Twenty-One

Yesterday, my son turned 21, the youngest of my adopted children from Russia is now officially an adult!

My greatest memory of joy with him was the day we met, at an orphanage in central northern Russia (psst: Russia is a state of a "country" now know as the CIS, before the Soviet breakup it was still a state of a country known as the USSR).  It was a small town, under a mile across, with the world's largest saw mill, about 250,000 women and significantly no men.  Yeah, really high death rates for men.

I was standing in the door way of the room he was in, the girl, soon to be his sister was in front of me.  He was introduced, leapt over the girl - which threw him into a somersault and he planted both feet in my crouch.  I went down hard and tried to save the both of them from being crushed under my weight!.

His early years had been hard in Russia, damaging him psychologically for life, his early years with me were also hard but not near so.  Today, he has tremendous potential but he fears trying because he can not accept any failure in his life.  Yeah, never could get him past that one.

His girlfriend, now of almost three years, spent most of the party playing with my youngest grand daughter.  Real obvious someone's biological clock is going off.  Lord, I hope she gets married first, be a break what has become a Plattner tradition it seems!

The party was fun.  I forgot my camera, due to the previous therapy session with Gaelic Girl, so if any of the kids post a picture, I will pick a good one for here.

So, it was interesting to note that my job ended as he was leaving high school.
My relationship and friendship with Gaelic Girl  ends with him having attained adulthood.

It is sort of as if I was blessed for many years to reach out to these children and then bring them into adulthood.  Being no longer relevant,  I slowly find myself being pointed in another direction, more rapidly now it seems!  This will indeed be an interesting year.....

Loss of a Friend

Where evil reigns, there can be no innocence.  There is only to be found the sounds of the damaged, consumed by the evil which has overcome them.

Yeah, it was quite a holiday yesterday.....

So, Gaelic Girl asked me to go with her to see her therapist, I figured maybe the therapist wanted an outside opinion or observation, boy was I ever wrong!

Straight out of the box it started off with a tag team event, Kris vs Them, a one bout round over Yesfir - which rather quickly degraded.

So, roll the clock back to 2010 and I am not so sure that I ever told the tale of helping a woman by the name of Lucinda.  She had cancer, was dying and needed surgery but was too weak for it.  So, I took her on and cooked my little heart out making that woman gain weight, start doing some walking and getting her physically, mentally and emotionally able to take the surgery.  At the end of six months she had done this and then moved in with her daughter across the country following the surgery.  Apparently, I an suspected of having had an affair with this woman by GG!

I can guaranteed you that Kris has never had an affair, ever.

And it continued with GG in full paranoia mode of my list of conquests.  I was sickened.  Apparently, Kris has never done anything which was not sexually motivated.  In GG's mind I am my father.  I never would have guessed that GG's mind had degraded to such a level.  Nothing in trust, nothing in transparency, nothing in love, nothing in truth, nothing remains of the woman whom has spent decades in the ministry with me.  What I thought were aberrational years, that she would get over, instead were the end of the friendship.

The final comment from her I can remember was that she was going to go the pastor to hear what really went on during my last pastoral review.....

I held my calm through all of the attacks which continued until almost midnight, when sleep made my ears shut to the words of acid being poured over me.

Today, with shock, I get to try and figure out how to mitigate life with this new knowledge.  You see, it never was about Lucinda or Yesfir, at one point in her rage she even said it was over my financial condition for the past three years.  In her mind, that appears to have been God's judgement on me and all of which has followed in her mind only validates my sinful state ......

Good Morning

Yes, I am late in posting today, but I have a good reason!

I was in prayer for much of last night, preparing for this morning, not really knowing if I would be doing something today or not.  But, a friend is in need and I needed to be ready - if needed.  Turns out I am.  :)

So, I had much to pray about in my life, it is confusing, things change faster than I can adapt - and yes, I do realize that this is God drop kicking me into action but I am uncomfortable when pushed.  I was told to do this in December but I was unsure and when unsure, I do nothing until the situation is slapped in my face so obviously that there is no questions remaining for me.  Then I am pretty sure it was God in the first place!

So, in a few hours, I will be spending a few hours, with a friend - the desired outcome is a change in their life.  Know that is a part of the ripples I was talking about the other day.  So, we will see how and where this goes.  Yes, I am very nervous.

So if you see this and can be praying for this meeting from 11 to 1, US West Coast time, it would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Playing With The Future

The future is not fluid, it is fixed.  Even though you believe you have choices, you really don't.  Your every action will have long ago been known, every correction needed already planned, your task is sitting out there waiting for you.  It is what I have talked about several times in the past here.

That future plays upon my mind because I do not understand how paths can become so hard to understand.  I have always gone with the idea that you step on a path and you chug on down the road.  Even though, at the start of my Christian life I saw, with my own two eyes, someone implode their path and the ripples that caused.  But, those of us affected stepped over the ripples and continued on our paths, now separately - yet together.  Then, to see my understanding so suddenly shocked by a second time of witnessing this happen again.  Only those ripples, this time, may well knock me completely sideways myself.  I know God has never let go of me, I am in His hand, but I worry for those affected by ripples they will not understand - just as I could not have 40 years ago.

Today, I tread gently, for I do fear the future, I fear those ripples, and I have seen the destroyed.  I have equally seen past this to a tomorrow which does not seem to connect with where I am today.  So, as I have mentioned for almost a year now, change is upon me, the path narrows.

Is today a point of that change? I do not know.  It is certainly a part, each day forward is another day closer to whatever that future holds.  So yes.  But, also I would hope to end the ripples to start on that new path, I would have done that eight months ago when God told me, showed me, my path, that my current future was over.  It is sort of like a death sentence in a way, to know the past, to see the future, to know that only God can connect the two.

And I have to stay out of the way and yet still play a role.

Well, if it was easy, I would not need Him.....

Trust Him

Something more than you are aware of is going on.  God is always doing more than you or anyone else can see or know.  So, what are you supposed to do?

Considering John 12:12-16 - Trust Him.

God has a Plan.
Jesus rides into Jerusalem. 
Zechariah prophesied this 500 years earlier!
God knew when the time was right.
So rest easy, God is faithful.

It might be different than you expect.
The people thought their king had arrived at long last!
But, Jesus came to die, not to rule an earthly kingdom.
Remember Lazarius has been raised from the dead that week.
God had shown a sign, Jesus was the one!

Its okay to be clueless.
The disciples were clueless as to what was going on that day!
The people welcoming Jesus into Jerusalem were clueless as well!
Just because we do not understand, does not mean we need to.
Trust God that He knows what He is doing.
Trust now.
Hindsight is only possible later.

Wait for it; then Go!
With God it is all about timing.
Jesus turned down all opportunities for popularity or political appeal.
But, now is the moment.
It is Passover, the perfect time to draw the Rabbis against Him.....

Jesus' last week is a fascinating study in God, His motives, His timings and how you can see victory when all physical evidence points in exactly the opposite direction.

God's Plan

So, have you ever considered what God's plan for your life is?  Probably and if you are like me, quite often! That is because we want to know!  We want to know what we are to do, where we are to be, who we are to be!  And, more often than not we are met with silence or what ends up in confusion.....

Consider 1 Peter 2:9-10.

9    But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
10    Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

First, understand God's Plan.
To show you mercy.
To show you to the world.
For you to witness for Him.

Second, get set and wait upon God.
He will use you when and how He wills, not our will.
He must be in charge of your life.
You must be willing to wait.
You must be faithful in the drought and in the richness of His blessing.

When the going gets tough, God gets going.
Oh yeah, waiting is rough.  God is there.
Oh yeah, the road you may have to walk will totally suck.  God is there.
Nothing may go as anticipated.  God is there.
Our failures maybe exactly what God was looking for as the outcome.  God is there.

What are you going to be when you grow up?
Well, if you are yielded to God,
If you are desiring His glory,
If you are counting all as lost in this world,

God has just the place, plan and role for you.....

On Becoming the Church

I spent several hours today praying and  meditating on the idea of the church, the one that is supposed to be serving God and not man's agenda.  This is a troubling trend I have been watching in the American church.  Yet what is one to do when the Western Church so strongly insists upon theological suicide?

Sanctification: You becoming the Church.

Meditations on John 17:6-19

You are set apart for God.
In verse 6, God gave Jesus the people, the followers, the believers, the faithful - as the basis of the Church.
In verses 6,7,8,16 - we learn that these people are the ones whom "kept my word", "know the truth", "are not of the world".

In John 15:14, these would be called the true friends of Jesus.

Each of us has a future in Jesus, none of us has a past which obstructs us.....  Think about that for a while.....

You are set apart from the world.
Did you notice that the word, "world" was used 18 times in this passage we are discussing?  Since, this is a prayer of Jesus recorded here, it must have some relevance.

In verses, 13-16, Jesus is praying for those given to him, not for the "world".
In verse, 17:15, we are to be kept from evil.

We live in the world but are to be witnesses to the world.
We must be in, yet remain apart.
Romans 12:2, "Do not be conformed to the world, discern what is good"

You are set apart to God's service.
God's truth is supposed to be our motivation in our service to Him.
Do not limit God!
We are set apart to be the light and the salt to the world. Providers of truth, what makes life worth living!
We are to bear His witness, of whom God is.  Others are supposed to see God lived through our lives....