In the Words of My Great Grandpa

In the Words of My Great Grandpa, Everett (Pa) Hunley. While organizing I ran across some papers that my great-grandpa had written. It was him recording the story of his life. He lived in the hills of Kentucky. He was born in 1902 and went to be with the Lord in 1998. He was married for over 75 years to the love of his life my Great-Grandma, Martha (Ma) Hunley.

In this story he goes on to tell about how there were no modern conveniences; water was retrieved from a spring; he awoke each morning to go chop wood for the day. "People did not look ahead like they do now."

Some tidbits: (retained some of the spelling and grammar errors to preserve effect)

Marriage and finances:
"Half the marriages today ends up in divorce. When I was young they married for love. They didn't marry for sex or money. You never heard of divorce. No body in debt ever body enjoyed their selves. I don't own any body anything and have got my home, but I worry about grand-kids and great grand-kids. It hurts me to see them worry. I had to work hard all my life, now I don't haft to work, but I have pains and troubles, but I still enjoy life."

Religion:
"I like the old fashion preacher better. They preached by the spirit. When they had a revival, then it would go on for two or three weeks when the Spirit got in two it. You would hear shouting and crying all over the church house. Now you go to church it is more like some kind of a play. Your kids wont agree with me but I like the old time religion that the Power above gets involved in. Homemade religion don't work. Going to church don't work. Paying the preacher don't work. All that works is the spirit of Jesus Christ and if the Spirit don't lead you, it is all fake. It tells you in the Bible if the Spirit quits dealing with you, you are doomed to Hell. When they prayed, ever body would get on there knees. Now they stand up, fraid they will get dirt on their knees. The Bible says ever knee shall bow so that is enough about religion."

Good stuff.

The Master of Everything

My son wrote a worship song this morning. As I was getting ready to take my son, Josiah, to school this morning, he was playing with his army guys. However, after being quiet for a few minutes he walked up to me with a paper in his hands and said, "I wrote a song, Dad." My son just turned 8 years old last weekend. Here's what was on the paper:

"The Master of Everything

Jesus, You're the master of everything
the master of everything
You are the only God
Oh, yeah! Oh, yes You are!
Ah ha! Oh, Yeah!

You are the master of everything, yeah!
Ohhhh, yeah!
Ohhhh, yeah!
You're the master of everything
Master of everything

written by: Josiah Hans Schall"

Love it! :)

Attack on the Personhood of God

There's a conspiracy afoot! :-) (always wanted to say that) However, it is true. One of the basic spiritual realities is that there is an Enemy working to destroy God's Kingdom and His people here on earth. That's just basic Christianity, yo. One of the latest things I have been noticing (maybe I'm slow at the pick up here) is that there is an all-out conspiracy to get people to treat God as if He is a 'thing' or an 'idea.' Why is that? Well let me offer a few reasons:

1. If God is not a person then we can recreate Him however we wish according to personal preferences or cultural trends.

2. If God is not a person then there is no accountability for our actions.

3. If God is not a person then the Ten Commandments and the Bible as a whole are merely suggestions.

4. If God is not a person then He never gets angry at injustice, He never experiences joy when we worship Him, He never grieves when we are hurt.

5. If God is not a person then ultimately He is unknowable and we are just on our own.

6. If God is not a person, but merely some amorphous blob, then Jesus was a fraud.

7. If God is not a person and Jesus a fraud, then we unable to be free from sin or experience true life change

However, if God is a Person:

1. He desires relationship

2. He wants to be known and loved

3. He has a specific Name that He has revealed and would expect to be addressed by that Name. (Imagine if someone completely disregarded your name after you have repeatedly told them your name)

4. He enjoys being in community

5. He is emotionally moved by interactions and experiences and therefore voluntarily vulnerable.

6. He communicates all the time.

7. He loves.

If the enemy can get us to deny the Personhood of God then God becomes "god" and just one of many abstract ideas about faith and spirituality. When you know a person you get a feel for who they are, how to interact with them, and what their expectations of relationship are. The deeper the relationship the more intimate it becomes. The biblical language (God revealing Himself to mankind through His Word) uses imagery to help give context to that relationship.

First, we are creations of the Creator. (Gen 1-3)
Second, we are invited into fellowship. (Gen 3)
Third, we become children of God through accepting and trusting in the atoning work of Jesus Christ. (Ro. 8:15)
Fourth, we are invited into friendship (John 15:14-15)
Fifth and finally, we are invited into the kind of oneness and intimacy that only the analogy of marriage can describe. (2 Cor. 11:2, Eph 5:27, Matt 25:1-12, Rev. 22:17)

Soooo. Do you live your life and faith as if God is both real AND a person? Much of modern biblical scholarship tries to take away the Personhood of God making Christianity about how much you know or how many works you do.

No relationship can survive a breakdown of communication and intimacy. How you doing with that? Are you speaking? Are you listening? Are you taking time for intimacy?

Are you approaching God according to how He has revealed Himself to us? Do you form your image of Who God is by informing yourself as to His character, His will and His love for you?

Delivered vs. Overcoming

thinking about how the Lord delivered the people of Egypt with great evidence of his power and yet in Exodus 13:17 “When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, “If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.” They weren't ready for battle. God had 'delivered' them, but they were not ready to be 'overcomers' which is always His goal for our lives. Thank God for His deliverance when needed, but are you moving towards living as an overcomer?

"No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” (Romans 8:37, TNIV)

Poll Question re: Fasting

Poll question: Christian, have you ever fasted? Why? What type of fast was it? What were the results?

Did We Just Lose the War on Terror?

So much fodder for ranting this morning! :)

From my twitter feed: RT @cnnbrk: Army pulls Graham invite for prayer event due to "The Army..feared... Islamic militants would.." http://is.gd/bEQJQ

I thought the whole point of the war was so that we would could have the freedom to make choices in our lives and our nation not out of fear but out of our liberties. And now here we have the leaders of our brave men and women of the armed forces making a choice regarding the National Day of Prayer out of fear that the bad guys might get offended?? This is not "military strategy" this is the effects of a culture that has lost sight of it's Christian heritage and roots, the very thing that made us great. This is a decision made from the quagmire of the modern concept of tolerance.

Franklin Graham is not some wild-eyed bigot from the fringes of culture. He is the respected son of Billy Graham and has taken up his father's evangelistic mantle after a long and difficult time of prodigal living.

Join me and many others, including Church leaders, community officials, and a ton of great people at the Cleveland celebration of the ("unconstitutional") 2010 National Day of Prayer on Thursday May 6th in Public Square in downtown CLE with events going on from 10am-1pm, with the central prayer for the nation happening at noon.

Earth Day..

Today is Earth Day. (Actually I thought it was yesterday...oops! Will hug an extra tree for penance) I love the extra focus upon being "green" the last few years. I think it is fantastic that people are being mindful of conservation, recycling. I love that people who litter get nasty looks. :)

However, yesterday (again because I thought Earth Day was yesterday) I posted a snarky little comment that said "Forgive me in advance, but if someone comes up to me and mentions "Mother Earth" to me, I will flick them in the nose" Why so seemingly uncelebrative of this day? Well as I said, I love the new found emphasis on being green. The reason is that we are called to be good stewards of the earth that God created and gave to us to care for. Even as we rule over it, we are to be good stewards of His creation. Where I get snarky is this tendency to ascribe sentience or even deity to this world that we inhabit. This thing just won't go away. It even found a new thrust of emphasis in James Cameron's new blockbuster "Avatar."

Having said that, I do realize my growing trend towards ranting and I am trying to rein it in. It's just that I see God's truth continually being eroded in our culture to be replaced by things that have their basis either in paganism or atheism. I just have to say something. (wonder if anyone actually reads...or cares)

Blessings!