Tuesday, December 30, 2014

a quote

"i want to love people, i truly do!
But then they open their mouths and say stuff and it's just easier to stuff the grenade in and pull the pin."

Seamus

Saturday, November 29, 2014

Just in time for the holidays!

http://society6.com/scruffymynxbane

Hi y'all,
Remember me?  No?  No bother.  All you need to know about me right now is that i'm poor, i draw and paint stuff and you can buy stuff with those pictures on them if you are so inclined.  Like a hoodie with this guy on it, or a clock with some other dudes on them or just a nice framed print of this of Captain Jesus...
So head on over to society6 and see what there is to see and if you don't see something you'd like to see, see me, or leave a message in the comment box telling me what you'd like and i'll see what i can do, see?


Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Why don't he write?

Cuz Astrobunny!  That's why! 

Yes, i've been spending the month of October writing and illustrating a Comic over on my Rabbit Trails blog.  Check it out if you're not too sophisticated for Comics.


Thursday, August 21, 2014

My prayer

Lord save me from
ideas i have no outlet for
outlets i have no ideas for
and this most of all,
ideas with outlets i have no time for.
In Jesus' name,
Amen

Monday, August 18, 2014

What things? What good?

Finish the verse:

"And we know all things work together for good for                       ..."  Romans 8:28

What'd you come up with?  It's one of our favorite verses in the Bible.  We'll pluck that baby right out and apply it to all kinds of situations.  Anytime we see stuff going wrong in anybody's life you can bet some well meaning well-wisher will trot this panacea out.

To paraphrase the great theologian Inigo Montoya, "You keep on using that [phrase], i do not think it means what you think it means."

Here's the verse in the Lexham translation:

"And we know all things work together for good for those who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose,"

So that's cool, who doesn't love God, right?  We're all called for some purpose, so sure, it's medicine for every little inconvenience along the way, right?

You know me better than that by now.  Here's the thing.  Paul didn't write verses.  He wrote letters.  Those letters had a theme, the themes were broken into paragraphs and sentences.  And with Paul, that means run-on sentences which would give a grammarian a conniption and an aneurism and a stroke all at the same moment in time or all at once as some people say or as other people say, she would die, why i assume the grammarian is a woman, i don't know, i guess i just do that cuz most of the grammarians i've met were women.

The point is, you do yourself and the text a great disservice by lifting it out of context.  You lose the meaning.  The whole sentence is this:

"And we know all things work together for good for those who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose, because those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed into the image of his Son, so that he should be the firstborn among many brothers."  

So the all things that Paul speaks of are not clearly defined by this sentence but they are by the paragraphs preceding it.  "For I consider that the sufferings of the present time..." Paul had been talking about the groaning of the present age and the hopes we have for the future and firstfruits of the Spirit.  All things can mean "All Things" but in the context, they mean especially our sufferings.  And the "good" he speaks of, what is that?  Well, it's right there, "his purpose".  What is his purpose?  To conform us into the image of his Son so that he will be the firstborn among many brothers.  He's making little Christs.  What is the image of his son?  To Love God as Jesus did.  To obey him even unto death.  To lay down your life for your friends.  To love your enemies.  To pray for those who persecute you.  To forgive as often as they ask for repentance.  To bear no grudge.  To love your neighbor as yourself or as Philippians concisely puts it, Jesus, "who, existing in the form of God, did not consider being equal with God something to be [held onto], but emptied himself by taking the form of a slave, by becoming in the likeness of people.  And being found in appearance like a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, that is, death on a cross."

Or as Isaiah, another man not afraid of grammarians, puts it, "He had no form and no majesty that we should see him, and no appearance that we should take pleasure in him.  He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering, and acquainted with sickness, and like one from whom others hide their faces, he was despised, and we did not hold him in high regard.  However he was the one who lifted up our sicknesses, and he carried our pain, yet we ourselves assumed him stricken, struck down y God and afflicted.  But he was pierced because of our transgressions, crushed because of our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon him, and y his wounds we were healed.  All of us have wandered about like sheep; we each have turned to his own way; and Yahweh let fall on him the iniquity of us all.  He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was brought like a lamb to the slaughter, and like a sheep is dumb before its shearers, so he did not open his mouth.  He was taken by restraint of justice, and who concerned himself with his generation?  For he was cut off from the land of the living; he received a blow because of the transgression of my people.  He made his grave with the wicked, and the rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.  Yet Yahweh was pleased to crush him, he made him sick.  If he places his life a guilt offering, he will see offspring.  He will prolong days, and the will of Yahweh will succeed in his hand.  From the trouble of his life he will see; he will be satisfied.  In his knowledge, the righteous one, my servant, shall declare many righteous and he is the one who will bear their iniquities.  Therefore, I will divide to him a portion among the many, and with the strong ones he will divide the bounty, because he poured his life out to death and was counted with the transgressors; and he was the one who bore the sin of many and will intercede for the transgressors."

So there you have it, both the "All Things" which have happened and must happen and the "Good" for which they are working.  Amen.

Monday, August 04, 2014

Someday and Meanwhile

i'm reading Jeremiah lately.  i don't think that's good for me.  It plays to my fears.  i don't see myself as a prophet but i do see myself in a dying culture.  i see a decline all around and i know my own suffering. i see a world on a collision course with the consequences of its sin and i see my warnings fall on deaf ears.  i fear and know Yahweh my God.  i love and trust his salvation through his Son Jesus the Christ. The problem i have is one of time.

Promises and hope are Somedays.  Some bright morning, when this life is over...i'll fly away.  There was a reason for the slave spirituals.  Their hope was not in the day to day.  It was in the Someday.  We will overcome.  In the End, our God has triumphed.  Someday my prince will come.  It's true.  We can bank on it.  God has made his promises and he's given his signs and they are solid, they are bank, they are true.  Sit secure in them.  


But the alarm clock rang this morning, not the final trumpet.  This is Meanwhile, not Someday.  Meanwhile is just that.  Mean.  Low.  Unfair.  Meanwhile is addiction, sin, persecution, labor, thorns, sieges and wicked men doing wicked things.  Someday God will call all debts due and they will either be stamped "Paid-In-Full" by Jesus or ...they won't.  But Meanwhile, we live in poverty, in want, in need and in debt.  Someday every tear will be wiped away.  Meanwhile tears are our food every night.  Someday death will be swallowed up in Victory.  Meanwhile we die and bury loved ones.  Someday we will rise to no more pain, no more sorrow, no more conflict.  Meanwhile we struggle and give up and try again and faint and the alarm goes off in the morning...


Life is lived in the Meanwhile.  Life is lived for the Someday.  Most of the secular world's hopes are just attempts to make Someday today.  Lotteries, vacations, better homes, better jobs, better hobbies, better governments are all man-made attempts at recreating Eden.  And i'm not saying don't do these things, except for the lottery, that's just a tax on the math challenged.  i'm with Yahweh when he says, "‘Build houses and live in them, and plant gardens and eat their fruit. Take wives and father sons and daughters, and take for your sons wives, and give your daughters to men that they may bear sons and daughters, and multiply there, and you must not be few. And seek the prosperity of the city where I have deported you, and pray on behalf of it to Yahweh, for in its prosperity you will have prosperity.’" Jerry 29  i'm with Mr. Greg Forster when he says we need to be in the culture.   What i'm saying is, you got to know your limitations, you got to know the times in which you live and therefore, you got to know your God!  His name is Yahweh and He has Someday in mind.

Friday, August 01, 2014

Something to ponder

"Nevertheless listen please to this word that I am speaking in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people, The prophets who were before me and before you from ancient times prophesied against many countries and against great kingdoms of war, and of disaster, and of plague. The prophet who prophesies peace, at the coming of the word of the prophet, will become known as the prophet that Yahweh has truly sent.”" Jeremiah 28

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Why i think we need more poets, artists and musicians

There are people in Kosovo kidnapping others and harvesting their organs for the black market.  There is a market for illegally harvested organs.  There are people kidnapping girls to use as sex slaves.  There is a market for sex slaves.  There are people selling their sons and daughters.  There is a market for sons and daughters.  There almost isn't a country left that doesn't have unrest and armed fighting in its streets.  There has never been a better time in history to be rich nor a worse time in history to be poor.  There has never been a wider gap between the two.  What used to be sins are now inalienable rights.  Murder is now contraception and assisted suicide.  The church now has a greater divorce rate than the secular world.  Faceless, soulless corporations now have the same rights as people but with far greater power and influence and no conscience.  Children are showing up on our doorsteps, homeless, hungry and afraid and we think the answer is more guns and laws on the doorstep.  Famine, drought and diseases we should have eradicated by now kill millions but we do nothing because those millions are in countries we don't care about.  We build elaborate homes for our cars while others sleep under tarps.  In a world where nothing is wrong, power is the only right.

It's not a lack of resources, laws, guns, money or power or will that's the problem, it's a lack of prophets.

It's a lack of the fear of Yahweh.  It is the prophet's job to call us back, to open our eyes and ears and turn them inward to see the sin in each of our hearts and outward to see the God-man wanting to heal those hearts.  The train of the world is running to the end of the track and it's only picking up steam.  Now more than ever we need to repent and return to God.  Who will call us back?

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Repost

[Hi y'all, in my readings today, i was going through Mark 5 and i remembered this old post i wrote back in the days when i was smarter.  I needed it today so i thought maybe you did too.  What you really need though is time with the Lord so if this can encourage you to do that, amen.  Anyhoo, enjoy this old rabbit trail called, "No Boat for You!"]


38 The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, 39 “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.” (Luke 8)

We’ve been talking a lot about boats as a metaphor for following Jesus.  Getting in them, getting out of them, what keeps us from following Jesus and the like.  How we need to let go of everything in order to truly follow Him.  How nothing is more important.  How this is our true path.

But what if Jesus tells you not to get into the boat?  What then justshane?  Huh?  What?

Ummmm.

I’m gonna admit right up front, this would have been really hard for me to accept.  If Jesus had done this kind of wonderful miracle for me, knowing how I am right now, I would want to follow him, be with him.  I would be very envious of the twelve yutzes getting back in the boat to leave.  Why Jesus?  Why can’t I sit at your feet and feed off your every word?

And yet, this is pretty much where every believer is.  Standing on the shore of mortality, looking across the ocean of death, knowing Jesus is on the other side.  Our true home is on the other side.  Our true selves are on the other side.  Perfect peace and prosperity are on the other side.  The lover of our souls is on the other side.  Jesus came, saved us and left us here!  Whut up, Jesus?

As simply as I can put it: because we are different.  13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many….17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.” (1Cor 12) 

In some things we will all share.  We all have the same calling.  We are all to obey and submit.  We all must love God with heart, mind and strength.  We all love each other as Christ loved us.  We all are told to go and make disciples of all men.  These things are universal.  Every new Christian can be told them.  Every new Christian should expect them. 

But there are also specific callings.  God knows us.  Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.” (Luke 12)  God knows you!  Yes, you!  He knows your struggles, your history, your sins, your potential, which he placed in you.  He knows His design for you!

So to a dutiful fisherman with a family and responsibilities and natural leadership skills, he says, “leave your nets and follow me and I will make you a fisher of men.”  To a tax collector, an outcast of his society, he says, “follow me,” and makes him part of and a leading scribe for the Kingdom of God.  To a rich young ruler, he says, “go and sell all you own, give it to the poor and follow me.”  To a woman caught in adultery he gives forgiveness and tells her, “Go and sin no more.”  To a Pharisee, he explains the mysteries of the kingdom so this man can teach them to the people.  To a widow with a dead son, he restores the young man to her.  And to a demon possessed man, living among the tombs, he restores his mind and says, “Go home.”

From the ones who have, Jesus takes.  To the ones without, Jesus gives.  Those who feel themselves established, built up, on solid footing, secure, Jesus tears down so He may build them up again on the Rock.  So He may make something new and true and eternal.  To those who have lost everything, who have nothing, who are cast out, unclean, unloved, He restores what was lost and more. 

This demon possessed man of the Gerasenes, has suffered greatly.  To him, Jesus restores mind, body and soul.  He does not ask him to follow him onto the boat, to share in the sufferings and depredations he and the disciples will still face.  He sends him HOME.  A place the man hasn’t been welcome in who knows how long.  He gives the man back to the community, back to his family. 

And he gives him this command, “declare how much God has done for you.”  Full circle.  We come back to the universal commandments, Love God, Love neighbor, make disciples.  Obey, submit, love.  Paul sums up his dissertation on spiritual gifts in this way…
“29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? 31 But earnestly desire the higher gifts.
And I will show you a still more excellent way. 13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing… 13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (1Cor 12,13) 

Love is obedience, submission.  Where ever God sends you; whatever field He gives you to tend; whoever He sends you to minister to; whatever mountain He has given you to climb; whatever He has taken from you or given to you; whether He tells you to get into or out of the boat; remember this: He has chosen you, He has trained you through the trials of your life, He has equipped you with His Spirit and His Word and He has prepared the way for you.  He “who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,” has got this!  Go forth, be fruitful and multiply!

Friday, July 18, 2014

Just a thought.

If we ignore or turn away the poor and fatherless and the widow and the alien at our gates, how much more can we expect when we arrive at Yahweh's gates?  As you have done to the least of these, so let it be done to you.

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

A lost post-it resurfaces

I did not turn backwards;
i gave my back to those who struck me,
and my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard;
I did not hide my face from insults and spittle.
And the Lord Yahweh helps me,
therefore I have not been put to shame;
therefore I have set my face like flint.

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Sticks and stones

can break my bones
but words can kill me.

"And I said, “Woe to me! For I am destroyed! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I am living among a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the king, Yahweh of hosts!”" (is 6)

i was reading Acts 2 this morning.  We christians love to look at the Acts 2 church.  We love to talk about the Acts 2 church.  We love to invoke the model of the Acts 2 church.  Well, i got news for ya.

We're not the Acts 2 church.  

"And they were devoting themselves to the teaching of the apostles and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayers."
"And every day, devoting themselves to meeting with one purpose in the temple courts and breaking bread from house to house..." (Acts 2)

Do you know what the word "devoted" means?  We tend to use it as just meaning an intense love.  We might say 'passionate' love, but that's because we don't know what 'passion' means either.  Devoted, to devote something or someone, is to take a solemn vow.  Now if you have ever read the Old Testament, you know how important vows were.  You know how serious God takes them.  About the only place modern man makes a solemn vow anymore is in court or in marriage.  All you have to do is check the stats on perjury and divorce to know how serious we take our "solemn vows" these days.  How devoted we are to each other and to truth.  When you finally get honest with yourself about the culture we live in you will realize there is no fear of Yahweh anymore!  No one fears God.  No one takes him seriously, not me, not you.  

Now are you ready to cry with Isaiah and me?  No?  Well then, let me introduce you to my buddy Jeremiah...

"Therefore you must not pray for this people, and you must not lift up for them a cry of entreaty, or a prayer, for I will not listen in the time of their calling to me, in the time of their trouble.

     What rights has my beloved in my house
    when she has done many wicked things?
     Can the flesh of holiness pass over you?
     For you engage in your wickedness, then you exult."

When the reckoning comes there will be no more time to buy oil.  Read Matthew 25.  You may be a universalist but Jesus isn't.  You may think God loves everybody and He wouldn't do that to someone he loves but look at what he calls Judah right before bringing the Babylonian horde down upon them, "My Beloved."

You think hell hath no fury like a woman scorned?  She got nothing on Yahweh.

Monday, July 14, 2014

Some highlights of Jerry 10

Everyone is stupid, without knowledge...

I know, O Yahweh, that to the human is not his own way,
    nor to a person is the walking and the directing of his own step.

Friday, July 11, 2014

Run Ahimaaz! Ruuuuuuuuuuuun!

There was literally a race to tell David the mixed message of the results of the battle.

On the one hand, the Pretender had been defeated.  David was king alone in the land again.

On the other, the Pretender was dead.  Absalom, David's eldest son, his firstborn, was dead.

Ahimaaz ran to bring mixed news.  He ran so fast he outran those with a head start.  So eager was he to tell his news.  We have the best news imaginable.  That God, the true King has made a way for all us rebels and pretenders to find not only amnesty but full acceptance back into the kingdom as princes!

Who are we running to tell?

Wednesday, July 09, 2014

What will you do?

"A horrific event and something horrible has happened in the land.
The prophets prophesy falsely,
    and the priests rule by their own authority,
and my people love it so much.
    But what will you do when the end comes?"

Jeremiah 5

Tuesday, July 08, 2014

The retelling of the Post Office

So for those who don't know, these pictures are post-its i put in my son's sammich box that he takes to school.  My mom started the tradition by writing little notes on my lunches when i was a kid and i thought it was a pretty good idea so i kept it up.  A while ago i heard a preacher mention how Proverbs was originally a training manual of sorts for young laddies growing up.  i thought, yeah!  i'll illustrate Proverbs in the post-its.  When i made it through Proverbs i thought, well, why not continue right on through Psalms.  i love the Psalms, they keep me sane.

But when i finished the Psalms i was like, well, where to now?

The answer came from Rascal and i's evening reading.  i still read the Bible to Rascal at night before bed.  And we had been reading from 2 Sam and there's just weird stuff going on all the time in there!  Like the battle against Absolom.  It has a very Entish feel, i thought.  So that's what we're looking at here.  An oak yanking up Absolom by his hair and saying, "oh, i think we've all had quite enough of you, young would-be king."

Monday, July 07, 2014

Had another thought...

Offense is always a choice.

Damage is quantifiable, if someone hurts you in some way, there is a measurable wound trail.

But offense is nothing more than wounded pride.  Usually, the greater the pride, the greater the offense.    So being offended shows more about you than about what you are offended by.

Time for a look in the mirror.


God's opinion of us and our behavior is often very different from our own.

Sunday, July 06, 2014

Just a thought


The sacrifice given to ensure and secure the freedom
is often times much more valuable than
how the beneficiaries choose to utilize the freedom given.

If i gave each of you a million dollars, free of obligation, no rules, 

i might be more deeply honored by
how some choose to spend it than others,
but it was a gift
and as soon as you release the gift into the hands of the recipient,
you also release the control you have over it.

It doesn't devalue the gift,
it reveals the values of the one
to whom the gift was given.

Friday, July 04, 2014

Quote

"It is not the business of the Christian Church to preach patriotism. It has often done so. The Church has often been nothing but a recruiting agency, a recruiting station in times of war. That is a travesty of the Christian ministry."

D.M. Lloyd-Jones

Actually, i'm a monarchist

i'm not really all that keen on Independence Day anymore.  i don't like the symbolism of it.  Perhaps i over think things but really, there is no form of governance that displays our pride and arrogance and twisted natures, the Lutheric term "homo incurvatus in se, humanity turned in on itself comes to mind, than democracy.

Judges had another phrase for it: And each did what was right in his own eyes.

i call it anarchy.

God calls it rebellion.

Thursday, July 03, 2014

The bare necessities.

And what is necessary for life?

Eyes to see.

Ears to hear.

And a heart soft enough to see its sin, humble itself, repent and believe that nothing it could do, nothing it could say, nothing it could have could save it save the shedding of blood.

This is the grace.  You can't give yourself these things.  They must be given to you.

Then when you see and hear and believe that Christ our God has shed his own blood in your place, then you will have peace.  Peace with a righteous God who no longer needs to demand your death for your sin and the peace of mind that comes with that knowledge.  Amen.  May He grant you these things today.

Wednesday, July 02, 2014

Hold da phone!

So, i know what you were thinking, "hey!  What happened to Psalm 146?"  Cuz i was thinking the same thing.  Okay.  No one was thinking that but me but humor me, okay?

What happened was i had gotten clever and combined two different verses on Ps 146 and all i saw on the wall where i stick these after the Ballyhoo Gang bring them home in their lunchboxes was "Rom 3."

It wasn't until today when i grabbed then last batch to scan that i noticed the second verse.  And that's how that happens kids.  Mystery solved.  We can now go about our lives.  And what's more, we know Yahweh loves us who believe in his servant, his suffering Son whom he loves.  Ebbyding gonna be alright, dis mohnin'.

Tuesday, July 01, 2014

Monday, June 30, 2014

This is what the one who has the sharp, double-edged sword says...


In Matthew 10, Jesus sends out his disciples to Israel...
"And whoever does not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you are going out of that house or that town. Truly I say to you, it will be more bearable for the region of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town!"

We are all called to be witnesses.  Constant witnesses, never ceasing to go throughout all the towns, all the nations calling the lost sheep.  The witness is a double edged sword.  It divides to the marrow and lays bare the soul to show what's in it.  The Word is life to those who hear and receive it with joy, but it is death and judgment to the perishing.  To the arrogant who will not repent.  Who will not agree with God that they sin or need a savior at all.  Who will not fall on their knees before the king who's sword it is.  Righteous or wicked, the sword of the word reveals us for what we are, quick or dead.

Friday, June 27, 2014

Worshiper's gotta worship.

Humans were designed to worship.  We can't help it.  It's what we do.
Worship is to ascribe weightiness, heft, worthiness, greatness, glory to something weighty, hefty, worthy and greatness to someone.  Someone you deem glorious.
Worship is an offering, a sacrifice of praise.
Offerings and sacrifices are gifts.
A gift is something you give to someone else in love.  Anything else, any other motivation makes it payment or restitution or obligation.
Worship is a gift of love.
Almost anything can be worship if it ascribes glory to one who is glorious.
We are always worshiping.  With every deed and word we are making a statement about who we love and who we think is worthy of glory.

Who are you worshiping?

Thursday, June 26, 2014

Sorry World Cup guys.


God has his own ideas about sport and what makes a man great.

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

My Daddy

I will strengthen you, indeed I will help you,
    indeed I will take hold of you with the right hand of my salvation.
11 Look! All those who are angry with you shall be ashamed and humiliated;
    your opponents shall be like nothing and shall become lost.
 You shall seek them,
    but you shall not find them;
your opponents shall be like nothing,
    and the men of your war like nothing.
 For I, Yahweh your God, am grasping your right hand;
    it is I who say to you,
“You must not fear;
    I myself, I will help you.

These verses have been getting me through of late.

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Teach...your children well...


This modern belief that parents who believe shouldn't "indoctrinate" their kids but instead let them "find faith" on their own...

Yeah, if you don't teach your kids about the true God, then all you've done is teach them there isn't one.

Monday, June 23, 2014

If Adam didn't sin, would we still need to mow grass?

My older lad takes lunches to work occasionally.  He's a lawn mower these days.

Blessing or curse?  What does life feel like of late?

If blessing, then rejoice!  God has chosen undeserving you!  Serve him with joy and and gladness of heart for the abundance of everything.

If curse however.. then repent... and serve him with joy and gladness of heart for the abundance of everything that is yet to come.

Friday, June 20, 2014

Yahweh is not a fluffy bunny.


God is love.  Jesus modeled that love perfectly.  Grace is amazing!  And so it is easy to think of God in these new agey, sensitive male terms.  Blow dried Jesus.  Jesus doesn't judge me, man.  Jesus is my homey.  He loves me the way i am.  Meeting Jesus is going to be like, you know, hanging out in this comfy little cottage in the woods and he's gonna tell me all about my life and we'll sip cocoa together and the room will be filled with singing fuzzy little bunnies and kittens and wallabies and we'll pet them and laugh at all the people who had it wrong and those self-righteous jerks and i'll tell Jesus, "man, i really didn't like those guys."  And he'll say, "me too."  And it'll be cool.

Yeah.

Only problem with that is Yahweh is not the God-of-your-understanding.  That's you making up a god.  Yahweh describes himself.  He names himself in Exodus 34.  Jesus says he is I AM seven times in the gospel of John.  Revelations shows a much different image of Jesus coming in chapter 19.  He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.  So that means the same God who made fluffy bunnies, destroyed them in the flood.  He gave the law to Moses, the law which has the wicked beaten before the eyes of those they wounded.  That alone should give us pause.  Ever wounded anyone?  Ever been wounded?  He is the God who destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.  When he says time's up.  It's up.  When he goes to settle accounts, there will be no scales but His.  He is the one who's presence is so frightening that even when he comes shrouded in clouds of glory and partially hidden, we fall on our faces and have to be told not to fear.

And that is what is so amazing about it!  Your grandma loved you, probably.  There are few delinquent grandmas out there but in my experience, they are the exception that proves the rule.  Grandma loves you and that's nice.  But unless your Grandma was Grünhilde the Terrible, Valkyrie of Vengeance, her love isn't all that impressive.

But God... God is impressive!  When the Alpha and the Omega, the Creator God, the King of the Universe and Judge of all mankind draws you before himself, reads your list of crimes, and then sets his crown aside, comes down off the throne, off the judgment seat and lays down before you and your accusers and takes your stripes for you... that is love!  When the list of sins against you are read and the perpetrators are brought before you and you see justice done for them or to them as well by God's own hand, when God shows you how he took every slight, negligence and grievous crime against you as if it was done to Him personally... that is love!  When the King Himself, the Great I AM, calls you his precious child and puts his name on you and wipes away all your tears and lifts you up and sets you on his throne with him.... that is love!

God's love would not be the same without God's greatness, glory and justice!  God's love is frightening!  Don't believe me?  Look at the cross!  Look at your God, bloody and disfigured beyond all recognition!  For you!  That is love!

i don't think any of that would be the same if it came from a fluffy, blow-dried bunny singing songs from Frozen.

Thursday, June 19, 2014

Heaven is where ever Yahweh is.



The longer i live,
the more i long for heaven.
There is no better seasoning than hunger.
Is 51
Rev 21

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

It's a bit cramped in here.

God doesn't promise you that you won't spend a few anxious nights,  fearing for your life, dwelling on your failures, alone in a cave.

He says He'll be in the cave with you.  You are alone..
   in a cave..
      with God.

Alone in a cave with your Creator.  The Creator of the whole universe.  The Master of Everything.  The Holy God, Yahweh....

Wow.  That should actually be a lot more scary than whatever you are going through, come to think of it.

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Now, now is the time for repentance.

One day every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord.  That Yahweh is God and there is no other and He is justified in all He does.

The problem with philosophies like: if it feels good, it is good or if it makes you happy, it can't be that bad, is you are a really poor judge.  i came across a quote today that summed up pretty well what living in the modern world feels like to me....


"...is in reality to collaborate with and promote a mental disorder."  Dr. Paul McHugh, John's Hopkins University Hospital


A judge is supposed to decide right from wrong.  To discern what is good from what is bad.  To know when evil has been done and promote justice.  To correct the wrong.  To reward the right.  Counselors, politicians, therapists, teachers, parents, spouses, anyone but anyone who advises or has authority over another, has to see themselves as a judge, even if only over their own lives.


But the beginning of wisdom is the fear of Yahweh.  The respect of Yahweh.  The admission of His place.  He is God.  You are not.  He is Creator.  You are created.  If we throw this out, the beginning of wisdom, then everything that follows is by nature, madness.


The judges of this world no longer know right from wrong.  They turned their backs on that when they turned their backs on the only one who knows.  When they turned their backs on their Creator and Designer.  They threw out the manual and said, "let's see what this button does."  Worse than that, they promote a false justice.  A false order.  The inmates are running the asylum.  They are a children's band who threw out the sheet music, refuse to learn how to play their instruments correctly and instead are all playing whatever they want, whatever fool thing enters their head, and the rest of the world is dancing along to the clashing, clamoring, beatless, tuneless, noise and it doesn't look free, it doesn't look like joy, it looks like tortured, wooden marionettes in the garish light of licking flames and it's all going to come crashing down someday soon and nobody believes it even though we can see it burning, see our own lives on fire, see the lives of friends go up in flames and ash.  Bury the cinders and do it again.  Dispose of the evidence or it'll kill the buzz.  The party must go on.  The danse macabre.  


And the Designer knows, he does see and he takes pity on us.  He has compassion on us and is holding out salvation for anyone who will come, anyone who will admit it, admit they cannot dance to this cacophony anymore, anyone who sees the flames and smells the smoke and knows it's all a lie, knows this isn't what it's supposed to be and you don't have to be perfect and you don't have to have all your crap together and it's not just for good people cuz there aren't any good people.  It's for anyone who will cry out and believe in the one God sent, the maestro who knew the tune and played it perfectly for us, Jesus and the only thing that's stopping you from coming is pride. Damnable pride.


And nobody believes me but a day is coming when all will see, when the sky is rolled up and the heavens are opened and God is revealed in all his power and glory and some will look up with tears of joy because the nightmare is over, finally, finally over and their husband has come to avenge the things done to them in the darkness and take them home to mend their bodies and souls...


and some will look up and cry out in terror, cuz the lie they told themselves is over.

Monday, June 16, 2014

42 is not the answer.


This.  This is the meaning of life.

Friday, June 13, 2014

What tangled webs we weave...

"The lips of a fool will bring strife, and his mouth calls out for a flogging." Prov 18:6

"“Are you also still without understanding? Do you not understand that everything that enters into the mouth goes into the stomach and is evacuated into the latrine? But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these defile the person. For from the heart come evil plans, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, abusive speech. These are the things that defile a person. But eating with unwashed hands does not defile a person!” Matt 15


"Not many should become teachers, my brothers, because you know that we will receive a greater judgment. For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect individual, able to hold in check his whole body also. And if we put bits in the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we also guide their whole bodies. Behold also ships: although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the inclination of the pilot wishes. So also the tongue is a small member of the body and boasts great things. Behold how small a fire sets ablaze how great a forest! And the tongue is a fire! The world of unrighteousness, the tongue, is set among our members, defiling the whole body and setting on fire the course of human existence, being set on fire by hell.

For every species of animals and birds, of reptiles and sea creatures, is being tamed and has been tamed by the human species, but no human being is able to tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless theLord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so! A spring does not pour forth from the same opening fresh and bitter water, does it? A fig tree is not able, my brothers, to produce olives, or a grapevine figs. Neither can a saltwater spring produce fresh water.
Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by his good behavior his works, with the humility of wisdom.But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and tell lies against the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there is disorder and every evil practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceful, gentle, obedient, full of mercy and good fruits, nonjudgmental, without hypocrisy, And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace among those who make peace." James 3

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Hang on, this could get bumpy.


God will give you so much more than you can handle.  But never more than He can handle!  God will lead you into some frightfully scary places.  But he's leading you by the hand!  He's there!  He's got you!  This is designed!  Not random!  Not the whimsical hand of capricious, flighty fate but the awesome power and design of God who chose you and created you to bear his glory!  And his glory is manifested not in perfect people living perfectly.  Not in the American dream.  Not in keeping you safe from all harm.  Those who are going into captivity, into captivity they shall go.  Those who are going to be killed with the sword, will be killed.  This calls for the patient endurance of the saints.  For God's glory is manifested in sinners repenting!  In sinners falling on their knees before the only God of salvation!  Sinners knowing that unless God loves them and saves them and forgives and forgets all their sins, they are hopelessly lost!

"But now thus says Yahweh,
he who created you, Jacob,
    and he who formed you, Israel:
“You must not fear, for I have redeemed you.
    I have called you by your name; you are mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you,
    and through the rivers, they shall not flow over you.
When you walk through fire, you shall not be burned,
    and the flame shall not scorch you.
For I am Yahweh, your God,
    the holy one of Israel, your savior.
I give you Egypt as ransom,
    Cush and Seba in place of you.
Because you are precious in my eyes,
    you are honored, and I myself love you,
and I give people in place of you,
    and nations in place of your life.
You must not fear,
    for I am with you."
Is 43