Sky Thief

Sky Thief Saw her sliding down a silver rope She stole the lining from a cloud Some poor soul had lost his lover I heard her laughing right out loud She was climbing down from somewhere Her floating home up in the sky And I could see as she drew nearer The rays of sunshine in her eyes But her beauty was her only flaw I couldn't tell you if I tried Just how much I loved that breezy girl And of all the million tears she cried

The Singularity

This is of course the notion that computers will some day soon out-think their creators and humanity as we know it will vanish, whooshing us into a new age of super-intelligence where computers run the world. We've seen a couple of really cool and interesting movies recently alluding to this idea. I have recently learned that this is actually more than a notion. It is a belief held by many very influential people and is a globally accepted idea (see Times magazine Feb 21, 2011 edition). While I don't argue the math that supports the idea that technology has advanced exponentially in recent years, I do take issue with the predictions of where that technology will lead us. The basic idea put forth by proponents is that humanity and the world will benefit from the vast advances that will occur when the Singularity happens. The basic assumption is that microprocessor based benefits will follow the same exponential curve of technology advancements. A logical conclusion I must confess. And here it is, "but" a huge assumption is made that humanity has actually benefited at all from computers. Have we? Do we love better? Do we care better? Do we war less? Do we lessen global starvation? Is there less catastrophic loss of life from earthquakes, floods, tidal waves, tornadoes and hurricanes? Is there less racial, religious and ethnic strife? From where I sit (comfortably on my modern couch that was likely produced from CAD, typing on my i Phone) we have not really benefited at all from computers. Computers will continue to get faster and software will continue to get smarter. But if they do produce exponentially more good they will arguably also produce exponentially more bad and the net effect will be null at best and catastrophic at worst. But I think I can safely predict that mankind will be no better or worse than he is today. The created will never rise above the creator. Human beings are capable of far more and are are of immeasurably more worth than lifeless circuit boards filled with only ones and zeros. In one sense I suppose the notion of the Singularity is at least consistent with its own origins. If we did in fact arise out of the chaos of primordial soup it is no stretch to imagine that whatever chaos we may create through technology will yield a Coherent and Benevolent Singularity.

Haitian Trip

Day 7

This is a travel day. Everyone is relaxed and preparing for the return trip home. I will miss Ben.

The ladies opted to ride in the back of the truck with Jonas while James and I rode in the air conditioned cab with Jean and Ben. I was reluctant to do this but I didn't want to appear (reveal?) chauvinistic so I relented from opposing this decision. At any rate I was grateful for this gesture as balancing one's self during the bumpy ride in the back was somewhat arduous.

Jr and Jel met us at the airport. This could not have been a simple task for them and we all appreciated their effort to see us off. Hugs were exchanged and we entered the airport building. . That's when it struck me. The Haiti I was leaving was not the same Haiti I encountered when I first arrived. But then I recalled Pastor Ted's words to me as I was preparing to leave the US, "You won't come back the same". He was right, Haiti hadn't changed, I had.

Haitian Trip

Day 6 (Jan 12 - quake anniversary)

I've gotten used to shaving without a mirror. I think perhaps I'm doing a better job than with a mirror since I can't remember where I've shaved so I end up shaving over the same areas multiple times. I'm careful not to cut myself, I don't want to give those possible water germs more of an opportunity to get into my system.

We attended the earthquake commemoration prayer/praise event in Port-au-Prince right next to the crumbling palace. There were several speakers, some Americans but mostly Haitians. A young Haitian boy sang "Emanuel" and brought great glory to God through his amazing vocal ability, very mature and sophisticated vocals for someone of his age. Hands were raised and waving praises to God by the end of the song. I later learned that he was discovered on a Haitian star search event.

Drove out to the 'A New Haiti' property for the tree planting ceremony. We walked up a slight incline to near the top of the property line, away from the ocean, to plant the first tree. When we reached our destination I turned to look back in the direction we had just walked from and encountered the most breathtaking view of the ocean below. You can't see this from the property near the roadside. We planted (actually the Haitians did all the planting - members of Jehovah Nissi were there and participated in the planting as well as a couple of Paula's Haitian friends) several trees. Brook read the passage from Ezekiel for the first and second tree planting. Scores of photos and videos were taken by all. I felt honored to be part of this experience. Moplesur (spelling?) asked me to pray for him as he has just started a small church where he is the pastor.

On the drive home we encountered what appeared to be some kind of riot. It turned out to be a celebration marking the moment when the earthquake finally stopped.

Jel (another one of Paula's friends) admitted that he had difficulty sleeping on the eve of the anniversary because of nightmares about the quake. Some Haitian people didn't sleep at all the entire night.

Haitian Trip

Day 5

Free time all morning then drove to the mountains.

Visited a small village where Jean's sister Yvrose once taught children. We saw the school house where she taught. We also walked to the "lake" and joined some children for photos.

Then we drove to Bill's beautiful two-level home where he intends to house visitors wishing to help in Haiti. Bill came to Haiti to help with the earthquake and I don't think he has returned to the US since.

We then visited Yvrose's home where she and her husband house and care for about 15 orphan children. This is where I met Vince, the little child I held for some time.

We took an olive branch from a tree on Yvrose's property to be used for the tree-planting ceremony tomorrow. I think the tree we will plant tomorrow also came from here.

We stopped to eat supper at a restaurant before returning to Ben's house. The price was reasonable as it came to about seven dollars US. The food was good but not as good as the food cooked at Ben's house.

Haitian Trip

Day 4

Once again I awoke to the sound of crowing roosters heralding in a new Haitian sunrise. The sun rises and sets very quickly in Haiti. This morning there's a girl singing a song nearby. Sounds like she's singing "Hallelujah".

My morning showers have consisted of a small plastic bowl dipped into a five gallon pail of water then strategically poured over my body. Already I've gotten pretty good at taking my shower with less than half a pail.

The accommodations have been luxurious as compared to the norm. We have individual beds with mattresses and pillows to sleep on at night. And we have electricity. No running water though.

The meals have been feasts of meats, rice, fruits and vegetables. I can't help but to feel a bit self conscious about eating so well while others have barely have enough to survive. Obesity is not a problem in Haiti.

The drive from Port-au-Prince last night was dark, as other nights. There's no electricity in most of the dwellings. Only candles and makeshift lanterns. I saw one clever lantern made from the hollow of a car engine piston!

More later.

We visited a childrens orphanage and Brooke gave the 13 water filters the team had to the orphanage. There are 13 children at this orphanage. Hmmm...

Visited City Solei - Jonas school. Children of all ages attend this small "lean-to" style structure of a school. The children were all well behaved during our impromptu visit. Several children held my hand as I passed by them.

We then met with the leaders of Jehovahs Nissi organization. We all introduced ourselves and then we listened as they shared their hearts with us regarding the vision of the joint venture of Jehovah Nissi and A New Haiti. We all prayed together and I felt this was a very significant occasion. I think we all felt this way.

Haitian Trip

Day 3

Visited the purchased land. 100x280 meters. Across the road from the property is the ocean. The drive to the property was a stark contrast to what we saw yesterday. Beautiful mountains and the ocean! But we also saw more tent cities filled with people who relocated to the mountains from the city after the earthquake.

Then we drove to a small community of people living next to the sea. We were given a short boat ride in a boat that reminded me of something that might have resembled a boat that Jesus would have crossed the Sea of Galiley in. Though the shoreline was lined with refuse, the water further out was beautiful bluegreen and clear.

Then another incredible meal at Ben's house. Ben is a man with a true servant's heart. He always shows up with what we need even before we know we need it.

Later in the afternoon we returned to the Graham convention where we experienced the most beautiful Haitian praise to God. We also were able to worship with the Haitians in our native language as some of the musicians were Americans, one of which was Michael W Smith! It appeared that several new conversions occurred as a result of Mr. Graham's presentation of the gospel. We prayed for a child who's mother thought had an evil spirit. We prayed for her also. I trusted in a word that my daughter sent with me as I laid my hands on them. She said, "...everything you put your hand to will be a lasting work of Christ." Thank you Jesus.

Haitian Trip

Day 2

The ride to the Franklin Graham convention was shocking and heartbreaking - unbelievable - unimaginable - the depth of poverty and destitution.

It was difficult, no, impossible to know if many of the "businesses" and dwellings I saw were in the middle of a trash heap or if the trash was in the middle of the businesses and dwellings. I had to talk myself out of nausea for fear that I would have to ask to stop the vehicle so I could be sick.

Today is children's day at the convention - 20,000 estimated children present. Entrance into the stadium was miraculous as we received special passes to hang around or necks that enabled us to roam about freely and take photo's. Also we were given an entire dugout to sit in! Many of the children were smiling. They all appeared to be clean and well dressed. Incredible joy in the midst of unspeakable suffering.

And then I remembered that these same children, when this beautiful event is over, will disperse back into the filth and chaos I just rode through.

Heard pastor Jean's heart regarding his vision for Haiti. We were on the rooftop of the house where we are staying. Later that night we worshipped on the same rooftop under the stars shining over Haiti.

Haiti Trip

Day 1

Haitian guitar player that Jean introduced to me via the Internet (not actual person) was on same flight from Miami to Haiti. He sat next to Jean (probably over 200 people on the plane). I got his contact information as he said he will send CD of instrumental to me!

We got our bags and walked out to meet Ben, our host for our stay. Pastor Jean was very firm in fending off the men who were trying to earn a tip for helping with our luggage.

We we're mostly quiet during the ride to Ben's house. It was getting dark but we were able to get our first glimpse of Haiti, and my first look at what is considered to be a third world country.

Imitators of God

I visited a church recently where the Sunday school teacher exhorted us all that since we were Christians we should "act like it". I wasn't at all intimated nor was I moved to action by those words since I had already concluded that acting like Jesus was an impossibility. Besides, we already have His righteousness, there's no point getting all worked up about trying to look like Him. No one can really, you know, look like Jesus. So I tidily categorized my teacher brother as unenlightened and went on my way. I had already blogged about this a few weeks ago and decided to remove the blog since I wasn't sure how I really felt about it. I wanted to have more insight into this whole idea of “looking like Jesus”. I’m glad I waited to re-post. I think I’ve learned something about this that I’d like to share with you. I will re-post the original (unedited) post entitled, “We Wish to See Jesus” at the end of this posting. I’m doing that because it’s an honest account of my thoughts at that time. I think we all go through times of trying to figure this walk out. That’s what this is about. I’ve pretty much come full circle on this subject. It’s not the first time, and it probably won’t be the last. I believe the reason we have at times this crazy idea that we can actually become sinless is because we already are sinless in Christ and we yearn to see the reality of that manifested here on earth. Which is why Jesus gave us the model prayer, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. So as crazy as it sounds, I still believe that we can live sinless lives here on earth, now. And I’m OK with actually believing it even though it seems impossible at the moment. Isn’t that what faith is? The trick is trusting Him to take me through it, in His time, in His patient, loving, merciful, sympathetic, forgiving, compassionate, faithful time. And in spite of myself!


Now, on to a lighter side of this subject. When some of us hear that we are to be “imitators of God”, we receive that exhortation something like this:

But when we hear the entire exhortation of, “Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children.” we lighten up a bit…

I realized when I read this verse recently (Ephesians 5:1) that children love to act like their parents. If you don’t believe me, take a look for yourselves…





Some children even like to act like their grandparents…

Some kids want to be imitators so much that they’re mesmerized by their parents…





As Christians reflecting the image of our Heavenly Father, we begin to see how important it is to be good role models for our children…

To inspire them to become like us…






To fight the good fight…




Before you know it, we actually begin to look like Jesus. Without even trying, without even noticing…

OK, so here's my original post about looking like Jesus. It's a bit raw, but honest...I'm better now...

We wish to see Jesus
I'm thinking of buying a Jesus outfit. Sandals, a brownish white robe with a rope around my waist, a dark beard and matching wig for my balding head. The only accoutrement would be a whip of cords, mostly for looks, but in hopes that I could show a display of righteous indignation at the opportune time.

Do you know anyone, ANYONE, who looks like Jesus? This question shook me to my core this morning while driving my truck home. It terrified me. Because I'm over fifty years old and I've never met anyone that actually looks like what I'm trying to look like, and what I've spent my entire Christian life trying to look like. Where did I get this idea from? How ludicrous it is that I have thought all this time that I would be the only man in my generation that would actually figure this thing out. I must have thought this. How else can you explain the fact that I was striving for something I've never seen in anyone else? I have imagined that I would reach this level of holiness in my life that I would be able to communicate to others and that they too would arrive, benefitting from my journey. I would save them years of frustrating defeats and disappointments. Yes, I have believed in the eventual sinless perfection of a human being. And although my understanding and belief in God's grace prevented me from burdening others (I hope) with this belief, I have carried it for all of my saved years. To be fair to myself, there have been moments when I consciously recognized the folly of this thinking. But the belief of sinless perfection has remained anchored deep within my soul. I believe the question posed to me this morning was from God Himself. And I'm on a continuing journey with Him for the answer.

We are being conformed to His image. We have the gift of His righteousness as our very own. We have the sinless perfection of Christ’s life (His Spirit) in us as God’s children. We are blessed with EVERY spiritual blessing in Christ. We are holy children of God.

Now there were certain Greeks among those who came up to worship at the feast.
Then they came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and asked him, saying,

"Sir, we wish to see Jesus."

Philip came and told Andrew, and in turn Andrew and Philip told Jesus.
But Jesus answered them, saying, "The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified.
Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.
He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. John 12:20-25

Your thoughts?

The Rest

"There remains therefore a rest to the people of God." Hebrews 4:9
In the journey of struggle, our destination is the promised place of rest. This promise is for here and now on earth. Just as real and certain as is our eternal salvation, so is our eternal sanctification. There is a place of rest for the people of God. Rest from the struggle. This place of rest is found only through the Cross. The place where sin and self were dealt with. The place where we 'know' we are holy and righteous, not because of our conquest of victory, but because He conquered sin on our behalf and has given us the gift of His righteousness. The place where all effort to obtain perfection is abandoned in light of the truth that He has perfected us already in Christ. As we rest in Him, He manifests Himself through us in our daily lives. One of the ways that others will notice we have found our resting place is when the humility of Christ becomes evident in our lives, when they perceive that we love and serve them in ways we hadn't before. The good news is that He is ever leading us in this journey. He is accomplishing a transformation in our lives that only He can perform. And He does it through our struggles. When we see that we don't love as well as we should, we will struggle (labor) to love better. We will work hard at it but to no avail. This is a painful but necessary part of our journey. It is the only way that we will begin to see our need of Him to love through us. We learn that He is faithful to do it, He is faithful to complete it. He can be trusted. This is the journey, this is the rest.
"Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest," Hebrews 4:11

The Struggle

I was saddened to learn of Jennifer Knapp's recent "coming out" in an article from Christianity Today and other sources (the Larry King interview was particularly enlightening). I have prayed for Jennifer over the years since she disappeared from the public eye. I'm still praying for her. I have always viewed her as a fellow struggler. Her music has always spoken to me that way. It still does, even her new material. I purchased her recent CD (Letting Go) just prior to discovering the disappointing news about her. Since then, I have been doing some serious soul searching with regards to struggling. God has us on this journey of self discovery and the way we learn of self is through failure and defeat. It's painful, sometimes even to those around us. But it is the only way we really begin to understand the power of the self life and what He's done for us through His cross to deliver us from it. If we will humble ourselves in our failures and learn from Him, He will show us the way to freedom. This struggle with self is relentless and defies every syllable of truth ever spoken by God to us. Sometimes we become bitter in this fight. We become angry at God and others around us. We become angry at ourselves and our loved ones. But somehow, we always return to our Father, and He washes us clean and softens are hearts again. I honestly don’t know how it is that I haven’t given up the fight, but I haven’t. And I’m unspeakably thankful for that. I know now that the struggles produce a hunger for Him that I would otherwise not have. Over the years, I have seen God deliver me from one form of bondage after another. Every victory has been borne out of struggle.

I almost decided to throw away Jennifer’s new CD. But I’ll keep it for two reasons; because I still hear her struggles and because I still hold hope for her to be restored to her Father, whom she knows – but seems to have forgotten. He hasn’t forgotten her, nor has He “Let Go” of her. And He never will.

Explanation

The scripture references below won't make sense unless you had previously read the now deleted content from those postings. My comments were rather negative towards the media in both blogs and I decided that too much negativity really just doesn't help matters. I don't want to become one of those old men who spend all their time complaining about things and I found myself heading in that direction. I figure Jesus might like this approach better, so that's what I'm going with.

BP, the Media and Me

1 Peter 4:8
1 Cor 12:31

Money, Morality and Mercy

1 Cor 13:4

The Refuge

It was almost nightfall by the time they reached the top. They unpacked their things and built a fire before settling in for the night. Stories were told around the fire and laughter filled the cool night air. Finally, someone asked, "So what are we going to do in the morning?". Eva thought for a moment, smiled and said, "We're going to change the course of history". Then she turned in her sleeping bag, covered her head and said, Sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite." And they did. And they didn't.

Grandchildren

Grandchildren are grand. That's where the word came from you know. The word "grand", I mean. There used not to be the word "grand" until grandchildren came along. Then people started using it for other things like Grand Piano, Grand Canyon, and Grand Prix. They even made a movie entitled, "Gran Torino" (which, by the way, was a grand movie). I love my grandchildren. Welcome Oliver, into this grand world of God's.

LHC & The Big Bang Theory

I've been intrigued by the stories of the Large Hadron Collider for some time now. Here's an excerpt from a report from NPR in 2008 just before the LHC collided with catastrophe:

It will be weeks before circulating beams are made to collide with each other. But Oddone said sending the first beam around is an important step toward full operation of this giant, complex machine. Then, he said, "we can create particles that haven't been seen since a trillionth of a second after the big bang."

Physicists hope a particle they call the Higgs (once referred to as the "God Particle") will emerge. It would help explain why things in the universe have mass. They also hope to manufacture particles of "dark matter" — that mysterious invisible stuff that astronomers believe makes up a quarter of the mass of the universe.

Some models predict that the collider could even create miniature black holes. Physicists say that is a long shot, and certainly nothing to worry about. The black holes, they say, would evaporate — not devour the planet.

"The universe is full of high-energy particles that are much higher in energy than anything we could conceivably make with our puny little accelerators," said John Cramer, a physicist at the University of Washington in Seattle. Very high-energy cosmic rays are slamming into the moon all the time, he said. If this were a problem, "the moon probably wouldn't be there. The fact that it is, probably means that we are safe."

Thanks to multicolored fonts I've already given a clue as to where this monologue is headed. Let me say at the outset that I personally am not the least bit concerned that scientists will destroy the earth with the LHC or any other man made device, unless the LHC is used as sort of an anti-ark, in which case I suppose mankind would have a hand in it. But it wouldn't be by our choice. Besides, I have way too much confidence in scientist's abilities to believe they could do such a thing.

Since I'm not a scientist, I'll ask you to bear with me while I attempt to discuss the Big Bang.

Pretend with me for a moment that a big explosion occurred a long time ago. Bigger than any explosion known to man. And longer ago than any time known to man. The explosion was so big that even though it happened so long ago, it is still occurring (expanding universe). Now the LHC was conceived to try to recreate conditions that occurred just fractions of a second after the Big Bang detonator went off. If you're a believer in the Big Bang story, what do you think? Is this a good idea? I mean should we be trying to recreate conditions that haven't existed since the most explosive stages of the biggest explosion of the entire universe?

Regarding the long shot of the LHC creating black holes, given the payback should you strike it rich with this long shot, would you go for it?

And is it me or is that last sentence a bit disturbing? The use of the word "probably" is what haunts me.

I would like to give scientists a break and imagine that the reporter spoke with a non-scientist, like myself. In that case it would be entirely acceptable to speak of potential catastrophic consequences of playing with laws of physics that might place all of humanity at risk, for the sake of putting down once and for all this mythological notion of a Creator of the Universe.

Unlike me, my wife has a strong sense of justice. But even with my small desire to see the scales settle to level I think that credit should be given where credit is due. That's all I think most people of faith want in this issue of science versus faith. Give credit where credit is due.

Much has been learned and much good has been gained by scientists in their pursuit of the holy grail of a Godless universe. No one can deny that. But the day will come, and perhaps sooner than we imagine, that the community of science will realize that in their quest for pure scientific knowledge and truth, they have all the while been bumping into God Himself.

The Refuge

Eva started the journey back to her village. It wasn't easy trying to remember her way back as she hadn't been to this area of the forest before. Three days later she arrived and immediately began to gather friends to help her with her quest. They filled their trail packs with provisions for the trip and set out for the falls. She hoped she could remember her way there again. After a few wrong guesses and almost four days of hiking they arrived at the falls. Everyone was awestruck with the beauty of the cascading water falling into the increasingly dense mist below, near where they stood. They paused there to rest and eat. The climb to the top of the falls would require great strength and concentration. The misty, roaring air seemed filled with excitement.

Science - From the Latin "scientia", meaning knowledge.

Anti-evolutionists are considered by some to be "anti-science" individuals.

Do you think that, if there had been (and probably were), opponents of the development of the internal combustion engine, they would have been considered "anti-science" persons or heroes?

The point is not to slam internal combustion engines. I still love to hear the sound of a 68 Mustang and a Harley motorcycle.

The point is that the scientific community too easily forgets that it is oftentimes the very source of the development of technologies that have landed us in dire straits, i.e. climate change, in this example. So they need to lighten up when we are skeptical of them. They are not above making mistakes, even big ones.