Several years ago, I had occasion to open the top of the cavity that contains my water meter. The cavity is five or six cubic feet in volume and is usually dark and dank. Sometimes there are a few little creatures scuttling about, disturbed and wary. As I opened the lid, I noticed a hapless grasshopper that had wandered into this sinister subterranean chamber and had become entangled in a spider’s web. He looked rather pale, perhaps his vital juices already being withdrawn by this arachnid assassin.

The thought came to me that maybe I could save this creature by pulling him out of his entanglement. But, wait, maybe the spider might bite me too. Throwing danger to the wind, I plunged my hand into the abyss and lifted the unfortunate creature out. I placed him far away from the edge so he would not fall back into the spider’s trap. I thought how Jesus did that for us. He plunged Himself into a nightmare to rescue hopeless, hapless creatures and then placed them into a path toward eternity, away from eternal death and destruction.

“ Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them…….He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.” Hebrews 7:20-27

“ So Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many….”  Hebrews 9:28

NOTE:  For those who have followed this blog I apologize for a delay in posting.  On March 10, 2010 we had a devistating fire that completely threw me off my routine.  I posted the following article on my personal blog days after the fire.  We hope to be fully back to posting articles in the coming weeks.  God Bless.

It began with the emergency call code from Angie to me. [ NOTE: If you don't have one of these I recommend it. When I'm in a meeting or otherwise unavailable at work I press "ignore" when she calls which sends her call immediately to voicemail. She then redials and I know to answer because it's an emergency.] During my Wednesday morning meeting in Austin I answered to hear that our house (in Merkel) was on fire. Considering the situation she was surprisingly calm, frantic yes…but definitely not hysterical. Once the front windows broke and flames with smoke rushed from the house we both knew it was best for Angie to go next door to her parent’s home and wait instead of watch. As she was walking in I could hear through the phone the horns blowing for firefighters to evacuate and let it burn.

The fire department was on the scene within minutes of Angie’s call to 911. We found out later someone passing the house had called earlier so they got a head start. Even with the quick response there was nothing that could be done. Our house burned from a mix of accidental ignition of a heat source warming the dogs and 35 mph (with gusts to 50) winds. Even with seemingly initial success in controlling the blaze, the fire and wind created a blow torch effect that would require more water to extinguish than the two Merkel trucks and seven Abilene trucks could possibly pump. The responders fought until exhausted and made the correct choice to retreat, there wasn’t one thing in the house worth even an injury. Thank you to the Merkel VFD and Abilene FD for their efforts, you just can’t beat nature.

I have thanked God every day for Amie’s presence at our house on that day. She only periodically helps Angie clean the house but without screaming for Angie to come downstairs when she saw the smoke, Angie would have been in the shower on the second floor and endangered at best. I’m thankful Angie didn’t open the door to the back porch where the blaze was raging, the wind would have certainly blown the flames into her and Amie and I would be typing this from the hospital She could have thought she could save the dogs (they got out anyway) or put the fire out with her kitchen extinguisher (too late for that) but she had the presence of mind under pressure to just evacuate.

The community of Merkel is phenomenal…I will certainly write more on this in the coming weeks, we would not be as strong right now without the hundreds of our friends and neighbors who showed up to help.

Service to community and help to fallen comrades are tenets so engrained in the ethos of the Texas Army National Guard that we were almost overwhelmed with support. It took direct orders and a promise of future help to keep these Great Americans away. I will always be grateful to God for the blessing of working with such a great organization.

So we find ourselves at zero. Even with the donations of clothes and essentials from the community we still can fit our earthly possessions into the back of my truck. We have always talked big talk that we don’t put any stock on earthly things but the talk falls flat when we actually lose everything. An inventory runs in our minds of all the things we lost…

It’s not so much the loss of stuff that causes sadness but the loss of the memories connected to the stuff. We are saddened to think of losing Angie’s wedding ring, wedding dress, childhood doll “Susie,” cookbook collection, and high school cheer uniforms (into which she still fit!); Chelsea’s impressive collection of books, cheer and dance gear, senior scrapbook, and American Girl dolls; Chera’s sports medals, cheer gear, scrapbooks, snow globe collection, and artwork; The Bible I carried through combatin Iraq and my Jeep (it’s a jeep thing you wouldn’t understand) [Note: Monkey is safely secured at my parent's house because my mother rightfully decided years ago I wasn't responsible enough to have him yet] .

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust [and fire] destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust [and fire] do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.” Matthew 6:19-20 (NIV)

On Wednesday night we had a family meeting in our hotel room to discuss the importance of the day. I believe that with every life changing event there WILL BE change. It’s up to us to make it positive. After a family hug we all confirmed that stuff didn’t matter and our memories will survive without the stuff. More importantly, we had each other.

The GREAT thing is we are only at zero in terms of possessions. We are blessed beyond description in so many other ways.

• We still have treasures in heaven by the grace of God through Jesus Christ
• Our family has never been closer and each are stronger
• We live in the greatest community in the world
• I work for an organization dedicated to service to others
• Starting at zero gives us the unique opportunity to rebuild with focus on what’s REALLY important

We are thankful and at peace…Shalowm

Once, when I was a little boy, something happened to me that was way beyond my control.  I had sustained a dangerous head wound and was helpless.  My father took me in his arms and carried me to the hospital which was very near to where we lived.  I’m sure my dad lived the event over and over in his mind all the days of his life, even though he rarely mentioned it.  My mom and dad were not young when I was born and our age difference could have made him my grandfather.  He had lost my sister only five years before and must have died figuratively many times as he carried me to medical help.  My father did not cause the accident, would never had let it happen if he had been there. I don’t know what went through his mind as carried me in his arms; perhaps this, “ I would never dream of letting something like this happen to you, but if you will let me, I will love you through this, help you through this, and show you how it will work eventually for your own good.”

In this world bad things happen.  When they do, God is there and He, like my dad, says, “ I did not cause this, I would never plan this horrific thing that has happened to you, but know this, if you let Me, I will love you through this, help you through this, and show you how it will work eventually for you own good.”

Surely God is my salvation,

I will trust and not be afraid.

The LORD, the LORD, is my strength and my defense,

He has become my salvation. Isaiah 12:2 (NIV)

“Jesus wept.” (John 11:35)

The shortest and perhaps one of the saddest verses in the bible.  The occasion was the death of a dear friend, beloved brother of Mary and Martha.  Weeping for a friend – the human face of the Master – like us – grieving when death deals its horrific blow.  In this case, though, Jesus knew He would raise Lazarus from death shortly.  So why did He weep?  Perhaps He was touched with Mary and Martha’s grief.  Perhaps He was sad that His friend had to suffer through the pain of the death process.  Perhaps He knew how happy Lazarus was, and He didn’t want to call him back to earth, far and away from Paradise.

Whatever the reason, Jesus was so moved that He mourned, deeply, for awhile.  Even Jesus, with the universe at His beck and call suffered a period of deep, unfathomable grief.  Grief of that magnitude cannot be hurried, cannot be wished away, can only be lived through.  When grief becomes our lot, our friends, because they love us, want us to be whole again – like we were.  They honestly think they know what is best for us, and sometimes it’s not.  They want us back like we were before, and not only that, they want us back as soon as possible.  What is difficult for those who haven’t taken residence on “Grief Mountain,” is that they have a hard time understanding that what we were before has forever changed.  We do not have it in our power to return to what we were.  We are different people, and eventually stronger for the Mountain we have ascended, but different.  This difference is the by-product of an event we would never have chosen for ourselves, or even an enemy.  We will be back, but not exactly the same, and it will take time, more time than some are prepared to invest is us.  And that’s ok; we understand and love them anyway.

Please, and I hope you do, enjoy a poem I recently wrote that considers the foregoing thoughts.

THE JOURNEY

Good friend,

Please do not interrupt my flight,

For sometimes I alight

On leaves of loneliness,

Sometimes, on twigs of tears.

And please,

Do not try to catch my wings

As I try to pass,

For somewhere,

In the great Sometime,

I will alight again,

In a sweeter place, on better flowers.

And then I will be again, alright,

If you, dear friend,

Do not interrupt my flight.

Photo by LiebeDich  http://www.flickr.com/people/liebedich/ used under Creative Commons agreement

We often describe our Christian life as a daily walk, which is an enduring example of how we dedicate every moment of every day to Christ. The good news is we walk in the light near to God which gives a guiding light and illuminates a Spiritual path to the comfort of eternal life.  To discover the true depth of this good news we need to focus on things to come. In Revelation the new heaven and the new earth are described by John:

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,”….And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it.  Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life. Revelation 21:1, 21:3, 21:23-27 (TNIV)

For believers it’s almost overwhelming to think of the day we can walk in the light of the Lord.  BUT WE ALREADY ARE!

Truth is, humans have a heart of darkness.  Left to our own devices, or trusting in anything (idols) other than love from God will trap us there.   Jesus referred to this one time while he was in Jerusalem:

…from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.  All these evils come from inside and make a man ‘unclean. Mark 7:21-23 (NIV)

Too many times we read these words and begin to pass judgment on a host of people who we just KNOW are living in darkness because they are not like us.  We are too good to live in darkness – and we must have missed it when Jesus chastised the Pharisees and teachers of the law just moments earlier.

…Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:
“These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
They worship me in vain;
their teachings are but rules taught by men.”
You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men.  Mark 7:6-8 (NIV)

The Pharisees Jesus was talking to were considered the conservatives of Judaism. They held strictly to the Torah and the Talmud and were very outwardly moral. But because they trusted in the traditions of men (meaning adding to the law) they were far from him, they had hearts of darkness.

Two lessons for Christians today:

1.  Jesus DID exactly what he said he would do

2.  Jesus WILL DO exactly what he said he will do

…but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.

They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”

“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”  At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

“Woman,” he said, “why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”  Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”

Jesus said to her, “Mary.”

She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher).

Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” John 20:11-17 (NIV)

Mary should have known.  Jesus had driven out her demons and she was with him to the end and heard what he had said.  She was the first one at the tomb the morning Jesus arose and she didn’t even remember His words when the body wasn’t there, thinking instead someone must have moved his body.

Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”  Matthew 22:37-40 (NLT)

I love this video and you’ve probably seen it many times.  As you watch it again consider if our culture has changed our self-image and devalued the love we have for ourselves.  If we don’t love ourselves how can we love our neighbor?

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