What the CT Scan Revealed

So there I was, laying on my back, looking up at the ceiling, when again I felt it.  The very fallen state of this body, this life, this very world in which I live.  All of it, gripped by a curse.  All of it, including me, affected by a great grip of its power.  Sin is real.  Again yesterday I was reminded of it.

I was laying down having a CT scan of my abdomen performed after experiencing pain that has been going on for some considerable time.  The very machine about to perform something to analyze what is going on inside me, a genius engineering marvel, but one that was entirely unnecessary if not for the curse I am under, we are under, all of this world is under.  And as wonderful as it is to find out that I do not have a mass growing inside me, nor infection in my intestine, or pancreas or otherwise, still I could not help but feel the woeful state in which I am existing.  I am ever in, under this cursed reality all the result of SIN. 

And no matter where I turn I see it.  Every morning I pick up my glasses, because my eyes are unable to focus as they were designed to do.  I feel a certain discomfort in my back (even following surgery two years ago) and a related numbness in my right foot.  I continue to bear the marks of a brain surgery performed on me when I was sixteen years old.  My home has been chewed up by termites as of late and while I am glad money paid to the exterminator can help he and his family, I cannot help but feel even termites doing damage to my abode is nothing more than the affects of this fallen world.  And I am sure there is a story today (many in fact) of murder, divorce, homelessness, cancer, terrorism, theft, and the unforeseen car-accident that resulted in death.  Sad world in which we live.  And it all finds its root in this cursed reality in which we live.

Interesting the way in which we place so much value in all this world has to offer.  We long for better jobs, better education, a better house.  And not that any of this is wrong in itself.  Without realizing it, maybe it is nothing more than our own realization that this world isn't restful, so we will take any small breaks we can get, which we suppose these will supply.  And yet, I fear it goes beyond that for most.  We seek to eliminate the yellow on our teeth, the wrinkles on our faces, the baldness on our heads, all because we think there is something permanent about this life. 

But that is the very point all these many signs around us, painful or not, are telling us.  This is not ultimate.  But the solution to our ongoing demise in this cursed world is not simply to give in and embrace the ongoing fade.  And neither is it in trying to fix it.  That has been the problem all along.  The cure is in One.  Christ is the remedy.  He became the curse for us.  He became sin.  He Himself took all upon Him, even as He was on the cross, suffering for no wrong He committed. 

And this is our blessed assurance.  For all who surrender to Him, for all who with their lives will believe in Him, He promises that the pains of this life, the cursed nature of this life, will only prove to enhance the glories and joys of the life to come.  So see this world for what it is, and embrace Him.  See this world for all it isn't, and embrace Him.  And in the process SEE CHRIST for ALL HE IS, and ALL HE'S DONE, and ALL HE PROMISES YET TO DO.  It will be transformational no matter what comes in the meantime. 

A Loving Dad and a Loving Pastor

Just try to be a father.  It is both so joyful, but also possibly the most frustrating matter.   Kids don't appreciate all the sacrifice and selflessness of a father.  They don't realize the cost of things.  They don't realize what is best for them, but only know they like sweet treats, TV shows, and more toys than any kid knows what to do with.  But a father truly knows best.  Well, a father who loves knows best.

Sometimes God works THROUGH us, but He is Always Working IN us

Any ministry any of us ever does is always being compared against what others do.  We compare numbers constantly.  It is what somewhere in our Western world we have determined is the gauge to call someone “successful” or “fruitful.”
     In 1 Kings 17 we are introduced to Elijah.  Now I get excited when I think of Elijah.  I have over and over again read the stories of all the great things God did through him.  What a successful, fruitful prophet he was.  And again my mind imposes on it all the same standard for gauging his ministry (and mine).  But recently God pointed out something I never saw.

Between Two Worlds - (Suffering and Joy)

I'm stuck in it.  You are stuck in it.  And for the time being, there is no way out of it.  We are ever in this grave reality that at times lessens, though at other times increases.  And it is not about to go anywhere, anytime soon.  That is because time is the great obstacle to this entire conundrum in which we find ourselves caught.  

Thank You ISIS

For those of us who claim to "know the Bible" to be regularly reading the Bible, we are in a very difficult reality.  We read a book written by men, under the inspiration of God's Spirit, which then through the human personalities contains the very Word(s) of God.  We place our lives, the current living out of these realities, and our eternal destinies in this Word of God.  And yet at times there is a massive breakdown in understanding just what some of these authors, even whose experiences were what God chose to report to us, are still today (some 3500-2000 years later) applicable to us.  It is to this I say: Thank you ISIS.

The Glory of Christ in a World of Lesser glories

Rarely do we anticipate the profound.  Rarely do we know where to find it, rather it finds us.  Indeed, if we knew where it was to look we wouldn't be so consumed by matters so small, which is really what we continually find ourselves preoccupied with.  But there is a grander purpose for which we have been designed, of which we above all creation have the bandwidth and capacity for, namely the GLORY OF CHRIST.  I wasn't anticipating this years ago, but I was awakened to something profound and life-changing.  Let me explain.

The Voice of God...from the Church Parking Lot

Given as our church gatherings take place on Sunday nights, I find myself often out and about working on Sunday mornings to prepare matters for the evening.  Inevitably I see so much that is going on around town on a Sunday.  It is a vantage point I enjoy in my incessant processing of matters of this new community I live in.  Of course with my passion and desire to see Christ glorified in, around, over, under, and through ALL THINGS, I love seeing the number or cars in the parking lots of those true Bible-based churches in my community.  It is evidence that there is likely a good amount of biblical content being taught, and songs sung, and relationships built and service opportunities being fulfilled.  And in these things I rejoice.