Have You Lost Your Neosporin?

Jeremiah 6-8

Thus says the Lord,

“Stand by the ways and see

         and ask for the

         ancient paths,

Where the good way is,

         and walk in it;

And you shall find rest for you

         souls…

But this is what I (God) commanded them saying, “Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you will be My people; and you will walk in all the way which I command you, that it may be well with you.”…

Even the stork in the sky

Knows her seasons;

And the turtledove and the swift

And the thrush

Observe the time of their

Migration;

But My people do not know

The ordinance of the Lord…

Is there no balm in Gilead?”

6:16; 7:23; 8:7, 22a

If you think America is in bad shape then Christ Followers have lost our “Neosporiness”. 

God’s people are His balm on all the world’s wounds!!!

The Good Samaritan by
Vincent van Gogh

Nature Doesn't Possess Mercy!

Jeremiah 5

‘They (God’s people) do not say in their

         heart,

“Let us now fear the Lord our

         God,

Who gives rain in its season,

Both the autumn rain and the

         spring rain…”

Your iniquities have turned

         these away,

And your sins have withheld

         good from you.”

                           5:24-25

Dad gum, what does God want?!!!

You know what’s a better question? Can we make it rain? Is something as lovely as humans really at the mercy of nature?

The answer to the first question is found in Matthew 25:31-40.

The answer to the second and third is…NO!!!

Newburyport Meadows by
Martin Johnson Heade

A Human Posing As A Raincloud?

Jeremiah 2-4

America is not God’s country no more than Israel is.  The Jews are God’s chosen people and Christians in America are God’s chosen people.  God’s hand is not on Israel or America.  It is on His people!!! 

God acts toward his people not toward a country.  The land and country is blessed or cursed based on the faithfulness or lack thereof of His followers.

These chapters spell it out that simple.

It rained last night.  We sat on the porch and watched it like the summer’s coolest, blockbuster movie.  It would be nice if we could make rain like we do “The Dark Knight Rises!”

“For my people have

     committed two evils: 

They have forsaken Me,

The fountain of living

     waters,

To hew for themselves

     Cisterns,

Broken cisterns,

That can hold no water…

Therefore the showers have

     been withheld,

And there has been no spring

     rain.”

Can you imagine someone dyeing himself like a rain cloud and showing up at a summer shower and murdering those watching it rain?

You Can Learn A Lot From A BarBQ Grill With A Little Help From Hank Williams

Isaiah 66-Jeremiah 1

Isaiah ends with a rebuke of religious hypocrisy and a dire warning and the book of Jeremiah begins with the calling out of Jeremiah to do much of the same.

Religious hypocrisy is a heinous state of being.  It means that we have replaced acts of a religion for a personal relationship with God Most High through His Son Jesus the Christ.  Going to church, giving money, attending a Bible study, obeying the Ten Commandments, etc are efforts to self-redemption.   It is one of the greatest temptations and one that has ensnared much of the church today. 

Outside my window sits our old grill.  A good analogy would be I devoted myself to the care of the grill, the charcoal, the lighter fluid, the matches, the long handled fork and spatula.  I kept it in pristine condition following all the manufacturing rules and guidelines of upkeep. All the while keeping the steak in my freezer, in my cold, cold heart of a freezer!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUuzrB_TGyk&feature=related

A One Year Old Bible Teacher

Isaiah 63-65

I am sitting in Vanderbilt’s Cardio Vascular Health Unit with a multitude of broken-down humans.  Its hard to tell just sitting here how broken they are, but get them up to answer the loud speaker and you can immediately tell.  Broken people move like broken people. In the midst of this throng of broken down humans is a 15-month-old toddler scampering around like a butterfly in a field of flowers.  She goes from one person to another spreading joy throughout the room.  She doesn’t see defective bodies housing humans, but flowers of interest and wonder. 

She reminds me of how these verses teach how God sees each of us.  He never sees a broken down, spent and used-up human, but always sees us as a flowering gem, apple of His eye, always longing to bring and keep us to Himself.  

SOUGHT OUT OAK

Isaiah 60-62

God has called me out through His prophet Isaiah.  After standing in the dock yesterday and being found guilty I had to make amends.  I am!!!

How does the Church in America get out of the mess we are mired in?

1.     Repent and mean it. 

2.     Seek forgiveness from those we have wronged

3.     Commit to a daily intimate personal relationship with Christ through Bible study and prayer

4.     Live like Christ, as if you were dying, because we must die in order for Him to live in and through us.

READ CHAPTERS 60-62 TO SEE THE RESULTS.

“Arise and shine; for your light has come, And the glory of the Lord has risen on you…Where as you have been forsaken and hated with no one passing through, I (God) will make you and everlasting pride, a joy from generation to generation…The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has appointed me to bring good news…bind up the brokenhearted…proclaim liberty…So they will be called oaks of righteousness…you will be called the priests of the Lord…Until her righteousness goes forth like brightness, and her salvation like a torch that is burning…For the Lord delights in you…The holy people, the redeemed of the Lord; And you will be called

SOUGHT OUT”!!!

How we should look to sinners.  The man on the bench is the world
and we are the oak.  Not only shading but wrapping in protection.

The Worst Americans

Isaiah 57-59

“Are we rolling down hill like a snowball headed for hell…” I recently heard this old Meryl Haggard song, posted it on the Internet and made some quip about disco and me.  This morning’s reading reminded me of it.

Let’s be straight up.  America is going to hell in a hand basket.  It’s not the gay’s fault, or the abortionist.  It’s not Hollywood’s, guns, television, or music’s fault.  It’s not President Obama’s, President Bush’s, the Democrats, the Republicans or the Independents fault. 

It is my fault!!!  It is the church’s fault!!!  We have stopped being who these verses say we have stopped being and we have become what these verses say we have become. 

Don’t say to me that this was written to the Israelites and therefore doesn’t apply to us.  That’s wrong!!!  It does!!!

And let’s be honest again.  President Obama, or Governor Romney will not help our problem or our country.  The democrats won’t, the republicans won’t and all the self-help in the world won’t.

AND IT WILL NOT HELP FOR US TO SAY WE ARE RIGHTEOUS.  SEARCH YOUR HEART AND SEE IF YOU ARE.  ONLY GOD CAN SEARCH YOUR HEART AND MAKE THAT DECLARATION.

And don’t try and separate out America from Christians.  God instituted them both, the first to offer structure, safety and security and the second to be the means that offers structure, safety and security. 

I am mad as hadies and can’t take it anymore.  I know that an emotional blog is so much fodder for the technical gray noise of our background.

But here’s the truth, many Christians, of which I am the worse, have each turned to his own way and so compromised the gospel that is Christ in us, that we no longer live under the umbrella of God’s Almighty protection nor does our country.  In that, we are in reality…

the worst Americans.

Aurora Colorado

Isaiah 53-56

One of the most sincere invitations to intimate ecstasy that has ever been penned or conceived in the heart of God.  

Why did Aurora Colorado happen?  Why did James Holmes murder? 

All these questions leads to one ultimate question; why did the perfect, sinless, Son of the Most High God, Lover of all humans, have to be brutally sacrificed?

He was despised and forsaken

         of men…

He was despised, and we did

         not esteem Him

Surely our grief’s He Himself

          bore

And our sorrows He carried…

But He was pierced through

         for our transgressions

He was crushed for

our iniquities…

And by His scourging we are

         healed.

All of us like sheep have gone

         astray,

Each of us has turned to his

         own way;

But the Lord has caused the

         iniquity of us all

To fall on Him.

                                             53:3-6

Detail from Grunewald's Isenheim Altarpiece
Crucifixion of Christ

Why Are You A Follower of Christ?

Isaiah 50-52

I often wonder why I am a Christian, why a follower of Christ?  The passage today renewed that wonder and gave me a hint to its origin.

“I gave My back to those who

strike Me,

And My cheeks to those who

         pluck out the beard;

I did not cover My face from

         humiliation and spitting…

So His appearance was

         Marred more than any

         Man,

And His form more than the

         Sons of men.”   50:6; 52:14b

We should continually remind ourselves of the Passion of Christ.  He didn’t endure the horrific assault of evil so we could be saved; He did it because He loved us.

One of the greatest truths of all Christendom is that our actions are not based on evangelism or a desire to see men saved, but on an overwhelming and unquenchable spring of love for all humans that Christ renews in us everyday.

A Chicken Farmer And A Scrawny Sculptor

Judges 6-8

I am teaching Sunday School this week on the Biblical prophet Gideon.  Gideon was someone who in elementary school we would call a “yellow chicken.”  He was afraid of everything. 

I once had a young art student who was the most talented sculpture student I had ever taught.  He was a skinny, little kid who had been beaten down and wrung out by his parents’ divorce.  After graduation he enlisted into the army in the bomb disposal unit.   I can remember being so concerned for him, worried at what might happen to this scrawny, little sculptor.  The next time I saw him, he walked into my office a new man.  He was in full dress greens and looked every bit “A son of the Most High God!”  He was stronger, bigger, and leaner, but above all he carried himself with complete confidence.  He did several tours in Iraq and has become a great leader in the armed forces.

What happened to him?  He found a cause bigger than himself, a worthy cause, a cause worth his life. 

That’s what happened to Gideon. 

That’s the invitation to all of us, sculptors, wheat farmers, army men and the rest,

“’Come and follow me,’ Jesus Said.”

Can You Recognize a Miracle?

Isaiah 47-49

The Bible is a story of God trying to reason with humans.  These chapters are full of it.  God trying to get humans to look around them and see, based on the facts, that He takes care of the earth, that He loves them, and that He has a plan for them both. 

My daughter asked me last night if God still did miracles.  I reminded her of her new, yet to be born, cousin Bray.  His 3-D ultrasound picture, the wealth of knowledge the doctors already have of him months before he is out of the womb, the fact that we already know he is a he.  Why do we know all this?  So that if there are anything wrong the doctors can work to fix it.  Most of the world still have babies the old fashion way, 9 months of mystery and then, here’s a new human.  “Is that not a miracle?” I asked.

“No, I mean a real miracle!” she said. 

“I love you!” I said, expressing the ultimate reasoning of the existence of miracles.  I don’t think she got it,

but neither does the world.

“For God so loved the world…”

YOU PICK

Isaiah 45-46

I’m a fan of Carl Sagan, the great scientist and thinker.  His wisdom, knowledge and sense of awe of the universe always inspire me.  He once said,

“The cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be.”

I love God and give Him credit for all that is good in me.  I acknowledge that I was utterly lost in outer darkness until he found me and set me free.  He once said,

“And I (God) will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden wealth of secret places…I am the Lord, and there is no other; Besides Me there is no God…that men may know from the rising to the setting of the sun That here is no one besides Me. I am the Lord, and there is no other, The one forming light and creating darkness, Causing well-being and creating calamity; I am the Lord who does all these…Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; For I am God and there is no other”  45:3, 5-7, 22

In these are the ultimate and only choices of every human. 

Pick now whom you will believe and follow!!!

America Has A Terrible Case of Heart Burn

Isaiah 42-44

“I (God) will also hold you by the hand and watch over you…”

“You have wearied Me (God) with your iniquities”

“I have wiped out your transgressions like a thick cloud, And your sins like a heavy mist.  Return to Me (God), for I have redeemed you.”    42:6, 43:24, 44:22

I found myself praying through the Midwest yesterday as we drove back to Tennessee.  The heart of America is burnt up and brown dead.  Where fields of green corn use to thrive now only stunted brown stalks and dust grow.  It reminded me of Israel and America, desperately in need of a Shower Redeemer!

“There shall be showers of blessing

This is the promise of love

There shall be seasons refreshing

Sent from the Savior above.

Showers of blessing

Showers of blessing we need

Mercy drops round us are falling

But for the showers we plead.”

A Gold Plated Self

Isaiah 39-41

These chapters record the coming of John the Baptist, the greatness of God and the silliness of idols.  Ancient cultures often made images of wood covered in gold to curry favor.  Today our enlightened culture would laugh at such foolishness.   We have a far greater idol than all the rest. 

Our idol?  Our life.  We worship our life and expend enormous amounts of energy and money making sure we will live as long as possible.   Physical life is the ultimate, preeminent meaning!

Life…physical, biological life is our god.

“All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field.  The grass withers, the flower fades…” 40:6b-7a

BUT…

“Do not fear, for I (God) am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God.  I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, Surely I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” 41:10

Brancusi's Gold Plated Head

Don’t You Adore Jesus?

Isaiah 35-38

King Hezekiah has problems!  First, the Assyrians, one of the greatest civilizations of history, rise up against him and second, death, the enemy of us all, comes knocking at his door.  Those are two pretty serious problems.  However God intervenes and Hezekiah is delivered.  But there is a great mysterious truth developed in this passage.  In both cases Hezekiah asked Isaiah to intercede with God on his behalf.

There is never anything wrong with seeking out Godly individuals to intercede with God on your behalf.  In fact the Bible encourages it.  But always remember this one fact…

“Therefore he (Jesus) is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.”  Hebrews 7:25

The truth is, no matter who you ask to pray for you, it’s doubtful they will “live to” do it.

Don’t you just adore Jesus!!!

EXQUISITELY WILD

Isaiah 31-34

Today I am back in civilization.  Instant hot water, restaurants, people, noise and the air has a linger scent of exhaust.  To go along with my civilization I need a civilized God.  Not in these chapters.  He’s as wild and fierce as the thunder that rolled over the mountains in our camp yesterday.   God is wild in the totality of His power and absolute control and mastery of the universe.  Civil loses all meaning here.  Exquisite replaces civil.  These chapters let us glimpse the true nature of God.  The only words I know to express Him are EXQUISITELY WILD!

Written from a heart which can already feel the “dullness” of civilization replacing the ecstasy of wilderness.

Storm In The Rocky Mountains by Albert Bierstadt

WHAT A TURN ON!!!

Isaiah 28-30

Are you aware of how many things must be “turned on” in order for your life to have meaning?  What if we turned them all off... the TV, the computer, the cell phone, the lights, the air conditioner, the stove, refrigerator, washer, dryer, hot water heater and took the keys to the car?  What “you” would you have left?

That is what these chapters are all about.  Countries, cultures and people who have been so “turned on” by all their stuff that they have lost awareness of the One Being who turns us all on, who gives each of us life and the awareness of life.

Here’s awareness:  last night all the stars were in their right places, hopeful shards of white guidance right where they were suppose to be.  This morning the sun is up warm and right on time.  It rained yesterday: the creeks flow and the mountains are covered in fir, spruce and aspen.  Birds are singing; crows are cawing; the rocks are still in place and the earth is firm under foot and filled with good clean oxygen…

And I didn’t turn any of it on!!!

Who’s turning all this stuff on?

“Therefore the Lord longs to be gracious to you, and therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you.  For the Lord is a God of justice, how blessed are all those who…

long for Him.”    30:18

WHAT A TURN ON.

moving out of the Rockies

Say Goodbye To The Rocky Mountains; FOREVER

Isaiah 24-27

The sky is the color blue that you imagine matches God’s eyes.  The ponderosa pines stand strong with thick, copper-gold trunks and green blouses. The mountains are clear as crystal, green brilliant crystal!  The sun is up warming my cold bones and the earth smells like the neck of my granddaughters, spanking new and sweet.  My coffee is rich and black and matches the night that has just passed. 

These chapters tell us that at some point God will put all this “asunder”, destroying it.  I struggle with this, but can understand.  At times in the studio the piece just doesn’t work out.  But God has a plan: 

“He will swallow up death for all time, And the Lord God will wipe tears away from all faces…” 25:8a

And a plan for the Rockies as well…

“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth…”  Revelations 21:1

Below our campsite in the temporary Rockies

“What The World Needs Now Is…” Camping.

Isaiah 19-23

I am camped at 8390 feet overlooking a wide mountain valley with the Rockies stacked up behind it.  A stream curls through the valley bundled up warmly with fog on this very cold morning.   The reading this morning goes along with the scenery.  It’s all about kingdoms coming and kingdoms going; great civilizations rise and fall to be replaced by others.  You know what lasts?  The wild… the wilderness, the garden, the mountains and streams, the boulders and trees, the wild animals, the birds who now sing sweetly.  

You know why it lasts?  It’s because humans don’t have our hands in it.  God made the garden and made humans to live here.

Man builds kingdoms to keep from needing God, but only God can build the natural kingdom. 

The whole world should camp.  Makes you know how much you need God!!!

Above our campsite

Lucifer; He Doesn’t Carry a Pitchfork

Isaiah 14-18

O Lucifer, Day Star, morning star, shining star, star, all translated names for the Satan as we are given some back ground on him in chapter 14.  Difficult to equate “Day Star” with all the evil in the world!  Whatever our thoughts on his name we must always keep in mind his aim, that is to separate us from God forever.  It’s not to make you a murderer, an adulterer or even a half truth teller.  His goal is to eternally separate you from the One who loves you more than He loved the life of His Son.  By whatever means necessary he is relentless in his quest for your future. 

His biggest ploy?  For you to see him as a cartoon character in a red suit with a pointed tail and pitchfork.    

Happy trails

We are moving high into the Rocky Mountains and will not be able to post for 4 days.  Happy Trails!

Read Chapter Eleven

Isaiah 10-13

There’s Hell and Holy coming.  It is hard to interpret Isaiah as it relates to our times but one thing is sure; God reigns and He’s filled with fury and with love.

“Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, Cruel, with fury and burning anger…” 13:9

If you had made the universe and humans were your crowning achievement, wouldn’t you be filled with indignation and fury at our prideful arrogance and outright cruelty at how we treat each other and your creation?

“For the Lord God is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation…” 12:2

And couldn’t you simultaneously be filled with love and compassion for humans who are downtrodden, hurting, seeking good, pursuing peace, helping each other and caring for your world?

READ CHAPTER 11

And because you had made us all couldn’t you also be trusted to be fair knowing that each group were made up of humans who were, in comparison to you, “all of us like sheep have gone astray”? 

Isaiah 53:6

Edward Hick's "Peacable Kingdom"

         

Hotter Than Hades and Corn

Isaiah 7-9

“For a child will be born to us,

a son will be given to us;

And the government will

         rest on His shoulders;

And His name will be called

         Wonderful

         Counselor, Mighty

         God,

Eternal Father, Prince

         of Peace.  9:6

It’s hotter than Hades where I’m at, 104 yesterday.  But yesterday, in the upper mid west, I drove for hours through endless waves of rich green corn already in tassel.  What’s the point?  You may be in your own Hades but someone sure knows how to grow corn, does it very good, and does it year after year; FREE.

Can you make a single ear of corn?

The answer to Hades and corn is...

“Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace” Jesus The Christ.

somewhere in God's midwest

Pious or Equipped?

Isaiah 3-6

One must be careful when applying scriptural themes to contemporary culture, but also keep in mind that; “All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness…” II Timothy 3:16-17

We would be hard pressed not to see the similarities between the culture of Isaiah’s day and our own and not at least consider that there may be similar results.  But our greatest mistake would be to look at either culture or both and think piously, “God, I thank Thee that I am not like other people…” Luke 18:11

What makes each of us attractive to a hurting and dying world is acknowledging like Isaiah, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips…” 6:5.  Only then do we know our desperate need for a Savior and can be prepared for the rest of

II Timothy 3:17, “That the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”

Tinker Toy

Song of Solomon 8- Isaiah 2

Never have two themes, two books and two stories been so clearly related.  Song of Solomon ends with ruthless splendor in describing the dangers of love; 8:6-7 while Isaiah begins by indicting us with the most heinous sin…loving the world over God.

Let me tell you a story.  I am perched high above an American city in a hotel room of luxury.  Outside my window gently lays a mighty Great Lake stretching from horizon to horizon blindingly silver in the dawn.  On shore is a beautiful garden, rich with trees, flowers and color.  In the middle of all this, lying sleek and low is a grand greek temple, a Natural History Museum.  Woven across it all is a thin, six lane highway, filled with humans beginning their day.  In each of those humans beats a love heart.  Love found, lost, broken, wanting.  Love quieted, rejected, passionate, wounded, always unfulfilled.  Love driving, devastated, longing, deeply known.  A flowing vein of love between The Garden and the greek temple.

Love is the most powerful force humans are allowed to tinker with.  It can be built on the Maker of the Garden or the maker of the greek temple. 

View from where I sit.  Greek temple to right.

The Garden of Love

Song of Solomon 3-7

Oh the sweetness of marital love, it is scented with Eden, bathed in The Flood, sealed in the Heart of God and places eternity in our hearts.  No one can read Song of Solomon…

“I arose to open to my beloved;

And my hand dripped with myrrh,

And my fingers with liquid myrrh,

On the handles of the bolt…

Who is this that grows like the dawn,

As beautiful as the full moon,

As pure as the sun.”  5:5, 6:10

…and not long for a love like this.  You know how to acquire such a love gift?  Choose to!!!  Love your spouse this way.  Pursue them and let not your emotions not be divided…AND LET NOT  YOUR EMOTIONS BE DIVIDED!!!

And when they are old and grey, bent and slow, dull of hearing and sight they will be, “The work of the hands of an artist.” 7:1b

Peter Paul Ruben's "The Garden of Love"
Rubens is seen on the left gently coaxing his new wife, Helene, into
The Garden of Love.

Unbelievable Fun

Ecclesiastes 11-Song of Solomon 2

Oh, the great irony of these two books being back to back.  The utter futility of life juxtaposed against the passionate love in marriage.  But they are both sweet songs of love. One longs to find lovely meaning in life and the second delights in explaining the passion developed between lovers in marriage. 

Passion like love is not a feeling; it’s a decision. Great lives like great marriages exist because of a daily decision to live that way.  We cannot find any greater human relationship than the heated and passionate pursuit of our spouse.

And on top of that it is unbelievably fun. 

You Are Someone. YOU

Ecclesiastes 6-10

This is a very dark and brooding passage where we find “The Preacher” bitterly tasting the futility of life.  However, brewing in the middle of this bitter cup is this sweetness; “Behold I have found only this, that God made men upright, but they have sought out many devices.” 7:29

We will never be more than what God made us to be and we can rest in that.  When Ecclesiastes urges us to “eat, drink and be merry” we can, in context of this verse, relish in the simplicity of that life.  In fact, it models the Lord’s Prayer.  God provides us all we need and as we acknowledge that we live in merriment.  This merriment serves as an invitation to others to Christ. 

It is a sad truth that we “have sought out many devices” to try and be someone who is more meaningful.  You are the most meaningful you there is.  There has never been, nor is, nor ever will be another you!  God made you!!! 

George Segal's "Cinema"
My interpretation; modernity's killing of the individual.

“Whatcha Gonna Do When They Come For You

Ecclesiastes 1-5

“Why?” is the greatest question of all time.  Have you ever truly sat down and asked yourself that question and answered it?  Why do you exist? Just think, in two to three generations your closest relatives won’t even know your name.  That is why Ecclesiastes is so meaningful because someone did ask himself that question and in so doing asked each of us to consider it as well. 

America has created industries to distract us from the question.  Entertainment, social work, art, philanthropy and others are used by Americans to keep from considering the question “why”.  Why?  Because there is one other question more critical than why;

What are you going to do with this man, this man called The Christ?  The answer to that allows you to answer all the others.  

Edward Hopper's "Nighthawks"
This piece always reminds me of humans alone
with themselves wondering Why.

An Excellent Wife At The Shore

Proverbs 28-31

King Lemuel closes out Proverbs with a truth for the ages.  It is a description of a wife that all men long for.

“An excellent wife, who can find?   For her worth is far above jewels…Her children rise up and bless her; her husband also, and he praises her saying: ‘Many daughters have done nobly, but you excel them all.’  Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a women who fears the Lord, she shall be praised.”

                     31:10, 28-30

You know how to find that kind of wife?  Be the kind of husband the Bible teaches men to be!!!

An excellent wife, Betty Jane, with our first born
 grandchild Reese Jane Benson at Lake Ontario