Praise Music: All About the Message

I love music. I am not ashamed to say that I love all music. In fact, I have learned over my 63 years of existence that all music has some redeeming aspect to it, even if I might not “like” it.

I often wonder what the ancient music of our faith sounded like. What were the songs and hymns and spiritual songs of Paul’s era like? What instruments did they use? What kinds of melodies were employed and what were the words like for their worship? Would we like it?

I wonder the same thing for the ancient music of God’s people, the Jews. What was their music like? We do know they used some instruments, because we see the lists of them in some of the Psalms. But we don’t have to wonder at what they sang as far as “lyrics,” because we have the book of Psalms.

The Psalms are called “Tehillim” in Hebrew and this word means the “Songs of Praise.” One hundred fifty songs of praise are in the Tehillim. I don’t know about you, but I love to read the Psalms. They are comforting, challenging, illuminating and, well, just incredibly beautiful. They cover so much ground for the faithful follower, the honest seeker and the one who finds their self in need of a touch from the Lord.

There is a special Psalm found in a section that the Jews call the Hallel. This is the section from Psalm 113 to 118. The Jews recite this whole section when the moment dictates great praise to God and joyous circumstances. The Psalm that I am talking about is Psalm 117. It is the shortest Psalm in the whole Tehillim, yet I believe it is one of the most powerful in the whole book of Psalms.

It says, “Praise the Lord, all nations; laud Him, all peoples! For His lovingkindness is great toward us, and the truth of the Lord is everlasting. Praise the Lord!” (NASB)

Now in two short verses God’s care for the world, His worth to all people and His nature are revealed. In just two verses! If you don’t mind my paraphrase, “God loves the world and His truth is unchangeable, so we all better honor and glorify His name. Hallelujah!”

Wow! What a message!

With so much negativity around today, praising something, anything, is pretty refreshing. Even more so for the followers of God to lift His name in PRAISE! He does deserve it.

Busy

I am a busy guy. In fact, if you were to ask my beautiful wife, Leigh, I am “terminally busy.” I don’t know how to stop, say no, take a break or unwind. I am so full of things “to do” that my day ought to include at least another 8 hours for my list.

Last month, the Lord stepped in and said to me, in a voice loud and clear, “STOP!”

Jesus said to me, “Stop planning, stop filling up your day, stop working so hard and just find some time to rest in Me.” 

And to ensure that I would accomplish this stoppage, He sent me to the hospital with an episode of Atrial Fibrillation. I went straight into the ICU of the Green Valley Hospital. I did not pass “Go.” I went directly into the most intense care they provide for patients. I was going to rest, whether I liked it or not.

Thankfully, I am well and was able to get out of the hospital only a few days later, but the point struck home.

The word of God says in Psalm 46:10a to “Cease striving and know that I am God.” 

The above passage can also be translated more than adequately from the original Hebrew as “Let go and know that I am God” or “Relax…” or “Stop struggling…” I had God apply a little Psalm 46:10 on my being and do you know what I discovered? God! I discovered God in the midst of my sorrow at the loss of my mom a week before; God in the midst of my involuntary hospital visit; God in the midst of the silence of 48 hours of the acute care I was given; God, as big as life and as loud as thunder.

What has gotten in the way between God and your busyness? What is impeding your hearing the King in the midst of your daily chores? What has derailed you from listening to the grandeur of God in the midst of the noise of the world? In your worries? Your struggles? Your pain?

Perhaps, stopping and having a listen would serve all of us, especially as we prepare for Easter and the remembrance of Christ’s saving act of grace for the whole world.

Maybe, we ought to be stopping and thinking about that. Who knows, God may have a word for you. I think He probably does. He did for me.

"All I Wanted to Be Was a Mother"

The following is what I wrote for my oldest son, Colin, to read at my mother's memorial service. Thank you, Colin, for your courage to say these words in front of all those people. I am proud of you.

We measure life in many different ways. Some rate success by the amount of your salary, others by the position that you hold. Some base it upon the relationships that you have, in other words “who you know and hang out with.” Many people appraise success by the gifts that you are given and the expression of those gifts in meaningful ways.

My grandmother, Arlene Matilda Rimer, was a beautiful, gifted soul. To those who knew her, she exemplified an incredible ability in music. She was at home as much with a piano as she was singing. She had a wonderful soprano voice that allowed her to sing as a soloist, ensemble member and choir member. She was gifted in music in such a way that many of us could only dream to have. She sang and played all through her High School days. She even sang for the Starlight Opera of San Diego, the Roger Wagner Chorale of Los Angeles and many other choirs and ensembles, both religious and secular.

She also was a hard worker. From her early years as an operator for the phone company, to administrative roles at several universities, my grandma was a committed and loyal worker. She was proud of the fact that she was the first female Yeoman on the Glomar Challenger of the Deep Sea Drilling Project for Scripps. Her work ethic was best seen in her ability to write grant proposals that were clear, to the point and effective.

Grandma Arlene was also a loyal person and that loyalty was best seen in her unwavering love for her family. Whether it was her parents, spouse, children or one of her beloved grandchildren, she loved with abandon. She was steadfast in that love and her pride in her family was continuously expressed even to her dying day. She was a lover and a lover that never gave up. In reality, those who were loved by her knew it and they knew it well.

Some would be happy with the success that she attained, but her goal in life wasn’t based on any of these. She was asked some time back what she wanted to be when she was younger. Maybe she wanted to be a singing star or actress or some other talented, well known person. Her response was simple and sure. She said, “All I ever wanted to be was a mom.” She was so gifted in so many ways, but all she wanted to be was a mother.

Maybe the highest compliment to the attainment of that goal is seen here today. What a great family! What a great gift!

Grandma…we love you and thank God that you wanted to be such a person.

Goodbye for Now

My Mom's Memorial Service

Arlene was born at the Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago, Illinois on December 10, 1934 at 4:16 AM. Her parents were Thomas and Mathilda Rimer. She was their only child and dearly loved by her father and mother. She was taken home from the hospital to the family house on West Palmer Street in the Chicago community of Logan Square.

At 5 years of age, Arlene began to take piano lessons at the Chicago Conservatory of Music. This step into music was to be a lifelong pursuit in which she excelled. She not only developed a wonderful ability at the piano, but also began to express a true gift of God in her singing.

After the Second World War, “Tom and Mat” moved their family to Southern California, taking up residence in the Los Angeles suburb of Highland Park. There, Arlene went to Luther Burbank Junior High School and later Benjamin Franklin Senior High School. Arlene’s musical giftedness grew even more during these years. She sang at church, at school, at special events, on the radio, TV and in special groups like the Roger Wagner Chorale, all of which were done while maintaining straight A’s in school.

In 1953, she married Jim Prim and moved down south to San Diego County. They soon began a family together. John was born in 1954, Tony in 1955, Bob in 1956 and Joe in 1960. Four boys in six years made for some exciting times in the growing Prim household.

Throughout those years, Arlene worked at various jobs. She worked diligently at everything from Phone Operator, Administrative Assistant to Grants Specialist, working at notable events like the 1953 Boy Scout Jamboree in Irvine, California and notable places like the Scripps Institute of Oceanography, the University of California, San Diego, the University of Texas, Irving and the North Texas University at Denton. She was a hard worker who cared about taking care of her family.

She experienced challenging times in relationship through divorce and later, after remarrying, becoming a widow. Yet she continued to focus her energies on her growing boys whom she dearly loved. Her pride in her sons and their families was evident even to her last day on earth.

Though she fell ill in her last few years and never seemed to be able to recover from the physical challenges that she had, she never wavered in her love and devotion for her family. She was deeply devoted to her Savior, Jesus Christ and always lifted her family’s burdens to Him in prayer. She was significantly proud of her sons’ devotion to God as pastors and lay leaders.

In those last years, she developed a special way of signing off of a phone conversation. Instead of a simple “goodbye” or “see you later,” she would always say, “Goodbye for now.”

She gently breathed her last on Sunday, March 5, 2017 and was received into the arms of our loving Savior. She leaves behind more loved ones than almost anyone could count…four sons and their wives, 16 grandchildren and their spouses, and 19 great grandchildren. More than 40 family members have been affected directly by her life and will continue so into the future.

Arlene, a daughter, a wife, a mother, grandmother and great grandmother…we love you. 

”Goodbye for now.”

Why Do Men Spit?

College football is winding down to the bowl games and the national championship. Baseball finished recently with the curse of the Cubs finally broken. The pro football season is fast running to its end in the big game. And my Chargers are, as usual, stinking it up; the best horrible team in the whole NFL! Not to mention the MLS soccer championship around the corner, the paramount example of constant athletic exertion, where field players run on the average seven miles per game. Seven miles! (except for the goalie, my position by the way. He or she gets to watch all the other ones running around. I always like that.)

But in the midst of all this athletic expression, one thing that I have noticed consistently is that male athletes spit. Not only do they spit, but they spit all the time. In fact I have noticed that men in general spit and, yes, they spit all the time. I really haven't seen the fairer side of the athletic equation letting loose like the guys do. They may do it, but somehow they are hiding it from the cameras.

There he was, Aroldis Chapman, entering the game, spitting as he enters. Cubs win! There are the American football players standing around on the sidelines, spitting to their hearts' content. The Sean Hannity Show website has a thread that asked the question "Why do NFL players spit, but the cheerleaders don't?" One answer was another question about what they had in their mouths that they had to get rid of so regularly. But I find it interesting that the cheerleaders don't spit! In fact, if you want to go to the pinnacle of all spittle records for sports, you must look no further than soccer (the real football). Soccer players spit at the drop of a hat!

They spit waiting for the whistle to start the game. They spit during the game, kicking the ball, preparing to kick the ball, throwing the ball in when it goes out of bounds, at a corner kick, free kick or even the grand daddy of them all the penalty! Then after the goal what do they do? They spit! They spit on the bench, they spit warming up, they spit they spit they spit. They even spit in the locker room! I swear it, I've seen it.

The real eye catcher in all this is that it seems to be a male dominant human trait. I remember as a kid we used to have spit wars to see who could hawk the farthest, the largest, the "phlegmiest." I know, all the ladies reading this are all going "Ew!" in their minds right now or even out loud. Let's play "Hawk a loogie" was one of our favorite games. And the girls were never allowed to play. Why was that? I really don't know.

I mean really, all you have to do is go to the good book. That's right, the Bible! And there he is, the perfect man, Jesus, the Savior of the world. What does he do? Why he was perfect man, so he spit. He spit, folks. Jesus spit! Don't believe me, look what the Bible says in John 9:6, "When [Jesus] had said this, He spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and applied the clay to his eyes." Not only did Jesus spit, but he stuck it in the blind man's eyes!

Now, I am not trying to be disrespectful to my Lord and Savior. I am only trying to make the point that men spit; albeit that Jesus had a miraculous reason to spit where others of us have less than noble reasons. But the truth remains. Men spit.

Why? Why do men spit? Really. I want to know, but I don't have an answer.

All I know is that my Chargers stink and all I want to do is spit.

The Great "I Am"

I've been thinking about the church lately. Not the one I go to specifically, but generally the church and how it works in my country, the good ol' USA. Someone I know, who is a long time participant, leader, and voice for the church recently said "It is a weird church world today." Now I know the church has always supposed to me weird in relation to the world. Didn't Jesus Himself say, "My kingdom is not of this world" and "I have given them [the disciples and subsequent followers of Christ] Your word. The world hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world." Of course He did. So by extension, followers of Jesus (i.e., church people) are going to naturally look weird, strange or different relative to whatever current society in which they find themselves.

(As an aside, I believe this is one of the fundamental problems we have in the American expression of the church today. We think at some level that Christian culture is American culture and the church is shocked when the American culture doesn't follow suit. This, of course, is too deep of a subject to deal with now, but I believe it is a dynamic of our American church experience.)

The core of vital Christian faith is only found in the founder, Jesus. If it is not about Him, for Him, to Him, from Him, under Him, with Him, and every other preposition with "Him" as the object of the preposition, it is NOT a dynamic Christian faith. The Christian church without Christ as the very center of everything is NOT A CHRISTIAN CHURCH! (I hope I didn't yell too loud.) Without this foundation, church is only a club. Which brings me to my point.

I was chatting with someone that I dearly love, who is a faithful follower of Christ, consistent servant of His church and a personal friend, when we got on to the subject of the weirdness of the church world today. We talked about how hard it was, at times, to be faithful when our personal desires get in the way of those from Christ (by the way, you can find out what Christ's desires are for every believer by reading the Bible). Our "likes" tend to move many of us to action more than any overriding and contrary truth. In fact, this tension seems to be, at least by my casual observation, the rationale for much of the American church's choice in worship practice, preacher fame and other not so biblical reasons for commitment to Christ in a specific local church. It was somewhere at this point that the above friend said to me, "It's hard to have a "me centered" relationship with Christ."

I almost fell over when she said this to me. What a sublime statement of truth!

How this flies in the face of  Jesus saying, "I am the way..."! Sure, we read this, but don't we often say, under our breath, "There has got to be a different way"? If not out loud, don't we at least say this sometimes in our hearts? Really, Jesus, is it really ALL ABOUT YOU? Is it really all about Jesus in sorrow, pain, disappoint, travail, loss, and unmet expectations on God, rather than doing it our way?

I don't know about you (although I suspect you are the same as me), but leave me alone for 5 minutes without the grace of God and I am like the extension cord pulled out of the closet to be used for that special project needing electricity (you know the one that the wife has asked you to do for at least a month). It comes out all neatly wound up in a circle only to get tied in irreversible knots of its own making by just trying to extend it out of its serene rest. How does that happen? I think I know...left to our own desires, devices and dynamism, we are doomed. We will be doomed to the limits of the human condition, our own mental capacity and personal power. Without Christ, we are bankrupt.

The great "I Am" is not me or you. Submitting to this truth is probably the most difficult and liberating choice one can ever make. The Bible says that the Lord proclaims, "I will never leave you or forsake you." With the confidence that only a Holy, Eternal and Loving God can give us in and through the fray, it is "hard to have a me centered relationship with Christ" when it is all about Him. Let's consider, at least, the giving away of ourselves, shucking the me-ism of our culture and the lifting of His name in our hearts, homes and congregations. It may transform our culture. The real Great I Am would have it no other way. 

Finding Older

There I was, pontificating with the best of them; waxing eloquently before the kind people of Canyons Church, Salt Lake City. Then, all of a sudden, in the very midst of an incredible section of erudition, I totally (and I mean, totally) forgot where I was going with my story and, thus, the point of my sermon's point went out the proverbial window. To quote the eminent lay theologian, Homer Simpson, "Doh!"

A little background to help you get the power of that homiletic moment. There I was recounting my recent experience of flying at 35,000 feet in an Embraer 175, describing to my spellbound parishioners my absolute fear of altitude (aka heights), when I realized that we had as our church's guests this last Sunday, the Brazilian Bobsled Team. They were there for the Park City Bobsled North American Cup that is being held this week. And I wonderfully introduced them to the whole congregation, talked about their event, talked about their faith in Christ and "Doh!" Nothing. Absolute vacant brain moment.

I failed to tell you that I had already appraised the congregation of my previously bilateral hearing having under gone a transformation in said airplane, leaving me mono-hearing in only the left ear (you know that the word "left" in Italian is the word "sinistra" and the root of our word sinister). This did not bode well for me, being partially deaf at that moment. Since having gone brain dead right before the eyes of the whole congregation of God's most blessed people, I did the only thing I could. I asked the church folk what I had been saying before I interrupted myself with my cordial presentation of our guests. Several people began to inform me what, I assume, I had been saying. The only problem was that I could not understand what they were saying. It all sounded like people yelling at me with mouths full of marbles.

It wasn't until I saw at least one person gesturing with their hands from high to low, like an airplane landing, that I finally got it. Wow. Or to quote said theologian, "Doh!" I was talking about the Embraer 175 airplane that I had flown in. The Brazilian made Embraer 175 airplane.

Now you know the depth of my brain's machinations; and the probable foreshadowing of old age memory in the ever increasing aging of the current writer.

All I can say is "Fluffy Duck."

A Poem for the New Year

The frailty of any moment
Is hard to understand
So bound, we breathe, we walk, we speak
From the power of our hand
That is at best a shell
Housing the vapor of this strife
'Til Jesus calls us - "Children"
Not a moment more to life
Yet in all the mix and mash of common
His hope is steady still
Without a clarity of common's end
'Cept death the common's fill
In the frailty of that moment
Stands His offering of hope
For in Him and Him alone
Our escape from frailty's scope

The Day after Thanksgiving

Turkey, rolls, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, salad, cranberries, sweet potatoes, and stuffing…bountiful heap of food representing the bountiful blessing of living where we live. The Lord God Almighty has backed up the dump truck of blessing on the fifty stars and we are full! I am not complaining one bit over the unfathomable outpouring of God on our formerly humble nation. God has blessed us beyond measure and we recline in that blessing, full. But I  cannot complain whatsoever, because I have seen something that transcends our PTFDS (Post Turkey Filled Drugged State).

Her name is Arlene Mathilda Rimer, also known as my mother. I saw her in her home with my brother Bob, his family and all the fixings! My mother had a smile on her face, revealing her beautiful new teeth! She was in the middle of a portion of her family, enjoying the season at the table, on the porch, in front of the TV and living normally for the first time in more than a year.

Here was a lady who up until just recently found herself at death’s door, barely able to sit up, let alone walk. Yet now, enjoying the warmth of not only the season, but the better part of the season, her family. Although she had been so sick, so frail, so unable to do anything, there she was, a miracle of the graciousness of God in the land of the living.

So, for me, on this day after Thanksgiving, I find myself thankful surely for the bounty of our nation. I still worry about said nation’s future as we shuffle away from God. But today in the midst of the PTFDS I am thankful for a lady, an hard worker, a lover of her children and a model example of a faithful fortitude in the face of seemingly overwhelming circumstance…my mother, at home, as she should be.

Thank you Lord. I know from where this has come…thank you.

The Battle

The following is not a theological argument for God or His existence. It is a recounting of my conversations with a dear friend who fought a noble fight with his personal physical challenges and somehow saw the beauty of God in the midst of that suffering.

The prospects of life are generally thought to be hopeful. Part of that is our penchant for looking forward with rose color glasses and sunshiny days. A new child is born into the world and we cannot help to look at their soft, fresh, clean, tender and tiny bodies and see anything but sweetness, love and hope. It will never rain in the future for them…and if you live in Utah, like I do right now, it seems that is very true. We don’t usually look to that which is on the horizon with anything but fullness, grace, hope and blessing.

But, like the Smashing Pumpkins’ song says, “The world is a vampire.” It confronts us with pain, disappointment, constant change and hopelessness. The world sucks our blood. The harmony of that reality and the former hope is a challenge we all experience.

How can we brave the world looking forward without becoming totally discouraged and feeling like we are drowning, raging, just like a “rat in a cage”? And, at the same time, how can we look at life so unrealistically; as if, by being Christian, no wrong can ever happen to us or our loved ones?

My friend, Jonathan Creed, confronted me with these types of questions. Why would a good God allow not only evil on the earth, but why would God allow Jonathan’s personal physical trauma and all its ramifications.

Jonathan, my friend, son of a friend, historically “raised” in the church by faithful member parents; Jonathan, a unique individual, like all of us, but in recent days, carrying the weight of his body gone bad. Diabetes was wrecking his body. His kidneys were basically shut down, demanding that he experience dialysis three times a week. He found himself, most recently, in and out of hospitals from the most critical wards to more benign observations. He died, if you will, right at the moment that a physician and a nurse were at his bedside, allowing the heroism of timely medical intervention to “save” his life. Then, as he recovered from this series of personal challenges, he laid his head down one night on the floor of his family home and died quietly while his family slept in other rooms. Twenty five years old…twenty five years young…a tragedy.

It is a tragedy because much of Jonathan’s experience was self-inflicted. He did it to himself. In conversations with me, Jonathan did not deny this immutable truth. He had arrived at youth and, as many youth will admit if they were honest, he ceased to do what his parents encouraged him to do. “Take care of your body, son. Take your medications. Watch your blood sugar levels.” My friends cared for their son and they wanted the best for him. They never ceased in desiring this. They tried to encourage, but you know, sometimes we children don’t care to follow our parents. We just don’t. And Jonathan made his choice.

At the same time, Jonathan was full of life and life’s expectations. He wanted to live. He wanted to have a future. He wanted to experience good things looking forward, even with all his challenges. He was, like many of us, full of hope on the horizon while battling all the giants before us.

He was mindful of his precarious state.  He and I had quite a few discussions on the subject of the frailty of life, even when things were going well. He got that clearly. He also was consistent in his questioning the general things of life, one of which was the existence of God and harmonizing that with the reality of this malevolent world. He asked me that question some months before he passed away. He said, “I don’t get how a supposedly good God could allow me to suffer so much. How can he be good or does that mean he doesn’t even exist?” I understood that question coming from him as we sat in a hospital room on the 8^th, 9^th, 10^thor 11^th floor (I don’t remember which one; he had been on all of them). I tried the best I could to answer his real desire to figure out that great truth. Does God exist or not? And what about that and the evil we see all around?

He fessed up to me then that he knew he had put himself in that precarious physical condition. But that didn’t diminish his nagging doubt relative to the existence of God. Even having grown up in the church, he asked me, “Why would God cause all that evil on the earth?”

I told him the earth was the way it was, not because of God, rather, because of mankind. We just love to shoot ourselves in the foot and we are real good at it. Yet we still try to do good, but we are woefully bad at it. In fact, we made this mess and we are afforded the privilege to live in our own poo. And, I said, “Just like you, Jonathan, you are afforded the right to live your own choices.”

I told Jonathan that the difference is that while we are unable to get ourselves out of this mess, God, in His great love, reached down to us through the sending of His Son Jesus to deal with our inability. Where we could not, God can. So instead of seeing a god who plays with us as pawns, or one who doesn’t care or doesn’t even exist, we need to see His great love as endeavoring to reach out to us and pull us from this pile of pain, suffering and disappointment.

I was taken back when Jonathan began to cry uncontrollably. His eyes welled up and he tried to speak to me, but he couldn’t. When he finally got some semblance of control, he said to me, “I get it. I understand. I see how God is. I see His demand on me.”

I don’t know what I said to cause that response, but where Jonathan was doubtful before, he sat in front of me resolute. He had a new knowledge of who he was and how he fit in the grand scheme of things. He said to me as honestly and sweetly as one could imagine, “Thank you, Prim.”

My friend had got it. Whatever you want to call it, he had grabbed a hold of God. I don’t know what that meant for Jonathan in the days that passed between that moment and his death, but one thing is sure…that thank you was as much of a sign of transforming as any words that could ever have been spoken.

Jonathan got God to the chagrin of the world’s efforts to steal the last bit of joy that he might have had on this earth.  And I will see him again, for the hope that we rely on is found in the God that Jonathan finally apprehended. Despite the pain, the suffering the disappointment in this tragedy of life, I am so ever thankful to God for having known Jonathan Creed, who suffered bravely with his eyes at last on the only hope we have in this challenge laden world.

Don't run!

She said, “I can't take this any more. I have to get out of here.” It doesn't matter who she was. What matters is that every one of us, at some point in our life, have felt like her. Desiring to run, to flee the pressure, the hurt, the disappointment, the over flowing circumstances of our life, we see no hope and no resolution for our discouragement. So the great escape is all we can muster.

Holding this conclusion in our heart, we'll often reconsider after a while. We'll look at the ones we love, the work we do, the connections we have with God, institutions and others and we'll stop. We wont run, although it still plays in our psyche. What we do is weigh the options in a more rational way. We'll plead with God. We'll measure the impact of flight on our families, work and other relationships. We'll reevaluate the pressures to see if they are really that bad. We might even seek counsel with someone we trust, in order to have a more “unbiased” perspective. But none of these things remove the stress of life.

The problem here is, no matter what someone has told you, life is a never ending collection of stresses. Think about this, every human that is alive has blood pressure. That's right, to breath, walk, eat, laugh, cry, love and enjoy the mix, we all are under pressure (self-inflicted, from the heart). Then you throw in the outside influences in our lives and it is obvious we are all on a treadmill of varying levels of tension. These are not all bad. Some are downright awesome. But they are tensions.

No one becomes an athlete of any level without stressing their body. You will never see a couch trained athlete at the Olympics (or should I have said, “summer games” to not have the fear of trademark infringement?). You will never see a YouTube video trained pilot flying for a major airline (at least I hope not, although I understand that simulators are so good now, that many pilots can go from the simulator to the cockpit). Would you allow your surgeon to perform major surgery on you with a certificate of training completed through an online surgery school? Every serious pursuit costs and the process to attain is never without some form of tension, agony, trauma or hassle.

Life, therefore, as a serious pursuit, is not without hardship.

You may not believe me, but that goes for the Christian life also.

I know the preacher told you that if you just accepted Jesus into your life that you would be a new creation, the old things would pass away and new things would come. And they do. But the world and its penchant for pressurizing all that is within it, does what it has been forced to do since the fall. It carries on in lack of its own resolution with pains and sufferings and disappointment. Just like Romans 8:19-22 says.

“For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.” NASB

I don't know if there is any experience more pressurized, than the experience of a woman, becoming a mother through the act of childbirth. She said, “I can't take this any more. I have to get out of here.” I get it. I've seen it. Those lovely troopers, in the midst of the most wonderful miracle of birth, come to a place where the pressure is too much and they would flee. But they can't.

I suppose that is a microcosm of our lives on the earth. We will struggle, with hopes and dreams and desires for a smiling future, as we slog through the mire of a world that is longing for a Savior. One who would rid us of this God awful world of pain, stress and disappointment. One who is able to give us a hope for today and tomorrow. One who is enough to help us face the flight and make us able to stand. One, who like the transformation of the mother's pain to the mother's joy at seeing her child, gives us the future even through the challenge of each day. One, about whom Paul attests, that is able and willing to give us something with which nothing can be compared. “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” NASB

So, don't give up.

Hang in there.

Don't run.

Give God a chance to do what only He can do, even though it may be hard.

Community Bible Experience: Days 34 & 35

Today we finish the 7th week of reading the New Testament, leaving us only one more week to complete our challenge of starting out 2015 with reading the whole New Testament. It has been a great experience so far and I am so very glad that we took up the challenge in my church and those of you who are following along with us.

Yesterday was a bit busy for me, so, unfortunately I did not post, but I did get my reading in and was blessed by the beginning of the Gospel of John. Today we continued with this amazing witness to the life and ministry of Jesus on the earth. I hope you are staying up to date and are reaping all the benefits of your reading.

Here is what I got yesterday and today in my reading.

Spill the beans, Jesus! Tell us straight forward. Are you or are you not the Messiah, the King, the Savior of the world, the Son of God? These are the questions that Jesus got over and over again, as I saw it, in John's telling of Jesus' story. Are you really, Jesus, the one for whom we have been waiting?

This is not a casual set of questions. For the Jews at that time, under the rule of Rome and her Judean supporters (politically) and under the rule of the priestly line in Jerusalem (religiously), they were a people subjugated. With no real advocates in the political realm and little advocacy in the religious realm, these chosen people of promise pined for the Lord Himself to show up in power, majesty and clarity, in order to rid them of the plight of foreign rule and domestic manipulation. They longed for a savior, the anointed one, the Messiah prophesied. And that's what got me.

Here comes Jesus in power, healing the sick, the lame, the blind and raising the DEAD, yet no one in power is getting the message. In fact, the only message the power mongers are getting is, "We better do something with this charlatan, before the rabble go to him completely and we lose our place." Even the religious leaders of Israel, who you would think would be happy to know that God was injecting Himself directly in the affairs of men and resolving the chief problem of mankind (sin), are not buying what Jesus is offering. They keep asking Jesus if He is the Messiah, the Savior, the Chosen One; and when He gives them the "Yup, that's me" answer, they don't want it.

Why are we so jaded? We get the answer we are really looking for and we respond with a "Nope that's not it," when everything in our heart of hearts knows THAT IS IT. I see this in marriage counseling, financial counseling, relationship counseling and every other type of counseling where someone is looking for an an answer to what has stunted them. I hear people say, "I need help," but when you offer help, real help, they don't want it.

Jesus offers the ONLY HELP for what ails us and almost everyone rejects it! In fact, I don't even know how I got where I am in all this. Somehow the truth was so overwhelming in my pre-Christ experience that it blew through the firewall of my heart and knocked me to my knees. Maybe that is the answer to our jaded response to the claims of the Savior. Maybe we need to turn off our firewall and the let the King of Glory in. Maybe we need to see what He is really all about, instead of looking after "our place in the world." Maybe we need to get our stupid selves out of the way and let Jesus have His place in our hearts (you know, we really think we are pretty smart, but I bet if we really ask ourselves that question of who we really are, we'll get a much lower score on the old personal IQ in the world scale).

I don't know, it just seems weird that Jesus does amazing things (even today) and no one got it except the disenfranchised of the earth. Maybe that's how it really aught to be.

Please Lord Jesus, don't give up on this silly earth and her slow people.

Next week is the last week of reading for the completion of the challenge! Until Monday, blessings!

Community Bible Experience: Day 33

Today we arrive at Thirty Three days of reading the New Testament. Awesome! This is quite an accomplishment and one that leaves us with only 7 more days of reading before we complete the whole New Testament. Yeah!

And, as a incentive to keep on keeping on, we only had to read one chapter today (of course Jude has only one chapter, but who's counting?). So as we approached this lofty book and scaled the heights and depths of its page...

This is what I got from my reading of the book of Jude today.

 "They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted - twice dead. They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever." Oh my goodness! The description that Jude gives for these people who "had slipped in" to the congregation of believers is pretty critical. In fact, I would say that to be one of these folks was not a good thing at all. This made me think about what has been given us as believers and the call to be faithful with it.

The truth about Jesus is not just head knowledge. It is a consistent living out of the things that we know in our minds. It is expressing the good fruit of Galatians 5 in all our relationships, both in the church (fellowship of believers) and outside of the church. It is not being like Jude describes in relation to these people he characterizes as rainless clouds (ungodly, grumblers, rebels, not understanding the things of God, blemishes within the congregation, faultfinders, divisive, without the Holy Spirit in their lives and selfishly agenda ridden in all they do). Whew! I wouldn't want to be one of these folks.

Yet, I had to ask myself the question, if I sometimes don't act like one of these. Am I self driven at any point? Do I find fault first and "barely" express grace later? Do I grumble? (I hate that question) Does my agenda supersede the Lord's will? (Ouch!) And, finally, do I act, some days, as if the Holy Spirit doesn't live in me at all?

I asked myself these questions, because I don't want to be one of those people that Jude describes. They have no future. They have no promise to look forward to, but death and separation from the Lord. They have no hope on the earth, because they have made self god and denied the presence of the only One who can give us life abundant. These folks are a train wreck. I have even seen these folks in church, denying truth that is right in front of them. And I don't want to be one like them.

Oh God, help us all to ask ourselves these questions. Help us to get to the only real answer for our world, the church and our very own lives. Help us to see the big picture and realize, in and of ourselves, we are but microscopic at best. Oh God help us to be given to You in everything, as a blessing to those around us, lifting up Your name alone, who is our Savior. Now to You "be the glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen."

Until tomorrow. Blessings!

Community Bible Experience: Day 32

Today we read the entire book of 2 Peter. This was one of those readings that flew by (of course the book is only three chapters long). Nevertheless, It was nice to have a shorter length of reading today, after a holiday. I hope you also enjoyed your day off for President's Day and are ready to jump back into the work week and the completion of our second to last week of reading.

2 Peter is one of those books that is full of significant theological content, some of which has been quite controversial. One of those subjects is the difficult teaching of God's patience toward the lost world in contraposition to His judgment over it. God is merciful, but He is also just; therefore, though He will judge the whole of mankind, He remains patient toward us in deference to our potential salvation decision. Of course, this challenges due to the clash of mercy and judgment. One would ask, Why doesn't God just save the rotten lot and have done with it? Yet there lies the difficult nature of the question. By the way, I'm not going to answer it either. However, I am going to deal with the overall challenge of "difficult" passages.

So...here is what I got from this reading.

If you look at the picture that I posted with this blog entry, you may ask, What is John up to? Well, many people have asked me why I am so enamored with Jack in the Box tacos. Many say to me that they just cannot understand what is with that. Not only that, look at the amount of tacos that are on that tray. That's right, Jack in the Box tacos cannot be eaten unless you fill the tray with them. There is bliss in eight Jack in the Box tacos (not to mention the fries). But not only is the number of "waiting to be consumed tacos" significant, but also their cost. You get 2 tacos for 99 cents! 99cents!

Some people don't understand this. What's the big deal?

The big deal is that when I was young, Jack's was the place to go in San Diego (or at least this kid used to think so). We could get a cheese burger for 19 cents and the tacos then are the same tacos now. When I find a Jack's (they are not here in Utah except for St. George, 300+ miles away), I purchase these tacos and instantly go back to my youth. No one understands that, because, honestly, Jack tacos aren't so good as tacos go. But when you combine the price tag and the nostalgia, Jack's tacos cannot be beat.

I get that people don't understand this. Really, I do. This is a difficult thing to grasp, but it is true nonetheless.

Peter makes a similar argument about the things that his fellow apostle, Paul, writes. He says, "His letters contain some things that are hard to understand." Peter, the rock, the leader, for all intents and purposes of the church in Rome, said that some of Paul's writings were hard to understand. Whew, am I glad. Because I feel the same way. Paul says some difficult things to understand, but that doesn't make them not true. There are a whole lot of things that we don't understand in this world, but we deal with our shortcomings and carry on. I don't know why many who confront the hard sayings in the Bible write the Bible off, when so many other things in life are just as hard to understand and they continue on without batting an eye.

The other thing that gets me about this statement from Peter is that it follows on the heels of the difficult statement that Peter relays about God's mercy and judgment I talked about in my introduction to this blog. Sometimes things are just hard to understand for us humans, but that doesn't nullify their veracity! Peter was acknowledging our deficiency as human beings. We cannot know everything. We cannot understand all things. We are forever running short on capturing everything that is going on around us. Yet, we still merrily go about our lives, living in the sufficiency of what we do know, what we do understand and what we can apprehend in our personal context.

Peter's complaint, relative to Paul's writings, is not that they are wrong, but that some would take them and twist them. Those who don't have a context to understand completely the depth of the sayings distorted those sayings. That was Peter's complaint.

Man, have I seen that when it comes to theological difficulties and hard sayings! People who think they have a need to clarify, sometimes make more of a problem in their effort to make it clear. Not because they are wrong in trying, rather, somethings are just beyond us. God says through the prophet Isaiah, "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," declares the LORD. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts." Is. 55:8-9

Sometimes things are just outside of our reach; and what I got from Peter was that is okay. Just like Jack's tasty tacos, you may not understand, but that's okay. We can all live with that; hard sayings and Jack's tacos.

Join me tomorrow as we read the book of Jude. Blessings!

Community Bible Experience: Day 31

To me it's as clear as glass

Well here we are on the last two weeks of reading in our Community Bible Experience. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Beside getting to the end of our task, I find it an intoxicating prospect to have opened up this new year with completing the New Testament. I have been extremely blessed so far in my reading and I am hopeful that you have had the same experience as I have. Some of the days have been tough, not only for the length of reading, but also the texts that we have read and their direct challenge to each and every one of us.

Today we read 1 Peter and it is in the context of this reading that I experienced one of those tough (yea verily), challenging passages. I actually saw two. One had to do with remaining faithful as a believer in the face of persecution (which, by the way, we do not really experience here in the good old USA) and the other was a discussion on what is real beauty. I am going to chat on what real beauty is. If you want to know what I think about the other subject, read the book I wrote a couple of years ago, called Righter's Block. You can get it here.

What I got from my reading today.

Peter writes that beauty (and in the context of this passage it is a woman's beauty) should not come from just the outward appearance. Now it is undeniable that the fairer sex has been throughout the ages lifted up as the epitome of what beauty is all about. If you were to do a search online using the word "beauty," and do the search for images (PLEASE MAKE SURE YOUR SEARCH IS SET TO "SAFESEARCH"), you will find pages and pages of pictures of women. There will be NOT ONE PICTURE OF A MAN. To get that, you would have to look up "beast."

Look, beauty launched a thousand Greek ships to fight the Trojans and the war lasted 10 years. Beauty was used by nations to negotiate peace. Just look at Solomon and all his gals. Beauty has been the impetus for art (Mona Lisa), architecture (Taj Majal) and beauty has caused the poets heart to sing of their loves and their longing for the same (look it's even in the Bible in the Song of Songs). 

But Peter says something that flys in the face of the traditional understanding of beauty. He says, beauty is not just the outside stuff (although he does not deny there is beauty there). He emphasizes that real beauty, lasting beauty and godly beauty is that of "the inner self." It is the gentle and quiet spirit of the heart, which pleases God, and is an intoxicating potion to the godly man. This is true adornment. This is the real "red carpet" beauty.

I know this doesn't sell well in 2015. L'Oreal won't be able to hawk it, neither will Maybelline. Theirs is totally external. Theirs is for a day or a night, but it is not for eternity. The beauty that God affirms is the beauty that has allows been beautiful. It is putting one's hope in God, submitting, in the marriage context, to one another in God's most wonderful love (this is mutual submission, the woman for the man AND vice versa). It is the outward expression of the inward reality of a heart given to the Lord and all He would have for such a one. It is being given to God.

The image is clear of waking to the day and putting on the gifts of God, remembering the blessings of God, focusing on the goodness of God and moving into the day with the very hope of God shrouding the heart. This beauty is not sold and you cannot acquire it in any other place than in the gracious hands of our Lord.

Do you want to be beautiful? It won't be in your "do," your jewelry, your outfits or your makeup. Beauty is really in the heart. Audrey Hepburn said, "True beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul." 

I think Peter would have said, "Amen!"

See you tomorrow when we'll tackle 2 Peter. Blessings!

Community Bible Experience: Day 30

Sorry for the delay of a day, but sometimes a day off needs to be a day off.

Today's reading (really yesterday's reading) was the second half of the book of Mark. As I said in my last post, Mark is really the track meet version of the Gospel. It motors. In fact it really flew right through the whole passion (look up that word, passion, in the dictionary, it is not what you think). It was amazing.

Well, here's what I got from my reading.

The scene is the court of the Sanhedrin and Jesus has been brought before the religious leaders to be tried. They want Him dead, they want Him nullified, they want the pebble out of their shoe. And Jesus stands there silent without giving them an answer, until the High Priest himself asks Jesus this simple and clarifying question. "Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?" Up till that moment, Jesus is giving no answers, but here He speaks up.

"I am," Jesus says. We don't get the impact of this phrase in English like it is written in the Koine Greek (the original language of the New Testament). What Jesus says here in that language is, with all emphasis on the "I" in this two word phrase, "I AM." There is no other (Implied), I am not denying it (in fact I am confirming it with all the emphasis I can muster), I AM THE MESSIAH! (more capitals and exclamation points so you can get the point). Jesus was telling these religious leaders that He was what they and all their predecessors had been looking for.

It looks pretty clear to me. I mean, I am not the sharpest tool in the tool box, but I think I get it, that Jesus is claiming He is the Messiah, God's Anointed One, God's solution, the answer, the way, the conclusion, the object of our longing. Jesus is, well, God in the flesh.

And like those religious leaders of old, there is a demand on us. Do we accept it or deny it. Do we say, "Yeah, we have found Him!" Or, like the biggest human fail of all time, join with the rabble and cry out, "Crucify him!"

It is a simple demand, a simple question for the heart. Jesus either is the Anointed solution of God the Father or He isn't. It is simple. Do we trust Him or not?

I'm going with Jesus.

Blessings everyone. Have a great Presidents Day weekend!

Community Bible Experience: Day 29

One day short of attaining three quarters of our goal of reading the whole New Testament to start our year off right! Wahoo! It is a good feeling to see success every day and I hope you are enjoying that same success with me and my church as we stay on track with reading God's word.

Today, we read the first half of the book of Mark and I don't know if you picked up on it like I did, but this book has a feel of being at a track meet and we're running the 200 meter sprint. It's not a short sprint, not a long sprint, but it is a sprint nonetheless. Wow, in my reading today, I got the feeling that Mark was writing at 90 words per minute (which would be fast for a typist). Anyway, even with the sense that Jesus couldn't get through His earthly ministry fast enough, it was still a facinating read and one little line stuck out for me.

Here is what jumped out of the pages today for me.

Almost from the get go a text leaped out of the first few paragraphs of the book of Mark and got me to thinking. It said, "And when they found him, they exclaimed: 'Everyone is looking for you!'" Nowhere to be found, with all the crowds, disciples and curiosity seekers searching for Him, the disciples, upon finding Jesus, tell Him, "Where have you been, don't you know everyone is looking for you, c'mon!" Or something like that.

I get it. Everyone is looking for something in this life. I don't care what you call it, whether it is self-awareness, god-consciousness, Atman, Brahman, Nirvana, heaven, self-reliance, health, wealth, family, love and lovers, extreme adrenalin rushes, solitude, connection, power, control or any other thing that captivates our focus and  gives us direction; everyone is looking for something. We want to be satisfied, happy, content with our surroundings and in control of our future. We want it our way and go to great lengths to find a way to our way that is in harmony with our way or we say "No way," to the ways presented to us. Way too much "way," sorry.

And there is Jesus. I see Him sitting on a rock, looking at the rocky slopes of Galilee (I know what they look like, I've been there), listening to the birds, taking in the sun and enjoying, for a moment, a break from the seekers of "way." Their way, the rules and regulations way, the strict food way, the wealth makes me good way, the "feed me today" way, the "heal me today" way (everyone of those healed eventually died), the get me out of this mess way, the leave me alone way, the I can do it by myself way, the every way, any way and no way, way of the human heart. And there is Jesus.

He is the answer. Some could see through their way to see the only way in Jesus. Some caught a glimpse of how it really is, even though they couldn't understand it all. Jesus is it. He is the way. He is the answer to all questions. Really, everyone is looking for Jesus, they just don't know it, won't except it or can't get over how simple that really is.

Everyone is looking for you, Lord...help us who know you to be honest in our answer for what is the only answer to all our seeking...Jesus.

I hope you keep on track in your reading. Don't give up! Until tomorrow. Blessings!

Community Bible Experience: Day 28

Arizona grandkids

Today we read from the most practical book in the New Testament and probably the second most practical book in the Bible. The book of James is a wealth of Christian sayings on how we as believers should practically approach the life we have been given on the earth. It deals with God's wisdom, which is offered freely to those who ask, it outlines the process of falling into sin and sin's resultant conclusion, when we go with our feelings and the spiral downward. This book talks about playing favorites within the church and how that is contrary to God's will, it deals with teachers and teaching, the tongue, individual desire and the lack that we experience because we are not focusing on the things of God. Prayer comes up in this book and James outlines the power we have in trusting God even with that.

So let's get into what I got from my reading today.

As you can see, I have been on a kick in showing some of my grandkids. This is a picture of my Arizona grandkids. This picture gives me great joy and great sorrow at the same time. Great joy, because these two are precious Prim kids who have in them the "thing" that makes all Prim kids Prim kids. That is an energy that cannot be harnessed, a powerful impulse to express and express and express who they are. I feel in harmony with their character (some may find this energetic spirit too much, but that is why we are Prim kids).

On the other hand, this gives me sorrow, because I don't get to see these guys very often. It is about only one time a year that I get down to Arizona and get to see them face to face. This makes me sad and I don't feel like the grandpa that I truly want to be for these two. My desire is to know them better and see them more often. Yet circumstances, at this point in my life, have not allowed that to happen. Which leads me to what I got from my reading today.

James says, "Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment." There are judgments on the earth, both spiritual and physical. There are things that are clearly "How things are," that we cannot contravene. We cannot change them, but they still affect us.

God has declared the judgment that the whole earth, every person, is a sinner and by His righteous judgment, we stand condemned. This condemnation will, in the eternal realm, separate us from God. It will place us in a location, according to the scriptures, that was originally set aside for Satan and his fallen angels (not us, Matthew 25:41). God stays consistent with His righteous judgment concerning the world's sin.

But in this passage in James, His mercy triumphs over His righteous judgment in that His gracious

Portrait of grandpa from grandson

act of sending His son to pay the penalty for our sin is sufficient in overcoming that judgment. God's grace, lovingly has victory over His judgment, when we respond to it with obedient acceptance.

Back to those grandkids. The judgment, decision, that has placed them outside of my normal day to day experience, forbids me from seeing them regularly. I can do nothing about it. However, the graciousness of our society in this day allows me to drive to Arizona and see them, spending time with them, loving on them, telling them how precious they are to me. Not only this, but things like Skype, texting, emails and phone calls are also means where love triumphs over that reality of distance. It is my act of gracious choice of going to them that overcomes the truth of miles.

Jesus voluntarily overcomes the impediment of sin (He didn't have to). He triumphed over the distance that sin placed between us (remember He was without sin whatsoever) and took that impediment out of the way (through His shed blood we are saved).

I thank God for His mercy, His grace, His love...and for grandkids that still look forward to seeing me, even though we live so far away.

See you tomorrow. Blessings, as we continue our quest through the New Testament.

Community Bible Experience: Day 27

Grandpa and Grandson at the RioT

Day 27 and all is well. We are motoring along through the New Testament and the downward ride is smoothing out. At least I hope it is for all of us. The goal of reading God's word and getting through a significant amount of it as a start to our new year is really a great thing. I am confident that you are seeing wonderful treasures in the word and are, with me, looking forward to every day's reading.

Today we finished our reading in the book of Hebrews. This book, specifically written to Jewish believers, is full of quotes from the Old Testament. In its pages, we see a very clear argument for the better nature of everything that Jesus is and does; and we see the encouragement to keep on growing into a mature stance before the Holy and Living God.

Here is what I got from my reading today.

I love the photo above, because it mixes two loves that I have. The first is to be with one of my grandchildren, like the little guy next to me. The second is to be in and around soccer stuff, like the entrance tunnel for the Rio Tinto Stadium for Real Salt Lake. What a privilege it is to go to a game, watch the play of my favorite team and enjoy lots of victories at the stadium they call "The Fortress." Then to have the added privilege to go to the stadium, when there isn't a game, and have access because of my job as the team's chaplain, is icing on the cake.

Today's reading gives us a similar picture of wonderful access through Jesus Christ, our High Priest. God the Father said of Jesus, "You are a priest forever." In our reading the writer of Hebrews clarifies by saying that Jesus is not like all the other priests that have come before. He is better, since He conquered death, lives forever, and thus, is "always [living] to intercede" for us. He is our access to the Father and through Him we are able to be saved "completely."

Because of Jesus being the everliving High Priest, we can enjoy a stance that no other person can give us. In the Spanish that I learned in Uruguay, there was a saying when somebody had an acquaintance that could get things done for them that could not be done by normal means (unfortunately, many of the normal workings of government and society had this subset of extra hoops one had to jump through to get things done). The saying was, "Tengo una palanca." The phrase means, I have a lever, but its idea is better stated as, I have a way to get it done (a foot in the door). As crude as it may seem, Jesus is our lever, our way to get the ultimate thing done, the ONLY way to get sin taken care of. Jesus is our palanca, our lever, our High Priest, our Savior, our access to righteousness, to heaven and eternal life.

Grandson on the field at the RioT

His work did what our work could never do. Just like in this picture. Jesus took us from outside of the holy ground and gave us entrance into the blessings of His kingdom. He took us from being spectators in the stands to approved (adopted) members on the field! What a different perspective that gives to all of us. We no longer are those who watch it all go by, rather we are those whose needs are met and who have privilege before a Holy God to stand in His presence. All because of what Jesus has done and who He is.

May we all see the incredible benefit that our Holy, Blameless, Pure, Set apart, Exalted above the heavens Savior has given us who believe. Access eternal with confidence before God. There is none like Jesus.

I hope you are reading and finding wonderful truths in God's word. Tomorrow, we venture into the book of practical Christianity, James. Until then, blessings!