No time for God

As I notice that a month has passed without actually updating my blog with the many thoughts of God that flow through my head, I realized that this is something most people do. The things of the world take higher precedence than our creator. Why is that?

Granted, God doesn't know what pressures we have on a daily basis. Nor does He understand the time pressures we are under. And I am sure he doesn't understand that it takes time to keep up with what all my friends on Facebook are doing, nor how important getting a 9 year old to dance lessons is...

I really think this is what we often think about God. We neglect to think of the fact that He always has time for us, and He knows all our struggles. When we are too busy, too stressed, or too overburdened with troubles, God simply asks us to call out to him and He will listen and deliver us (Psalm 34:15-17). Our rest is in Him (Matthew 11:28) - all we have to do is put ourselves in Jesus' care, and our burdens will be lifted.

Does that mean all our troubles will go away, and our time issues disappear? Not at all. It simply means that we get a chance to stop and get guidance from the creator of the universerse. We get time to hear the Holy Spirit, and time to focus on what is truly urgent in life.

This is also the meaning behind "On the seventh day he rested", and "Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it Holy". We need time to rest and focus our lives. Time to be with Jesus. Time to heal. Many Christians will say those quotes refer to the "Sabbath Day", and that the Sabbath was only for the Jewish. Although modern Christians do celebrate God on other days, the principle behind it still applies... take time to rest, focus on God, and He will help you focus your life.

Take a moment and be with Him today.

Listen and Follow

Funny how God works when He wants to get our attention.

I was talking to Katie Driver, one of my spiritual mentors, the other day. I groused about how I felt that I was not following the path that Jesus wanted me on. I have had this feeling on and off since I left the pulpit 6 years ago, but the feeling has grown much stronger since I spent so much time in the hospital with plenty of time to talk with Jesus about life. That period gave me plenty of time to re-learn how to listen to God speak, and wait on Him, rather than simply speaking to Him. (And it seems that these days He speaks to me so often I cannot find time to blog about it all).

I kept thinking God may be prompting me to start a home church, as Irina and I have different comfort levels with churches. Her roots in the Russian Orthodox church lend to her comfort in conservative worship, while my past interfaith work has tended to lead me to a more contemporary worship style. I have had many "signs" such as the rekindling of my spiritual relationshp with Katie Driver (she is an amazing conduit for church planting).

This thought came up again last night, on the eve of Easter, as Irina and I were discussing why God came to earth in the form of man. Irina is well grounded in biblical studies, but she is accustomed to her church telling her how to be spiritual. Despite being a lousy teacher, I have a gift in my ability to relate the Word to current situations for people and give them things to think about and take in on their own. Our discussion eventually came to relationships, and how the "pre-Jesus" church reflected what she was used to, and how Jesus was all about relationships. (Here is a good blog entry on Christian relationships being like 3-legged races.)

I went to bed thinking "maybe I will start a Sunday morning family study, and invite anyone who wants to come."

I did start the morning with a link from Ulysses Potter on Keith Green's Easter song. Keith talks about relationships with Jesus, and not hiding our walk with Him from the world. I especially liked the part about "why are they asking questions during the service, with their eyes closed?"

Ira and I then went to church at St. Brendan's Parish in Bothell today, for the Easter service. We are members of St. Louise in Bellevue, but since our daughter is enrolled in the St. Brendan Parish School, we wanted to "check it out", as Bothell is much closer to us, and we have a bit of discomfort at St. Louise. I really did not feel well this morning, but I really felt a need to go today.

I can say that we felt at home there, and Father Jim Northrop's homily was deep reaching in my soul. I had an "episode" during the service, and we had to leave early - but I will leave that story and my hopes about the meaning for another day.

After we came home, I visited Father Jim's personal website, and found a short entry where he said "We need bishops, priests, and lay leaders who are dedicated to the Gospel and not ashamed of it."

All this was confirmation to me that I should be more proactive in using my gifts and knowledge of the Word more effectively for Jesus. However, I have readjusted my thoughts on the home church, and will still consider the family study (open to anyone who's interested). I will also keep Katie's words to me in mind - that we sometimes need to stop to replenish our spiritual fuel, despite the fact we want to get to the destination quickly.

We will see what happens. In the meantime, I will keep this blog blog entry on "Ragamuffin Prayers" that I came across today in mind, while I search for the path God wants me to follow.

I go in the name of Jesus, till next time.

Христос Воскiрес! Musings for Easter

Христос Воскiрес! Христос Воскiрес! (Khrystos Voskres - Chris is Risen).

This is the greeting you will get the entire week of Easter in Ukraine, and the response you hear is Воiстину Воскрес! (Voistynu Voskres! Indeed, He is risen!). This will be followed by 3 kisses to the cheeks, one each for the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

You will actually hear these greetings all over the East on Easter (the week, not the day). So why is it that we Americans call ourselves a Christian nation, and you never see such a thing outside a church?

As I had a discussion last night with my wife about why Jesus did the things he did, or didn't do other things, while on the earth, it kept coming to mind that I have seen more solid Christianity in Eastern Europe than in the good ol' USA. This from nations where people grew up not being allowed to celebrate their spirituality. It amazes me how well grounded my wife is in biblical matters, coming from a nation where such things were forbidden by law. It makes me think back to how strong the Church was in the "old" underground days, and how we might expect things to be before Christ returns to this earth again.

Ok, off the soapbox... and finishing up on this fine Easter day with a few lighter items before heading off to Church.

The other day I was chasing a purchase order around the company. It was misassigned to wrong division managers, prodcut managers, etc. all over the company. The couple times it ended up in my division, it quickly disappeared. Then a kindly Hispanic admin of the name Jesus stepped in and assured me he would resolve it.

As I was out and about, I read his email on my phone indicating he had fixed the problem. I copied him with a simple "Thank you, Jesus". A few moments later I spit Dr. Pepper all over my windshield as I saw a response from my administrator - "For a moment, I thought you were thanking God for fixing such a horrible issue."

Maybe I was...

And the prayer request for this week: I am waiting to hear from the doctors about recovery of my pituitary gland. What a wonderful miracle that would be on Easter week.

Thou shalt not...

In my years visiting pulpits of different churches, I usually found that what I so carefully planned to speak on was overridden at the last minute by God. As such, I often had to "wing it". I find writing this blog is no different. This week I was in the process of writing a blog about Ava Denton as an example of how God puts certain people in our lives for specific reasons.

As I wrote about Ava, God kept reminding me of a sermon by Father Phil Wallace at St. Louise Parish on the first day of Lent. Father Phil asked "what things do you have before you?" (Exodus 20:3-5a). I wasn't sure why God kept speaking to me about this, when I already planned the perfect blog on how people are put into our lives.

While I was thinking about the ending of my post, I started thinking about how I look forward to seeing Ava in 2 weeks when she delivers delicious grass fed organic beef to the Seattle area. I thought about going to visit Ava on vacation this spring, letting my wife and daughter experience a life I used to live (raising cattle) and to finish Ava's untextured walls (which bother me more than her). I thought about riding horses, fixing fences, and branding young cows, the fresh milk and butter, and bailing hay.

What I realized was that Father Phil's words rang true - we all put things in our life ahead of Him, and we tend to covet what our neighbors have (Exodus 20:17). I covet Ava's pony, her unfinished walls, and her cows. I want the simple (but hard) life she works, the fresh air, the space to grow a garden. I don't want her smelly dog (I have my own smelly dog). Basically, I want her lifestyle - which means I covet what she has.

So what do we do when we "covet" (eagerly wish for) what others have? The same thing we do with all sins. We need to recognize our sins, lay them before the Lord (James 5:16), and He will forgive us (Mark 3:28). The key is to recognize we all sin, and realize we are not slaves to that sin in Jesus - and strive for righteousness (Romans 6:1-3).

Through this process we find restoratoin in our relationship with God. After all, Jesus likes relationships - He's a romantic.

Jesus: The Romantic

Exactly 4 years ago today, the good Lord introduced me to my wife.

Over the past 2 weeks, I have been struggling with composing the perfect blog entry for today, honoring my wife and glorifying God. I have pondered a long timeline from when she was a youngster and her mother (a powerful and well connected communist leader) could not find an Italian language teacher and opted for English instead, all the way to the night that a phone call to one person was errantly routed to a sleepy English professor in Ukraine at 2am her time.

I have recalled the job posting she wanted to respond to that suddenly blew away, leaving her only one other posting that ultimately led to a job that set the stage for our errant phone call, and the numerous times He has shown His hand and intervened to ensure our being together afterwards.

I struggled with not knowing how to pull all these situations together into a cohesive story of how God intervenes in our lives to bring people together, until Jesus showed up on this 4th anniversary of His introduction of two people He meant for each other.

We went out for a wonderful anniversary dinner last night, since our daughter was gone for the evening. When we returned home, I placed an order for a few items from AmazonFresh for delivery in the wee hours before we woke, and then we retired for the night. At 5:30am I found our order sitting on our porch where it belonged. But wait... there was an unusually light bin for what I ordered. Upon opening it, what did I find?

A beautiful bouquet of flowers, and a single deep red rose.

Despite knowing what happened, I checked with AmazonFresh. They had no reports of missing orders, no record of a missing delivery bin, and no record of any flower orders into our area for the day.

We knew the simple truth from our experiences... Jesus is simply a romantic.

And they shall become one flesh

One of the things that God brought to my mind while I was hospitalized was Genesis 2:24. He gave me a new understanding of "becoming one flesh".

What does being "one flesh" mean? Basically it means that a man and woman that God puts together are meant to live in union with each other. They should live in harmony, intimacy, and support of one another. Now I don't know how well I do that, but my wife has that down pat (yes, I am boasting about what a lucky guy I am).

During the times I was hospitalized, my wife was beside me at all possible times. Although we had a considerable amount of company at our home each and every time, she got up and went to work, stopped by the house for a quick bite to eat, shopped, cooked, and then proceeded to the hospital. Even though I was a) drugged on narcotics and sleeping, or b) not the most pleasant person in the world, she was there each day until she couldn't stay awake anymore. Only then would she return home to sleep, and prepare to do it all over again.

Even when I was home between hospital stays, she went beyond what most people ever endure. There were times I passed out and she lugged my 200+ pound body back to bed (or to the hospital), times I made a mess (all over me and/or the house), and when I was awake she listend to my complaining and whining.

She stood so firmly beside me, strong and brave, until the ordeal was over and I was finally diagnosed. It was only at that time she gave in to her fears of being left alone in a strange country. She exemplified being reverent, self controlled, busy and loving of her family (Titus 2:3-5).

God left no doubt in my mind that she is my lifemate, that I am lucky, and that I recieve favor from my Lord Jesus as a result (Proverbs 18:22).

Does Denomination Matter?

I have to address this before we get too far down the road. People often ask things such as "what denomination are you?" or "are you equally yoked?". My denomination is Christian. My wife's denomination is Chrisitan. Yes, we are equally yoked.

In the early church, there was no denomination. Christians were Christians. If you look at the splits in Christian organizations, from the very first one, they have all been over a disagreement on interpretation of scripture. Every spit in a church rests on interpretation of scripture. Every belief in Christian faith that disagrees with another, hinges on interpretation of scripture.

What we as Christians need to remember is that all those that call on the name of Christ are Christians (Acts 2:21).

I have often heard protestants say "our cross is empty, because we know Jesus was raised from the dead. Look at the Catholics, their Jesus is still dead". But if you understand the beliefs of the Catholics, you will understand that Jesus is on the Catholic cross as a rememberance that Jesus died for our sins. Some churches believe in being vegetarians, some believe in Saturday Sabbath, some believe in dressing up for Church, some believe in "come as you are". Is one church "The" church, with "The" correct beliefs?

I hate to say it, but "no", there is no "perfect" Church or Denomination (1 Corinthians 1:11-13).

People have different personalities and relate to things differently. People have a natural need to "be right". People have a natural need to point out other's faults while ignoring their own. All I can do is point to Romans 15:5 and encourage people to look past their Christian beliefs and try to understand the beliefs of other Christian faiths. In this, you can see how we are the same.

If you disagree with my views, so be it. I will hang onto Matthew 5:19 and Matthew 11:11. I'll hang out with John the Baptist and the other "leasts".