Parachute pants…geometric haircut…1980s…Hammer Time…remember? I’ll wager you’ve never heard it quite like this before!
(just click on “download” beneath the music player and follow along with the lyrics…hilarious!)
Thanks to Tominthebox for being a prophetic voice for the church!
“The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out…”
(1 John 2:17, The Message)
“And this world is fading away…”
(1 John 2:17, New Living Translation)
Allow me to tell you about a near-tragic night when I almost chose to end it all.
It was January, the calendar had recently flipped over to 1978, and the night air was frosty clean. You know the kind of air I mean; such that makes even your lungs feel brand new. And was I ever pulsating with life! I had just taken my girlfriend home and was looking forward to our prolonged good-night ritual. Nothing dirty, mind you, just your garden variety hand-holding, kissing, small talk and listening to 8-tracks. My choice was always Manilow, hers Fogelberg.
We’d been dating for a year or so and both of us were seniors at our own respective high schools; she, at a public high school a half-block from her house and I, at a christian school across town. We met at work, of all places. She worked the jewelry counter at a department store and I was one of three stock boys. The girl was everything to me! Other female employees thought we made the cutest couple while my mates constantly made kissing sounds whenever I ventured near her counter, never having the end of their taunting and teasing. Me, I could care less. I was smitten with she of the auburn hair. I had hopelessly fallen. Hard. Only seventeen, but she was definitely the one.
The prolific engine of her soft blue ‘78 Camaro hummed as it idled in the driveway while we snuggled up in the interior warmth and sat silently in the reverie. Flecks of snow began to hit the windshield and within moments the late evening sky was shaking out an abundance of thick white flakes. I kid you not, amid the wintry ballet all around us, the radio was spilling out the words,
“I think about winter, when I was with her
And the snow was falling down
Warmed by the fire, I love being by her
When there’s no one else around…”
It was truly the most romantic time I’d ever experienced in my young life. I was falling headlong in love with her all over again. I looked deeply into her eyes just then, but saw something that troubled me. I saw doubt. Clearly she wanted to say something but was having difficulty forming the words. It seemed she was not in the same place I was and, finally, the words came out. She held my hand with both of hers and her eyes began to tear.
Creative minds, front and center!
I found this idea on another blog and thought it might be worth a shot here. Here’s how it goes: I will offer a leading line for a story and I would like my readers to add a maximum of FOUR words to the line. You can come back as often as you want, just make sure you refresh the page before you leave a comment so as not to step on anyone else who might be posting.
Oh, and NOTHING DIRTY (I’ll delete, so help me)…
Well, and away we go!
Here’s the story-starter:
“Late last night I had the most uneasy feeling…”
(remember, comment in four words or less)
Take a listen to Kelly Ramsey, a young lady I’ve corresponded with and prayed for as she and a group of Americans are going on what is called “The World Race.” TWR is sponsored by Adventures in Missions and the gig is for five teams to race around the world, each team covering 11 countries at the breakneck speed of 11 months all the while “sharing the love of Christ”. In a recent email from her, she said, “I don’t know much about your church. But if you have a generation of young people wanting to live Acts 29, to live for Christ, the World Race is for them…”
In this particular video diary, Kelly shares her heart and it touched me because it parallels so much of what my Lord is doing in me and those who are close to me. You can follow Kelly’s travels at her website here. I know her testimony will touch you and bless you as you hear the heart of a Gen-Xer and her pursuit of the Prize.
Last night I sent Sandy and a friend to the Fabulous Fox in downtown Atlanta to see “Celtic Woman” and when she got home she was fairly brimming with glee, thanking me for getting her those primo tickets way back at Christmas. That’s me in your mental photo, wearing the goofiest grin on my face for getting it right for once. For five minutes I was the world’s best husband.
Then there’s the blunder I made a couple of weeks ago when, on a special anniversary, I thought it would be nice to mail Sandy a card. It was one of those shot-in-the-dark kind of things to find a card with one of the songs I romanced her with in 1983: Lionel Richie’s Truly. I mailed it and it came on the very day of our anniversary of my popping the question. Everything was just right! Only problem was, it came with postage due…
That’s me in your mental photo with egg on my face.
Anyway, enjoy a clip from a Celtic Woman singing one of history’s loveliest melodies…
“Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I shall rescue you and you will honor Me.”
(Psalm 50:15)
“For in the day of trouble, He will conceal me in His tabernacle; in the secret place of His tent He will hide me; He will lift me up on a rock.”
(Psalm 27:5)
“Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call; This I know, that God is for me.”
(Psalm 56:9)
“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”
(Psalm 46:1)
“I will never, never leave you; I will never, never, never forsake you.”
(Hebrews 13:5, literal Greek)
Timing is everything. And God, who knows no days and who is not bound by time, plots His entrance into our lives perfectly, revealing Himself precisely according to script. The verses above tell us that not only does He invest Himself “around” the time of our need but He is already positioned in the moment. He doesn’t “ballpark” it.
The Hebrew of “a very present help” in Psalm 46 tells us He is already on the scene. God is not Clark Kent with supersonic hearing who picks up on a Metropolis victim’s cry from his desk at the Daily Planet then dons a cape as Superman en route to the scene of the crime. He is there.
It’s not so much that He “shows up” as it is, He reveals His already fixed Presence in the bitter moment, the time of need. A marginal note in my Bible reads, He is “abundantly available for help in tight places.” This does not encourage some fellow believers in their times of travail. They demand a God who will head trouble off at the pass and cause it to miss them altogether. Theirs is a faith that needs the storm to be stilled in order to believe. Actually, theirs is a faith who wants clear skies and sunshine (I am not always immune to this either). But great faith, pleasing faith[1], is a faith that trusts in both the Father’s desire and ability to come through, no matter what. Continue reading ‘God Is Not Superman’
“I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.”
“If the world hated Me, it will hate you…”
JESUS, 1st CENTURY
“Who is on the Lord’s side?”
MOSES, CIRCA 15th CENTURY BC
In the aftermath of the recent foiling of an ostensibly Al Qaeda terrorist plot in England, a British politician was interviewed on Fox News calling for stricter measures to be taken against all fundamentalist ideologies. “Not just Al Qaeda,” he pontificated, “but with any group that is narrow-minded enough to see its way as the only way.”
Are you hearing this, follower of Christ?
In Canada, our neighbors to the north, sermons from pastors in America that mention certain sins are not allowed on their airwaves. Shari’a laws there make it illegal to speak against Islam and Mohammed but no such laws exist to deter anyone from speaking against Christ. Earlier this year, Danish political cartoons depicting Mohammed as a terrorist were stricken from international papers and the world called out its collective protest all the while our Jesus was undergoing a revisionist makeover in “The DaVinci Code” and the public was eating it up!
A pastor in Sweden received a jail sentence of 30 days for calling homosexuality “abnormal” and a “horrible cancer” on society. Two pastors in Australia were brought up on similar charges for breaking “incitement laws”. Laws against intolerance and “hate speech” are gathering steam all over the globe—in so-called ‘free’ countries! In our own America, land of the free, hate speech laws are being considered in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and pastors are watching to see if, very soon, their pulpits will no longer be “free speech” zones. Guess America really is the home of the brave…
Jesus said it would come, and it’s here, folks.
There are two distinct streams operating among our youth today. There are some youth who are wearing the yoke of their predecessors: a Cross-less, make-no-demands, non-invasive, live-a-good-life-and-get-your-ticket-punched ideal. Praise God, there are others who are embracing the Cross and holding onto it for dear life!
Dr. Christian Smith, the lead researcher for the National Study of Youth and Religion, a large sociological survey of the religious beliefs of teens between 13 and 17, reaches many of the same conclusions regarding the religious life of teens. According to Dr. Smith, no matter what religion the surveyed youth professed, in general their actual religious outlook was what Dr. Smith characterizes as “MORALISTIC THERAPEUTIC DEISM.”
This is a religious worldview featuring an undemanding, distant god, whose only commandment is to be “nice,” and who doesn’t become involved in anyone’s life except when he is needed to take care of a problem. This religion, according to Smith, conceives of its god as “… a combination of a divine butler and a cosmic therapist.”
Rather than being commanded to take up his cross and follow Christ, the Moralistic Therapeutic Deist believes that “… the central goal in life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.”
Unfortunately, this is not merely a problem with teens—increasing numbers of ostensibly Christian adults and a growing number of pastors hold these views in whole or in part. Like the world, the modern professing church is egocentric, thinking God exists for their own happiness rather than His glory. God help us.
Cross-bearing Christians are gradually being exposed and while we may be tempted to mimic the disciples on the eve of the crucifixion by scrambling for swords and a “bring ‘em on” mentality, we must hear Christ say, “Enough of that talk!” (see Luke 22:38) He told them, “He who takes up a sword will perish by the sword” (Matthew 26:56). Rather, we must mimic the Christ of the Upper Room earlier that same evening, washing the feet of the disciples. He instructed them not to take up swords but towels.
One of the saddest stories to come out of London last week was this: among the terrorists taken into custody was a young married couple with a six-month old baby. Just today, this young mother was seen in jail breast-feeding her baby, the very one she was going to send to its horrible death days earlier. While there are some religions that encourage, even praise such unbalanced behavior, the voice of Christ is calling out to His followers to a life of love and sacrifice. (By the way, the kind of sacrifice that blesses others and inconveniences only the giver, not so-called sacrifice that brings everyone else around down with them! Re: homicide bombers and cowardly hijackers…)
We do not preach a gospel of HATE! The followers of Christ are sickened by any “heads will roll” ideology directed at any who would not see things their way. Force will never convert anybody. It is the towel and the basin, the heart of a servant, the offering of one’s self in love and sacrifice—even to those who condemn and persecute—that will close the gap of the ever widening dividing line.
The true God is love (1 John 4:8,16). And His followers toe that line!
RAMs (Readers And Messages)