it much more comfortable for her.
http://www.cff.org/aboutCFFoundation/NewsEvents/6-9-Phase-2-Study-of-VX-770-and-VX-809-Results.cfm
Thank you God. You are the Great Physician. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
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June 8, 2011
Old Blog Entries
I have started to add old blog entries to this. You can see them by scrolling to the bottom and clicking what you want to see.
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June 7, 2011
Hot?
The last few days almost every time I go out to walk someone tells me it is too hot to walk outside. I wonder why they do this. Are they concerned that I will faint or die? Most, maybe all, of them should remember that last summer I walked outside all the time. Perhaps they are just making conversation. Or, I guess it could be they feel guilty they are not exercising and are giving me their excuse. My health is not good, it is true, but I need to walk to regain it.
Lord, thank you that I am still able to walk. Please give me good health and safety.
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June 5, 2011
Today in Sunday School, the class assignment was to turn First John 1:5-10 into a prayer.
1 John 1:5-1 “This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to You, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; 7 but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.”
Here are the prayers we wrote:
“God, You are my light. There is no darkness in You. Help me to walk in Your light. Help me to have the right kind of fellowship with You, so that I can in turn have fellowship with others. Praise You that the blood of Jesu purifies me from my sins. I am a sinful woman. Thank You that You are faithful to forgive me of my sins.. Help me to identify and confess my sins to You. Plant Your word in my life.”
“Lord, I have often deceived. I’ve been down that road before of lies and untruth It is the way of darkness and death. First I lied, then I believed my own lies, and finally I called You a liar. Lord please deliver me from the web of my own descending deception. Help me, Lord, to walk in truth. Shine Your light on my heart and mind and expose everything that is wrong with me.. God give me strength and wisdom to acknowledge my sin so that You in Your righteousness and faithfulness will use the blood of Jesus Christ to cleanse me from my filthiness and put into my heart Your wonderful Word of truth and light.”
“This message I hear declares You. Jesus You are the Light: in You I see no darkness. I want real fellowship with You. I am sick of walking in the dark. I lie and do not live out Your truth. If I can walk in the ligh,t as You are light, my fellowship with others is in Your blood. Purify me from me, for I am sin. If I say I’m not, I deceive myself, and You are not in me. I confess to You, You are faithful and just. You forgive. Purify me with fire. I am the sinner. I am the liar, not You within me.”
“Lord, I am a child of light but sometimes it seems like I still am pulled back into the darkness. I try to be faithful, sharing with people I meet how You changed my life, but sometimes I’m tired and miss those “God sharing” opportunities You put in my path. I thank You for my Christian brothers and sisters I can fellowship with that are an encouragement to me and that we can walk in that light together. I know You need a 2 by 4 sometimes to get my attention. Those are the times I’m not walking closely with You and I deceive myself thinking I am doing what You want. Father God, forgive me for the lost opportunities to share the gospel. Forgive me for sometimes believing my problems are too big for You to handle and that I will just have to struggle, struggle, struggle without relief. Forgive my unbelief that when You say in Your word that I am more precious to You than birds, lilies, and grass, that I sometimes call You a liar. Help me to continue to walk daily in light – the Light of Your Word.”
This is the example from the course materials:
Father in Heaven, You are light. There is no darkness in You at all. Let me look inside myself daily to make sure I have a relationship with You. Help me to not live in the dark, but be truthful. Father help me to live in the light in the same way that You are in the light, so that we have a relationship with each other. I thank You that the blood of Your Son Jesus cleanses me from every sin. I sin every day Father. Forgive me for my sins. Father today I confess that I sinned by ____________. Forgive me. Cleanse me from everything I've done wrong today. Bury Your Word deep in my heart to help me recognize my sins. Help me to always come to You for forgiveness.
One person wrote a prayer based on James 1:5-8:
James 1:5-8 “If any of you need wisdom, you should ask God, and it will be given to you. God is generous and won't correct you for asking. 6 But when you ask for something, you must have faith and not doubt. Anyone who doubts is like an ocean wave tossed around in a storm. 7-8 If you are that kind of person, you can't make up your mind, and you surely can't be trusted. So don't expect the Lord to give you anything at all.”
He wrote:
“Lord if I lack wisdom, I am asking for it now. God give to me generously without looking at my faults. Lord this time, this time, I will believe. In my past, I would look out my windows of doubt – broken waves moved by the wind, lost in the ocean. That man I try not to be shouldn’t expect nothing from You. But I do, double-minded, unstable in all I do.”
If you enjoyed this post, you will enjoy the report on last week’s class below on May 29th.
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June 4, 2011
Wedding Today
This afternoon we plan to attend a wedding. Two young people are promising their lives to each other today at 5:00 PM. My hope and prayer is that they have a wonderful married life.
God has blessed me with a marriage much better than I ever dreamed possible. I do not deserve to have such a good wife. This morning I was pondering some difficulties in my life and after a long and intimate talk with her, I am thinking much more clearly and feeling much better about everything. How many people can say they have been married to their best friend for almost 40 years? I don’t say this to make it seem like I am better than anyone. I do not think that. I mean it to be a testament to the love and grace of God.
Thank you, Lord, for my wife and my marriage.
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June 3, 2011
Time on My Hands
I am working right now. “Then why are you writing entries on your website?” you ask. Good question. Well, my computer is running a program I wrote. I can use Microsoft Word without interfering with it, but if I do anything that goes over the network, it might slow it down. What is amazing to me is that without the network, there is really nothing else for me to do. At lunch, or some other time when I have a minute, later after the program is finished, I will upload this.
I can’t really make personal phone calls either. I need to monitor the programs progress, so I can’t go off and make a private call. Any call made from my cubicle is definitely not private.
This is a situation I often find myself in. It used to be that I would use these moments to do ministry work, but I’m taking a sabbatical from ministry work. I use these times now to, relax, noodle around writing journal entries like this, read my Bible, meditate on His words, and pray. I realize now that I had let my ministry work interfere with this kind of spiritual activity for the last few months. I am determined to not make that mistake again. Personal Bible study and prayer have to be the foundation of everything else.
Thank you, Father, for time to relax, write, read, meditate, and pray.
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June 2, 2011
God is in Control
My lovely wife and I just watched a series of three sermons by Andy Stanley. http://store.northpoint.org/messages/dvds/he-s-still-got-the-whole-world-in-his-hands.html
How do we remain hopeful in a world that seems hopelessly broken? Put your hope in God, and God alone.
How do we continue to trust a God that seems conspicuously absent? Count your blessings. Trust His word, not yourself.
How do we find peace in a world that is spinning out of control? Pray, and tell God the truth.
In outline form it sounds like trite “preacher talk.” It is not trite. It is the stuff real life is made of.
Thank you, God, for the good preaching you sent to me.
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June 1, 2011
Why did the turtle cross the road?
There were only two of us in the car pool this morning. We saw a turtle in the middle of the road sitting inside his shell. The driver asked; if I would move it out of the way, if she stopped the car. I said, I would, so she turned the car around and parked, and I jumped out, and moved the turtle to the side of the road in the grass. He was all hunkered down inside his shell, and probably very frightened. I hope I got him to the side he wanted, and that he survives his future travels.
Wouldn’t it be grand if it was as easy to help people as it was that turtle?
Lord, help me to see that sometimes what looks like bad behavior in others is just a shell hiding a frightened person. If you have sent me to help them find their way out of danger, show me how to do it. I cannot do it without You, Lord, for I am just a turtle myself. Thank you Lord for all the many times you have sent others to help me. Amen.
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