Halloween

When I was a magician's assistance, known as Genii Puff, this was our busiest time of year. Everyone, it seemed, wanted a Magician, in the spirit of Houdini, to appear at their Halloween party. We did shows at country clubs, private parties, and even churches. There is a program about Harry Houdini on the History station tonight. I just may watch it for old times sake. Houdini died on Halloween. In the later years of his life, after his beloved mother died, he became obsessed with spiritism. He had engaged the services of several promonent mediums, in hopes of contactine his mother, only to discover them all to be fakes. He then set out to expose their trickery. Houdini vowed that if there was any way to return from the dead and communicate with the living, he would do it. There have been attempts to contact him every Halloween since his death. Official and unofficial seances. I've been to a few myself. OoooOoooOo
I'd like to share with you the account of a botched attempt to convert my magician and I to Chrisitanity. It wasn't Halloween. It was actually Christmas time, and we were working in the toy department of a big department store in Rochester, New York. We were demonstrating a magic kit, putting on hourly shows. A group of well meaning youth walked up to us after one of our shows and the leader of the pack declared, "We know who you are working for." As we looked at them in puzzelment, not knowing where the converstaion was headed, he continued - "You're working for the devil". This brought a chuckle from us. Yeah, right. The devil was interested in the cup and ball and sponge rabbit tricks this particular toy featured. But the youth were persistance. They declared that the Bible said that doing magic was a sin and that magicians "should not be suffered to live". "So you want to kill us?" They were beginning to give me the creeps. The magician challenged them to find in the Bible where it said such a thing. They only had New Testaments with them, and they couldn't find it (something like it is there, but they hadn't done their homework.) The leader said it was in the Old Testament, and they didn't have one. The magician was persistant too. "Let's go down to the book department. Surely they have a complete Bible there." So we all headed for the elevator. The verse they managed to find in the Old Testament used the word "Necramancer" not magician. The kids said it was the same thing. It's not. The leader, who began to realize this was going no where, invited us to attend a Bible Study at his church the next Sunday night. He gave us the address. The magician asked if he should bring anything (he was thinking of 'putting on a show' for them.) "Only a Bible" was the reply and the kids (who were not much younger than we were at the time) walked away. The magician had a plan. We had this trick book. It was black and it very much resembled a Bible, but when you opened it, it burst into flames. But I convinced him it wasn't a good idea. I never had gotten an answer to the Question about whether or not they wanted to kill us, and I was afraid they might decide to stone us or burn us at the stake. That was over 30 years ago. I am saved now. The magician is not. God have mercy on his soul...

As the sun goes down...

On my "Einstien" post, Jason asked about how I explained prophesy if God doesn't know what choices will be made before they are made. I begin my answer by pointing out that Yahweh is a covenant making and a covenant keeping God. Most, if not all, the promises made by HIM are preceded by an "if". And for all blessings and curses, we are given a choice. Will we or won't we?
Through the Word, our LORD has revealed Himself to us as a loving parent. Our Father!
I am a parent (and a grandparent as well). I am merely human, and quite flawed, but there are many times when I can predict what my children and grandchildren are going to do. I can look out the window at my grand daughter riding her bike a little too fast, and I can know if she doesn't slow down she will fall. I can even know that when she falls, she'll come running to me and I will wash off her owie and put a bandage on it. When they were little, I would tell my boys not to climb the tree in the vacent lot. They had the choice whether or not to climb. I hoped they would obey, but I wasn't surprised when they didn't. Why did I keep bandages and bactine in the medicine chest?
God knows the time and the seasons - He put them into motion. He knows the last day from the first. He determined it. For each human soul that ever was or ever will be - God has a plan. A good plan, to prosper - not to distroy. And every human soul has a choice, a multitude of choices.
And God has bandgaes and bactine in the medicine chest when we need them.
I know this. I can understand. I see it and can feel it. Sometimes I just don't have the right words to explain it. I go back to Genesis 6:6. When all mankind was making bad choices and all human thought was dark and evil, and God grieved that He had even made them...but Noah found favor in the eyes of God.
I am not an open theist, in the truest sense of the word, because I believe in the truth and authority of the Bible, I beleive in absolute Truth - Jesus Christ, literally and historically as well as spiritually. I believe in His cross. I do not believe that truth is relative. If anything, I would say I am a Weslyan, sympathetic to Catholisim, and in love with Jesus.
And I am still singing "shine Jesus, shine!"

Mid-day

I just wanted to share a portion of John chapter one from The Message, a version lots of people have a problem with. I think this is beautifully said:
We all live off His generous bounty, gift after gift.
We got the basics from Moses,
and then this exuberant giving and receiving,
this endless knowing and understanding -
all this came through Jesus the Messiah.
No one has ever seen God, not so much as a glimpse.
This one-of-a-kind God Experssion, who exists at the very heart of the Father,
has made Him plain as day!

As The Sun Rises

Out my kitchen window it is still night. There is one bright shining star in the west. My indication that it will be another clear, sunny day in Shiprock. I am thinking of Isaiah 60.
"Arise, shine, for you light has come. And the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold darkness (great darkness) has covered the earth, and deep darkness the peoples, But the LORD will rise upon you..." Shine Jesus Shine. I think one of the most beautiful, most important passages of Scripture is the first chapter of John. The apostle John was a remarkable man wasn't he? He alone of the twelve was not successfully martyered. Not that the Romans didn't try. And to him was revealed the mysteries of the last and future days. And he began his gospel with the very words that the whole of Scripture begins. "In the beginning..."
In the beginning was the Word...and the Word was God
In Him was life and the life was the light of men, and the light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it...
There was the true light, which coming into the world enlightened every man...
the word became flesh and dwelt among us.
Shine Jesus Shine!
In Chapter 3:19, right after the all too famous verse...For God so Loved the World...
John quotes Jesus as saying: And this is the judgement, that the LIGHT is come into the world and men loved the darkness rather than the light, for their deeds were evil...He who practices the truth comes to the light...
and in Chapter 8: 12
I Am the light of the world, he who follows me shall not walk in the darkness but shall have the light of life.
And toward the end of his life, many years after witnessing the cross and what followed, John wrote: God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
Once I was lost in the darkness, and began a quest for enlightenment. I knew about Jesus, but I thought there had to be more. I searched diligently and sincerely. On my search I met a man who told me to lay blame and to accept the fact that to achieve true power I would have to be willing to hurt others. That if others were hurt by my actions it was their own fault for letting themselves be vulnerable. Darkness. Yin and Yang. The balance of good and evil. But instead I chose the LIGHT.
That is why I am where I am now. That is why I am who I am.
I liked that Einstien thing I posted because it explained darkness as the absence of light and evil as the absense of God. That makes a lot of sense to me.
By the way, it was Augustine in the third or fourth century that set the foundations of the doctrine of personal predestination and divine election. It was he who explained what those verses meant. And even Augustine saw a problem with the logical conclusion that would be drawn if one brought the argument to its final conclusion. If and Then...If and Therefore...
Is the Sovereign God the author of evil? Is the sinful nature of man, and are the consequences of man's sinfulness all part of God's perfect and divine plan? Is sin darkness? In God there is NO Darkness. Use that as the premise when searching the Word for Truth. Go back to the time and place that our LORD walked this planet in the flesh, and see how the scholars of that time would understand His words. Understand that first the writers of the New Testament were Jews, and although they all experienced a paradime shift because of their encounter with Jesus, what they wrote was still based on Jewish understanding. Understand that God not only chose the time and the scribes but also the languages through which to reveal His Truth. Not that we need to understand Hebrew and Greek to understand that truth, but it was not just to make things tough on young Seminarians that in years past, a man called to be a minister of the gospel was expected to study those languages. The sky out my window is lighter now, and if I don't gulp down my coffee and run out the door I will be late for work. I know what song will be my prayer as I drive down the road. An oldie but holy...Shine Jesus Shine!.

From My Best Friend Bobbie

I don't know who wrote the following, it was forwarded to me by my "bestest" friend in the whole world. Thanks Bobbie.
It sort of goes along with the comment thread that exists in my post about prayer (the second one down I think).
I thought this was as good an explaination as any of why we can say - God Is, God Is love, Evil Exisits. It is atleast the best I've heard in a long time...

Did God Create Evil?

The university professor challenged his students with this question: "Did God create everything that exists? "

A student bravely replied "Yes, he did!"

"God created everything?" the professor asked.

"Yes sir," the student replied.

The professor answered, "If God created everything, then God created evil since evil exists, and according to the principal that our works define who we are, then God is evil." The professor was quite pleased with himself and boasted to the students that he had proven once more that the Christian faith was a myth.

Another student raised his hand and said,
"Can I ask you a question professor?"

"Of course," replied the professor.

The student stood up and asked, "Professor does cold exist?"

The professor replied "Of course it exists. Have you never been cold?"

The students snickered at the young man's question. The young man replied, "In fact sir, cold does not exist.
According to the laws of physics, what we consider cold is in reality the absence of heat. Everybody or object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter have or transmit energy. Absolute zero (- 460 degrees F) is the total absence of heat. Cold does not exist. We have created this word to describe how we feel if we have no heat.

The student continued. "Professor, does darkness exist?"

The professor responded, "Of course it does."

The student replied, "Once again you are wrong sir. Darkness does not exist either. Darkness is in reality the absence of light. Light we can study, but not darkness. In fact we can use Newton's prism to break white light into many colors and study the various wavelengths of each color. You cannot measure darkness. A simple ray of light can break into a world of darkness and illuminate it. How can you know how dark a certain space is? You measure the amount of light present. Isn't this correct?
Darkness is a term used by man to describe what happens when there is no light present."

Finally the young man asked the professor. "Sir, does evil exist?" Now uncertain, the professor responded, "Of course as I have already said. We see it every day. It is in the daily example of man's inhumanity to man. It is in the multitude of crime and violence everywhere in the world. These manifestations are nothing else but evil."

To this the student replied, "Evil does not exist sir, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God's love present in his heart. It's like the cold that comes when there is no heat or the darkness that comes when there is no light."

The professor sat down. The young man's name --- Albert Einstein.

The Joy of The LORD is your strength

Remember that old song - ha ha ha
Didn't know it was in Nehemiah.
I was thinking of that verse on the way home today. I'm not feeling very joyful. I've said many times, over the past three years, that the only joyful - happy thing in my life was my little Elijah.
He kept my heart beating when everything around me was dark and gloomy! And I may not see him again for a long, long time. And I'm worried about him. And as the tears started to leak out of my old eyes again, I remember that song...the joy of the LORD is my strength. Or should be. Right? I remember early in my walk with the LORD thinking maybe we were misreading that verse. Maybe it wasn't about us being joyful. Maybe it was saying that when we were strong it gave God joy...that He could look down us, as we struggled but kept going, as we stumbled but did not fall, did not give up...that our strength gave Him joy...like a parent who is proud of the winning child. I had to look it up. It is in Nehemiah 8 - verse10.
"this day is holy to the LORD your God; do not mourn or weep...(they were crying because they realized that they had not kept up their part of the covenent)Then he said to them, "Go eat, of the fat, drink of the sweet, and send portions to him who has nothing prepared, for this day is holy to our LORD. Do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength."
Well, right now I don't feel very joyful or very strong...but it is a beautiful day, and I'll be having lunch with my eldest son in a few minutes...thanks be to God.

Psalm 77

But I can still pray for my personal problems sometimes, can't I?
I look at the world around me, the dark - stormy - shakey world. And I know my problems are insignificant when you look at the Big Picture...but oh, it hurts so bad and the tears are always so close to the surface. Sometimes they just start leaking out.
"I cried out to God for help - I cried out to God to hear me! When I was in distress I sought the LORD...at night I stretched out untiring hands and my soul refused to be comforted,
I remembered you, O God, and I groaned. I mused and my spirit grew faint..."
You can read the rest on your own if you like...I will read it when I get to work, and my eyes have cleared. Does it end in hope, like so many of David's laments? Are we supposed to find comfort in knowing that through out the ages, God has often treated his children like this?
Is there any reason for praying at all? His will shall be done, no matter what we do, no matter if we agree with it or not. Not mine, but Yours oh LORD...what choice do we have. Ah, but that's the main point isn't it? Do we have a choice? Let's not go there again.

Intercessory Prayer

This has to be real quick, although I could probably spend hours here today. Anybody pay attention to the Millions More Movement rally this weekend in Washington DC.? Anybody as shaken as I am over the continual invocation of Allah over our Nation's Capitol? Any mention of Jesus was in a list of prophets or teachers, usually mid way through the list that included Budha, Martin Luther King JR. and Mohammad. But that isn't my main subject right now...
During worship yesterday, I fell to my knees, wanting to pray, needing to pray for my sweet grandson Elijah, and for my Son (named for another prophet), and the LORD clearly told me not to. He said "lay them down at my feet and leave them there...you are to "intercede" for your students - for the ones I have entrusted to your care. Focus on them. It was hard. It wasn't where my heart was. But it was powerful. I never much understood intercessory prayer. Why tell God what He needs to do, or ask Him to change His mind, or demand that he hurry up? That was the way intercession seemed to me. Why not just say, Hey God, see that problem over there? Thy will be done...amen!" Besides, why should we intercede when there is only One to intercede, namely Jesus. But this Sunday, as I knelt at the alter - seeing my students, all of whom seems to be lost in the dark - seeing their beautiful faces and imagining them all worshiping the LORD, I think I got at least a hint of what intercession is all about. Maybe?
Blessings all! Oh yeah, The prodical son has returned...we'll be killing the fatted calf soon.

Psalm 142

A lament...


I will write to vent, I will write with tears in my eyes…
Today, out here (in here) somewhere I read these words, let me cut and paste them if I can: The answer is God-centeredness. Meekness is the absolute acceptance of God’s care and managing of our lives. Our task in life changes. We are responsible for doing His will of love in every situation, and He is responsible for the outcomes. We are no longer in management. We are meek.Every human relationship has power dynamics and politics. The meek do not manage power or play the games of politics and by so doing it is the meek that will inherit the earth for only the meek are truly free, trusting in God for outcomes, to live a moral life based not on power and results but on principles and love.
What does that say? What does it say for students who have been entrusted to my care and just don’t care at all about their education or their futures. They are so used to failure and are so surrounded - emerged in hopelessness, that there just doesn’t seem to be any hope.
But that isn’t why I am crying.
It should be.
The LORD told me back in January that I needn't worry about my sons or my grandson…that He was holding them safe and secure…how did He put it?
“don’t worry about them, they are in my hands…I am taking care of them. I will work it all out. Things might have to be shaken up a bit, but don’t worry when things start to shake. I’m working it out…you need to focus on the students I entrust you with, they are your ministry.” That’s how I wrote it down in my prayer journal.
Meekness is the absolute acceptance of God’s care and managing of our lives? Trusting God for the outcomes? Oh dear God, I really don’t think you are doing a very good job! Somewhere else today I read a “study” of Psalm 142 - to be prayed when life sucks…the “priest” said something like that.
So here is Maryellen’s version of Psalm 142 - because right now I really feel like life sucks!
I cry aloud with my voice to the LORD! I beg - plead - alright, I’ll use supplicate. Here my voice Oh LORD!
I pour out my complaint before Him, I declare my troubles - my eldest son will be getting out of prison soon, it’s been three long years since this ordeal began - and it will never, ever end until the KINGDOM comes…He should have been out two weeks ago. Paper work, red tape, no one will be an advocate for sinners as vile as he is, yet YOU valued him enough to die on the Cross for him, and he does love YOU. Romans 8:28? How can any of this work out for the good? And my younger son, he is homeless, sleeping on a friends couch. His car needs expensive repairs. And his ex-wife is refusing him the right to take his son anywhere because his brother is getting out of jail. And his son, my dear little Elijah - is sick, and he is crying for his daddy, and that woman, that adulteress says his daddy can’t spend the weekends with him unless - until the evil uncle leaves town. Menee and Papa Art can’t see him either.
How can anyone get a new apartment, car, and hire a lawyer on wages earned at a pizza joint…no - the church can not help.
back to the Psalm.
My spirit is overwhelmed within me. God knows the path I am walking. He knows the traps that have been set for me and my family. God knows. This is part of His plan? To teach me meekness? I feel as if there is no escape.
And there is no one in this life who can help. God is my only refuge. Oh Lord, bring my soul out of prison, literally, bring my son out of prison. And rescue my other son and grandson while you are at it. Will He deal bountifully with me? Am I as forsaken as I feel?
These are such little problems in the vast scheme of things. People are dying - children are dying. The earth is quaking and storms are raging. I need to focus. I need to trust and obey. But I am so tired. Feeling so old and tired. I need to let God manage things and trust Him for the outcome...but it is so hard.

Have You Heard?

This weekend I heard that 30,000 people were killed in an earthquake in Pakistans. I heard that New Orleans is planning on becoming another Las Vegas. I heard that President Bush's next candidate for Supreme Court Judge isn't fit for the job because she teaches Sunday School. I heard a great sermon on Worship, and a pretty good one on intercessory prayer too. This weekend I also heard the God of Glory Thunder, I saw shooting stars, and heard the LORD say - focus girl, focus!

This is too funny...

i have a few teachers in my blogging audience...
this one is for you
and all you mothers too...
my friend DJ sent it to me LOL

I've been teaching now for about fifteen years. I have two
kids myself, but the best birth story I know is the one I
saw in my own second-grade classroom a few years back.

When I was a kid, I loved show-and-tell. So I always have a
few sessions with my students. It helps them get over
shyness, and usually show-and-tell is pretty tame. Kids
bring in pet turtles, model airplanes, pictures of fish they
catch, stuff like that. And I never, ever place any
boundaries or limitations on them. If they want to lug it to
school and talk about it, they're welcome.

Well, one day this little girl, Erica, a very bright, very
outgoing kid, takes her turn and waddles up to the front of
the class with a pillow stuffed under her sweater. She holds
up a snapshot of an infant. "This is Luke, my baby brother,
and I'm going to tell you about his birthday.

"First, Mom and Dad made him as a symbol of their love, and
then Dad put a seed in Mom's stomach, and Luke grew in
there. He ate for nine months through an umbrella cord."

She's standing there with her hands on the pillow, and I'm
trying not to laugh and wishing I had my camcorder with me.
The kids are watching her in amazement.

"Then, about two Saturdays ago, my mom starts saying and
going, 'Oh, oh, oh!'" Erica puts a hand behind her back and
groans. "She walked around the house for like an hour. 'Oh,
oh, oh!'" Now the kid's doing this hysterical duck walk,
holding her back and groaning. "My dad called the middle
wife. She delivers babies, but she doesn't have a sign on
the car like the Domino's man.

"They got my mom to lie down in bed like this." Then Erica
lies down with her back against the wall. "And then, pop! My
mom had this bag of water she kept in there in case he got
thirsty, and it just blew up and spilled all over the bed,
like psshhheew!" This kid has her legs spread and with her
little hands are miming water flowing away. It was too much!

"Then the middle wife starts saying, 'push, push' and
'breathe, breathe.' They started counting, but never even
got past ten. Then, all of a sudden, out comes my brother.
He was covered in yucky stuff; they all said was from Mom's
play-center, so there must be a lot of stuff inside there."

Then Erica stood up, took a big theatrical bow, and returned
to her seat. I'm sure I applauded the loudest. Ever since
then, if it's show-and-tell day, I bring my camcorder, just
in case another Erica comes along.

Received from Tami D.

Just a Quick One

This morning I heard an interesting teaching on the radio as I argued with myself about just how much time I really needed to get ready for work...30 minutes, 20 minutes, maybe I could break my own record and get ready in ten????? anyway...It was Alister Bay - I like his accent- he's doing a series on pastoral responsibility and his text was in Titus (with a flip back to 1 Timothy). I've used those verses to lament about the endless debates over doctrine, and sometimes angry - insulting comments that I've experienced, either firsthand or as a bystander/observer here in blog land. What I found interesting, and very encouraging, is that as a Reformed theologian, Alister listed election and personal predestination as the first thing we should stop arguing about. And then he quoted good old and highly respected Spurgeon as saying the same thing. One of them refered to election and personal predestination as a mystery and said that the wisest of men could spend days debating the issue, with none being the wiser at the end. Spurgeon was quoted as saying that we should be about the business of doing good works, and then we wouldn't have time to argue about the nonessentials. What a concept!
It's been a long, hard week. Work has been exhausting. But it hasn't been a bad week. I've gotten a lot of prayer time in. And I think my kids have actually learned something. The weather is crisp, sunny, autumny, and I love autumn. Worship on Sunday morning was awesome, and the LORD really broke through my stuburn self and gave me a good talking to. Thanks, I needed that! Still, things in Shiprock are pretty intense - the enemy is coming against the Church full force, and people are tired. Not just at our church, the body of Christ in general.
Our personal life isn't much better, but I feel better - more confident - like I am really able to Trust and Obey. Time to finish my day - head home - maybe even eat out. Blessings on you dear blog friends (and strangers). Blog on!

From Everlasting to Everlasting

I've been waking up at 4:00am for a few days now...waking up and getting up and wrapping myself in a blanket because the mornings are getting cold, and sitting out on the front deck - praying. It's not by choice. I rather stay in bed for two extra hours until the alarm goes off. But HE just won't let me. This "morning", if you can call 4:00am morning, I realized that most of the people I pray for, or about, are sleeping at that time of "day". My students, my grandchildren, even most of my friends is far away NY. (What time does the wanderer get up? with a new baby in the house it could be pretty early)
For a thousand years in Thy sight are like yesterday when it pases by, Or as a watch in the night. Psalm 90:4 My last post, about time, led me to Psalm 90 this morning. It's not an easy psalm. It speaks of the wrath of God, being consumed by His anger. It speaks of secret sins, a warning - He knows all and He will expose all. Verse 12 asks that He will teach us to number our days. Then, like in so many of the Psalms of lamentation and repentance it ends on a happier note. One that I will hold on to today, while I am doing paper work, and meeting with parents, and praying in my classroom. O satisfy us in the morning with Thy lovingkindness, That we may sing for joy and be glad all our days, Make us glad - and let the favor of the LORD our God be upon us...When I get to work, I'm going to read it in The Message. It's gonna be a long day. I have to stay late for parent/teacher conferences, and I am tired already. Thank God for coffee!