Jesus Loves Me

My favorite tee-shirt says in large letters: Jesus Loves You, But He Loves Me More!

Yeah, sort of tongue in cheek but the only way to really explain what my pastor calls "The Mystery of Kris", you see God treats me with quite some consideration.  I always  just figure because I am so stinking naive that I have no clue what I am really doing.  Which might not be so far off.

So, I am down in Casa Adobes, north of Tucson, a few weeks ago and the little church I attend when I am there - well, something unexpected always comes up!  This time around it was one death and five murders!  Gees!  A college age, whom murdered his parents and siblings, then took off for Vegas with the family car, best friend, a wad of cash cards and credit cards, and what on earth could have been in their minds!  The single death was one of the young ladies in the church whom was an exchange student to Spain and was killed in that train crash.  Wow.

And the pastor apparently became aware of a great deal of controversy in the church over this, there usually is with the American zeal for pointing self-righteous fingers and claiming that were it not for those people's sin, then they would still be alive today.  Only, the Bible tells us that ALL of our days are in God's hands, from birth to death.  And, whether we die in bed to a deranged relative with an axe, on a train reading a book, or even out jogging - we will die at exactly the right time.  Sin or no sin, has nothing to do with the argument.

And the pastor was wise for the service was tailored completely to support his message.  God was praised through hymns and readings - to emphasize HIS sovereignty.  Sin was addressed, as was forgiveness and fellowship.

And then he picked up a guitar, walked down the steps to the main area and started to sing a song:



Yeah, his song was Jesus Loves Me, But He Can't Stand You.
I was dying of laughter, I honestly thought there was no breath left for me to draw!

And he closed with: "This song is what the Lord's Prayer is not about!  Jesus, forgive us, gives compassion, lead us in your footsteps ... "

The sermon over - people fled the building!  I sat in the back and walk pretty slow at times due to my back - the building was empty by the time I made the front door!  Talk about hitting a home run there preacher!  And I congratulated him on a job well done.  He gave me a really funny look.

And all of this is tongue in cheek, for I know at least one whom reads this blog is not a Christian on the inside.  Yes, Jesus does love you and He has an awesome plan for your life, but it might not be what you wanted or expected.....

Another Death

It is hard to feel very sad when the one whom dies is in their 90's.
It is hard to feel sad then you know they are suffering.
It is hard to feel bad when their time has come.
But there is no joy in loss.
Only comfort in the knowledge I will get to see them on the other side, with no more pain nor tears.

With this passing we now reach the end of my list of local elders whom I admire and look up to.  My mining partner and then my adopted father and mother are all that is left now older than me, and I am not that old in my book leastwise!  But, they are thousands of miles away.  Probably time for a visit soon.

So another funeral in the near future I imagine.  With that special knowledge that there are three more in the not so distant future.  They are all in their late 80's and fragile.

A sad day.

Reality

Reality sucks.

Surprised that I might say something like that?  Yeah, well, then I wish you could walk with me and see what has been going on in my life and head this week.  I feel so sorry for my niece, she gets to bear the brunt of Kris' mental convolutions.  Even Dutchman, whom took me out for lunch had to sit back and just go, "Wow ......"  Yeah, my brain is on fire, searching, sifting, analyzing and reanalyzing everything as I redefine whom Kris is.  By the way, Dutch now thinks it is time to retire and wants me in his second house on his property outside of Priest River, Idaho.  But, my grand kids are here.  conversely, he does have places in Puerto Vaillarta.  Hmmmmm.

Just as serious as my redefining reality to myself, so is the entire topic of eternity, I have been rolling this around my head for a few days on another level of my brain.  Yeah, I usually have four or five things all running concurrently through the grey matter.  Usually things may rot in there for weeks before I come to a conclusion.

Do you take the topic of eternity seriously?

I do not think that most do, especially the "pseudo-christians" filling America's churches.  (pseudo is Greek for false-form, something that appears to be one thing but is actually something entirely different)  Generally, when I bring up this subject, I get feelings, impressions, whatever the latest pop-culture whim is!  Mighty flimsy foundation upon which to base your eternity on here!

Please read John 3:16, if you have not already memorized it.

Interestingly, when it comes to your eternal life, you will either be dead-wrong or dead-right.  You are going to die, it is almost guaranteed!  I do not think anyone can afford to actually be dead-wrong!  My father bet his eternity on my being wrong; I am satisfied I am not.

So, you die.  The exact moment comes for  you, God knew long ago when it was, and you either took advantage of one of your opportunities for salvation or you are not going to perish.  There is a bread truck or a train wreck with your name on it out there just waiting to occur!

Perishing is not ceasing to exist, it is still existing but now suffering the torments of Hell.  Hell was made for the rebellious angels and Satan, not you.  But, you get to earn eternal destruction just by not accepting Jesus as the payment for sin and what separates you from God.

Vine's Bible Dictionary, defines this as:
"the idea is not extinction but ruin, loss, not of being, but the loss of well being."

God will judge us for our sins, our deeds and willingly sentence us to Hell, but only as a last resort - only over His son's dead body!

John 17:3, 3:36, 5:24 and 1 John 5:11

When does eternity begin?  It begins here and now, where you are, what you are facing, what you are doing.

The world and even our churches are filled with walking dead people!  They are spiritually dead, they are looking for someone to notice, for someone to show them the way.  And they are probably clueless that this is true of them.  It is always someone in Borneo, not right here in my church, neighborhood, restaurant, etc.

When Heaven is mentioned in the Bible, it speaks in terms of things we are familiar with here on Earth.  However, you must remember and realize that Heaven is a gated community.  Not everyone is welcome nor will be admitted.

It boils down to either you are responsible for yourself when you stand before God, or Jesus is.  Unlike my father, make the wise decision and err on the side of God taking responsibility for you.

You Can't Get To Heaven

When I pastored my first youth group, one of the favorite songs was, "You Can't Get To Heaven".  The kids loved singing this and always had to include whatever my poor excuse of a car was at the time.  For those of you whom are confused: "Oh you can't get ot heaven, in Kris' car, 'cause Kris' car, won't drive that far."  So you get the idea, any mode of transportation makes for a fun round singing.

But this morning I am in John 3:1 - 15.

You Can't Get To Heaven By Being Religious
Being a Christian is about have a relationship with Jesus, not religion.  Religion is feel good-ism.  Christianity is about a struggle as you relearn how to walk in this world, place the emphasis on God and Jesus, not yourself.

You can be a Christian and do religious things; but you can also do religious things and not be a Christian.

Although I think little of those whom devote themselves to philosophy, I have to admit that Pascal's observation that there is a "God sized hole in each of us", does seem to be true about man, across all cultures.  We, without even thinking about it, seek to fill that hole with whatever draws us in.  Materialism, politics, sports, sex, power, money, etc all seem to fit the hole that we each have, interestingly, so does God.  As I told my father once long ago, "... you can be successful and have the world, but what is the cost of being a servant of God, living a life devoted to helping your fellowman?  If I am wrong, then I will have lived a life truly in joy of the knowledge that many youth will be the better for it.  Amassing wealth, will only show how shallow I really am."  Yeah, well, he chose women and all of his wealth went to pay for 7 divorces.  Still bothers me.

You Can't Get To Heaven By Being Important
Nicodemus was rich, respected, religious and a ruler!
He had the best chance of any but still needed to recognize that Jesus was his Messiah (Christ).

We were talking about religion and US Presidents, and just doing fruit inspection.  So, when was the last Christian US President?  We were able to agree on Jimmy Carter.  And before him?  Yeah, that is a tough one.  I thought maybe Truman, but it would be using a definition of a Christian I am not very comfortable with....  Power does not seem to be very compatible with being a Christian.

You Can't Get To Heaven By Being Righteous or Good
Even though the Pharisees tended towards legalism, they loved God's Law and emphasized righteous living.  As leaders they judged, taught, were held accountable in business, etc - but still they came up short when it came to having salvation.

You Can't Get To Heaven By Being a Jesus Admirer
Saying, "Jesus, you did many great miracles, what a teacher you are", isn't the point of Jesus life and sacrifice.  You have to attain a new life.  Who needs to?  We all do!

It is time for Christians in this western culture to realize that they are not living any form of the Christian ideal, admit that and change accordingly.  Our churches are filled with, giving them the benefit of the doubt, admirers of Jesus, not disciples, not followers, not even converts!  Christianity has lost its way and we have a church quite happy with the status quo on the express rail to Hell.

What can you do?  Honestly, read your Bible.  Then be in prayer for understanding.  Ask the Holy Spirit to give you knowledge and wisdom.  Seek earnestly to know.  And God will respond, just be prepared to leave your ideas in the dust.

Although this is what I did, I am not saying you need to, but I found that I spent most of my time reading books about the Bible, not actually reading the Bible.  I was getting a head filled with other believers thoughts, ideas, beliefs, etc but I was not getting my understanding from the Bible.  I gave my entire library of over 4,000 books to a local church for an auction they were going to have.  And I do not miss them.

Yes, I kept a few commentaries, books by mentors, whom were signed for me.  But, the library went, I may have a few dozen books in total now on the Bible, ancient times, etc.

So, what is Kris' understanding of how to get to Heaven?  Well, we will be beating that horse to death over then next several days.  :)

Where Are You Going?

Well if you are a Christian, I know where you are heading to - in the end anyway!

John 14:1-3

In my father's house - guess what - we are all family!
Your room is apparently already awaiting your arrival.
In life you can be anxious, troubled, afraid of the future and where you are going.
But, once at our ultimate destination, our home with God, you can not be turned away, if you are in Christ!

Heaven is about family.
It is after-all the family of God whom is destined to be there.
Unlike the English translations concerning our home in heaven, we are not destined to receive a mansion, it is a room, attached to the house, the master - God - dwells in.
We will be with Jesus, living in close proximity.
Growing up with almost no family, this is going to be a bit of change for me and I imagine to many others as well.

Refocus!
How we face hard times, should reflect the changes within us, since you have come to salvation.
You have a future, it is secure, we can relax and not fret about tomorrow.  You do win, in the end.
When the culture turns against you, when times are tough, just keep believing.

We were made for somewhere else, our life is meant to find completeness in God, through Jesus, and with Jesus in Heaven.


Just a little different from the message of this age and culture, eh?

God's Doors

God has some interesting Doors, a door we may not enter, a door when we are welcome to come through but back out of, and a door we look forward to!

 Revelation 3:7-8, 11-13

The Door of Our Past:
Well thank God that one is closed, though there has been oft the time I would have reopen that door and twiddled with a few of the remnants from the past, changed just enough to remove some if not all my shame.  There are no rewrites, no re-do's, no explanations, the past is what it is!

I have known friends whom have lived in the past for three decades, never able to reconcile their present with what went wrong 30 years ago.  It is agony for us whom knew them because they can not be slapped back to reality and just get along in life!  No, life ended for them in a split second of a bad decision and it took them unawares what the repercussions were for the decision.  Yeah, they are now able to realize what their error was, as well as repent, so that is awesome.  But, they still look back when they think no one is looking.....

If you can not accept what you have done in the past, then you are in for some major spiritual damage!  Oh yeah!

But, luckily, the Grace of God says, the past is over.  All you have now is a present (which is fleeting) and a future.

The Door of New Beginnings:
So to continue the thought I just ended with:
Old things have passed away, behold all things become new!

Assuming of course, that you are in Christ, that you are called according to His purpose and are performing that purpose!  Yeah, always some fine print somewhere, eh?

The Door of Providence:
This is God's purpose for you.  So many worry this one to death.  "I'm a Christian, God isn't using me, I am doing nothing! ..... etc"

God chose you.  He did not have to, it was planned, it was not random, you were not the result of His confusion.  It was not random what made you turn to Him for salvation to occur - it what it took for you to see your need and know you have to find Him or you were going to die!

In God's providence He does have a purpose for you - a direction you are to proceed, a task you must perform, the very reason for your being.  And it just might be to help someone else or lead tens of thousands to salvation.  All the same to God, obedience is equal to obedience when it comes to rewards.  Just something to consider, there are no numbers which will impress God, however there is obedience which will.

Probably the most important point here is that God's DETERMINATIVE Will, will not be THWARTED by your choices or your life, however, God's PERMISSIVE Will for you can really get messed up if you are in rebellion.  As my acquaintance I mentioned earlier.  Yeah, they and you will do what it is you all are to do, but it will not be without extreme pain and multiple opportunities to get your act together.  The person above took 28 years, seven suicide attempts and massive therapy to then independently understand that they had a spiritual problem with God.... Yeah.  That was painful for everyone involved!

As for Satan and the World (culture), yes, they can turn us sideways to where we need to be /  what we need to be doing.  But, that does not diminish God requirements on us.  There are no excuses when you have been shown the truth and then walk away.  Yeah, just slip back to the previous paragraph if you think you can get away with it....

Just as a side note, the major reason so many Christians I run into complain that they have no answers to their prayers, no spiritual gifts, no peace - because they walked away from what they knew.

The Door to Home:
There once was a time, in a less affluent culture where the average man and woman looked forward to Heaven.  To just desire the Door, to just know that Door was there, waiting, inviting, fulfilling our hopes and our desires.  But, now we have a three bedroom rambler with a white picket fence, 1.8 children, a beefcake daddy, a svelt mamasitta and an SUV in the garage.  Who needs heaven now, eh?

But, of course, things can not and will not substitute for our natural desire to be in the presence of God.  We are to look forward to Heaven.  It is afterall, our permanent home.  Yeah, no dogs, hopefully spiritual children, arguable spouses situation, no picket fences, etc.

For now, you must look beyond life as you know it and see God, and your new home in Heaven.

Where you were meant to be from eternity past.

What Ever Happened To Heaven?

When was the last time you and your friends sat around and just discussed Heaven and what it must be like?  When was the last time you heard a sermon about that city of our future?  When was the last time you entered in a book store and instead of a hundred books trying to out guess as to whom the Anti-Christ is, there was just one book (hopefully well thought out!) about Heaven?

Indeed, what ever did happen to Heaven?  I enjoy reading historical documents, old diaries and testimonies; heaven used to be a place people thought and talked about – with anticipation!  This would be normal everyday people, people you would probably encounter daily and/or hang around with.  In the taverns and bars, in the gold fields, at night exhausted from the plowing or harvesting and perhaps more so for those associated with seafaring – heaven was a popular discussion item.  Real people understood the concept of Heaven and looked forward to it.  Of course, people used to talk to each other once upon a time and most everyone kept a diary.

Imagine a culture in which the longing of Christians was for their eternal home – not to build ‘christian’ empires on Earth.  Yet, this is exactly what seems to be the effort of many I encounter in Christendom these days….  Why would that be?  What is so appealing about Earth that the joys of the union with our Savior pale by comparison?  Rather obliviously, as Christians, we have lost our focus that Heaven is our home.

One old timer I had this discussion with felt that World War I, ‘The Great War’, was the reason.  He felt many, like him, had become so horrified by what they had endured for so many years – Heaven could not be real, and hence, God probably was not real either!  And, from many whom I have known to have survived World War II, the same story:  Man is corrupt, his intentions only evil towards his fellow man – culture and man must change in order for man to have any chance for survival in a future ‘civilized’ world. 

Interestingly, the Nazi ideal expressed only slightly differently….. 

These embittered survivors are completely correct!  Man is corrupt and when left to himself can conjure up unimaginable evil.  Far more than you have ever read in any book – because it would be politically incorrect to believe evil of those whom our economies are based upon.  Honestly, some of these stories haunt me, especially from the Dutch survivors trapped in Sumatra during the war.

They are also completely correct that man must change.  But, it is not corporate man whom must change, it is individual man whom must do so, before there can ever be any change to culture!  Without God, there is little hope for man overcoming his nature.  

In Jesus’ day, the Roman world was not that much different than today’s world.  Oh, maybe they did not have Starbucks or McDonalds, but they had their comparable features to everything we have today – unless it was of no use to them.  About two-thirds of the world was in slavery to Rome, if you had a problem with this, you would most likely die.  It could be brutal and savage, if you were on the wrong side of what Rome wanted. Yet, the freeman, as much as the slave, longed for the place called Heaven. 

I think it is normal for man to strive to make his world better.  I want my children to have the freedom to succeed.  I want them to be able to make choices which will make them better adults and Christians.  I want them to be able to serve God openly.  But, this desire of mine is for them to live in the world that exists today – not grasping at what might be.

Yet, well meaning Christians are trying to create Heaven on Earth.  Their attempts are to accomplish this through regulation – often applied with a heavy governmental hand.  However, this is not the first time attempts have been made to create Christendom through legislation.  Unfortunately, these great efforts end up the same: a police state or civil war, or both.  But no matter the outcome or the good intentions – Christ’s witness is always diminished in the eyes of the world.