A Constant Remodeling project:

For about four decades I've been into remodeling, home repair, fixing-up, call it what you will.

Most of my efforts bear no resemblance to the popular shows on TV. It is interesting to watch one of the shows where they claim to be doing a low-cost project. Their budget for a room is often more than I paid for my house. Especially in our earlier projects, by far, the biggest question was what will it cost. I can show you walls that were built out of 2x4s that came out of other walls that were torn down. A long time before I had anywhere approaching adequate tools, I tore panel doors apart and cut them down or put mirrors in them, etc. etc. My current project involves a good bit of new material, but still, I'm working with what is there.

It's a lot like life. In the kind of remodeling I'm describing a person who does everything "by the book," will end up greatly frustrated, and will spend a lot of money. You can usually spot this kind of craftsman. Every ninety seconds or so they will loudly lament, "Nothing is square in this house." On the other hand a remodeller who doesn't have a good feel for what will work and last, will end up creating a project that will fall down around his ears in a year or too. (I know this from experience.) When you are doing what I'm talking about you have to take what is there and based on sound principles make it better with what you have on hand.

Christianity is not a way of life that only works on the controlled environment of a TV show. Where mistakes end up in the out-takes. Christianity is real-life way of life, where a person takes what is there--out of square and all--and then uses, following the directions in the Bible, what the Lord has provided to make progress.

Real people who really love the Lord.

The Lord has given us the resources--His word, prayer, the church, His own presence with us--to build a life to his glory. Done right our life won't look like every other Christian McMansion on the street. Rather the Lord enables us to build lives that have a character of their own. In fact some of the lives will be described as "characters." The Apostle Paul's fanatical Rabbinism became a part of his Christian persona, likewise John's compassion, and Peter's impetuosity. The Lord is building real people, in conformity with His word, increasingly taking on a look that becomes a clearer expression of Who He is. He is not creating Christian Stepfords.

How is your project coming?

It's STTA.

Arrogant?

This past weekend our focus at Covington Bible Church was reaching out to the world with the good news of Jesus Christ. What we call the great commission--Jesus Christ's mandate to His followers to carry the story of salvation to all the world--is not embraced by all Christians. Here is the command in Mark's brief, to-the-point style: "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation." (Mark 16:15)

• Isn't that chauvinistic?
• How arrogant. You are telling others that they are wrong and you are right.
• Look at all the bad things that have been done in the name of Christianity. Don't you think you should just back off?

I deny the "chauvinist" label. Key in the definition of that epithet is the concept of excess or unjustified surety or enthusiasm. If Heaven and Hell and eternity, and the value of human's lives is real then it is hard to see how one could be over-the-top in proclaiming the message at the heart of scripture.

When I proclaim the Good News I'm not arrogantly pushing my agenda at the expense of all others. Telling the Gospel story is built on me telling my story, which is based on my surrender--admitting my profound need. Sharing the story of Christ has been described as, "One beggar telling another beggar where to find bread.

The message of Jesus Christ changes societies, but its methodology is one-at-a-time. The Apostle Paul says we are ambassadors. Peace has been made between man and God. We have the privilege of proclaiming that reality. (2 Corinthians 5:18-21). How can we not give as many as possible the opportunity to make peace.

My efforts personally, and our efforts as a church are far from what they should be, but my response to the Lord's command, and the response that I am encouraging the Covington Bible Church to take, is, "Yes Sir."

Maybe you are one of those who is still on the wrong side of the millennia-long conflict between men and the their Creator. Find out about peace in Christ here.

It's STTA.

Messing with the Mess, or Cleaning It Up?

Have you noticed, this world is in a mess?

Natural disasters, made worse by crumbling technology.

Hard-hearted, not to mention "headed" dictators see their positions of power as a means for personal enrichment.

When the oppressed people rise up, too often their movement is hi-jacked by those with another destructive agenda.

The age old observation, "I don't know what this world is coming to!" is certainly apropos.

Is it like the weather?

Everybody talks about it, but no one does anything about it. Certainly talk is not only cheap, but incredibly abundant. The airwaves, cables, and Internet are full of talk. I'm listening to some of it in the background as I type this piece.

I'm glad to say some are doing more than talking. Certainly the dedicated men and women in our armed forces are making an incredible difference, but that is another article, for another day. Right now I'm thinking about those who go out with the Bible being their weapon. They battle for the hearts of people.

Jesus told His followers to go into all the world and seek to make disciples--fully devoted followers of Christ. This weekend at Covington Bible Church we honor those who leave home to take the Good News to places where the folk aren't likely to hear unless they do go. I'm thinking about folk who have gone to regions dominated by modern secularism, to proclaim a two millennia old message that is still relevant. Or, others who have gone to people who have barely emerged from the stone-age, people who still live under the oppression of spirits real and imagined that makes their life dark and fearful. Like the brave firemen who ran into the twin-towers while others were fleeing, these men and women go to places not because they are safe or comfortable, but because the need is great.

But not only do we honor those who have gone, we encourage others to go. Billions of people still have not heard the Good News that "God so loved the world. . . ."

Find out more about CBC's Missions Emphasis Weekendhere. We'd love for you to join us. This world is a mess. Let's do something about it.

It's STTA.

What I Learned During My Time as Borg:

OK, I need to start with a couple of disclaimers/warnings/cop-outs:

• If you don't anything about Star Trek you may want to stop right now.
• If you are one of those folk who think that grown people should be wasting time on fictional worlds, beings, and events, then please do stop right here.
• If you are someone who has trouble sorting out reality and fantasy, note: I was not really a Borg. The only Borg I am familiar with in the real world is half of the manufacturing company, BorgWarner.
• This is an analogy.
  

The week of January 31 I was assimilated. I went to the Dr.to have a badly cut, but healing, thumb re-bandaged and didn't come home for four days. When I came home the collective had installed bio-implants so I could receive necessary fluids. I remained Borg until yesterday.

Not, "Resistance is futile," rather "Resistance is necessary:
A nurse, a physician assistant, an orthopedic surgeon and an infectious disease specialist, all agreed that my thumb looked and smelled bad. Since bone was involved in the wound, the assumption was made that the invasion of bacteria--was it MERSA?--had entered the bone. Resistance consisted of near the round the clock IVs of what I call Gorilla-mycin. Since we couldn't identify the invader, immediately, we had to rely on a substance that kills about anything--actually there were two. Later we identified the bacteria--not Mersa, but a variety of Staph. Resistance was focused to deal with that specific invader. Resistance continued. It was strange. We never were absolutely sure that the bacterial invasion got past my thumb, but the consequences of allowing it to colonize my body were so devastating that massive resistance--more than that, annihilation--was entirely appropriate. Make it not so, was the standing order.
This is Something to Think About, so I won't do all the work. Look at these two verses and mount your own resistance campaign: Romans 13:14, & James 4:7.

None of us can survive apart from the collective:

During the early part of my treatment I saw doctors, nurses and therapists more than I saw my wife. Before I could come home a surgeon and his team had to install the necessary plumbing so I could get my meds at home. After I came home, I went to see a health professional 2 or three times a week, another one came to see me weekly, and behind the scene were pharmacists, medical device makers and marketers, even UPS who delivered my supplies. I could not resist by myself.
Again, here is some work for you: Hebrews 10:14-25, & 1 Corinthians 12:12-14 (Read the context if you have time).

Regeneration is a good thing:

The thing I missed most while I was part of the Borg-Collective was the freedom to alter my schedule. I had to give myself an antibiotic IV, every eight hours. To wash, wipe the port with alcohol, flush the line with saline, hook up the elastometric infusion device, let the medicine enter my bloodstream, wipe with alcohol, flush with saline, then Heparin, and throw away the mess took about 40 minutes. My life was built around that cycle.
One of the concepts that I have tried to live by, and encourage others to make part of their lifestyle is regular prayer and time in the Word of God. Take time to spend with God.


RESISTANCE IS NECESSARY IF WE ARE TO AVOID ASSIMILATION by the world! (John 17:13-16)

It's STTA.

Keeping the unimaginable in bounds:

The earthquake and tsunami that have devastated Japan, and beyond, are off any scale that exists in my thinking. Massive waves that move across the ocean at 500 miles per hour, and tremors that cause buildings to sway like reeds in the wind don't exist in my mind. When "experts" explain these phenomena I gain a new appreciation for their magnitude, but I understand them only in the sense that I learn to parrot back some of what these specialists say. It is not dissimilar to my "understanding" of this computer. I know that when I press the "I" key that the letter appears on the screen in front of me, and that the code that produces that "I" can be stored on a hard drive or sent by digital signals across vast distances. (I'm going to date myself here.) I remember when manual typewriters were popular. I could examine the levers, springs, and gears and understand how it worked. I am confident that if I had put forth the effort I could have explained, complete with pictures, how my old Remington worked. This computer: in broad terms I can explain it, but much of it is a mystery. That is where I am in explaining the cataclysmic events of the past few days--my knowledge base is inadequate.
I think I know enough, however, to be confident that the correct answer to why this tragedy erupted in Japan, is "I don't know." Beware of those who have neat, tidy answers. The vast debris fields that once were neighborhoods in the Island nation, are matched by the clutter in our minds. I'm not sure we can altogether understand what has happened. What we can do, however, is "contain" the disruption in our mind and heart with some reality barriers.
"I don't understand, but I do know this."
What are some of the "this"es we can know?

• Disasters like the one that struck our neighbors on the other side of the globe, are tragic, in particular, because they are an accumulation of personal, totally real disasters. This morning the estimates are that 10,000 people died in the earthquake/tsunami. Each of them is a mom, dad, brother, sister, grandparent, or friend. Every one of those buildings was someones home, their place of employment, house of worship, school, etc. One of the dangers of the worldwide communication/news environment is we tend to see the devastation as if it were the tide washing away children's sand-castles. People talk of good that can come from this tragedy. We can identify good that has come from past tragedies, and I already hear of God's people reaching out with the Love-of-Christ. That is definitely good. One of the boundaries we must respect is to call things like this bad--in this case bad beyond my scale of reckoning. In the Old-Testament the word "evil" is used not only to describe the morally corrupt, but natural disasters. This kind of evil will be eliminated in the heavenly realm, Revelation 21:4. The natural disasters that afflicted Job were seen by him and his loved ones as evil, Job 42:11. Let us never be guilty of calling bad things good. Romans 8:28 does not say, "all things are good," but, "all things work together for good." Look in the context and you'll see that a short time before the Apostle pronounced the truth of verse 28, he wrestled with the presence of bad things in the world.
  
• God is in control. Sometimes we feel like God needs our help. We think that we need to lobby on His behalf and make sure others know this isn't His fault. It is true that God is not the author of evil, but He is in control in this world. His sovereignty extends from the falling sparrow to the culmination of all things. God was not napping when the earth moved with violence. Other than what He has revealed, I don't know why, but I do know the world is in His hand.
  
• People are responsible. The choices we make have consequences. When aggregates of people make choices--national policies, the direction of cultures, etc. those decisions have far reaching consequences. Where we build cities, how we provide them power, and how the people there live can have consequences far beyond what we see. The Old-Testament is full of examples of societies that became ripe for the judgment of God. The later part of Romans 1 records a pattern that is all too common. Fatalism is never the answer. We need to make wise, right decisions, and encourage the groups we are a part of to do so as well.
  
• We are to reach out with love and compassion whenever we are able. One of the reasons Christianity came to dominate the Roman world was because Christians reached out with compassion to those afflicted by plagues and other disasters. We must avoid being opportunists. At the same time we must, with courage and hope, reach out with the love God in the face of this world's darkness.

There is much that I don 't know. I am able to cope because of what God has graciously made sure for me.

It's STTA.

Some further thought:
http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/evil.html

Don't Look!

When one arrives at a "certain age" he can look back and think of times that when a voice from within or on the outside said, "Don't Look." I look back with gratitude for the warnings that prevented certain scenes from becoming part of the photo-album of my mind. There are some pictures in those collections that cause me to wish I had listened. Pictures are instantly uploaded to this most sophisticated of computers, but only erased with great difficulty--if at all.
Traffic always slows down near a wreck. Everyone wants to get a look, even though they know they should "move on along." There is at least a bit of the Voyeur in each of us.
There is a mammoth industry that depends on getting us to look. From a young woman with a last name made famous by hotels, to cute drug addicts with an eye for jewelry, to athletes who live like adult-empowered two-year-olds, to funny men whose lives have become decidedly non-humorous there is a perverted ugly co-dependency. Certain TV outlets, internet sites, magazines, agents, and a whole host of other parasites attempt to keep these human carwrecks in front of us as long as there is a dime to be made. As long as we, like rats in an experiment, push the lever one more time, getting our "Ooh," "Ahh,", or even
"Yuk!" fix, the sorry spectacle goes on.
Can we just all agree that we aren't going to expend any energy or especially money, to find out out what she stole, or how much cocaine he snorted with however many prostitutes in tow. Perhaps inquiring minds want to know, but wise souls realize they a better off to stay ignorant of some things. I sincerely hope these tragic folk find help, but I am trying to maintain a stance--"Watch my mouth. What part of 'I don't care!' don't you understand?" Sure there is this tousle-headed boy somewhere between my ears who keeps jumping up and down saying, "I wanna see! I wanna see!" I'm remembering the times when folk wisely told me, "Don't look," and telling him the same.

I want to listen to those wise voices more. Perhaps this STTA is one of those voices you need to hear.

It's STTA.

Thank You Frank Buckles. But even a guy like him can only do so much.

Frank Buckles, one hundred ten years old--still sharp just three years ago died February 27. Corporal was the last known living, American Veteran of World War I. He denied lying, but he added a few years to his age so he could enlist. At sixteen Buckles was driving an ambulance in Europe.
Far be it from me to accuse such an honorable man of prevarication, and I'm certainly not going question the patriotism of those who gave so much for their country, but there was an untruth involved in that first great global conflict.

World War I was called the "War to end all wars. It is a sentiment that is not isolated to the first part of the Twentieth Century. Unfortunately, the plan didn't quite work out--World War II, the Korean Conflict (still unresolved) Southeast Asia, various rebellions ruthlessly suppressed by the Soviet Union, Iraq, Afghanistan, and now Libya provide evidence that all wars were not ended. Ironically, Frank Buckles, though a civilian became a De facto POW in the second world war.

I'm not saying that the world is not a better place because of the right side--or maybe the "less wrong" side--winning a number of those conflicts, but clearly some humility is in order. Bringing peace to the world is beyond the likes of us, even if we start at fifteen and live ten years into our second century. Jesus said we would continue to deal with "wars and rumors of wars." (Mark 13:7) It is clear that Jesus uttered these words in a context that deals with the culmination of times. It appears to be a part of the human condition. Going to war is a serious matter. Sometimes it is necessary, but let us not have an inflated notion of our abilities. The same, BTW, can be said about politics, philanthropy, and other worthwhile activities. We can make a difference, and we can a case can be made that we should, but we won't fix it all.

Soon the strains of Handel will swell in celebration of our Lord's resurrection. (If you click here you can hear a recording of the Hallelujah Chorus, recorded on Edison Diamond Disc at about the time young Frank was inflating his age so he could serve his country.) The peace we long for will not come from military success. We won't see it until "The kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of our Lord." (Handel took these words from Revelation 11:15.)

"Even so come Lord Jesus." (Revelation 22:20)

It's STTA.