I’m sorry that most of the songs I mention in these posts are older than the majority of my readers. I apologize for that, but the writing of good songs with depth ended around 1975. The Seekers sang, “A World of Our Own” in 1965. At thirteen, I believed one could create such a world.

We’ll build a world of our own that no one else can share
All our sorrows we’ll leave far behind us there
And I know you will find there’ll be peace of mind
When we live in a world of our own

How long does it take to realize this world is not our own? We do make some decisions, but the majority of decisions are made by others. Our control of things lessens as we get older. Then the time comes when we’re told by the nursing home staff that we are not a visitor but a resident here. I hope I can retain the door code to the nursing home we minister at.

We’re not a free agent, but one decision belongs to us alone. That is to embrace God or reject Him. He created us and made it possible for us to spend eternity in His presence.

John 3:36

He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

John 3:18-19

He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.

It is not our world but His. Do we involve Him in the time we spend here?

Think about it.

Gary

“In the Arms of the Angel” by Sarah McLachlan is a song about a man who died of a drug overdose. He is described as a person brought down by the demons of memories and the vultures and thieves at his back. The song will tear the heart from your chest because we are familiar with the struggles of so many in that state of mind. The need to get away from it all outweighs anything life has to offer.

She describes an angel that carried this poor, depressed soul in his arms far away from here.  So many individuals would like to find the peace that seems so elusive here on the planet.

Wipe your tears now because I want to describe an Angel that can truly take you away.  A theophany is an appearance of God in the Old Testament in the form of an Angel.  In Genesis 18 God appeared to Abraham as an Angel and in Genesis 32 God wrestled with Jacob. On many occasions this happened in Scripture.

In the New Testament, God appeared as a man in the person of Jesus Christ. He is able to help us overcome our haunting memories and carry us to heaven’s shore where absolute peace can be found.

Some day we will meet some of God’s angels:

2 Thessalonians 1:7

and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels,

As the hymn writer states, “What a day that will be when my Jesus I shall see, and I look upon His face, the One who saved me by His grace.”

Think about it.

Gary

The account is found in John chapter three and contains the term, “new birth.” Some of the most profound truths that can be made are located in this chapter. One of the most educated, knowledgeable and intellectual educators of his time is unknowingly questioning God in the person of Jesus Christ.

The reality that springs from this portion of Scripture is that man needs both a physical and a spiritual birth. Heaven is made up of individuals who have experienced both. These different births are sometimes years or many decades apart.  The first wasn’t asked for and was beyond the control of the human. The second birth only comes about after physical growth, confrontation, consideration and personal commitment.  It has nothing to do with religion, heritage or an organization.

His name was Nicodemus, and if you google him in Scripture, you’ll find that conversation, thought and experience led him to experiencing the new birth.   His continuing defense of Jesus and identification with the Savior after the crucifixion bring infallible proof.

The nurse asked the patient to give his birthdate. The patient responded with a question in return. “Which one? I have two.”

I won’t go into detail about the first birth, but I can tell you what is involved in the second:

1 Peter 1:23

having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever,

Do you have two?

Think about it.

Gary

Only saw Dad cry once. Perhaps he did it more often than that, but I never saw it. It was the summer of ‘67 and someone told Dad he had better come home from work. Getting out of his truck with his hard hat still on, he was informed that his Marine Corps son was seriously wounded in Viet Nam. This was the nineteen-year-old that had his father’s name. The tears rolled down his cheeks and his lips trembled. I was a fifteen-year-old son observing that kind of grief for the first time.

There is probably nothing in a man’s life that can penetrate the soul like the suffering of a son. His sadness turned to anger probably because he signed the paperwork so this underage offspring, who was barely seventeen years old, could join the service.

This father-son relationship is referred to so many times in the Bible. As the Son was tortured on Calvary, the Father had to break all contact:

Matthew 27:46

“And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” 

This was a fulfillment of Psalm 22:1 My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me,

This is the way God has chosen to reveal to us the seriousness of sin and the length He went through to redeem us.

Give it some thought.

Gary

James Corbett (September 1, 1866 – February 18, 1933) was an American professional boxer and a World Heavyweight Champion. Individuals like him who go into a boxing ring know the suffering and intensity of continual exposer to that sport. Here is a quote of his that expresses his inner emotions as his career was coming to an end though he was trying mightily to stay on top of his game.

“Fight one more round. When your feet are so tired that you have to shuffle back to the center of the ring, fight one more round. When your arms are so tired that you can hardly lift your hands to come on guard, fight one more round. When your nose is bleeding and your eyes are black and you are so tired you wish your opponent would crack you one on the jaw and put you to sleep, fight one more round – remembering that the man who always fights one more round is never whipped.       ― James Corbett

This is also true in the Christian realm as servants get knocked down so many times by their profession. The Apostle Paul related to similar feelings as he wrote to the Corinthians.

2 Corinthians 1:8-9

We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself.  Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death.

He followed that by the next two verses which describe how you can stand up to one more round:

2 Corinthians 1:9-10

But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, 

You can take another pounding because of Him.  The match is not over and who knows the outcome.

Give it some thought.

Gary

One of my many concerns as my son was growing up was that he would be allergic to work. That was not the case. His freshman year of school he decided he wanted to wrestle and went about working out and lost almost forty pounds by lifting weights and doing cardio exercises. By the time he was twenty-one, he had a paramedic license from the state of Maine. He served ten years in the Navy as an officer and later earned four master’s degrees. I realized my worrying was unwarranted.

God told Adam to work the garden and keep it. Work is one factor in making life worth living and it comes from God.

Proverbs 24:30

I went by the field of the lazy man, And by the vineyard of the man devoid of understanding;

Life has given us so many opportunities described in the verse as a vineyard. Let’s do something with it for time and eternity. People are observing our vineyard. What are they seeing?

Think about it.

Gary

That old missionary pilot I told you about yesterday, well, he responded and here’s what he had to say.

The beauty of Christian faith is that the “story” doesn’t end with us….it continues through others!

I took a child from a mother’s arms…she, in desperation surrendered that child to me. (This was a small grass hut deep in the Amazon jungle).   To that mother there was no concept of aviation…just a big bird from out of the clouds in that vast expanse.

There was a bright red-head with blue eyes never seen before that came out of that big noisy bird.  This little boy was just a skeleton of humanity almost no life remaining (he had scalded his throat and a large white octopus mass was choking off the life in him).

I can’t IMAGINE the thoughts in her head as she saw that “big bird” disappear through the clouds.  Was this a transition to another life?

Was her son gone forever?   In a few weeks this robust lad came back through those same clouds & into the arms of his mother!

The joy & love in the face of that mother will always remain with me.

There is a beauty in the Christian faith!   Love of God, promise of new life…the POWER of Christ!

Proverbs 3:27

Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to act.

I’ll thank him for this message.

Think about it.

Gar