Memorial Day and Communion

So, at the First Church of the Fresh Meat, communion was certainly interesting yesterday.  It was given by one of of the "In Crowd", an elder whom I am slowly coming to know.

He spoke of World War II and his uncle whom was a fighter pilot, dying when he was shot down over Germany.  I was appalled.

Now for the rest of this rant you have to understand I know nothing of this man, what he did as a pilot, nor how he died over Germany.  None of that is what this post is about.....

I grew up amongst a population whom had been on the receiving side of the American fighter pilots.  One of the REALLY politically incorrect things to know about them, outside of Germany, was when their destination was reached - they would strafe civilian sites to unload their ammo, and probably buy them the fuel they needed to get back home.  It was war and perfectly understandable, in a warped way.  After all, all Germans were parties to the war - right?  So American history goes - nothing about the strafing of civilians, nothing about the civil war which erupted in Germany, when Hitler seized power.  But, then what is a civil war when the population was already unarmed.....?  Millions of Germans considered themselves as prisoners of war and actively fought, however they could, against the Nazi's.  Call it passive resistance because it was all anyone could do!

But, this is a communion message.  I am glad he is proud of his uncle and the sacrifice he made in the war effort.  But, I am appalled by the actions of the US Military over and in Germany throughout the past six decades, much less just the war.  I am as appalled by the actions of my people and what the silence of the National Church could bring about!  I am also appalled that my father, one of the 'brains' of the 20th century, was a confirmed National Socialist to the day of his death!

How much better would have been a message about those women in Mississippi, a century and a half ago, whom took to decorate not only the graves of the fallen Southerners but also those of the fallen Northerners!

Equality in memory, compassion and honor! That is what decoration day is about and that is what the communion table is about.....
   

Conspiracy Theorists

One of "my boys" from decades ago is now fully into conspiracy theories!  OMG(osh)!  The stuff he comes up with!  But, I play along in hopes that some day I will be able to plant at least a seed in his life that God - not man is really in control.

Sad part is, is that he is really intelligent but that fine brain is stuck on trying to find underlying cause and effects to every situation.  When it can not be defined - then obviously you have a government conspiracy because he disallows for any higher power.  So he is forced to make the weirdest of associations in order to have events fit into a scenario.  Which of course makes him look dumber than a stump at times.....

Yes, I do believe in conspiracies, but they are the product of a war between Satan ruling over a fallen world and God calling the world back to Him.  And since I disallow the concept of "coincidence" - you must allow for planned occurrence, and yes man can really mess up any plan really well.  I am sure much to the ultimate frustration of Satan.

Satisfaction

Is knowing you have paid all of your bills before the end of the month and before any of them were due for a change!  Yes, finally, a brief financial respite this year!  May June be a far better month than all of the others have been!

Being active - been busy rebuilding bicycles.  Summer is coming and it is time those kids get out and using something other than Timothy's car every time they want something!  Besides, it will be healthy band good for them eh?

Having a small ministry - doing a bicycle workshop this weekend.  Hope to teach others how to work on bikes as well as maybe get some kids into cycling and into the summer sun, should it ever manage to peek out around here!

Not being in the mid-west!  I have been in two tornadoes in my life and that was two too many!  But the Mid-west is just be whacked this year it seems!  Take your pick of downpours, floods, tornadoes or camera crews - I feel for the lot of you!  Of course, having several old co-workers along the Mississippi River leaves me hoping all is well with them!  But, there is only silence from their part of the world it seems.

Well, bed time calls and I am yawning so hard I can barely stay focused on this monitor.....

Discovery

Shortly after I began my first blog, of which this is the seventh iteration, Dutchman called me up to tell me about a site he had found on the web and how much I would enjoy it because the guy seemed to think just like me.  When he told me the address, I told him that was me!  There was this long silence followed by the question, "Uhm, whom am I on there?"  When I told him he was the Dutchman he got to laughing so long and hard I thought I would have to call the paramedics for him!  Because he really is the Dutchman!

I could repeat the same story for Swedish Rocket Scientist, whom is so literal that I had to explain his name!  You see he went to college to study nuclear physics - his work on the Apollo rocket was only secondary in nature to his real love and pursuit!  No he never did do any work in the nuclear work but lots in aerospace.  So, once we got past the literalism of his "ID" (no that is not as in identity, it is as in internal ego!), he could settle down and be a regular reader - with lots of hilarious comments via email!

So, Italian Missionary Girl made a surprise visit yesterday as she was attending the funeral of a friend and decided to spend the day with me.  Oh my gosh we had so much fun it should have been illegal!  She wanted to do some Facebook work, so she hopped on my machine and away she went!  About an hour later she walks into the kitchen and asks, "Am I Italian Missionary Girl?"

Guess I shouldn't bookmark my site, eh?  But all was well.  She said it was a very funny and very interesting (she loved Elaine and Roger).  I guess I just never thought about the fact that she has grown into a very dear virtual daughter and though I would never verbalize that affection in this culture, I have demonstrated it through action and prayer.  Perhaps she needed to know she does have a supporter through her travails.  So, IMG, welcome to my whacky blog - and you know where you stand in my book and family and heart......

Farewell My Lovely

She was 18 months younger than me, was and still is - even with age - the loveliest woman I have ever seen.  Her beauty was almost haunting, in fact something about that beauty troubled me through all of these decades up until this week.

She was a model, a very successful one.  The only reason she even came to my attention was was as a teenager she had managed to take a wrong turn in life - and what a side road that one was!  She was one of the two compelling forces behind my lifelong outreach to teenagers, so that they may avoid the pitfalls of the road she chose to travel.  And, so few will listen - so many end up just like her.....  Much to the glee of a world bent upon destroying innocence.


Now, 38 years later she is brought back to mind.  My hometown news had a short article concerning her death.  Like so many whom have traveled her path, she finally succumbed to "cancer".  A nice euphemism for a long lingering, sexually transmitted death sentence leaving the victim with lots of time to think - I hope about her Creator!  But I fear it was not so.  Her parents were atheists and so apparently are her children.

Children?  I never gave much thought about her having a family!  She was a daughter - she had a father and mother.  I had originally thought someone in her family had broken that fragile image of God in her.  And yet in later life she had abandoned her destructive path she was on and led a very conventional life.  So, the fault was not there.  Teachers?  Friends?  Dirty old men in the village?  College guys?  I have no idea what took this young lady from a small village in dairy country to the spotlight of the world and to what should have been the shame for any family.

She will soon be forgotten by the world of sin which made her famous - just another example of what "will never happen to me!" syndrome of our youth today.  Someone's daughter, sister, friend, mother died and her legacy now lies in the realm of the world.  The lure of sin, "without consequences" compels our youth today.  At least until they too find out that there is no sin "without consequences''.....

Yesterday that haunting question returned: what had set her apart in my mind, other than her beauty?  I dug out her high school picture and looked once again at her face.  Being older and wiser I quickly was able to answer that question - it was her eyes.  Those young 17 year old eyes I had first seen, were filled with sadness and pain.  I saw it now, I had not seen it 38 years ago because I had not experienced life yet.  Apparently she had and had set herself upon a course of self destruction.  Unfortunately, that self destruction became a time bomb waiting to go off oh so many years later - after she had straighten herself out.....

As her sister would say, "And where is justice or equality or a God for that matter, when someone so young and so beautiful should suffer such a horrible death?"

Indeed, where was God?  Waiting for her to turn to Him - of her own free will, in a broken world and shattered by sin. Just as He does for each one of us.

And that is where He has always been - leaving us the freedom to condemn ourselves to a horrible death out of sheer ignorance or stupidity - because He wants us to turn to Him - and sometimes we have to be mighty low before we can look up and see Him......

Harsh but reality bites when you do not play by the Creator's rules.

Different World

Kids today really live in a different world than I.  Take this week for instance (please!).

So son found himself in a jam, not so bad of a jam that I would drop kick him to the next county but pretty darn close if he had not decided to grow up for just an hour.

Yeah, one hour was how long his court appearance was for his insistence that he knows best for his life and living it fully in the world.  And he did well, receiving an abrasive lecture from the judge. 

Did he learn anything?  Not really sure.  He has now been hell bent to get a steady job so he can get out of my "controlling" environment.  Interestingly, his current girlfriend actually likes it here and hangs quite often.   But, she is a prayer concern in and of herself.....

We shall see how the summer works out.

Decision At A Corner of Life

Thinking on John 6:35-66.....

Does Jesus offend you?  v35-40
Think about this, is He the "stumbling block" to your faith?
Too many hard or harsh teachings for you to just "accept"?
A world filled with suffering and injustice, a Scripture which contradicts culture, most people I meet want a smorgasbord religion!  Give me choices so I can pick what I want to believe!

Ah, but is God, the Father, drawing you?  v41-51
In verses 37, 39, 44 and 65 - it is the Holy Spirit whom is sent to draw to belief.
Consider also Luke 24:16 and 31, where it is again the Holy Spirit's job to open your eyes.

Will you walk away?  v52-59 and 66
People wanted to proclaim Jesus king that day!
But He sort of disagreed with the idea.
From thousands heralding Him - to people fleeing from Him because He was not whom they wanted!

(As a side note think about the impact of seeing thousands fleeing Him when He told them His was a different mission.....  And yet the clueless twelve stayed.....)

So, even as a Christian, you are currently at the corner of Jesus and Culture, which way will you turn?
So many Christians have watered down their Christianity with the values and pursuits of culture and the world.  Net result is that LUKEWARM entity of whom Jesus said He would spew from His mouth.
Personally, I really do not want to be compromised to the point of Jesus harking me out of His body.  And probably like you there are areas of my life where God should be more in the decision making process and control than He is.

And here is the challenge I gave my college aged young men yesterday - Its your faith versus:
Computer Games
Internet Surfing
TV
Movies
Chasing the Opposite Sex
Sports
Watching Sports
Job
School
Car
Friends
"Doing Your Own Thing"

Oh sure they are all fun, in moderation, but I can look at the lives of all of them and see that they all have sold out to culture.  God gets maybe 5% of their time and most of that is in the form of prayer at the dinner table.  I left them with the final idea,

"We have a crafty enemy whom will use all of the desires of the world to draw you away from God.  So, what are you going to do different this week....."

Back Up?

So, I see that Blogger is back up - albeit without yesterday's posting!  guessing that some of us are lucky enough to have posting just prior to the crash!  Huh.

Timothy's father finally died from the lung cancer he was diagnosed with a little over a year ago.  Like me, Timothy got a call from ER, made the trip to arrive to a comatose father, whom then died shortly there after.  Sigh.

Like my father, his was not a Christian either.  So, very, very sad.

Please keep Timothy in your prayers.

OSS 117

Okay, for those of you - who like me - are pushing or have exceeded 60, this is a movie for you!  Of course, if you are younger, you may well enjoy this film just for its blatant presentation of a world before "political correctness".

This movie is a satire on the Sean Connery, James Bond films.  Use a French super spy, 117, teamed with a female Moussad agent/ Army officer, hunting South American Nazi's, a train load of male bravado, a feminist, a trainload of hippies and you have some very funny moments.

Naturally, being a French film, a certain amount of nudity must be tolerated; Americans will be portrayed as foul mouthed egotists, Germans are misguided fools and women belong in the home.  I would also comment that this the most restrained of French films I have ever viewed - and by far the funniest!

Foul language, limited nudity, English subtitles.  Not for youth,would rate a PG-13 under our warped system to destroy our youth.  I would give it a R rating.

Sherlock Holmes

I was at my local Kroeger's owned store and spied a Sherlock Holmes collection.  I always enjoyed of his adventures when I was a kid and also remember a few of the Basil Rathbone movies fondly.

Yesterday I got to watch four of the movies - four more to go!  But, there is also a BBC TV series of 39 episodes as well!  So, those will all be new to me.

Best part?  Well, the price was all of $4.99 for the set!  Awesome.  Movie-wise, The Secret Weapon is still holding as my favorite, mostly because it was partially true and I am sure that some poor screenwriter really got grilled over that plot line - as it was filmed in 1942!  (You may have heard of the Norton Bomb Sight, very hush-hush even after the war!)

If you like black and white movies where there are no explosions or car chases, where dialogue is considered important to the movie and no ones is disemboweled or eaten on screen - this is an owner set!

Got to go now and see some more sleuthing in action.....

Time To Think

One of the positive benefits of traveling is being able to have time to think.  One of the negative aspects of travel is having time to think, mostly because I tend to become morose and introspective at such times.  Always better to be busy and not considering one's life and all of the what-ifs of paths either traveled - or not.

Being really bored, I have been seeking employment - which has not been forthcoming.  With a bomb proof resume, decades of experience, and NO one will even interview me in the Seattle area!  And I thought a great deal on this.

Anytime life no longer makes sense, God is involved in there somewhere.  But, to what end?  No clue. Yes, I am clueless in Seattle!  LOL, as my daughter says.


Saturday, it dawned on me I just might be depressed over the goings on of the past year.  Yeah, I guess I could see that one reasonably well.  Loss of my father and youngest uncle, the near death of my mother and having to care for her, wedding of daughter number two - followed by a new grand-daughter, learning that your body is shutting down all the while trying to hold things together and find meaningful employment.  Add in a brother-in-law battling stage 4 cancer, the struggles of some of "my" kids - like my 14 year old god-daughter in prison.  Sigh, the list goes on and on it seems!  Sometimes.

See, I just should never be allowed to be alone and unoccupied!  Pity party for one, now seating.....

But, I do see God quietly working in the background.  My married daughters, though struggling, are both getting their acts slowly together.  Youngest daughter is blessed with great grades in school and in her vocation.  Even son, for as much as I want to smack him upside the head, is slowly making tiny signs of growing up.  None of us are starving and bills are being paid.  God-children and "my" kids will succeed or fail as their performance warrants.  PTL!

Life, it is an interesting affair.....

The Difference between Men and Women

Let's say that a guy named Roger, is attracted to a woman named Elaine.

He asks her out to a movie, she accepts and they have a pretty good time. A few nights later he asks her out to dinner, and again they enjoy themselves. They continue to see each other regularly, and after a while neither one of them is seeing anybody else.

Then, one evening when they're driving home, a thought occurs to Elaine, and, without really thinking, she says it aloud:

"Do you realize that, as of tonight, we've been seeing each other for exactly six months?"

There is silence in the car. To Elaine, it seems like a very loud silence.  She thinks to herself: Geez, I wonder if it bothers him that I said that.  Maybe he's been feeling confined by our relationship; maybe he thinks I'm trying to push him into some kind of obligation he doesn't want, or isn't sure of.

And Roger is thinking: Gosh. Six months.

And Elaine is thinking: But, hey, I'm not so sure I want this kind of relationship either. Sometimes I wish I had a little more space, so I'd have time to think about whether I really want us to keep going the way we are, moving steadily toward .... I mean, where are we going? Are we just going to keep seeing each other at this level of intimacy? Are we heading toward marriage? Toward children? Toward a lifetime together? Am I ready for that level of commitment? Do I really even know this person?

And Roger is thinking: So that means it was ... let's see ... February when we started going out, which was right after I had the car at the dealer's, which means ... lemme check the odometer .... Whoa! I am way overdue for an oil change here.

And Elaine is thinking: He's upset. I can see it on his face. Maybe I'm reading this completely wrong. Maybe he wants more from our relationship, more intimacy, more commitment; maybe he has sensed--even before I sensed it--that I was feeling some reservations. Yes, I bet that's it. That's why he's so reluctant to say anything about his own feelings. He's afraid of being rejected.

And Roger is thinking: And I'm gonna have them look at the transmission again. I don't care what those morons say, it's still not shifting right. And they better not try to blame it on the cold weather this time. What cold weather? It's 87 degrees out, and this thing is shifting like a friggin' garbage truck, and I paid those incompetent thieves $600!

And Elaine is thinking: He's angry. And I don't blame him. I'd be angry, too. God, I feel so guilty putting him through this, but I can't help the way I feel. I'm just not sure.

And Roger is thinking: They'll probably say it's only a 90 day warranty. That's exactly what they're gonna say, the scumbags.

And Elaine is thinking: Maybe I'm just too idealistic, waiting for a knight to come riding up on his white horse, when I'm sitting right next to a perfectly good person, a person I enjoy being with, a person I truly do care about, a person who seems truly to care about me, a person who is in pain because of my self-centered, schoolgirl romantic fantasy.

And Roger is thinking: Warranty? They want a warranty? I'll give them a damn warranty. I'll take their warranty and stick it right up their....

"Roger," Elaine says aloud.

"What?" says Roger, startled.

"Please don't torture yourself like this," she says, her eyes beginning to brim with tears. "Maybe I should never have .... Oh, God, I feel so...."  (She breaks down, sobbing.)

"What?" says Roger.

"I'm such a fool," Elaine sobs. "I mean, I know there's no knight. I really know that. It's silly. There's no knight, and there's no horse."

"There's no horse?" says Roger.

"You think I'm a fool, don't you?" Elaine says.

"No!" says Roger, glad finally to know the correct answer.

"It's just that .... It's that I ... I need some time," Elaine says.  (There is a 15second pause while Roger, thinking as fast as he can, tries to come up with a safe response. Finally he comes up with one that he thinks might work.)

"O.K." he says.

(Elaine, deeply moved, touches his hand.)  "Oh, Roger, do you really feel that way?" she says.

"What way?" says Roger.

"That way about time," says Elaine.

"Oh," says Roger. "Of Course."

(Elaine turns to face him and gazes deeply into his eyes, causing him to become very nervous about what she might say next, especially if it involves a horse. At last she speaks.)

"Thank you, Roger," she says.

"Thank you," says Roger.

Then he takes her home. She lies on her bed, a conflicted, tortured soul, and weeps until dawn.

Whereas, when Roger gets back to his place, he opens a bag of Doritos, turns on the TV and immediately becomes deeply involved in a rerun of a tennis match between two Czechoslovakians he never heard of. A tiny voice in the far recesses of his mind tells him that something major was going on back there in the car, but he is pretty sure there is no way he would ever understand what, so he figures it's better if he doesn't think about it.

The next day Elaine will call her closest friend, or perhaps two of them, and they will talk about this situation for six straight hours. In painstaking detail, they will analyze everything she said and everything he said, going over it time and time again, exploring every word, expression, and gesture for nuances of meaning, considering every possible ramification. They will continue to discuss this subject, off and on, for weeks, maybe months, never reaching any definite conclusions but never getting bored with it, either.

Meanwhile, Roger, while playing racquetball one day with a mutual friend of his and Elaine's, will pause just before serving, frown, and say:

"Norm, did Elaine ever own a horse?"

Musical Saturday Morning

In one of my old blogs I incurred the wrath of many readers over this video and I still have not figured out why!  Personally, I think it is cute nonsense - Yello and Oh Yeah.....

Get Real With God

Thinking around John 6:25-34,

We say, "Jesus, feed us!" - Jesus tells us to change our diet! v25-27

We say, "Jesus, tell us what works!" - Jesus says, "I work, you must believe!" v28-29

We say, "Jesus, give us more!" - Jesus says, "I am all there is....." v30-34

------

Rules are always so much easier for our legalistic minds to wrap themselves around!  If I can just DO 'X', then I am guaranteed salvation and blessings.  But, when 'X' is an unseeable, unprovable target - well that guarantee just got a little harder to capture!

And when you compare organized 'religions' to Christianity that is what you find - a whole lot of Do's and Don'ts!  Heavens!  No wonder so many flee from 'christianity' when they get hit with a ton of what you can and can not do!  And, yes, in my book religions like the Southern Baptists are excellent examples of what Christianity is not.  That does not mean that you can not be a Christian and a Southern Baptist (for example) - it just means you are going to have a harder time being a GOOD Southern Baptist and a Christian at the same time.....

Almost Historical

Its 4:00 in the morning and if you are like most people, you were probably asleep.  I however had been invited to witness what was to be a historical moment - with a select group of engineers.

Well, almost historical.  Unfortunately, a computer snafu terminated the event at 7:30 in the morning.  So, after three hours of watching people go crazy......  They called off the entire event.  Now that was about a $12m blue screen of death disaster!

So we quietly left, I to my hotel for three hours of more sleep the rest to return home before me.  Now I wait, bored, poked and prodded, with a TSA stamp of approval.  Guess I am just not either a young Arab or a little girl worthy of more attention.

I am just waiting to see if another computer snafu will further complicate my life......

Not Particularly Funny

Of course, in a culture awash with the lack of perspective on the value of human life, something like this is inevitable.....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20110503/bs_yblog_upshot/bin-laden-news-finds-pundits-forsaking-usual-comfort-zones

Since I seem to be surrounded by this type of response to bin Laden's death, I wonder how do you respond to the above link......?

As A.....

As a Hutterite it is so very hard to bite my tongue amongst the rejoicing of those around me.  A man, heavens! several died for what they believed in - albeit - without Jesus as their savior.  So, their souls joins the multitude, including my father, whom faced life by their own rules.  Honestly, it saddens me to know this.

Yet, they set their face against  the true God and mankind.  Whether you are a Jihadist, just plain God-less or a National Socialist (as was my father) you will be called to account for your actions.  When you pledge your loyalty to a God-less man or an ideal which sets you in judgement over those not like you, you will be held accountable.

Yes, a special man died.  Special because he took responsibility for the killing of tens of thousands over the past two decades.  He was proud of his shedding of innocent blood.

And, by man was his blood shed.