Waiting It Out

Cleopas here.

Remember I told you that Jesus had appeared to us and said, "...stay here in the city until the Holy Spirit comes and fills you with power from heaven?"

So we waited.

And waited.

Seven weeks we waited.

Can I tell you something?

We were confused.

Several of the other believers had started to doubt that Jesus was going to send this Holy Spirit person. Some thought He had already come and we missed Him.

It was the day of Pentecost and we had planned this big committee meeting, with a feast and all, to figure out what to do next.

I mean, if this was it, we might as well all go back to what we were doing before Jesus got our attention.

So there we were. People from all over.

It was tough. We didn't speak the same language. We couldn't communicate well.

How would we ever be able to decide what to do?

What happened next is beyond description, but I'll try.

There was this noise like a thousand tornados in the sky over us.

No, not a thousand...a hundred thousand.

It was ear piercing! We could not hear ourselves think, let alone talk to one another.

Then what looked like sparks or flame or something...no it wasn't really fire, but that's the closest I know how to describe it to you.

It's not like it was hot or anything, just all flickering and bright and red and orange and yellow. Not fire but like fire.

I guess.

The firey stuff came right down and settled on our heads.

That was tense.

Suddenly there was a presence in each of us that we could not understand. We all knew that everyone else there was having the same experience!

As soon as this presence entered us, we began to be able to communicate with people from far away lands whose language we had never heard before, let alone spoken.

The commotion attracted others from all around, more foreigners.

There were people from Greece, Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Turkey, Phrygia, Pamphilia, Egypt, Libia, and even Rome.

We met Parthians, Medes, Elamites, Jews, Cretans and Arabians.

It would have been a real mess, except that by some miracle we could all understand one another.

Here's what was happening. When someone started telling about the mighty miracles of God, we could understand him as though he was speaking in our own language!

Some non-believers in the crowd thought we were drunk.

Then Peter, one of the original men who had walked with Jesus, stepped up and started a speach.

He spoke Aramaic, but everybody understood him.

"People of Jerusalem and visitors, too! Listen up!

"Some of you think we are drunk, but we're not.

"What is happening is what was predicted by the prophet, Joel centuries ago.

"Remember he wrote, 'In the last days,' God said, 'I will pour out my Holy Spirit on all mankind, and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men dream dreams. Yes, the Holy Spirit shall come upon all my servants, men and women alike, and they shall prophesy. And I will cause strange demonstrations in the heavens and on the earth - blood and fire and clouds of smoke; the sun shall turn black and the moon blood red before that awesome Day of the Lord arrives. But anyone who asks for mercy from the Lord shall have it and shall be saved.'

Peter went on to tell us all about the prophesies of Jesus in the Scriptures, His life, His death and His resurrection.

He closed by saying, "Therefore I clearly tell you all that God had made this Jesus, whom you crucified, to be the Lord, the Messiah!"

I was totally impressed.

I shouted out, "What should we do?"

Peter heard me and answered, "Each one of you should demonstrate your willingness to follow Jesus by and act of repentance. Then you should give testimony to your identification with His death, burial and resurrection by being baptized.

"But take heed!" This came in a tone of warning, "Do not submit to baptism unless you have been called to repentance. When you have done this, you will understand that the Holy Spirit has come to live in you!"

Some people there did not think Peter was in his right mind. They just left, shaking their heads.

But you know what?

Three thousand people believed him and were baptized that very day!

I even helped baptize twenty or so. I actually lost count.

That was a long time ago, but I though you might be interested in my story.

I'm still filled with the Holy Spirit and still love Jesus.

I'm very old, now. I don't think I have much longer in this old body.

But don't you worry about me. I know that when I breathe my last breath here, I'll breathe my first in front of my wonderful Jesus, face-to-face once more.

He'll say to me, "Well done, my friend Cleopas! Enter into the joy of My Kingdom!"

And I will.

On the Road Again (Cont.)

We started telling everybody in Emmaus about our experience.

Then we knew we had to go back to Jerusalem to join the other followers.

And we did.

That very hour!

When we got there, we found the disciples who told us about Jesus having risen.

You should have seen the looks on their faces when we told them we had seen Him, too.

"Are you sure?" They asked the question as though they were not too certain of their own experiences.

"Yes, we are very..." but I did not get to finish the sentence.

Suddenly the room was filled with that same Light that Magmus and I had seen before.

And there before us stood Jesus!

"Why are you frightened? Why do you doubt that it is really I?"

"Look, here are my hands with the nail scars. Here are my feet. Don't be afraid. Touch me. I have a real body."

Out of nowhere, "Let's eat!"

Jesus seemed to really like to eat!

See, that's one reason we had to believe He was real. Ghosts don't eat that much.

"Do you remember how I told you about how what Moses and the prophets wrote and the Psalms must all come true?"

All of those Scriptures we had been told suddenly began to make sense. Our eyes were opened and we began to understand.

"Long ago it was written that I would suffer, be executed and rise again. It was written that this message of salvation should be taken from Jerusalem out to all the world. You have seen these prophecies come true right before your eyes.

"Shortly you will receive The Holy Spirit, just as the Father promised."

I was not sure what this "Holy Spirit" was, but if Jesus wanted me to have it, I certainly did want it.

"When you have received Him, He will give you the power to tell others about me. In fact, everything He does will point directly to my saving grace and nothing He does will fail to magnify me."

He. He called this Holy Spirit "He." That seemed very strange to me.

"Let's all go over to Bethany."

To be honest with you, at this point I would have followed Him anywhere.

He stopped for a moment.

I noticed that the breeze stopped and the place grew quiet.

Jesus lifted up His hands and the most remarkable thing happened.

He started rising into the sky!

This was no magic trick. Jesus was going up and up and up.

We stood awestruck for the longest time, until He had disappeared.

We were so amazed that we began to worship Him with all our souls!

It was with great euphoria that we continued in this spirit of worship all the way back to Jerusalem.

I cannot tell you how much joy just overflowed from us all.

We just kept praising and praising. And we told anybody who would listen about what had happened.

Even in the Temple we were telling and praising, telling and praising.

I am here to tell you, the feeling has never left me.

With every passing day, I love Him more and more. I have committed myself to serving him and telling His story for the rest of my life.

Oh, and by the way, the Holy Spirit did come.

I'll tell you all about that experience when next we meet.

Let me just say this for now.

Although you cannot go back in time and experience what I have told you about, I have it on good authority that if you'll confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, a remarkable chain of events will take place inside of you and will receive an indescribable gift: eternal life!

Do you want that?

It's free!

And if you have it, you will not be able to stop praising and worshipping Him, too.

Every day with Jesus
Is Sweeter than the day before.
Every day with Jesus
I love Him more and more.

Jesus saves and keeps me.
And He's the one I'm living for.
Every day with Jesus,
Is sweeter than the day before.

Every day with Jesus
I'll be walking down the King's highway!
Tell me the old, old story.
I love it better every day, Hallelujah!

I will make you fishers of men
If you'll only follow me.
Hallelujah! What a Savior!
I'm from sin set free!

And that's enough to make me sing!
And that's enough to make me sing!
My sins are all forgiven and I'm on my way to Heaven
And that's enough to make me sing!

Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelujah!
Prasie ye the Lord!
Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelujah!
Prasie ye the Lord!

Praise ye the Lord, Hallelujah!
Praise ye the Lord, Hallelujah!
Praise ye the Lord, Hallelujah!
Praise ye the Lord!

On the Road Again

Hello. My name is Cleopas.

I was a follower of Jesus of Nazareth. Well, not a follower in the sense that I was close to him or anything. I literally just followed the crowds, watching the miracles and listening to his strange and wonderful teachings, and hanging near his disciples.

I really thought he was going to be the one.

They crucified him Friday. That left me demoralized and shaken.

That had to be the low point of my life.

We don't even really know who to blame.

The priests wanted him dead, I can't imagine why.

So did the Scribes and the Pharasees.

King Herod thought he was nuts, but harmless.

Pilate could find nothing worthy of arrest, let alone death.

In the end, though, Pilate was more spineless and ambitious than anyone imagined.

He gave the crucifixion order to keep down the "Jewish Problem," and to show Rome how well he could handle the local uprisings.

Any way, they killed him and we did not know what to do.

One thing was for certain, we did not want to hang around Jerulalem so Magmus and I headed out of town.

We decided to go to back home to Emmaus.

There were not many people out that day, so Magmus and I pretty much had the road to ourselves.

Out of nowhere this other guy showed up.

He must have been behind the rocks or bushes or something, because he just sort of was all of a sudden walking beside us.

We both jumped like we were dodging a Roman spear. We didn't know whether he was there to rob us or what.

He spoke, "You must be concerned about something very important. Mind if I ask what you're discussing?"

"What is anybody discussing?" I asked, kind of...well, snootily, I guess. You know, like, how could he be so out of touch.

"We're talking about the last few days." That was Magmus' voice.

"What about them?" he asked. "What's up?"

"Are you part ostrich?" It was reall not a nice tone I used. "You must be the only one within a two day's journey who does not know what's on everybody's mind."

"Tell me."

"The crucifixion, man. The crucifixion."

"They crucified the man from Nazareth, that prophet, Jesus."

Magmus filled in. "We thought he was the glorious Messiah, come to rescue Israel for Rome. But it was not to be."

I interrupted his trailing words. "Then Sunday, some women went to his tomb and came back with a story about the missing body, angels and I don't know what all."

"They even reported that they had seen him alive! How pitiful is that?"

"Personally, I think the Jews stole the body, or maybe the ones closest to him. Or maybe he didn't really die, just swooned and was awakened by the cool temperatures of the tomb, although how he, in his condition, holes in his hands and feet, a sword wound in his side, managed to move that big rock, I'll never know."

Suddenly he spoke. This time it sounded different somehow.

"You are such foolish, foolish people. You find it so hard to believe all that the prophets wrote in the Scriptures. Wasn't it clearly predicted by the prophets tht the Messiah would have to suffer all these things before entering his time of glory?"

Well, when we heard that we knew a couple of things for sure.

First, he wasn't a robber.

Secondly, he was pretty smart.

He didn't look like a Rabbi or a student, but he sure did know the scriptures. It was as though he had written them himself.

He started in Genesis and went right on through to Malachi.

And every book and verse he quoted pointed to exactly what had taken place.

I don't know why the religious leaders had never shared that with the people. But it sure was an eye opener.

As we neared Emmaus, Magmus and I had so many questions and were so spellbound by what he was saying that we asked him to stay over with us.

At first he seemed to resist the idea, but finally he agreed and we had the most wonderful supper and conversation.

So many things suddenly became clear, as though our eyes were seeing Life for the first time.

And as we looked at him, it was as though the Light of the Universe was focused in our one room.

Oh, I tell you the truth, we realized that we had been walking, talking and eating with Jesus.

Magmus and I danced and bounced around the room like children of the living God.

TO BE CONTINUED.

No Post Today

I am sorry not to have a post today.

I had to do my income taxes.

So that's why there is no post.

Don't count this.

This is not a post.

This is only an explanation as to why there is no post.

You will be making a mistake to count this as a post.

Why have you been counting my posts, anyway?

OK

So now you know.

This is the end of this non-post.

The End.

The Celebration

"What a day this will be!"

He was full of energy and rarin' to go.

His voice was like a thousand fingernails on a thousand chalkboards.

"Is everything ready?

"How about the feast? Is the feast prepared?"

"What are we having? Lamb? I will LOVE eating the lamb!"

"What about the decorations? Did we have enough?"

"Do we have ample seating? There will be billions coming!"

The sun had gone down Saturday night, but he couldn't sleep.

As Sunday, the day of the celebration drew nigh, he had the mother of all caffine jitters

"What about the throne? Is the throne in place? "

"And the crown! I'll need the crown!"

"Somebody get the crown!"

"And turn off that incessant rumbling"

"What is that rumbling?"

"Is there something wrong with the sound system?"

"Why is it so loud?"

"It's hurting my ears!"

"Uh, a thousand pardons, Your Highness. But the sound system has not yet been turned on."

"Not on? What do you mean, 'Not on?" I can hear it. Don't you think I know what I hear? See to it at once!"

"Yes, Your Lightship. At once."

"And why is the ground trembling?"

"We can't have the ground shaking during the celebration!"

"I can hardly stand!"

"Somebody see to it that the ground stops trembling before the celebration or there will be heads rolling!"

"And that noise! Stop the noise!"

"It hurts like...like Hell!"

"Uh, master, we need to tell you something."

"Tell me what? What do you need to tell me?"

"It's the tomb, Master. Something's wrong at the tomb."

"What 'Something's wrong at the tomb?'"

"What are you talking about? Speak up, man! What's wrong at the tomb?"

"The stone, Master. The stone has been....well, the stone has been...rolled away!"

"Say what?"

"It took eight Romans to put that stone there and Caesar put his seal on it."

"The stone CAN"T be rolled away!"

"Yes, Master, of course. No one could roll away a stone that large."

"But Master, I'm afraid the stone is rolled away!"

"Are...you...sure?"

"There must be some mistake."

"No mistake, Master. The stone is rolled away."

"Rolled away. Rolled away? ROLLED AWAY?"

"What can this mean, rolled away?"

"Could it be...nonononono. That's not possible."

Lucifer's heart was raging!

"Quickly!"

"To the tomb."

"See for myself."

"Oh no! It's gone!"

"That can only mean..."

"No."

"NO!"

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!"


MEANWHILE

The gates and doors were barred
And all the windows fastened down
I spent the night in sleeplessness
And rose at every sound
Half in hopeless sorrow
And half in fear the day
Would find the soldiers breakin' through
To drag us all away

And just before the sunrise
I heard something at the wall
The gate began to rattle
And a voice began to call
I hurried to the window
Looked down into the street
Expecting swords and torches
And the sound of soldiers' feet

But there was no one there but Mary
So I went down to let her in
John stood there beside me
As she told me where she'd been
She said they might have moved Him in the night
And none of us knows where
The stone's been rolled away
And now His body isn't there

We both ran toward the garden
Then John ran on ahead
We found the stone and empty tomb
Just the way that Mary said
But the winding sheet they wrapped Him in
Was just an empty shell
And how or where they'd taken Him
Was more than I could tell

Oh something strange had happened there
Just what I did not know
John believed a miracle
But I just turned to go
Circumstance and speculation
Couldn't lift me very high
'Cause I'd seen them crucify him
Then I saw him die

Back inside the house again
The guilt and anguish came
Everything I'd promised Him
Just added to my shame
When at last it came to choices
I denied I knew His name
And even if He was alive
It wouldn't be the same

But suddenly the air was filled
With a strange and sweet perfume
Light that came from everywhere
Drove the shadows from the room
And Jesus stood before me
With his arms held open wide
And I fell down on my knees
And I just clung to Him and cried

Then He raised me to my feet
And as I looked into His eyes
The love was shining out from Him
Like sunlight from the skies
Guilt in my confusion
Dissappeared in sweet release
And every fear I'd ever had
Just melted into peace

He's alive yes He's alive
Yes He's alive and I'm forgiven
Heaven's gates are open wide

He's alive yes He's alive
Oh He's alive and I'm forgiven
Heaven's gates are open wide

He's alive yes He's alive
Hallelujah He's alive
He's alive and I'm forgiven
Heaven's gates are open wide

He's alive!

HE'S ALIVE

HE'S ALIVE!

From: "He's Alive" by Don Francisco


Have a blessed Resurrection Sunday!

The Invitation

I invite you

TO A

CELEBRATION

SUNDAY AT NOON!

With Great Pride,

I, The Angel of Light

Invite you to

the

PARTY OF THE AGES

It will be a gas!

Come enjoy warmth like you've never known before

for all eternity.

It is with joy that I announce to you

Jesus is dead!

God has lost the battle!

I have won!

Just as I knew I would!

I will now be King of the Ages!

I will sit on the throne of the Most High

I will command your respect

as I give you all the things I have been

holding for you as I have awaited this

Inevitible Day!

Don't miss out!

Come bow before me!

Come collect your wages!

BRING YOUR FRIENDS!

EVERYONE IS WELCOME!

Signed: Lucifer

Alias: Satan

Crucified

The beating had been unimaginable.

The long walk up Via Dolorosa had been long, and hot, and exhausting.

In His mortal body, Jesus had nothing left.

The ugly tree lay on the slope of the hill. Its base stretched toward the road below. Its crossbar reaching out like arms receiving a loved one.

Placing one foot behind Jesus' heel and a shoulder into his chest, the Roman gave a mighty shove.

Jesus collapsed onto the splinter-filled cross.

Seven of the eight guards manipulated Him into position and held him there.

There was no resistance. Jesus had no strength left for that.

As one guard held the wretched man's arm against one crossbar, another placed the spike and raised the heavy mallet.

Michael looked back at the Father and pleaded, "I have a legion with me right now. Over ten thousand in number. We can go at your bidding and put a stop to this maddness. Please."

The Father's response was in that voice that did not invite argument. "No. Stay where you are."

The mallet came down with force enough to drive the spike into the beam behind the hand.

The sound reverberated past Michael, surrounding the entire legion and echoing with deafening intensity in all of Heaven.

Lucifer chuckled in that hideous way he had.

Jesus, unable to muster the energy to do more, exhaled over His vocal chords with the sound of death.

The other arm. The other crossbar. Another swing of the mallet.

Heaven shook.

Michael turned away.

The Father looked on.

Lucifer snorted.

Now the feet were placed on their rest and crossed so that only one spike would be needed.

Once more the mallet.

Heaven's thunder roared.

Where there were no tears, Michael cried.

Still the Father did not move.

Lucifer hissed, "Yessssss!"

The eight men had no trouble lifting the tree and its occupant to the vertical.

They placed it over the prepared hole and dropped it in. It bottomed out with a jolt.

Michael cried out with a loud voice.

The Father watched intently.

Lucifer almost danced with glee.

Jesus' body sagged at the sudden weight now pulling down on His hands and chest.

His breath left Him.

When he could stand it no longer, he pushed against the footrest and raised his chest high enough to take in some air.

It was a gasp.

Then He spoke. It was directly to God.

"Father, forgive them. They know not what they do."

Once again His body failed Him and He drooped.

One of the two being crucified next to Jesus that day, both convicted theives, looked over at the stuggling man and managed between his teeth, "If you are really the Messiah, save yourself, and us, too."

"Hey!" strained the other, "Leave him alone! Can't you see? We are getting what we deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong!"

With all he had left in that breath, he said to Jesus, "Please, remember me when you come into your kingdom."

Jesus had pulled Himself up once again.

"Believe me when I tell you this: today you will be with me in Paradise."

And then He slumped back down.

As he looked down He saw His mother in the crowd with the ever faithful John.

Struggling up to speak, "Blessed woman, look. He is now your son."

Collapse.

Pushing up, "Son, she will be your mother now."

The sun was bright and hot.

"I'm thirsty." It was all He could do this time.

A guard took a sponge and soaked it in sour wine vinegar. He raised it to Jesus' lips.

Jesus recoiled.

Michael wept openly.

The Father had an expression never seen from eternity to eternity.

Now He looked no more.

He turned His back on Jesus.

The sky darkened with the breath of sin.

This time, as Jesus drew up to breathe, He could smell the eternal stinch of evil in the air.

"My God!"

Another breath of iniquity.

"My...GOD!"

Once more.

"WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?"

Michael withdrew. He could take it no longer.

The Father could not look upon sin, and so, kept His back to Jesus.

Lucifer, vomiting out the words, was beside himself with excitement, "We're winning! Im winning!"

Jesus summoned all the strength left in His ravaged body.

"Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit."

The sound filled the countryside. The corridors of Heaven shook under its pressure.

"IT"

"IS"

"F..I..N..I..S..H..E..D!"

His head dropped.

The Spirit left Him.

Lucifer sat down. His eyes wide. His evil heart pounding.

The smell of awful victory was in the air.

"It is time for a celebration!"

Thirty Nine

The three burly Roman soldiers drew back their glass and iron impregnated cat-O-nine tails and brought them down on the back of the tethered Jesus.

1 - Anger

2 - Hatred

3 - Bitterness

4 - Malace

5 - Lying

6 - Stealing

7 - Adultry

8 - Coveteousness

9 - Avarice

10 - Greed

11 - Arrogance

12 - Pain

13 - Suffering

14 - Self-Centeredness

15 - Thoughtlessness

16 - Sullenness

17 - Self-Delusion

18 - Murder

19 - Lust

20 - Wickedness

21 - Fruitlessness

22 - Deceit

23 -Ill-Temperedness

24 - Foolishness

25 - Laziness

26 - Gluttony

27 - Impetuousness

28 - Evilness

29 - Cursing

30 - Treachery

31 - Bragging

32 - Cheating

33 - Rebellion

34 - Slander

35 - Gossip

36 - Hard-Heartedness

37 - Complaining

38 - Mockery

39 - Pride


By His stripes we are healed.

Once More...Pilate

The gloom settled in over the marble floor like a soupy smog.

The Procurator sat with his head down, weighted there by the depression slowly rolling in on him.

The events of late had left him drained. The dream. His wife. The trial.

And now it was about to begin again.

Into the outer court they came. The soldiers. Enough of them to guard a menacing murderer.

Their charge looked tired, weary and worn. Hardly worthy of such an escort.

The Jews cowering along behind them should not even have been there. It was almost Passover, and they should have been home preparing.

Pilate sat for a long time, not looking up. He wondered why they did not come in to him.

Forever came and went.

At last, Pilate lifted his head, stood and went to the courtyard.

"Why. "

It wasn't really a question. More of a moan.

Finally, "Why have you brought this man back to me?"

"Your Procuratorship, please. We only want to show our undying alegience to Rome. If he were not a criminal, we would not have brought him to you." It was the voice of the one they called Chief Priest.

"We knew you would be wise enough to handle this case."

Pilate stood there with an expression of weary contempt. He spoke, "Take him to your court and try him and judge him by your own law."

This will not do. The mind of Chief Priest raced. We need to be rid of him. He is a danger to us. We want him dead.

"Please, your lordship, we are lowly servants of Rome. In your brilliance, you know we have no right to execute anyone. You must handle this for us."

Pontius Pilate turned and walked slowly into the palace.

A heavy sigh was followed by, "Bring him to me."

Jesus followed the guards without resistance.

Pilate gazed into the eyes of the pitiful, putrid man facing him.

"Haven't we already had enough of this?" he was more sad than mad.

"Tell me, Jesus, once and for all, are you king of the Jews?"

"Is that your own idea, or did others talk to you about me?"

"You know, I am not a Jew," said Pilate, with some agitation in his voice. "How would I know a thing like that?

"Your people brought you to me, your priests. What have you done to anger them so? Why do you insist on letting them think you are king of the Jews? You frighten their stupid little minds. Don't you understand? They are afraid of you.

"Besides, you will never be king, of the Jews or anybody else. Look at you! You are nothing more than a vagabond, itinerate preacher. You....are...not...a...king."

"My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would have fought to prevent my arrest by both the Jews and you.

"My kingdom is from another place."

"Oh! So you are a king, then?" Pilate's tone was incredulous. I cannot believe what I am hearing. This man is delusional.

A fire suddenly flared in Jesus' eyes. "You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me."

Arrgh! Why does he keep persisting? Doesn't he know I have the power to execute him?

"What is truth?" He had turned to walk away as he asked the question.

Standing at the courtyard, Pilate addressed the Jews.

"I find no basis for a charge against this man.

"Here's what I can do, and this will be the last of it.

"Every year at your Passover holiday, it is customary to release to you one prisoner. I have two: this man, Jesus and a felon named Barabbas. I will release one to you to do with as you wish.

"I can release Jesus to you, if you wish."

In almost planned unison they shouted, "No! Not him! Barabbas! Release to us Barabbas!"

"And what would you have me do with Jesus"

"Crucify him!" came the frenetic reply. "Crucify Jesus!"

What is it with these people? This is going to be so much trouble. Maybe if I just beat him to within an inch of his life they'll see the horror of it and let it be.

And Pilate ordered the beating of Jesus.

"Take him!" It was to the Captain of the Guard he spoke. "Use the straps with the glass and iron in the end of them and give him thirty nine lashes. Hit him hard and rip his flesh. Make him look near death. But don't let him die."

And it was done as Pilate ordered.

Pilate and Herod

Pilate.

Ambitious.

Political.

Frightened.

Wishing he was somewhere else.

Wishing the "Jewish Problem" to go away.

Jesus stands before him.

Black eyed.

Clothes torn.

Spit in his beard.

Looking like a street beggar.

The Jewish assembly reports to Pilate, "We found this man subverting our nation."

They were referencing the Roman-ness of the region.

If they could get Him accused of threatening Rome, Pilate would surely have Him executed.

Pilate speaks.

"Oh, so you're the rabble rouser who's been giving me so much trouble. Funny, you don't look that influential. You look, if I may say so, pretty weak. You don't look at all like a king.

"Tell me, Jesus, are you a king? Are you the king of these Jews?"

"So you say."

"What kind of an answer is that? That's no answer.

"Tell me, tell me plainly. Are you king of the Jews?"

"Yes, it is as you say."

"Where are you from, king?"

"Pilate, oh great Governor," it was the spoksman for the Assembly, "He is a Galilean."

"Oh, good! then he belongs to Herod." Pilate looked relieved, even joyful.

"Have him taken to Herod."

Herod was a wierd, almost crazy little man, given to outbursts of sarcasm and ridicle.

"Jesus! Come on in, Jesus! I've heard so much about you! Welcome to my humble court!"


"I need a few things done around here. I hear you are very resourceful and can do things nobody else can do,
healing cripples, raising people from the dead. Maybe you could take care of them for me."


"Now I understand you're God. At least that's what you've said."



"Hey! I'm talking to you! What's up? Has the cat got your tongue? Speak to me!"


"Uh, why don't you just show me. Here! Here's some water. Turn it into wine for me."



"See the fountain out there? If you'll answer me, I'll let you walk away...right on the water!"



"Here's your chance, Jesus! You can prove right now that you are who you say you are."



"Bread. Here's some bread. It's almost time for supper. Feed my family with this bread."



"Well, if you're a king, you'll need a crown. Perhaps a name tag or something. I don't think people are going to accept you as their king as long as you look like that."


"Somebody get a robe! We've got to make this guy look like a king!"



"King of the Jews! Indeed!"


"Hey, aren't you Scared of me?"



"You're a joke! You're not a king. You're a fraud."



"Get him out of here! Take him back to Pilate. I'm done with him."

Just Musing

Let's see...

NBC Saturday Morning Show:

The President "leaked" information.

The press is intensely reporting the "leak."

The Constitution of the United States of America: The President can declassify stuff (a paraphrase).

NBC Saturday Morning Show: The whole country is up in arms because the President "leaked" information. (3 minutes). Bythe way: The Constitution gives him permission (10 seconds). But everybody knows he shouldn't have done what the Constitution says he can do because we don't like him and he should not do what we think he should not do, except he can do the same thing if he is not him, but somebody else, and if we thought of it first ( 4 minutes).

I kid you not. That is what they, in essense, said.

Are you too stupid to see through that?

I am sure you are not.

But just in case...it's an example of slanted, dishonest, hypocritical reporting which the MSM is either unable to recognize in itself or is too frenetically bent on distroying this President to report fairly.

Now, if the President determines that something should be classified, that is part of his Constitutional responsibility.

If someone beneath him releases informatin without his permission, that is a leak.

If the President desides to release classified information, it becomes, by definition, no longer classified information and he has the Constitutional right and sometimes responsibility to release it.

If he did NOT release it, he would be accused of hiding things from the "American people."

Watchership of the mainstream media is lower than the ratings they helped impose on the President. That's because we do not believe them.

We don't believe them because they are liars, both directly and by proxy.

Even Katie Couric will not improve their ratings. She will lower them even more.

Talk about a lack of credibility!



Only the incredible leadership of the MSM (specifically CBS) could imagine that placing an incredible person in the Main Chair would improve their credibility.

That is how far their inability to deal with reality has come.

And In Conclusion

If I teach you that 1 + 1 = 2, and then I hand you one Snickers bar and then I hand you another Snickers, how many Snickers bars would you conclude that you have?

If you said, "Two," you would be correct.

How did you arrive at that conclusion?

You took a set of facts, coupled them with things you have been taught and applied them logically to deduce the answer.

Arriving at the correct answer depends on several things:

1) You must have been taught correctly;
2) You must have learned what you were taught;
3) You must have an awareness of how to apply what you were taught and
4) You must be able to use logic to arrive at your answer.

In my last post I discussed numbers. Not just any numbers, the numbers in Numbers.

It is interesting to note how many people drew obtuse conclusions about the post after purportedly having read the post.

What was the post about?

Was it about the use of numbers in Scripture to represent various things? You know, like "7" is the number of perfection, "666" is the number of the beast, etc.

No, it was not about that.

Well, maybe it was about insomnia and its cure.

No, that's not right, either.

It was about how the tents of Israel were laid out on the plains of Moab and what Balaam did when he looked on them.

They were laid out like a cross and Balaam blessed them.

Now let's see what we can conclude from that.

Can we conclude that some mystical force gripped Balaam and he was therefore unable to pronounce the curse for which he had been paid?

No, we cannot.

Perhaps we can conclude that God was trying to tell Balaam something.

Nope. God does not try to tell anybody anything. He tells. If we study His Word and listen, we hear.

Can we conclude that Balaam saw the future, that God would provide a cross to save the people He loves?

There is nothing in the text, or subsequent texts, that would indicate that.

Balaam probably did not recoginze the cross shape of the tent layout (and it was probably a cross shape in the same sense that the stars of the Zodiac are laid out like animals...kind of rugged looking).

Why, then, did God go to the trouble of giving a tedious account of the way the tribes of Israel were lined up on that plain?

For me.

And you.

See, Balaam may not have known what he was looking at, but I do.

When Balaam saw it, he probably said to himself, "Oh, look! The Israelite camp."

When I read about it I think, "On a hill far away, stood an old rugged cross..."

God has had me and my needs in mind from before the foundations of creation.

He has had you in mind, too.

Isn't that exciting, comforting, and worthy of our confidence and faith?

What a mighty God we serve!

The Importance of Numbers

I have been reading on some other blogs about numbers.

In my humble, but correct, opinion, while "numbers" do not define a church or its effectiveness, they are one measure thereof.

It seems to me that God put an emphasis on numbers on numbers of occasions.

He has counted the hairs on my head. It did not take Him long.

He told us how many men were fed by Jesus with the young boy's loaves of bread and fish.

We know how many disciples there were in the beginning of Jesus' ministry on earth.

We're told how many were saved at Pentecost.

He even wrote a whole book that He called, "Numbers."

The book of Numbers was written to cure insomnia.

If you don't believe that, some night when you can't get to sleep just start reading Numbers. You'll be asleep in no time.

Actually, there are some astounding things in Numbers that escape a cursory reading.

In chapter two, for instance, God found it necessary to tell us how the tents of the Israelites were laid out on the plains of Moab.

I'll not quote it all, but I'll give you the basics.

Numbers 2:1-2 Every man of the children of Israel shall pitch by his own standard, with the ensign of their father's house: far off about the tabernacle of the congregation shall they pitch.

Numbers 2:9 All that were numbered in the camp of Judah were an hundred thousand and fourscore thousand and six thousand and four hundred, throughout their armies.

Numbers 2:16 All that were numbered in the camp of Reuben were an hundred thousand and fifty and one thousand and four hundred and fifty, throughout their armies.

Numbers 2:24 All that were numbered of the camp of Ephraim were an hundred thousand and eight thousand and an hundred, throughout their armies.

Numbers 2:31 All they that were numbered in the camp of Dan were an hundred thousand and fifty and seven thousand and six hundred. They shall go hindmost with their standards.

Read the account for yourself. There is a great deal more detail in the Scripture.

Why on earth did God go to all of the trouble to tell us these minutia?

OK, let's jump over to the 25th chapter of Numbers and lay hold to an enigmatic story.

King Balak was afraid of the Israelites (22:1).

So he hired a "prophet," Balaam, to go curse them (22:4 ff) to keep them from eating the Moabites like an ox eats grass.

Balaam goes up one of the mountians surrounding the tents of the Israelites to curse them, but he cannot.

King Balak figures he needs more incentive, so he offers more money and some ambassadors, and sends Balaam off again.

He goes up another mountain to curse them. But Balaam cannot curse Israel.

Two more times, Balaam is sent by Balak to curse Israel.

Instead of cursing them, Balaam ends up saying things like,

Numbers 24:5 How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel! 6 As the valleys are they spread forth, as gardens by the river's side, as the trees of lign aloes which the LORD hath planted, and as cedar trees beside the waters.

and

Numbers 24:17ff: I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel,...

What was going on? What did Balaam see that caused him to be unable to curse those tents?

As we learned in chatper 2 (if we were able to stay awake through it all), the tents were set out with the Tabernacle at the center and the tents laid out like this:,

On Ephriam’s side, about 108,000,

On Dan’s side about 150,000

Judah’s side about 186,000.

On Ruben’s side about 150,000.

They were laid out with Dan to the north, Ruben to the south, Ephriam to the east and Judah to the west.

Do you see it?

Does it all make sense now?

Is your heart pounding and your breath stopped?

My sweet Jesus!!!!

It's a CROSS!!!

Now guess how far you'll get with me the next time you try to tell me that numbers are not important.

Dialectic

When I teach a class, whether in Sunday School, Discipleship Training, or whatever, the technique I most often use is to ask a series of questions leading to a specific conclusion.

The first questions are ones I know the participants know the answers to.

Then I progress to the tougher ones that get to the point of the lesson.

This style of teaching would be disallowed in a court of law because it would be considered "leading the witness."

But in a class setting it really encourages discussion and gets a lot of people involved.

Here's the key: The questions must be adjusted to the group. If you do that, it does not matter the age of the group, they can get involved.

Suppose I am teaching John 3:16 "For god so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."

I might begin with such an elementary question as: Who inspired the Bible?

Usually this gets the response: God.

Someone in the class will know that.

Then I might ask: Did He do it recently, or a long time ago?

"A long time ago," someone will say.

By now people are beginning to relax, thinking, "This is going to be easy. Maybe even boring."

Next, I'll ask something like, "So how long is everlasting?"

"Forever."

"OK, good. What does 'forever' mean?"

Usually this gets a few brave souls to try to venture an opinion or two which we will discuss long enough, but not long enough to flush it out completely.

The next question I might ask may be something like: Where did you get that idea? Did you just think of it or did someone tell it to you?

That question is a pivot point.

It is a question I think we should be asking more often, of ourselves and others.

Question: Where did evolutionists get the idea that things in the universe evolved?

Answer: They were taught it by someone.

Question: Why did you believe them?

Answer: (either) 1) They're the teacher. or 2) They are certified by the State of Florida to teach, they MUST know what they are talking about.

Aside: This begs the question, "How come 30% of public education students in the State of Florida, every last one of whom was taught by a 'certified' teacher cannot read their own diploma?"

The point of all of this is that most people either have no respect for learning at all, or think that everything they are taught is absolute truth, even when they are taught that there is no such thing as absolute truth.

Very few people are able to be independent thinkers.

Sadly, that includes Christians.

Most Christians spout the "party line." They regurgitate the doctrines, philosophies and beliefs of whoever it was who taught them, as long as that person was personable, funny, charismatic (in the Biblical, not the denominational sense of the word), or some combination of the above.

It is grevious that so few really delve into God's Word to learn it well enough to apply it to their actual lives.

Even if they do, they try to take bits and pieces, here and there, and form some kind of life-view that is void of the point(s), principles and ultimate teaching of the Word.

Most of all, they tend to see Scripture as a rule set by which people, especially others, are to be judged.

They fail to relate every word, jot and tittle to the person of Christ.

Yet He is the whole point. There is no other.

I urge you to learn to think independently of others, while learning from their input, but dependent on the leadership of the Holy Spirit.

I implore you to study the Word, not for its history (though that is important, of course), not for its sociology (though that is important, of course), not for its science (though that is important, of course), not for its psychology (though that is important, of course), not for its philosophy (though that is important, of course), but for its revelation of God in Christ and His claim on your life.

You will be astonished at the difference it will make.

Don't you think?

So There You Have It

It's official!

Prayer does not "work!"

Or so says a group of "scientists" who did a study.

Since they did a study, we know they must be right.

They did a study.

A study!

They studied heart attack patients, some of whom "were prayed for," and some of whom "were not prayed for," and some who were "a control group." Sort of a standard "scientific" study.

They found no statistical differences in the outcome of each illness, whether prayed for or not.

OK...let's look at the issue.

It begins with the sovereignty of God.

"Sovereignty," as it applys to God, means that He is the absolute, unequivocable determiner of what has been, what is and what is to come. He is the boss of bosses. He does what He wants, when He wants. Period. I said, "period...end of discussion."

If God is NOT sovereign, then He is not God and if the God you serve is not sovereign, then you are not serving the God of the Bible.

He does not have to fit my mold. He does not have to do my will. He does not have to give me what I ask for in my prayer(s). He does not have to go with the majority or the "flow."

He cannot be manipulated by us.

If He can be manipulated by us, He is not God.

It is in submission to the sovereign God that we find peace and joy.

If we have no peace and joy, we are not submitted to Him.

So, in the sense that we use it to make God do what we want Him to do, prayer certainly does not "work."

Prayer is not an incantation by which we get God to see things our way, to do what we want Him to do, when we want Him to do it, the way we want Him to do it.

Prayer is talking with God about what He IS doing and how we can change our agenda to go along with Him.

So we pray for a sick person and the person dies.

Do we conclude that our prayer was not heard? Do we deduce that God did not answer our prayer? Not at all. We are not all knowing and cannot know what is best for them or us.

We can say that it SEEMED not to be the best, but there is a way that SEEMETH right to a man, the end thereof is death.

Don't count on what SEEMS right.

(Why do we say, "God answered our prayer," when He does what we want and, "God did not answer our prayer," when He does NOT do what we want?).

If God is omnicient, omnipotent and omnipresent, and if God knows what we need before we ask, then He knows what is best in terms of the big picture, which we cannot even see vaguely.

Make no mistake! When we ask for what He wants us to ask for, in submission to and according to His will, He gives us what we want because what we want is what He wants, therefore we get what both He and we want.

So what about the study?

The study is grossly flawed by its very nature and purpose.

In the first place, the study could not possibly restrict who was praying for whom to those participating in the study. In other words, the studiers had no way of knowing who else might be praying for which patients.

Secondly, God is not bound to or restricted to statistical analysis.

Thirdly, there is no way of knowing how much worse a patient might have been had he/she NOT been prayed for.

Now I am not contradicting myself. Nor am I saying that God might have been manipulated without the knowlege of the "scientists."

I'm saying that the very act of doing such a study demonstrates a total lack of understanding of the concept of prayer, which is an act of submission, not an act of exploitation.

We don't manage God...He manages us...or else we are not His.

We become His by, and only by, trusting in the finished work of Christ at the cross of Calvary and His resurrection.

So, pray without ceasing and in complete submission to the will of God.

Then watch prayer "work!"

Truth Is Stranger Than Fishin'

Large catfish.

Red ball.

Food!

Chomp.

Yuck! Tastes BAD!

How do I get rid of this thing?

Man with stick...do I trust him?

Uh...what are you doing?

Ah...sweet relief!

The catfish, thinking the red ball was food, chowed down on it.

It was bigger than he could chew, but he could not expel it either.

Each time he tried to dive, the air in the ball would bring him to the top. He was going to die.

The guy saw his plight, and while his wife rolled camera, he rescued the fish by cutting the ball open with a blade and deflating it, then removing it from the fish...just in time.

WORTH CLICKING ON

Whether you have seen this before or not, click on it. It will make your day.




http://home.carolina.rr.com/stephend/holy_alphabet.htm




Bless you all!

Churchianity

OK, so you're a born again Christian.

Now what?

Well, study your Bible so you can know God and His will for your life.

There are certain things the Bible says are God's will for all of us, so we don't ever have to ask about them.

Meet and Worship, be pleasant, have a merry heart, sing to Him and to each other, share Jesus with others, are a few of the things we're told to do.

As a member of a local church, what should you be doing?

Could you sing in the choir? Do it.

Could you help in the nursery? Do it.

Could you be a greeter? Do it.

Could you serve tables at the Wednesday night supper? Do it. (You might even thusly qualify to be come a deacon).

Could you teach a Sunday School class? Do it.

Could you drive one of those little electric carts to help folks get from their car to the building? Do it.

Could you be a class secretary or Care Group leader? Do it.

Could you help organize a special event? Do it.

Could you publish the church news letter? Do it.

Could you visit the sick or imprisoned? Do it.

Could you perform clean-up services? Do it.

Could you help train someone to grow in Christ? Do it.

Could you play and instrument? Do it.

Could you assist with Children's Church? Do it.

Could you man the benevolence closet? Do it.

Could you join the women's missionary study group? Do it.

Could you serve on the hospitality committee? Do it.

Could you keep the pastor or staff's kids while they take some time to themselves? Do it.

Could you do mainenance around the church? Do it.

Could you teach crafts to kids or adults? Do it.

The point is, if you are a member of a church and you cannot find a place to serve, you ain't tryin'.

If you are a member of a church and you do not WANT to find a place to serve, SHAME on you.

Church is not a spectator sport. It's a joint activity.

You have no right to let the others serve you, soak up the air conditioning, warm up the pew (or chair), express an opinion on everything that is done in the body or whatever and then not get involved and do something constructive. No right.

Oh? You think you DO have a right? Well, think again. You DO NOT. You just are too blessed self-centered to realize that you have a responsibility to the body.

If you see a job that needs doing, and you are able bodied and able to do the job, don't sit around saying, "They should do this or that."

DO IT!

Guess what? You'll be a happier Christian if you do, and your Jesus will be blessed! You DO want to bless Him, right?

Just do it.

Ahhh...What Does It Mean?

Would somebody with more sense than I have please go to this website and tell me what this means to you?

http://www.pentagonstrike.co.uk/flash.htm#Main

I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but I can't help but wonder at the size of holes, undamaged lawn, precision flying, etc.

ADDENDUM

How did the pilot miss the trees and the light posts and get low enough to hit the building at the angle necessary to penetrate to the middle of the Pentagon?

ADDENDUM TO THE ADDENDUM

OK. So I read the government's report and the FCC (also part of the government) report on flight 77.

This recently trained pilot dropped from 7,000 feet in a 330 degree circle to almost ground level, in a 757, a manouver that is usually only done by fighter pilots, managed to pull out of the descent before hitting the ground, got lined up with the Pentagon, missed bridges, freeways, buildings, trees and all but one (maybe 2)light pole(s) (not to mention what would happen to the wing of a 757 if it hit a light pole) and flew the craft into the building.

What a lucky pilot!

All but a few non-descript parts of the aircraft turned to alumina from the force of the impact and explosion.

I'm not saying it did not happen. Obviously something did.

It's just that it seems so fantastic. Make that fantasy-astic. It seems.

I would have had trouble dreaming it up this way, let alone pulling it off.

Something's missing.

Servant or King?

We do not have deacons in our church.

To me, that is problematic, because I see two offices in the New Testament in the church: pastors (also called elders and shepherds) and deacons.

But we don't have them, and that is that.

I'm sorry to say that in many of the churches in which I have served, the pastor has had more trouble with deacons than with any other individual or group in the church.

How horrible!

This has happened when the deacons began to think of themselves as directors, commanders or arbitors of things churchy. They believed that they were the protectors of things business in the church. They became decision makers.

Biblically they are none of the above, and have zero place thinking they are.

Diakonos is the Greek word we translate as deacon. It is the word familily that includes the female of the word and diakoneo, the verb form, as in: to use the office of diakonos.

In the book of Acts, verse 2 of chapter 6, the words serve tables (KJV) comes from the Greek diakoneo.

It is from here that we get the idea that this verse may refer to the first deacons.

There is room for discussion about that usage, but it is clear that the role of the deacon is to be a "super-servant."

Now understand...YOU are a servant. If you are not a servant, you may be saved, but you are not a follower of Christ, for He set the example as the Suffering Sevant of Yahweh. He came to serve, if He is to be believed (and He is).

The deacon was looked on as a special servant. That is why Paul told Timothy to choose special men for the office.

The disciples needed to be given the time to devote themselves to attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.

Let me explain it this way: The deacon is to be the pastor's right-hand man. He is to make the pastor's job easier. He is to take the pressure of the mundane off of the pastor and onto himself (herself---Phoebe? Now there's a can of worms).

As long as the pastor is not leading in a direction that is immoral, illegal, unethical, or contrary to God's Word, the deacon should back him 100%, all the time, every time.

The deacon should willingly make visits that the pastor can't get to. The deacon should be quick to smooth out divisions and to put an end to gossip in the church.

He should be the pastor's protector and shield in the church.

A deacon should take the lead in promoting unity in the body of Christ.

One of his tasks is to put down any gongusmus that develops in the church.

Gongusmus? What in the world is gongusmus?

Gongusmus is that self-righteous, "my way is better than your way" kind of murmuring that characterizes many churches. It is a transliteration of the Greek. Isn't it a great word sound? Gon GUS mus. It just SOUNDS grumpy.

If you are a deacon or even if you just play one on TV, learn the Biblical role.

If the deacons in your church see themselves as anything more than exercisers of extraordinary servanthood, vote them out or replace them with people who have servants hearts.

Don't ask your deacons to wear hats they should not wear, and help them help your pastor.

Remember, the pastor's job is to equip YOU to do the work of the ministry. The deacon's job is to help him help you do the work of the ministry.

Your job is to DO the work of the ministry.

Sunday Praise

You have made it possible for us to come to you through Jesus, Christ, O Lord.

You tell us to come with a sincere heart.

You invite us to come in full assurance of the faith that is within us by your power and as your gift.


Blessed Assurance
Fanny J. Crosby and Phoebe P. Knapp
http://www.hymnsite.com/lyrics/umh369.sht

1. Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!
O what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God,
born of his Spirit, washed in his blood.

Refrain: This is my story, this is my song,
praising my Savior all the day long;
this is my story, this is my song,
praising my Savior all the day long.

2. Perfect submission, perfect delight,
visions of rapture now burst on my sight;
angels descending bring from above
echoes of mercy, whispers of love. (Refrain)

Refrain: This is my story, this is my song,
praising my Savior all the day long;
this is my story, this is my song,
praising my Savior all the day long.

3. Perfect submission, all is at rest;
I in my Savior am happy and blest,
watching and waiting, looking above,
filled with his goodness, lost in his love. (Refrain)

Refrain: This is my story, this is my song,
praising my Savior all the day long;
this is my story, this is my song,
praising my Savior all the day long.

O Say, Do You Sing?

To whom do you sing?

When you gather to worship, what do you sing? When do you sing? Why do you sing?

We gather on Sunday mornings for a celebration. We celebrate the resurrection of Jesus.

We can worship any time and anywhere. Those who use this as an excuse for not attending worship have a point.

But they miss the greater points.

Number one: We are told not to forsake the gathering of ourselves together.

If the Word of God tells us not to do something we should not do it. You cannot argue with me on this point, because I arrogantly refuse to hear your arguement.

Number two: It is difficult to celebrate something alone.

I have no issue with people who want to meet on some day other than Sunday. Colosians clearly tells us not to fuss at one another over a special day. So let's not fuss.

However, the early church met on Sundays for the express purpose of remembering and celebrating a living Christ.

Celebrations are typically cloaked in song.

"Happy Birthday to you..."

"For he's a jolly good fellow..."

And so, we sings songs of celebration as well as worship when we meet on Sundays (or any other day).

The Psalms are replete with songs (you DID know that they were songs...right?) of worship and praise.

Great writers have written hymns of praise, doctrine, worship, and focus on Christ.

Since the early days of the church there have been shorter, easily learned and sung songs like the choruses many of us sing today.

Scripture tells us to use all of these.

Consider Eph 5:19 "Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;... "

I take psalms to be scripture songs, hymns to be poetry with a spiritual point put to music and spiritual songs to be like choruses and such.

According to the verse in Ephesians, to whom do we sing?

Most people, I think, would say, "Why we sing to God, of course."

But wait!

The verse says, "Speaking to yourselves in psalms...."

Other translations use the words each other.

Clearly, this fits with the Biblical principle of edifying, or building up, one another and giving each other encouragement.

When Paul and Silas were in prison, they sang.

Surely they were worshipping, but they were also giving each other the courage to face what was surely ahead.

In our church, we meet on Sundays. As Worship Leader, I try to keep before the congregation that we are there to celebrate the resurrected Jesus and to worship Him, but also to encourage one another.

Sometimes we hold hands as we sing.

Sometimes we lift up our hands when we sing.

Sometimes we clap as we sing.

Always we celebrate and worship.

I hope you do, too.

The Answer To Your Nagging Question

I know. I know. You've always wondered.

How does my computer actually work?

Just click the link and you'll know.

http://www.newportharbor.us/computerworks.htm

Never Underestimate God

But you already knew that.

Didn't you?

I got a call from my sister this afternoon. She told me the full story of what happened to my mother.

Mother had been in bed and wanted to get up.

When she tried to do so, she became breathless and did not have the strength to even sit up, let alone get up.

She was hurting and was fighting for each breath.

My sister dialed 911 and mother was taken to the hospital.

She had fluid around her heart and had had a myocardial infarction (heart attack). I've had a few of those, myself.

They kept her in the hospital.

My sister was told not to wander too far, it might not be long.

You fellow bloggers (and others) prayed.

This afternoon, my mother said to my sister, "See...I can sit up! And I can breathe." She demonstrated by taking a deep breath.

I have no idea how long she has...only God knows that.

God has given me a very strong and determined mother.

He is a very strong and able God.

Facing A Loss

At 11:00 PM last night I got a call from my sister telling me that my mother, who is 87 years old, was taken to the hospital with fluid forming around her heart.

She is not expected to live.

This is not the first time she has faced death.

In 1957 whe was told that she had, on the outside, 5 years to live. She had lost one and one-half kidneys, and had a uteral infection that required the taking of my unborn sister in order to save my mother's life.

Last year she was expected to die one night, but instead went home to live a little longer.

I do not have much optimism about this time, but have placed it all in God's hands. He knows and will do what is best.

Please pray for the family as we face this crisis.

Thank you.

Florida Bikers

For a look at the writings of a REAL biker go to: Steel Cowboy

Sunday Praise - Reprise

The Earth is yours, O Lord, and everything that is in it.

You are the one who pushed back the oceans and allowed dry land to appear.

You have made it possible for us to climb even the mountain of the Lord and enter where you live through the shed blood of Jesus.

Your name is to be praised above all others.

This Is My Father's World
Words and Music by Maltbie D. Babcock
http://www.hymnsite.com/lyrics/umh144.sht

This is my Father's world, And to my listening ears
All nature sings and round me rings The music of the spheres.
This is my Father's world, I rest me in the thought
Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas, His hand the wonders wrought.

This is my Father's world The birds their carols raise.
The morning light, the lily white, Declare their Maker's praise.
This is my Father's world He shines in all that's fair;
In the rustling grass, I hear Him pass, He speaks to me everywhere.

This is my Father's world, O let me ne'er forget:
That thought the wrong seems oft' so strong, God is the ruler yet.
This is my Father's world, The battle is not done
Jesus who died shall be satisfied, And the earth and heaven be one.
©Public Domain

Get That License Number!

The license number of that truck that hit me, that is.

Whew!

That was an intense three and one half days!

We had two specialists from ShareMedia, Tim Altman and Therese Romano come help us with our sharathon.

Therese is a bright, humerous and very dedicated woman with a great ability to relate to people.

To call Tim intense is an unfathonable understatement. He is energy personified, and virtually carried us through Sharathon 2006.

Together they made a great team and helped us reach $115.000.00 in faith promises to the station, an increase from $104,000.00 last year.

That is a fraction of the budget need, but, added to those who are steady givers but did not call during Sharathon 2006, it will go a long way toward making our budget.

Thank you for your prayers and for "giving" me the time off to participate in our sharathon.

Hopefully I will be back to some simblance of normalcy (as if there was ever any of that on this blog).

I have SO much catching up to do, having not read a blog in a week.

Getting up time each day has been 4:00 AM and getting home time has been 7:30 PM.

God has blessed and I have stayed "healthy," although I will not be able to eat for a week.

One of the perks of Sharathon is that local restauranteurs provide us with breakfasts, lunches and dinners, and plenty of them.

So, I'll see you tomorrow with Sunday Praise and will catch up on my reading and pithy comments as fast as I can.

Three 12 Hour Days

SHARATHON 2006

March 14 through 16

WWW.KINGDOM.FM

A Friend Sent This to Me

RULES FROM GOD

1. Wake Up !! Decide to have a good day. "Today is the day the Lord hath made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." Psalms 118:24

2. Dress Up !!The best way to dress up is to put on a smile. A smile is an inexpensive way to improve your looks. "The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at outward appearance; but the Lord looks at the heart." I Samuel 16:7

3. Shut Up!! Say nice things and learn to listen. God gave us two ears and one mouth, so He must have meant for us to do twice as much listening as talking. "He who guards his lips guards his soul." Proverbs 13:3

4. Stand Up!! ... For what you believe in. Stand for something or you will fall for anything.. "Let us not be weary in doing good; for at the proper time, we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good..." Galatians 6:9-10

5. Look Up !! ...To the Lord. "I can do everything through Christ who strengthens me." Philippians 4:13

6. Reach Up !! ...For something higher. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not unto your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will direct your path." Proverbs 3:5-6

7. Lift Up !! ...Your Prayers. "Do not worry about anything; instead PRAY ABOUT EVERYTHING." Philippians 4:6

God answers Knee-Mail

Cold Turkey

I'm certain to be experiencing withdrawal symptoms for the next several days, as my blogging, both writing and reading, will have to be somewhat curtailed.

Next week begins our annual SHARATHON at the radio station (www.kingdom.fm on the Internet).

This is our major fundraiser of the year and there is an incredible amount of work to prepare for it.

I'll be the board operator for much of the time, although I will be spelled more often than in the past. We now have three more people who are very competent to run it.

Xavier is a very smooth, laid back guy who is steady and dependable. He'll tackle anything and loves to learn the system.

Caleb is fairly new, but computer literate extrodinaire. He also does a good deal of voice-over work.

Parker is part-time, but has been there the longest and will be in and out during sharathon. He's a good friend and is graduating from Florida Gulf Coast University this year. He'll be leaving in May and I will miss him.

Steve Gimbert, our afternoon guy, could operate the board, only he's in Georgia. He does his show on our station from there. It's a process called WANcasting (Wide Area Network). He'd need very long arms to be of much help in the board operating department.

Steve's situation is really unique. He does what we call VoiceTracking. That means he pre-records his comments and ministry in little temporary tracks that insert themselves between songs and then self-distruct after they air. (Just like the Mission Impossible tapes, but with less smoke).

So Steve is not only not here when he sounds like he is here, he is not here when he is getting ready to sound like he is here.

He's the best on-air personality we have, and we don't even have him.

Why am I dizzy?

Vernonica Barber is our Saturday morning person, and I'm sure she will pop in from time to time.

By the way, if you did develop the habit of listening and wanted to contribute, you can send your check to Kingdom FM, P.O. Box 61721, Ft. Myers, Florida 33912. You can call in a Faith Promise to 1-800-635-2122. One of our friendly operators will be "standing by to take your call."

Giving to the station is not a requirement for reading this blog or commenting thereon. But it might be someday.

Be praying for us as we approach Sharathon 2006. We need to raise $175,000.00. If you can write a check for that amount, send it to Joe Scoggins, 1634......maybe not.

I'll do my best to post something or other as often as I can, and to read as much as I can, but I'll be working from 6 AM until 6 PM daily.

God bless.

I'll see you here very soon.

But if I don't see you here, I'll see you over there.

Sweet Followship

John, over at The Earnest Contender is doing a wonderful series about pastors, what they are, Biblically, and the office as described in scripture.

This post is about how the congregation should relate to the leadership of the church.

Ephesians 4: 11-16

11. And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;

Notice that we are talking about the leadership, and I take it to include both staff and lay leaders (you don't have to if you don't want to, but I strongly advise it).

12. For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:

Their work has a purpose: to "perfect," or to "prepare" God's people for ministry and to build them up as members of the body of Christ.

13. Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:

They are to keep at it until God's people are unified, know Christ, become mature and realize the perfection of Christ (not of us) in themselves.

14. That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;

Maturity occurs when we grow up. Children do not act maturely, grown-ups are supposed to. Children fall for all kinds of stupid stuff. Grown-ups are not supposed to.

If God's people are mature, false teachers will not be able to sway them from their right thinking in Christ.

15 . But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:

"Truth in love" does not mean we should greet the grumpy old lady by saying, "Hi, there, you ugly old hag, " just because she is ugly, old and a hag (does the sentence, "Be ye kind one to another," mean any thing to you?).

The truth is the person of Christ, who is the truth. We know that He is because He said so. Besides, the whole emphasis of the verse is Jesus.

16. From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.

There's that unity thing again; a body that fits together to accomplish God's purpose in love.

I submit that congregations have a responsibility to follow their leaders to these ends, as long as the leadership does not try to lead them to do something immoral, illegal or contrary to the principles of God's word.

In order for that to take place, and for the congregation to be united in followship, each individual (read: you) must submit to the leaders God has given, pastors, staff, deacons, Sunday School teachers, Church Training Directors or whoever.

"I don't want to do that," or "We've never done it that way before," or (especially here in the south), "Up north we...," have never been, are not now and never will be reasons to thwart the leadership of the church.

Make it easy for your leadership. Don't take *Kool-Aid for them, but willingly follow them as God's annointed for your congregation.

Be enthusiatically led to grow in christ, love each other (including the leaders), and meet regularly in the followship hall for the meat of the word and to drink in all of Christ you possibly can.

Then watch the body of Christ groW!

*A veiled reference to the followers of Jim Jones, who committed mass suicide by taking poison laced Kool-Aid because he said to.

In Order to Form A More Perfect Union

I Cor 1:10 Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

Paul wrote this to the First (put your denomination here) Church of Corinth.

It is a powerful, pleading admonition for these contentious people to get their cotton pickin' act together and stop offending the unity for which Christ had prayed as recorded in John 17.

Unity in Christ is a major theme of the new testament.

In I Corinthians 12, the body vs parts discourse is about unity. So is Romans 12. Try out Ephesians 4, and see if unity doesn't fit it well.

"Now I beseech you,..."

This is a plea. Its tone is one of desparation. Paul is saying, "I'm begging you! Please!"

"By the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,..."

When one calls on the name of the Lord, Jesus, Christ, one is calling on the one about whom john wrote, "All things were made by Him and without Him was not anything made that was made."

In the proper sense of the phrase he was crying out, "For Christ's sake, people...!"

"That you all speak the same thing,..."

Words are important. They have meaning. They are the vehicle by which we transfer ideas from one person to another.

Paul says to learn the language of Christ. Say what He said. Understand what He taught and follow Him.

Christians today, couldn't care less that Jesus wants us unified.

Read around the blogosphere. There you'll find "Jesus people" cutting each other down, contending with one another, straining every specie of gnat and swallowing even the largest camels.

"I have my own "private interpretation" and I'm dogged if I'm going to give an inch, on accounta I have to be right or I'm not going to be able to prove I'm better than the next guy or gal in God's eyes."

"...and that there be no divisions among you."

Are there divisions in Christianity today?

Both Jesus and Paul said there shouldn't be.

Do you think they said there should be no divisions among us because there should be no divisions among us, or do you think they said there should be no divisions among us for some other unrevealed reason?

Maybe they meant that there should be no divisions among us.

Ya think?

"...but that ye be perfectly joined together..."

The only perfection is in Christ. The only way we can be perfectly joined together is to get our focus on AND ONLY ON Him. Him, the person, not Him the doctrine. Him the person, not Him the verse interpretation. Him the person, not Him the etherial, obtuse idea.

To be joined together brings up the vision of Christ's yoke, which is easy.

So why do we make it so hard? IT'S NOT HARD, PEOPLE. IF IT IS HARD, IT IS NOT HIS YOKE!

"...in the same mind."

Woof! This one is deep. Paul says that you and I are to be of the same mind. That mind of which we are to be the same is the mind of Christ. We have His mind in us.

You have the mind of the creator in you! I have the mind of the creator in me!

If we will learn to revel in that, what else is of any importance at all?

You don't have to think like me. I don't have to think like you. We both have to think like Christ.

"...and in the same judgement."

Aren't you glad that when a just God looks upon you in that day He will see you through the eyes of His Son? If we could soak ourselves in the truth of that, we would never experience brotherly discord again.

As Helen H. Lemmel wrote:

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wondersul face;
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.

Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

Sunday Praise

Father in Heaven, we praise you for your mighty works.

We praise you for your goodness.

We praise you for your righteousness.

We praise you for your power and majesty.

We praise you for your justice.

We praise you for your mercy.

We praise you for your grace.

We praise you for your love manifested in our wonderful Savior.

We praise you for His birth, death, burial, resurrection, life, and soon return.

One Day
Words: J. Wilbur Chapman, D.D. 1908
http://www.cgmusic.com/cghymnal/others/oneday.htm

1. One day when heaven was filled with His praises,
One day when sin was as black as could be,
Jesus came forth to be born of a virgin,
Dwelt among men, my Example is He!

Refrain:

Living, He loved me; dying, He saved me;
Buried He carried my sins far away;
Rising, He justified freely forever;
One day He's coming - O glorious day!

2. One day they led Him up Calvary's mountain,
One day they nailed Him to die on the tree;
Suffering anguish, despised and rejected:
Bearing our sins, my Redeemer is He!

Refrain

Living, He loved me; dying, He saved me;
Buried He carried my sins far away;
Rising, He justified freely forever;
One day He's coming - O glorious day!

3. One day they left Him alone in the garden,
One day He rested, from suffering free;
Angels came down over His tomb to keep vigil;
Hope of the hopeless, my Savior is He!

Refrain

Living, He loved me; dying, He saved me;
Buried He carried my sins far away;
Rising, He justified freely forever;
One day He's coming - O glorious day!

4. One day the grave could conceal Him no longer,
One day the stone rolled away from the door;
Then He arose, over death He had conquered;
Now is ascended, my Lord evermore!

Refrain

Living, He loved me; dying, He saved me;
Buried He carried my sins far away;
Rising, He justified freely forever;
One day He's coming - O glorious day!

5. One day the trumpet will sound for His coming,
One day the skies with His glories will shine;
Wonderful day, my beloved One bringing;
Glorious Savior, this Jesus is mine!

Refrain

Living, He loved me; dying, He saved me;
Buried He carried my sins far away;
Rising, He justified freely forever;
One day He's coming - O glorious day!