My Walk with Jesus

What is the Source of Light? -- Who is the Source of Light?

2011-08-25T05:40:34Z

I don’t even know how many times that I have read the creation account in Genesis and this evening as I doing my home work for the current sermon series at Northside Christian Church I was reading Genesis chapters 1 and 2 again. Ho hum, here we go again. Then it hit me. If you will forgive the pun the light dawned on me after all of these years.

“1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”
“3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.” Genesis 1:3-5 Holy Bible NIV

What is the source of light or perhaps a better question would be the source of light is who? Of course the answer is that I would always have given is the sun.

Now I re-read the verse three “And God said, ‘let there be light,’ and there was light.” This was the first day.

Jump to day four: "14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. 16 God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night." Genesis 1:14-16 Holy Bible NIV

Consider if you will there have been three evenings and three mornings and on this day (the Fourth day) God creates the sun, the moon, and the stars. Light has been created for three days before what we consider the source of light to be was even created.

Likely some one who is much smarter that I am will see a fallacy in my thinking about this. Okay, so be it.

Is it any wonder that scientists are confused about the nature of light; perhaps not? Perhaps because they choose to ignore the Creator they are unable to understand the true nature of light?

A Warped Board

2011-08-25T03:39:51Z

Some of you may be familiar 2” x 4” lumber commonly used to build the walls of houses. In most construction the boards come to the construction site in large bundles known in the trade as bunks. When the lumber comes through the saw mill it is theoretically dried to specific moisture content. Now that may be too much information for you, I do have a point. In order to build a straight wall straight lumber must be used. When the framing crew opens the tightly bound bunk of lumber most of the boards will be straight. As they are exposed to the air some of the boards will immediately start to twist which is called warping, a particular board can become totally unusable very rapidly if it has not reached low moisture content and it is not placed into a wall with other boards and properly braced. The board needs community to be useful. Even a somewhat damp board can be useful if it is placed with speed. If not used right away it may be a total waste.

So what does this mean to a follower of Jesus Christ? When a person first comes to belief in Jesus Christ they are much like the over damp board subject to warping. On the other hand if they can be carefully taught and matured they can become strong followers. In Hebrews GOD gives careful instruction about community and the need of community for the follower.

“19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” Hebrews 10:19-25 Holy Bible NIV.

The danger for the follower away from the community is to become warped and useless for the Glory of GOD.

Food Snob/fascist

2011-08-18T04:06:24Z

I am sure that you know that there very specific ways that foods should be prepared for human consumption. Just in case you are not clear I will outline a few of the more important ones.

Hot Dogs: must be sliced lengthwise and opened to fry or grill never boiled.
   Acceptable condiments: Ketchup, sweet pickle relish, and if you must brown mustard. Things such as onions, sauerkraut, and chili should be avoided at all costs.

Hamburgers: May be fried or grilled using hand made patties of at least 1/3 of pound of prime ground beef. Don’t use the super lean type or your burgers will be dry. While it is redundant protein cheese is acceptable with the exception being Velveeta. It is never acceptable on a burger.
   Acceptable condiments: Mustard, dill pickle chips, sweet pickle relish, lettuce, tomato, and if must sweet onion. Ketchup is okay, never mayonnaise, or other salad dressing, key word here is salad.

Sandwiches are acceptable on a variety of breads including whole wheat, rye, pumpernickel, sour dough, multi grain; never ever under any circumstances should plain white bread be used. Bread may be toasted or not and nearly any thing can be used for the substance of the sandwich.
Some possibilities:

Bologna or Vienna sausages with ketchup, and/or lettuce, dill pickle chips, sweet pickle relish, tomato, never mayonnaise.

Ham any variety (including Spam) with mustard (yellow, brown, or Dijon) on rare occasions mayonnaise is acceptable, lettuce, dill pickle chips, sweet pickle relish, and tomato.

Turkey or Chicken Breast with mustard and or mayonnaise, lettuce, tomato, bacon, dill pickle chips, sweet pickle relish.

Peanut Butter is okay with jelly or jam, and lettuce (never, ever under any circumstance should mayonnaise be used with peanut butter)

Roast Beef/pork with mustard, lettuce, tomato, dill pickle chips, and/or sweet pickle relish

Egg salad with lettuce, tomato, dill pickle chips, and/or sweet pickle relish.

Potato salad is made with cubed boiled potatoes, diced hard boiled eggs, a dressing of mayonnaise, yellow mustard, and sweet pickle vinegar. Diced sweet pickles may be added as can dice celery. Some people insist on diced onions as far as I am concerned never an acceptable adamant.

There are many other dos and don’ts that I leave for another article. Mostly I just want to see if anybody is awake. Blessings 30fold.

Tolerance (or lack there of)

2011-08-08T18:14:12Z

What you do think of when the term tolerance comes to your mind? Do you modify the term with racial, religious, political, sexual, moral, or perhaps grammatical? Does tolerance mean no standard or does mean loose standards? Do you want people to be tolerant of you and your behavior? Are you willing to be tolerant of other people’s ideas or behaviors? How do words play into the issue? Does tolerance mean acceptability or acceptable? Because you tolerate something or a certain behavior does that mean that you approve of the thing or the behavior?

My mother was very intolerant of the use of certain words; words that were defined as obscene, vulgar, profane or cusswords. While I never had my mouth washed out with soap the threat was always there. Mom maintained that only ignorant people used that type of language because they didn’t have better more descriptive words to use. It is very interesting to me to see how the acceptability of words in polite society or “mixed company” has changed over time. The words “fxxk,” “fxxking,” “fxxker” and term “mother fxxker” have long been unacceptable in polite society and yet are much used in wide range of situations. Whatever the definitions might be the words are generally considered to be crude at the very least. They are generally used by people with somewhat limited vocabularies and often with considerable force and emotion.

There is a trend now to the use of substitutes for these words “freak,” “frick,” “fricken,” “freaking,” and I am sure many others. People who I would expect not use the dreaded “f-words” regularly use the substitutes without apology. I recently heard a television personality talking and he used the term “mother sucker” on network prime time television. Where were the censors? This behavior is so common that most people don’t notice or even think about it.

Today in our American society there are a great many folks who what us to adhere to a standard generally known as political correctness. The arbiters of our language (who ever they may be) have decided that some terms adversely affect the self-esteem of persons. Words such as buck and brave are not acceptable for use as mascot for athletic teams. There are myriad of other words that were once acceptable and in common use are now considered derogatory.

We cannot have prayer in schools because the government has taken over the schools and therefore if the children were allowed to pray that would constitute the establishment of religion by the state. The US Supreme court has decided the establishment clause in the constitution means the freedom from religion. That was not the intent of the framers of the constitution at all. “The First Amendment reads "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ....”

Adherents of various political or philosophical views often accuse folks of opposing views of being intolerant. Non- Christians accuse Christians of being intolerant, liberals accuse conservatives of being intolerant, Republicans may accuse Democrats of being intolerant, and the story goes on. So what does all of this mean for you and me? And the answer is it is all a matter of opinion. I have a set of beliefs based on my education, family background, religious training, and personal experience. One the principles that this country was founded on is that I have right to my beliefs as long the adherence to and practice of those beliefs does not cause harm to other people. I believe that I have the right to express my beliefs in public and associate with other people who share similar beliefs. Again this right is limited only in that I don’t harm other people. Tolerance is not really a requirement except that in order to live with other people and respect their right to have their belief requires tolerance. Tolerance does not mean that I must accept their beliefs as being the way I should live; it only means that I must accept their right to have their beliefs and live their lives according to those beliefs.

If I were to quote from the Holy Bible certain people would be offended and accuse me of preaching and or being intolerant. Because I openly share the gospel some people take offense and accuse me of trying to shove my faith down their throats.

⁹ “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. ¹⁰ If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. ¹¹ I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. ¹² My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. ¹³ Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. ¹⁴ You are my friends if you do what I command. ¹⁵ I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. John 15:9-15 Holy Bible NIV

Dream machine

2011-08-02T15:45:54Z

I had a very interesting dream this morning. I dreamed that I had gotten a job in a machine shop. I was running a large CNC milling machine. I asked a person in the shop if they had any machines that were directly controlled by computer (machines that took direct instructions from Autocad). I was directed to another part of the shop where I discovered a huge machine that covered several thousand square feet of the shop. As I explored I was continually amazed at the size and complexity of the machine. The machine was operating with out any apparent operator. I found myself inside the machine as it was producing parts and actually whole assemblies. At first I thought that the machine was just one level on the shop floor then I discovered that there was a whole second tier of machinery, still all one machine. I am sure that there must be some wondrous explanation for the symbolism in my dream. When awoke I had very clear visions and when I went back to sleep the dream continued.

None to speak of

2011-06-29T03:34:27Z

I remember joking as a young man before I had children that I had none to speak of or none that I knew. There was sort of an implied brag that I had been with women and could possibly have fathered children. (I had not, not for the lack of desire or effort.)

In the 2005 movie Broken Flowers with Bill Murray the lead character has lead a life of non-committal non-relationships with a series of women over a period of twenty years. Don Johnston is dumped by his most recent “girl” friend and at the same time gets an anonymous letter on pink stationary telling him that he has a son from long ago relationship and that his son is looking for him. Don starts on a physical journey down memory lane seeking out each one of his former lovers. He encounters many different reactions from the women who have been in his life as he looks for clues about who is the mother of his son. He doesn’t discover the mother of his son and his son may or may not have found him.

Our society has taken the attitude that Johnston’s lifestyle is okay and maybe even desirable. There are many people who believe that we should not repress sexual urges that they should be acted upon by consenting adults. With out getting overly philosophical even many religious leaders seem to believe that it is unhealthy to repress sexual desires. The question that I have is how does that play out in the lives of people? I believe that even the casual observer sees that sex outside of a committed relationship is problematic. Babies result and there is no family unit to take charge of the rearing of the child. Many times the woman is left with the full responsibility including financial.

Many liberal folks play down the importance of a man in the rearing of a child. These folks believe that a woman alone is just fine or perhaps two women in some sort of a committed relationship works just as well. The liberal folks maintain that the idea of a family being one man, one woman, and children is passé and not necessary at all. I would say look at the statistics, look at what has happened in the years after the industrial revolution. The problems of young people have increased with the breakdown of the family. Divorce rates are going through the ceiling, teen pregnancies are increasing, abortions are out of sight, and youth crime is on the increase. Perhaps a more strict moral code would serve our society better. Perhaps if people would become adherents to this moral code of their own free will we would see some reduction in the issues that we are seeing today.

Remember seventeen?

2011-06-18T23:43:21Z

At fifty years past the mile marker seventeen, I remember a lot of things, how about you? The summer of 1961 in Eaton, CO was like most summers, quiet. The Democrat John F. Kennedy was the President of the United States. After just four months in office he sponsored the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba by anti-Castro Cuban exiles, they were all killed or captured. The first US astronauts were catapulted into outer space and returned safely. West Side Story and the Hustler were the best movies and everybody was singing Moon River, Where the Boys Are, and the Lion Sleeps Tonight.

Dad passed away last summer and I sort of got through my junior year at Eaton High School. The bottom line of the school year was that I was short half a credit needed to graduate with my class. EHS didn’t offer summer school so a fateful decision was made, I would travel to Lexington, MO to attend Wentworth Military Academy. I had wanted to go to camp there for several years because of advertising I had seen in my Boy’s Life magazines. I think in those days a lot of guys thought that playing army was a lot of fun.

I had a going away party at our swimming pool attended by a lot of my classmates who had started in kindergarten with me (Skip White, Carol Blehm, Colleen Schrader, Ann Leffler, Reg Greenman, Monty Sly, and couple of others) I only remember that Bonnie Siegrist was there and I am pretty sure that she let me kiss her. (I had visions of more, oh well.) Bonnie was a very pretty girl with a super sweet personality. Bonnie married Jack Souther a couple of years latter and they have just celebrated the forty seventh anniversary.

I don’t remember if I really thought about the significance of what I was about to do by going away to school. What I did know was that I was so far down that the only way to go was up. My academic career at Eaton was pretty much defined by the following quote from nearly every teacher “he has the ability if he would just apply himself.” I believe that the phrase is one of the things that the teacher’s colleges taught all would be teachers at the time.

My time at Wentworth changed my life. I was away from home (1,500 miles), I was in a very structured and disciplined environment and I was totally on my own. I had no history with the teachers or other students, I had a clean slate. The principle at EHS was a stern disciplinarian and nothing compared to what I encountered at WMA. I learned to really shine my shoes, to make hospital corners on my bed, to care for a uniform, march, stand in military formation, salute officers, and the I learned the “Rat’s Creed.” I went from being ready to be a senior at EHS (sort of the top of heap so to speak) to being a new boy…a rat. “I sir, am sir, a sir, rat sir, I sir, am sir, lower sir, than sir, a sir, snake’s sir, belly sir, but sir, I sir, am sir, higher sir, than sir, a sir, Kemper sir, Colonel sir.” I was required to memorize this little sentence, stand at attention salute and recite it any time an old boy required. New boys were required to have one foot on the light grey tiles that formed the perimeters of every floor in the classroom building at all times. I couldn’t take a direct course anywhere always having to make square corners and be on the perimeters. We stood in military formation prior to Breakfast, Lunch, and Supper. This initiation lasted all summer it was designed to build character and feeling of belonging. I thrived on the external discipline I earned a 4.0 for my summer academic work and really started to become a man. I learned what was required, did it and was successful. While there was the risk of punishment for breaking the rules there was also the considerable reward for obeying the rules.

Even though I had traveled the US extensively I was still very naïve when I was told that my roommate was from Lebanon I expected a foreign student. I turned out that Robert Frost was from Lebanon, MO.

The summer of sixty one was very good for me. Even though I had grown up with the folks in Eaton I didn’t correspond with any of them. I started writing to Anne Lewis from Fort Collins who I met on a Methodist Youth Fellowship trip to Salt Lake City, UT the previous December and to Lorraine Service from Butler, PA who I met on the banks of Lake Erie near Erie, PA the summer of 1958. I treasured the letters that I received from both girls.

I started my senior year at WMA in the fall of 1961. I met the football coach (Captain Butherus) when we were being issued uniforms. He asked me what football position that I played and told him that I had played tackle on offense and defense. Coach Butherus said, “You’ll be a fullback for us.” At five feet ten inches tall and one hundred seventy pounds he thought that I would a good blocking back. Boy was I excited till I found out that WMA ran the single wing offense and the fullback rarely touched the ball. John Groendyke was big rangy guy who could run like the wind who had played with the team for three years and was the running back. My job as fullback was to get to corner and take out the defensive end before John got there. Even though I had a head start it was hard to beat John to corner. Defense was a lot more fun, I became an outside line backer and that gave my license to unload on guys. We won a few games and I lettered.

Academically it was much easier at WMA because of the discipline. Every evening after supper we had CQ (confined to quarters) when did home work for three hours. Of course there was much less distraction as there were no girls in the school. It is really amazing how much you can learn in that amount of time every week. The year flew by and all of the sudden it was time for graduation. If I had stayed at EHS I would not have graduated with my class, at WMA I graduated with honors. What a turn around!

I remember that I was pretty sure that I knew everything there was to know. I was sure of how things were. I imagine that I was for the most part an insufferable seventeen year old.