Local Produce

I listened to a commencement speech yesterday.  In it, the speaker said this, “Our mind needs to be our servant, rather than our master.”  Viewed in the light of my eighty years of experience, and perhaps my tendency to put pleasure in the place of learning, I appreciated the power in that idea.  Later in the day I mentioned it to a young friend, who immediately took issue with the idea of subjugating our mind to the role of servant. Her mind, she said, “was her friend;” she went to her mind “for advice.”  In thinking about that, I remember when I was living as I should not have been living, let’s say that I was immersed in “yellow” ideas. I too went to myself for advice and, no surprise, the answers that I got were always compatible with my, then, yellow perspective.  I needed “blue” answers, but it was the blue world that I had vacated; my actions were more likely to be condemned by “blue” self-counsel.  What is the upshot here? Be super skeptical of self-counsel and self-approval.  They are always biased.

In the course of our divorce, my ex-wife once said, “You don’t make me happy.”
For some inexplicable reason I thought about that today … and …
I walked to the computer to write this:

Depending on oneself for growth and fulfillment is healthy …
Depending on God for happiness, purpose and mission is wise …
Depending on others for any of these is a recipe for disaster …

So far as I know, this site is visited primarily by invited guests.  Last night, I invited a man to visit, and I began to think, what will a stranger make of what he finds here? Perhaps I should explain.

This site contains a few observations about life in general.  Some of those observations reflect my early life in the mountains of Pennsylvania.  Others describe my failures, and the pain that they have caused.  The latter are published solely in the hope that, through reading them, even just one of my readers might be influenced to avoid making the same mistakes.

This site also chronicles a transition between two vastly different worldviews. The first is driven by values that are set by the world around us, by man’s standards, and in many cases, by man’s lust. The second is a Bible centric worldview, which is centered on God’s perfect plan for your life and mine. This change required that I transition my life from what I will call an experience base, to an experience that is faith based.  But I had doubt. To allay those doubts I looked into each of the following:

• The reliability of the Gospels
• The historicity of the Bible
• Authentication of the Biblical account, based on secular writings from the same time period.
• Fine tuning of the universe (fine tuning is readily acknowledged by science, but, almost always, not attributed to God)
• The relationship between creation (the instantaneous occurance of time, space, and matter), and the existing laws of physics.
• The vast improbability that the living cell could have “self-organized” (abiogenesis).
• Evidence to support the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ

With this insight, I found it easy to acknowledge a Creator God, and to accept the Bible (God’s Word) as my “absolute truth.” Faith follows naturally when dealing with that which we know to be true.

When God’s Word becomes our truth, then it is easy to establish rules for living a “God centered” life. Once we are God centered, the attributes of Christianity flow naturally from one’s life. One begins to see the Bible in its completeness, from creation (Genesis) all the way to the new heaven and the new earth (The Revelation). It is from that perspective that a Biblical worldview can emerge.

Why do I care that you hear about this?  I care because, as human beings, we are by our very nature, sinful.  We are, at birth, cut off from a Holy God. Yet, in each one of us there exists an eternal spiritual component. The very essence of Christianity is the process of ensuring that our spirit component is aligned with our Creator God and will exist with Him eternally. God, Himself, designed the process by which this transition is accomplished. He sent His Son (Jesus Christ) to die in our place, thus bearing the punishment for our sin.  All we must do to inherit God’s gift (of eternal spiritual life) is to believe that Jesus was fully God and fully man, and that He died in our place … that he paid the penalty for your sins and mine. Belief is, in its most basic form, simply a conversation between you and our Creator God. I have described this simple process in a webpage entitled Such as I Have, you can see it here.

It is a widely held belief that people will be somehow judged for the life they have lived. The Christian Bible confirms this is true.  Christians will be judged for their performance as believers, with a view to reward.  Non-believers will be judged quite differently.  They will stand before a God from which they are separated, and be reminded of the many times that they have rejected Him.  For the two groups, the outcome is quite different.  As a believer, one of my greatest concerns is for those who will stand judgement as non-Christians. That group of people are the greatest motivator for this website.  I would ask you to approach what I have written here with an open mind, and please … give Christianity a place in your life.

I recently delivered a special needs cat to a friend in my hometown. As we unloaded kitty’s paraphernalia, I realized that I had forgotten his treats. The next morning, I proceeded directly to the local Walmart. Now, if you have not been in a Walmart “super store,” then I suggest that you visit one. On a hazy morning, I would anticipate difficulty in seeing from one side of the store to the other. Having no idea where I might find pet supplies, I approached an employee for assistance. She offered to guide me the considerable distance to the pet supplies, and I accepted. While she was not yet my age, the lady was comfortably over fifty. Thinking that I might be standing next to graduate of the local high school, from my high school, I asked her, “Are you from here?”  “No,” she replied, “I was raised in Grampian” (Grampian is a nearby village in the Pennsylvania highlands). I too had grown up near Grampian, a place that contributed heavily to my childhood memories. After making that known, I asked, “Do you remember Gus Chelgren, who ran the local meat market”? Yes, she did. “And Ward McDonald, the radio and TV repair man?” Yes again. We weaved our way from aisle to aisle, navigating diagonally across the store. “Who was the guy who cut hair in the shop with Ritt Wirts,” I asked? “Dick Flynn,” she shot back (I would view his gravestone inside the hour). “And what about my uncle Richard Thomas, who, for years, taught school in Grampian?” “I’ve heard of him,” she allowed, “but he was a bit before my time.” We soon arrived at pet supplies, I thanked her for her help, picked up some salmon treats, and headed for the front of the store. In the parking lot, I was surprised by a feeling that was almost foreign to me. I had just experienced connection. Home is that rare place where one can encounter a stranger and, in a matter of minutes, you become aware of your roots … the kind that do not grow in today’s mobile society. As I write this, I am back in the state of Maryland, in a place that I would normally identify as my home. I am now aware, however, that nothing exists here that contributed to my childhood memories … quite simply, to the making me. The people that I know here are transients. Like me, they have come from somewhere else; they have lived here and they have worked here, but they are not from here. We have shared days, months, and sometime years together, but our connection lacks some essential ingredient … perhaps it is that ingredient that makes a memory worthy of nostalgia. In today’s world, we move to where the jobs are, often to some unappealing place where our specialty just happens to be in short supply. Our mobility brings about a form of isolation … we find ourselves far from the soft soil of youth … where one easily develops deep roots.

Driving away, I experienced this conflict: Tomorrow, I would go home, to my wife, to my house, to my church and to my cats … but today … I was home … for real. My sincere thanks to the lady in Walmart, who just happened to be from Grampian …

Background:  As Christians, we believe that man is a created being. Our belief system disallows the idea that life, with its magnificent complexities, sprung from even an infinite number of chance opportunities. We believe that God is Holy and perfect, that He is eternal, all knowing and omnipresent. We believe that He created man in his image, and that initially, man also had the (God like) characteristic of holiness (purity, or flawlessness). We believe that as an unblemished being, man could initially communicate directly with his Creator. The opening chapters of Genesis speak briefly to that period in our history. Christians, however, also believe that God created man with free will, and that God knew that we would exercise that free will to violate his rules. That disobedience resulted in our being separated from God (the seed plot of the entire Bible). Another word for that disobedience is simply, “sin.” So, man separated himself from God, and then what? The Bible says, “God showed His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”  This verse describes to God’s plan for individual forgiveness, and for our return to communications with him.

What do we bring to our salvation? Only our sin. The total cost of God’s plan is simply to believe (and that is why we call this whole thing “faith”).

Getting Back to My Question:  It may come as a surprise to some, but God’s well documented plans extend far beyond His Plan for our salvation and beyond this present moment in history. That is where the entirety and continuity of the Bible comes in. The Bible describes creation, God’s selection of the Jewish people to function as human forbearers for His Son Jesus. It describes the details of Jesus’ earthly life and His ministry. As an aside, can you think of anyone else who changed all of human history, while working in His appointed field for only three years? The Bible does not end with the life of Jesus, His crucifixion, and His resurrection, it goes on. After His resurrection, we read about the establishment of His church, that is, the body of believers that we see in the millions of Christian churches that exist today. The Biblical account of Christianity also includes a picture of current and future world history, a picture that accurately reflects on our current times. The Bible tells us that morality will decline, wars will happen; churches will no longer see the Bible (God’s Word), as objective truth, Christians will compromise Biblical rules and the church will accommodate what the people desire to hear, rather than God’ dictates. But I digress.

At this moment, we are still living in what is known as the “Church Age.” During the Church Age, God’s plan for man’s salvation is to be spread to the entire world. During this age, salvation available to everyone. It is a period when love remains the predominant aspect of God’s relationship with man. This circumstance will continue until, at some unknowable moment, God snatches up His church (His believers), in an event referred to as the rapture. When the rapture occurs, God’s offer of salvation will abruptly end. At the rapture, the Church Age will end and the “tribulation period” will begin. At the end of the tribulation, the well known “second coming of Jesus Christ” will occur. With His second appearance, Jesus will banish His enemies and set up His kingdom on this earth. He will restore Israel, and He will rule from Jerusalem for one thousand years (to be fair, I need to tell you that I am describing a pre-millennial view of the future).

The Hard Facts: At the end of His thousand-year reign, Jesus will conduct a great judgement. Every person who ever lived will be bodily resurrected and judged for how he or she lived his or her earthly life. For folks who lived in our era, God will remember when we ignored, or made fun of His Word and his messenger; God will remember each time that you found more important things to do on Sunday, than gathering to worship with His church. Most importantly, God will remember what we did with His plan, His Son, who bled and died so that our sins could be forgiven. He will know if you have ever given that act of love your thoughtful consideration. That, my friends, is how and when, a “loving God” will finally get angry, and how those who delay too long will stand in front of Him in a terrible Judgement.

Once God’s offer of salvation has ended, nothing can change the outcome. The only difference that Holy judgement is going to make is this, you will have stood in front of the Almighty, and God Himself will have reviewed your life choices. You will fully understand your own condemnation. There will be no further opportunity for “buy in.” 

Let me review; saved by grace means, saved from an eternity of separation from God. It means saved from a one-on-one judgement in front of an angry God, and it means saved from eternal punishment. Here is an excerpt from the Biblical book of The Revelation. It describes both God’s final judgement and the potential for “forever” separation that I’m writing about.

The Revelation, Chapter 20:

“And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.

And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.

And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.“

Allow me to leave you with this; there are two ways to live this life:

The first, is to ignore God and do things your own way. One of the biggest mistakes in this approach is to think that we can somehow be good enough to get to heaven, or that we can establish our own criteria for salvation. And there are some who believe that you are just orders of magnitude smarter than the foolish folk who fall for Christianity.

The second way to live this life is to believe that God is authentic, to recognize our sinfulness for what it is (separating), and to believe in God’s Son’s life-giving rescue mission that provides forgiveness of sin, oneness with God, and Salvation. After that, you might even find it exciting to seek Him and to follow Him.

One last thought, knowing that salvation exists is different from acting on it. In Romans 10:13, the Bible says, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Calling on the name of the Lord is an action. You can find a complete description of the action required here.