Number One Blogorama

 

         Well Campers, it's about time for a little blog. A lot of what I will say is found in the writings of C.H. Spurgeon. In the ebook I wrote, over a 6 year period in Hospice, "God's Waiting Room; 40 Days From Hospice to my Children's Children," by David Warren (middle name), probably 50% references Spurgeon. (Dictating with recorders, my hands largely useless by then, transcribed to Dragon by my sister; I pondered dying, the ALS thing, heaven, life between the numbers- birth to death here on planet earth, Reconciling with God and others, how to stay sane in an insane world; narrated specifically to each of my magnificent grandchildren.) Spurgeon did much to transform London and its surroundings from the ravages of industrialization in the mid to late 1800s. Crime, poverty, smog, child labor, prostitution, sewage, ubiquitous alcoholism and a host of other maladies were rampant in and about the City of London. It was not a pleasant place to be. Charles Haddon Spurgeon came upon the scene mid century as a boy caught in a snowstorm. It was a Blizzard actually, and he was on his way to an Anglican service, when he was caught in the intense storm and forced into a small church where a few were gathering out of the storm. He heard a lay preacher, in his words, tell him about Christ Jesus as an individual Person he could actually come to know, the actual Son of God, dying expressly for him. He felt like he was talking to him alone. He asked him if he knew Christ Jesus, actually knew Him. Spurgeon's previous exposure to Christ, as did mine, consisted of third person references, theological constructs which made Christ, just as God the Father and God the Holy Spirit, far removed from everyday realities. We would see them (Him, the One God in three persons) when we got to heaven, and that was that. This speaker was telling him something fantastical. And Spurgeon felt the very hand of God then and there. And the way that he presented Christ made him utterly irresistible. Spurgeon says that God chose him to be His child in an instant. He walked out of that church and everything was new. The snowflakes were a wonder and became spectacularly magnificent to him. Everything was changed. From that time on he dedicated himself to the proposition of spreading the gospel (Good News). He established orphanages, homes for women, wrote thousands of sermons, preached them and was greatly afflicted when he did so. In addition to severe depression,  which I have also struggled with, he suffered from gout and other painful maladies. He originated a church seating 10,000 people called the Metropolitan Tabernacle, and preached without any kind of amplification using his bare voice. Millions of individuals we're changed. He authored extensive commentaries on Scripture, as well as books on how to live. One of them called "Morning and Evening," was given to me when I was in Hospice. I have been reading it faithfully ever since, benefiting from his wisdom and encouragement. So I will share one of these with you in this brief blog and try to relate it to our situation. When I say our situation I'm referring to the fact that we need MORE. We need more in life. If you're like me you need to be full. Full of wonder, full of life, full of energy, full of peace and tranquility. As I've said, The only way to truly achieve this is to become new. Reconciled. It's an art form, achieved only by the very hand of God through His Holy Spirit. Through Christ the individual is literally transformed into a new creation. The reborn individual begins joyfully living for God as his literal son or daughter, on into eternity and forever. It begins when we give our lives to our Creator exclusively, leaving our self centered lives in favor of letting God Almighty, through Father, Son and Holy Spirit take over.  Repenting for our past self centered living apart from Him, and expressing a desire to live for and in our Triune Creator, this spiritual reality is enacted. Instead of our self centered natures, simply by asking God to take over, we begin the New Nature; Reconciled, made right (truly Saved, from a life estranged from Him). Spurgeon pontificated on this full and wonderful new life eloquently. It is our great privilege to feast upon his profound wisdom.
      On the morning of December 20 Spurgeon is commenting on First Samuel 7:12, 'thus far the Lord has helped us.' "The words 'thus far' seem like a hand pointing in the direction of the past; 20 years and 70, and yet thus far the Lord has helped us! Through poverty, through wealth, through sickness, through health, at home, abroad, on the land, on the sea, in honor, and dishonor, and perplexity, and joy, and trials, in prayer, in temptation, 'Thus far' the Lord helped us! We enjoy looking down a long avenue of trees It is delightful to gaze from one end of the long Vista to the others, a sort of verdant temple, with its branching pillars and its arches of leaves; Even so look down the long aisles of your years, at the great green boughs of mercy overhead, and the strong pillars of loving kindness and faithfulness which bear up your joys. Are there no birds singing in yonder branches next? Surely there must be many, and they all sing of mercy received thus far." I used to have a small poster in my room in Hospice with such a lane reaching into the distance with magnificent trees on each side, an absolutely beautiful beckoning. Many days I gazed into the beauteous pathway thinking of my eternal home. Scripture tells us we are but strangers here, pilgrims, sojourners. Our true home is eternal, with our Creator forever. And nowhere was there a place better to contemplate such a profound truth as in my hospice bed. "But the road also points forward, no more of failures and toils, but victories There is still more awakening in Jesus likeness, the face of Jesus, the society of Saints, the glory of God, the fullness of eternity, the Infinity of bliss! Oh be of good courage believer, and with grateful confidence say, 'thus far the Lord has helped us,' for when we read in heaven's light how glorious and marvelous a prospect will your 'thus far' unfold to your grateful eye."
      Now my comment on his commentary is to simply reiterate that once we get with the program, as such, and become one with the Almighty, we can begin to chart our journey as New Creations. We can say 'thus far' as we establish our own pillars of growth. Along that tree lined road to heaven, our new Christian lives are ever upwards. A magnificent trajectory indeed. Proverbs tells us that the way of God is up. It is ever so.

 

 

 

 

 

Number Two Blogorama  

 

     Hello Campers, and welcome to the furtherance of excellence in all regards. I dearly wish to share Pascal, renowned philosopher/mathematician, but first should follow up on THUS FAR, from previous blog. That focused on looking at what God has done for us already, whether you're Christ follower or otherwise, He has miraculously carried and sustained you physically amidst environmental onslaught, mentally against eventual insanity, and kept you from the total enslavement of the entirety of your being by the evil one (who I generally refer to as the enemy). To our trusted C.H. Spurgeon we will first go, who shares with us in his morning of November 8th devotion on Colossians 2:6,  "As you received Christ Jesus as Lord." (Now we've said that receiving Christ as a personage in your ongoing existence is tantamount to the unfortunately cliched "have you received Jesus as your personal savior?" I choose to define such a cosmic wonder as being Reconciled, because it is entirely scriptural and utterly realistic: In addition to being Saved, from sin, the enemy, death  itself and an eternity estranged from our Creator, God takes the individual through acceptance of His Son as Lord of Life, all in all, through the awesome powerful Holy Ghost, or Spirit, and makes him or her entirely NEW. Past is gone, as it should be, and NOW becomes a moment of action, decision. Knowing of the life and goodness of Christ Jesus we may invest wholly in His magnificent lordship. He will in no wise disappoint...ever. Scripture records his promise to never, ever leave or forsake us. He meant it and means it still. Kierkegaard's existentialism focused on this mightiest of decisions as the only decision that really ultimately matters. "IF anyone is In Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that GOD  was IN CHRIST reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God" II Corinthians 5: 17-20. In other words, invest your life in Christ, (by default the Father and the Holy Spirit), and you'll be made Right, as opposed to completely wrong in all regards. (And this brings us beyond THUS FAR, to NOW. What...will...we...do?)
     Spurgeon rightly puts the crux of the matter on FAITH, the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen: "The life of faith is represented as receiving -- an act which implies the very opposite of anything like merit. It is simply the acceptance of a gift. As the earth drinks in the rain, as the sea receives the streams, as night accepts light from the stars, so we, giving nothing, partake freely of the gift and the grace of God. Living water flows. The idea of receiving implies a sense of realization, making the matter a reality. One cannot very well receive a shadow; we receive that which is substantial: so it is in the life of faith, Christ becomes real to us. While we are without faith, Jesus is a mere name to us -- a person who lived a long time ago, so long ago that his life is only history to us now! By an act of faith Jesus becomes a real person in the consciousness of our heart. But receiving also means grasping or getting possession of. That which I receive becomes my own: I appropriate to myself that which is given. When I receive Jesus, he becomes my Savior, so much mine that neither life nor death shall be able to rob me of him. All this is to receive Christ -- to take him as God's free gift; to realize Him in my heart, and to appropriate him as mine.
     Salvation may be described as the blind receiving sight, the deaf receiving hearing, the dead receiving life; but we have not only received these blessings, we have received Christ Jesus. It is true that He gave us life from the dead. He gave us pardon of sin; he gave us imputed righteousness. These are all precious things, but we are not content with them; we have received Christ Himself. The Son of God has been poured into us and we have received Him, and appropriated Him. What a heartful Jesus must be, for heaven itself cannot contain him!"
     So this is our NOW; we decide, invest in the eternal rather than the temporal, and become NEW. Our THUS FAR becomes of greater substance, an epic ongoing adventure into eternity itself, with our Creator himself...true importance. Now we may dwell on the Present, our eternal Future. Spurgeon elsewhere says he who chooses to disregard this most excellent of all decisions is worse than a fool, he is a madman, and that is true. I was a madman once, and I want no more of it. Our sublime Present, in the constant companionship of Father, Son and Spirit, and our wonderful future, abiding with Him eternally, is greatness in every regard. Now on to more; greatness, grace and glory.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blogo Numero Tres

"How It Works"

 

 

      In A.A. we have a thing called "How it Works," a mantra of many, to "Keep coming back; It Works!" and, "It Works if you Work it!" (And all are truisms.) Work is largely antithetical to a great many of our modern societal contemporaries. We tend to want everything handed to us, we deserve it.  I began early, tending the yard, hoeing weeds for Mamou and Mom, basic chores of the household. Then at ten I began working at the store. I became a fountain boy, or a soda jerk (because they jerked the handles that brought forth carbonated drinks and floats (fountain  drinks with ice cream added)).  I was proficient in banana splits, sundaes, myriad toasted sandwiches, a wide range of beverages and coffee, gallons daily to the many downtown employees and shoppers. This is where I learned that WORK IS GREAT! Especially now that I have 6 decades and a year into this brief earthly tenure and my abilities to do so many things, including working a job or jobs, have put me on my back and largely useless, workwise. I dearly miss it, and fail to see the attraction of retiring when so much there is to be done in a world where working yields such profound reward, satisfaction. Work provides accomplishment, and oh, how I loved Saturdays when Dad gave me a check for my work, then cashed it from the pharmacy cash register (sometimes the fountain register, or the "front" register, for all the many sundries). I was so proud, a feeling carried throughout my lifetime every time I received payment for services rendered. From librarian, to janitor, caretaking dressage thoroughbreds, assembling mainframe  computer housings, apartment management, molybdenum mine train operator and chuteman, prison guard, orderly for the mentally challenged, IBM operator, TIME Inc. cable manager, school teacher, recording/fine arts studio entrepreneur, ranch hand, musical tutor -- even tennis instructor; all these endeavors were highly rewarding.

     The subject of work leads ultimately to  the greatest accomplishment known; the WORK of GOD for humankind, requiring only our acquiescence. Our participation only comes from letting God be God and accepting Him, inviting Him, in all He is, to dwell in our hearts, rather afar and estranged.  The greatest reward for the least effort; a New Nature, eternal life, your heart's desires, ultimate companionship. 

     So how does our capitulation, our admittance that we are nothing and He is everything, WORK for us? That, is the great theme I have discovered as the greatest thing of all, the thesis statement I've repeated so much. It WORKS like this (I'll use this passage of divine scripture to explain): IF you are in Christ, you are a new creation (have become new)...this begins Paul's second letter to the believers in Corinth, Corinthians 5:17-21. This, I call the granddaddy Reconciliation passage, one of three in the Bible specifically explaining the fine art of becoming New (Reconciliation): IF, the biggest if of your life, you are IN Christ (you're either IN or OUT, there is no middle ground). This simply means that your heavenly Father, your Lord and best friend Christ Jesus, and your holy Spirit, the breath of God, are abiding in you. Your Creator is abiding; and you are abiding in Him. Just because we cannot see the spiritual world, the realities of a triune God, it does not mean it's not there. Because of the sinful state we are born in to, we are at odds with a holy perfect God. Scripture calls it enmity, we are enemies; and reconciliation/salvation occurs by accepting/inviting Him in. The only sure way to know this reality, this truth (Jesus said He was the truth, the way and the life) is to invest in the reality itself; that's the way it WORKS. You give yourself to God, He manifests Himself to you. You go from enmity, at war with God, to sonship or daughterhood, becoming the cherished beloved child of God you were intended to be, had sin not poisoned everything. The magnificence of this follows: "...you are a new creation, old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." So step one of how it works is surrender, simply saying you are sorry to Him, meaning it by giving your heart  to Him in love, to Him who made you, even allowing his Son to die for you to expunge all your sins and sinfulness, for being estranged, doing your own perceived will rather than HIS PERFECT WILL FOR YOU; step two is becoming new as a result of newness in Christ. it is immediate. you become new, it is complete. Now you live for eternity, no longer death and its total separation from your Creator/Sustainer. Step three is to maintain the reality of His presence, and He will facilitate that reality as we allow Him. No two people are alike and the experience of being reborn is utterly unique. One may feel ecstatic, euphoric, as Spurgeon did, or one may feel little at all. There is no measure to assess this immediate transformation. It just is. And time proves the substance of this simple faith transaction. You will know it, feel it; see the miracles of life in Him, rather than seeing yourself and the enemy. God becomes as real, even more real, than anything we see or feel with our senses. This is the dynamic, and it works, 100 percent. (Granddaddy passage continues:..."Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ Jesus, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation...")The rest we will disseminate duly, for now we'll digest this Grand Working of above, to us here below, contemplating the eternal repercussions; God in  His creation, man/woman, as the Westminister Confession says: "What is the primary aim for God's people? To glorify God, and enjoy Him forever." Seven words to live and die for, He does all that. We just say yes.

 

 

 

 

 

BLOGO FOUR: From the Mines of Life

 

        Campers, it's Spurgeon time again. Today he, and we are going to talk about Isaiah 40:9, " Go up on a high mountain”..." "Each believer should be thirsting for God, for the living God, and longing to climb the hill of the Lord; and see him face to face. We should not be content in the mists of the valley when the summit awaits us? My soul thirsts to drink deep of the cup reserved for those who reach the mountain's brow, and bathe their brows in heaven. How pure the views of the hills are, how fresh the mountain air, how rich the fare of the dwellers aloft, whose windows look into heaven. Many Saints are content to live like miners in coal mines, who do not see the sun; they eat dust... content to wear the miner's garb when they might put on King's robes. I am satisfied that many believers pine in a dungeon when they could be walking on the palace roof, and viewing the godly land. Rouse, O believer, from your low condition! Make Him your source, the center, and the circumference of all, your soul's range of delight. Don't live in the lowlands of bondage now that mountain liberty is conferred upon you. Don't be satisfied any longer with your dwarfish attainments, but press forward to the things more sublime and heavenly. Aspire to a higher, nobler, fuller life,. Upward to heaven! Nearer to God!"
When I moved to Golden, Colorado I eagerly anticipated the mountains. Love them, always have. We had many relatives in the pacific northwest and we would fly in Dad's Bonanza fairly often. I loved flying over the rich forests and mountains, rivers, lakes, the Pacific. And returning to west Texas and all the brown below was distressing after having bathed in the northwestern beauty. So I cherished the opportunity when Sharon and I moved to Golden. In a short time I was made a miner of molybdenum; a finely ground mineral used to strengthen steel in all manner of warcraft, space vehicles and even tires and engines. We even have it in our bodies. I was fortunate to get on the haulage crew right off. We loaded the trains, nearly full gauge from Sweden, with 22 cars, each with 20 tons of Moly, get them 9 miles up a grade from 7500 feet to 10,500, dump them at the mill (bottoms fell out, then back up), drive the trains back underground and repeat. I was a chuteman, initially. I would climb up about 15 feet into the steel cage, fully protected, drop 20 tons per car as the operator drove 3--5 mph below me, with moly mined 600 feet above by the actual miners. Sometimes they would drop boulders for us, as a laugh, I guess. We would halt the process (a red button which immediately signaled the train to stop), then hurry to the dynamite storage. I would then blow up the rock using Primacord. Sometimes the oversized monstrosities would crash through and derail the train, which we would then unbury. (A first class chuteman would of necessity bury a train or two just to get the proper feel for the chute's operation.) A lever in left hand operated a scoop below, like layering a cake. A "flow bar" lever in right hand determined the amount of ore let through, to the scoop, then the train car. It was quite an art form, really. Less so, perhaps, was operating the trains, Swedish electric behemoths requiring a steady hand and foot (the deadman's switch, which stopped the train immediately if the foot's pressure was taken of the silver round pedal). The Locis were capable of pulling the 22 car train, at 20 tons per car across the continental divide. Several miles of track at over 10,000 feet looked down a lush valley below to the right, with a steep mountain wall to the left; animals everywhere, even mountain streams of melting snow. I became an operator within a year and loved it. I would've done it longer if the hours had not been so long and physically grueling. 
Spurgeon compares a life underground to the awful bondage of rarely seeing the light spiritually. Of course, 1800s mining was way different, much more miserable and dangerous. Still, a worthy simile I can relate to. I can also compare the darkness of mind, soul and heart, before the knowing of God through Christ by his Spirit; to the resplendence after being reconciled, made new in nature. Coming off shift from thousands of feet underground to the world above was impactful. Stepping into the daylight or a star filled sky, depending on shifts, following a much needed shower and change of attire, was always dramatic. Would that I could have maintained that wonder spiritually. I failed miserably in the holy art of ongoing sanctification, letting God make me increasingly pure in my relationship with Him. Sanctification, being made separate, is twofold. Firstly it is immediate, His holiness is in us in the transaction of accepting His lordship. We are made new, reborn, as it were, that God can become our intended Father and Jesus our intended Savior and the Holy Spirit our intended enactor/transactor. Our One God in all His glorious offices, is purely holy, so we must be to enter His presence. Secondly, however, sanctification is progressive, ongoing. Being human in a world of sin necessitates continual repentance, self disciplined adherence to God's nature now in us, and to His Word, Scripture. It is a glorious concept that works exponentially, hence Spurgeon's mountain. All things with God are up, says Proverbs, and the higher we go the more divine the journey. My continual use of stimuli to fix myself sabotaged the process of ongoing sanctification. It's nigh unto impossible to commune with Father, Son and Spirit when you're addled. Such is my gratitude, profound and genuine, that I can now know Him more fully, properly, ever increasingly. Having a love like that given to me and being unable to see it through to its intended aim is horrid. Now having that love is extraordinary and beyond words. Thank God in all His glory for such a heart divine, to love such as me. From the mines of life and into the light!

 

 

 

 

 

NUMBER FIVE:  THINKING

(Buckle Up; A Long One!)

 

So here's the thing. It is not rocket science to see that  we're on borrowed time, that we have one life; a birth and a death. It is up to us what we do with the in between. Randy Alcorn, founder of Eternal Perspective Ministries, calls this Living for the Line. Imagine a line that goes on forever, eternally. On that line is a small dot, representing your time here on planet Earth. Most of the world population is going to live for that spot, dot, on the line. Those few who choose to live for the line, stretching into eternity itself with your creator and sustainer, are infinitely wise. Christ said that many are called but few are chosen; those choosing God become;, The Chosen. Would you not rather live for eternity, chosen by your creator himself, the Forever with God; than for the temporary, Forever with the enemy, in truth an eternity separated from God, (and all the splendor Heaven provides)? The truth is that we all have just a few years. Within that privileged time you have (or may not have, you could die this very instant, or at least sooner than later), you may or may not KNOW the full truth. Christ said you shall know the truth and it shall set you free. He also said He is The Way, The Truth and The Life. Now I said it's not rocket science, and 2 + 2 = 4. If you know that you can verify His claims and His very life as a human being historically, attribute validity to his actions and his words, it is reasonable to regard  him as truth. Historicity verifies the validity of Christ, his miracles, his crucifixion, and yes, even his resurrection. How can this be? Well it is. Investigate the writings of Jewish historian, Josephus, for example. There are more. Then look at the millions of His followers since, their lives, their contributions. We must regard him. He cannot be disregarded as fiction or written off as unimportant. Then we can choose, and that is the crux of our lives. You have free will. What do you will to do today? Within that framework is your decision to venture who Jesus truly is , of Lewis' 3 possibilities. CS Lewis famously posited that one may consider Christ and relegate him to the three following categories: He was a fool and quite insane; He was a dangerous criminal con man, or he is the Son of God as he claimed to be. Lewis said we cannot entertain such nonsense as saying that he was a great teacher or prophet alone. We have to decide based on simple facts who he is, and accordingly, who he is to us. The first two options are ridiculous, bearing zero historical validity (never mind twenty centuries of the veracity of the lives of those adhering to his lordship). Having correctly deduced who he was (and therefore is) we must ask ourselves if we will belong to him as prescribed, or reject him? Now we come to the writings of Pascal.
Consider the thoughts of Blaise Pascal, "Man is obviously made for thinking. Therein lies all his dignity and his merit; and his whole duty is to think as he ought. Now the order of thought is to begin with ourselves, and with our author and our end... We know the truth not only through our reason but also through our heart. It is through the latter that we know first principles, and reason, which has nothing to do with it, tries in vain to refuse them. It is quite certain that there is no good without the knowledge of God; that the closer one comes, the happier one is, and the further away one goes, the more unhappy one is."
Blaise Pascal (1632 - 1662) is remembered today as the forerunner of Newton in the establishment of calculus, and as the author of his Christian meditations, Les Pensees. I mentioned him earlier as the originator of The Divine Wager, where one bets his life on the existence of Christian reality. Pascal did so. And he was able to develop a unified, integrated understanding of human experience. Committing himself to the glorification of Jesus Christ throughout the remainder of his short life, Pascal did not leave behind his Mathematics and Science. He discovered that thoroughgoing rationality is consistent with ardent worship of the living God, that one can love God with his mind and use his mind in the service of God. He found Jesus Christ to be the ground of all truth, the principle behind all of his work. There was a unifying truth to be discovered. For example, his development of the calculating machine utilized a single idea, the mechanical counting of turns of a wheel, to perform all the basic operations of arithmetic. The idea was so rich that it has been used to govern the operation of our speedometers, tachometers and even computers. In religion he discovered that few have explored that in Jesus Christ is the coherence of all human experience, a source of satisfaction for the mind to which even mathematics points, but also for the spirit and personality: "Reason's last step is the recognition that there are an infinite number of things which are beyond it. It is merely feeble if it does not go as far as to realize that.” Because selfhood is a priority to rationality (remember Plato's unexamined life not worth living), because man is far more than he knows about himself or his world, intellectual wholeness depends upon ethical, spiritual wholeness . They all depend upon man's experience of the reality of Christ. "It is good to be tired and wearied by the vain search after the true God, that we may stretch out our arms to the redeemer ... We only know God by Jesus Christ. Without this mediator all communion with God is taken away; through Jesus Christ we know God...Jesus Christ is then the true God of men.” (PNCS 422, 546). While his omnibus became the basis of public transport in Paris, his brief 30 year life did not confuse matters of faith with matters of reason, nor produce a religious scientism. (Attempting to force a reconciliation between religion and science would have threatened the integrity of both). Most of the great universities of the West in Pascal's time taught that the key to man's wholeness is the pursuit of the truth of God through Jesus Christ. Apart from that truth it was believed all other expressions of truth are fragmentary and sterile. Now that tradition has almost disappeared. Truth itself has become devalued, even redefined so stringently that it is said to be relative. One's truth may be entirely different than another's. So to differ with someone's viewpoint is to simply be in your own truth. Universities promote fragmentation. They ignore the signs of decay in the spiritual, moral, and emotional health of the academic community and society as a whole; or they endorse it , desiring eventual anarchy, rebellion and revolution. In this context the pertinence of the spirit of Blaise Pascal is evident. Following his example we should recognize, exercise our minds to comprehend. Then we must exercise faith. As Pascal says, faith is a GIFT from God. True faith leads us to God, having reached an understanding through reasoning.
Reason...Thought...Nearly everyone knows "I think, therefore I am," Rene Descartes famous dictum. If we refuse to exercise our thinking we are just animals. At IBM we were given pocket notebooks with the word THINK embossed on the cover. Rewards were commonplace for suggestions leading to the betterment of the company. So it is that we learn. Sixteen years total in sum of all my collegiate pursuits. Yet I, with Pascal, realize how little I know, and how very much there is to know. But I try. That's the point. When I learned the extravagant gift from God that enters us into His presence, simple FAITH, the fruition of my reasoning  was realized. In other words, once I knew the truth, it was time to know THE TRUTH, Christ Himself. That little adobe church of 150 years in Albuquerque became my meeting place. It took me decades to become more of who God wanted me to be in obeisance, but decades of boxing my own shadow finally came to an end. As Pascal says, faith is the thing we most desperately need. We today need it more than anything else in the world.
There is a simple reason for respecting the voice of Pascal. "He was the first and perhaps is still the most effective voice to be raised in warning of the consequences of the enthronement of the human ego in contradistinction to the cross, symbolizing the ego's immolation. How beautiful it all seemed at the time of the Enlightenment, that man triumphant would bring to pass that earthly paradise whose Groves of academia would ensure the realization forever of peace, plenty, and beatitude in practice. But what a nightmare of wars, famines, and folly was to result therefrom." So says Malcolm Muggeridge , in his excellent treatise "The End of Christendom ". Muggeridge exposes the fallacy of living for the construct of Christendom (the organization Christianity became beginning in no small part with Constantine), and not living solely for, in and through Christ, accordingly. He lectures on Pascal brilliantly,  perhaps the most learned man of his time. Muggeridge , near the end of his great work, says, " Thanks to the great mercy and of the incarnation, the cosmic scene is resolved into a human drama. God reaches down to relate himself to man, and man reaches up to relate himself to God. Time looks into eternity and eternity into time, making now always and always now. Everything is transformed by this sublime drama of the incarnation, God's special plan for fallen man in a fallen world. The way opened before us that was charted in the birth, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. They have derived therefrom the moral, spiritual, and intellectual creativity out of which has come everything truly great in our art, our literature, our music. From that source comes the splendor of the great cathedrals and the illumination of the Saints and Mystics, as well as countless lives of dedication, men and women serving their God and loving their Savior in humility and faith. If this Christian revelation is true, then it must be true for all times and in all circumstances. Whatever may happen, however seemingly inimical to it may be the world's going and those who preside over the world's affairs, the truth of the incarnation  intact and  inviolate... Christendom like other civilizations before it is subject to decay and must sometime decompose and disappear. In Christian terms, hopes and fears are equally beside the point. As Christians we know that here we have no continuing city... as we are citizens of a city of God that they did not build and cannot destroy. Thus the Apostle Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome living in a society as depraved and dissolute as ours. Their games, like our television, specialized in spectacles of violence and eroticism. Paul exhorted them to be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in God's work, to concern ourselves with the things that are unseen, for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal. It was in the breakdown of Rome that Christendom was born. Now in the breakdown of Christendom there are the same requirements and the same possibilities to eschew the fantasy of a disintegrating world and seek the reality of what is not seen and eternal, the reality of Christ...

     I expect that you're all familiar with Plato's image of the shadows in a cave. The people in The Cave saw shadows passing by and mistook those shadows, supposing that the shadows were people and that the names they gave them were real. I feel that this is an image of our existence. Our television is an outward visible sign of this fantasy with which we preoccupy ourselves. Many have asked me how it was that I came ultimately to be convinced that Christ was the answer. It was because in this world of fantasy in which my own occupation has particularly involved me, I have found in Christ the only true alternative. The shadow in The Cave is like the media world of shadows. In contradistinction, Christ shows what life really is, and what our true destiny is. We escaped from The Cave. We emerged from the darkness and instead of shadows we have all around us the glory of God's creation. Instead of darkness we have light; instead of despair, hope; instead of time and the clock's ticking inexorably on, eternity, which never began and never ends, and yet is sublimely now. What then is this reality of Christ contrasting with all the fantasies whereby men seek to evade it, fantasies of the ego, of the appetites, of power of success, of the mind and the will, the reality valid when first lived and expounded by our Lord Himself 2000 years ago? It has buoyed up Western man through all the vicissitudes and uncertainty of Christendom's centuries, and is available today when it's more needed, perhaps, than ever before, as it will be available tomorrow and forever. It is simply this: by identifying ourselves with Christ, by absorbing ourselves in His teaching, by living out the drama of his life with Him, including especially the passion, that powerhouse of love and creativity -- by living with, by, and in Him, we can be reborn to become new men and women in the world. ...This is a fulfillment that transcends all human fulfilling, and yet  is accessible to all humans, based on the absolutes of love rather than the relativities of justice, or the universality of brotherhood than the particulars of equality, on the perfect service which is freedom rather than the servitude purporting to be freedom.  It sounds crazy, as it did to Nicodemus, an early intellectual and a potential BBC panelist who asked how in the world it was possible for somebody already born to go back in the womb and be born again. It happened. It has happened innumerable times. It goes on happening. The testimony to this effect is overwhelming. Suddenly to be caught up in the wonder of God's love flooding the universe, made aware of the stupendous creativity which animates all life. of our own participation in it, every color brighter, every meaning clearer, every shape more shapely, every note more musical, every word written and spoken more explicit. Above all, every human face, all human companionship, all human encounters, recognizably a family affair. The animals too, flying...the majestic hilltops, the gaunt rocks giving their blessed shade, and the rivers faithfully making their way to the sea, all irradiated with this same glory for the eyes of the reborn.  What other fulfillment is there, I ask, that could possibly compare with this?" And that my friends, is the RECONCILIATION I've been trying to convey. Let's live for the line, not the dot. 

So what do we THINK about Christ? Remember Christ's question to Peter, "Who do men say that I am," then, "Who do YOU say that I am?" So it is and ever will be: Who do we say He truly is, and what are we to do about THAT? Mind and heart, mind and heart. Blessings!

 

 

 

 

CHRISTMAS PRAYER
FATHER, IN THE NAME OF YOUR PRECIOUS SON I PRAY THIS PRAYER ON THIS WONDERFUL DAY. I AM YOURS, NOW AND EVER. THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING. ALL THINGS, GREAT AND SMALL, ARE YOURS. THANK YOU FOR YOUR MARVELOUS CREATION. THANK YOU FOR FAMILY. THANK YOU FOR FREEDOM. THANK YOU FOR FORGIVENESS. THANK YOU FOR THE ESSENCE AND SUNSTANCE OF ALL YOU ARE. KIND, MERCIFUL, FULL OF GRACE AND LOVE, EVER WISE AND EVER FAITHFUL; THANK YOU. I LOVE YOU. ELOHIM, CREATOR SUSTAINER; ADONAI, LORD AND KING; YAHAWEH, ONE AND ONLY ALMIGHTY. YOU ARE EL EMUNAH, EVER FAITHFUL. EL EL yon, MOST HIGH. RUACH HA KODESH, HOLY SPIRIT. ADONAI YESHUA, LORD JESUS. AND YAHWEH,DEAR,DEAR ALMIGHTY GOD,SOVEREIGN AND TRUE.ALL OF WHO YOU ARE I ADORE.THANK YOU FOR REDEEMING ME IN YOUR SON, THAT I MIGHT KNOW YOU.THANK YOU FOR SONSHIP. THANK YOU FOR HEALING ME, SO MANY TIMES, THANK YOU FOR GUIDANCE, FOR YOUR PERFECT WILL; MAY I NEVER STRAY FROM YOUR PRESENCE. I ASK YOU TO TOUCH THE BROKEN TODAY, BROKEN IN HEALTH, IN SPIRIT; BROKEN IN ESTRANGEMENT FROM YOU. BE WITH US. WE PRAISE AND ADORE YOU. AMEN.

                                                                             

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                     SIX: More Putting It Together

       OK, Campers, here we are again. We're going to dive right in to some of the higher altitude sayings of Charles Spurgeon once more. (Remember, I promised God I would write about him when I was in hospice if He allowed me to live. And one cannot but profit from his loquacious wisdom.) So, in speaking of our most profound yearnings; you know, what the saints past called a void in the soul of every man, our craving for MORE? His commentary on Romans 8:23 addresses our most ultimate desires, our groanings, as it were. Scripture promises that the Holy Spirit groans for us, translating when we're incapable of properly communicating with the Creator/Sustainer of all: "We ourselves... groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies."(Rom. 8:23):

       Spurgeon says, "It is not the groan of murmuring or complaint: it is more the note of DESIRE than of distress. Having received a pledge, we desire the whole of our portion; we are yearning for our entire person, in its trinity of spirit, soul, and body, to be set free from the last vestige of the fall; we long to put off corruption, weakness, and dishonor, and to wrap ourselves in incorruption, in immortality, in the spiritual body which the Lord Jesus will give to his people. We long for the manifestation of our adoption as the children of God. Our sighs are sacred things, hallowed for us to tell abroad. We keep our longings to our Lord alone. Then the apostle says we are waiting, by which we learn that we are not to be petulant nor are we to sigh for the end of life because we are tired of work nor wish to escape from our present sufferings.. We're to groan for glorification, but we're to wait patiently for it, knowing that what the Lord appoints is best. Waiting implies being ready. We are to stand at the door expecting the Beloved to open it and take us away to himself. This groaning is a test. You may judge a man by what he groans after. Some men groan after wealth-- they worship Mammon; some groan continually under the troubles of life --they are merely impatient; the man who sighs after God, who is uneasy until he is made like Christ, that is the blessed man. May God help us to groan for the coming of the Lord, and the resurrection which He will bring to us. (This is from December 4th, evening portion of MORNING AND EVENING, which I read every day in hospice, and still read.)
        Now as we arrive in our New Year, we may indulge in his commentaries from the first week, specifically:
"The prospect is exciting. If we exercise our faith, it will yield pure joy. To be with Jesus is the rest which is waiting for the people of God. It is a cheerful hope, indeed. Let's banish every fearful thought, and rejoice with exceedingly great joy in the prospect that this year shall begin to be forever with the Lord. Celestial spirits enjoy communion with their Lord, and so do we; They rest in his love and we have perfect peace in him; They sing His praise, and it is our privilege to bless Him, too. During this year we will gather a heavenly harvest on earthly ground, where faith and hope turn a desert into the garden of the Lord. We, the called, faithful, and chosen, will drive away our griefs and set up our banners of confidence in the Name of God. Eternal Spirit, our effectual Comforter, we who are the temples in which you dwell will never cease from adoring and blessing the name of Jesus. WE WILL, we are resolved about it, Jesus must have the crown of our hearts delight. We are ordained to be the minstrels of the skies. Let's rehearse our everlasting anthem before we sing it in the hall of Heaven. WE WILL rejoice and delight in You. What heavens are laid up in Jesus! What rivers of infinite bliss have their source and every drop of their fulness in Him! Since, oh sweet Lord Jesus, you are the present portion of your people, favor us this year with such a sense of your preciousness that from its first to its last day we may rejoice and delight in you. Let January open with joy in the Lord and December close with gladness in Jesus."
       Then, on the 2nd of January, Spurgeon discusses Colossians 4:2, 'Devote yourselves to prayer.' " It is interesting to notice how many pages of sacred writ are taken up with the subject of prayer... We can scarcely begin reading the Bible before encountering a phrase such as, 'at that time men began to call on the name of the Lord'...There are numerous examples of this... We have multitudes of commands and myriads of promises we have great need of. Our necessities are so deep, Until we get to heaven we mustn't stop praying. Prayer is the lisping of the believing infant, the shout of the fighting believer, the requiem of the dying saint falling asleep in Jesus. It is the breath, the watchword, the comfort, the strength, the honor of a Christian. If you are a child of God you will seek your Father's face and live in your Father's love. Pray that this year you may be holy, humble, zealous, and patient; have closer communion with Christ, and enter more often into the banqueting house of his love. Pray that you may be an example and a blessing to others, and that you may live more in the glory of your master. The motto for this year must be: DEVOTE YOURSELVES TO PRAYER!"
       Next, we should probably peruse his "morning and evening" of the 3rd, 4th and 5th. Stay on the trail, Campers; we're climbing the mountains of God and the trails can become challenging...Ranger Dave.