Luck?

As a practicing Christian, who has faith that Christ is invested in my welfare, I must admit that I do not believe in luck. Luck implies that the universe and all that exists in it, is dependent upon a mindless element of chance. 

That’s just not good enough for me.

Not wanting my now and future to be determined by nothing more than mathematical odds, I choose to believe that every hair on my head is numbered, my DNA is specifically and beautifully sequenced. I can depend on this not just because of faith for my now’s and future’s but because of all my been there’s. If history is the best teacher, I can do the math and come to the sum total conclusion that my every step, and misstep, every right and wrong, every good and bad choice, has been measured by the One who knows from beginning to end. 

Because I trust that while I fall far afield from perfect, I don’t have to depend on my perfect moves to see me through the chaos and challenges of living because Christ in me is perfect and He is the author of all things possible. All things means I am never dependent on mere capricious happenstance. I am totally reliant on Him to get me to the other side, to the end of all battles, to the calm after the tempest. 

This does not mean there is always a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow but it does mean there is always a  rainbow after the storm. 

There is no arguing that being Christian in this humanist age is tantamount to declaration of war. It’s not only our personal individual battles now, it’s so much bigger and really it comes down to learning the lessons of all the challenges and hardships that get thrown in our paths. How do we handle this? Do we armor up and understand that what we want is not the goal? If you are an open vessel of God, you listen, obey and trust. If you are prompted by Him and not just by your own will, you find not only the process but the outcome may not be what you thought it would be but it will be the best possible because He knows from beginning to end.

Luck has nothing to do with it.

For Him,

Meema

(Hebrews 11:1) Now faith is assurance of [things] hoped for, a conviction of things not seen.  

Forty Minutes

“It’s just a movie.”

“Take off your ‘religious glasses’ and just enjoy the spiritual experience.”

These are several comments I’ve read from those who defend The Shack. 

If I wore religious glasses I’d have to take them off so I could weep. 

Have you ever reached the place where you know that nothing you say matters anymore? To realize that there’s no way to open the eyes of those who refuse to see? When you hit that low spot you suffer a sense of helplessness that transcends hopelessness. 

That’s where I am. 

Those, (and that means both of you) who have read this blog for the past five years know that I have spoken out in as many ways I know how to pull words together against the slow poison of New Age and how so close to the real deal it is those without discernment cannot see just how counterfeit it truly is. Since I have run out of words and, for that matter, tears, I am going to share a link to a 40 minute sermon from someone who says it all in the clearest of language. 

I share this in this quiet place to all but in this era of attraction to the siren call of good for goodness sake, my heart is hurting knowing that it’s really just for those with eyes to see and ears to hear. 

If you have even a grain of doubt, a tiny catch in your gut, watch this. What’s 40 minutes? If you are satisfied that God doesn’t care what we fill ourselves up with, then ignore this warning. But know this - the five foolish virgins were not pagans but believers who were too busy with distractions to keep their lamps filled. They were told, “I never knew you.”

I'll say this one more time - get it or don't.

For Him,

Meema

The Shack Uncovered

Arrogance

We don’t watch new movies much anymore. Call us old school, old fogey, or whatever you like, Poppy and I are simply not entertained by most of what Hollywood puts out nowadays - agenda so thick you can cut it with a knife - and all. However, occasionally, if the time is just right, things aligned not too early or too late, we will pick a title from Netflicks assured that we can pull the plug and move on any moment we feel we are wasting our time.

Recently, we chose to try the movie Interstellar starring Matthew McConaughey. A sci-fi presentation of a future dying earth and a secret NASA working overtime to find a new planet to keep the human species from extinction. Lots of speculation about worm holes, relativity and the unquenchable desire to conquer science and space. Lots of good special effects and decent acting too, even if a tad long, I’ll give it that. 

Here’s what I came away with though:

I get it that humanity is self-absorbed and full of it’s own intellectual wonderfulness and thus it’s way easier to depict humans believing there is an advanced civilization somewhere out there - gently referred to in awe inspired whispers as ‘they’ who are working overtime to communicate with us to help us to evolve.  But I find that ironic. We are willing to accept there are beings, smarter, more advanced than us (of course) who might have even birthed us, who are out there rooting us on to finally step through the veil of ignorance and rise to higher understanding and ultimate perfection. And yet we readily dismiss the idea of a Divine Creator as a fairy tale, nothing more than pure and ludicrous fiction. 

Humans cannot stop from speculating, imagining, and creating moving stories about all the possibilities in the known and unknown universe, but not a God whose existence and personage we simply can’t wrap our brains around? [spoiler alert] In this movie, if I got the gist of it correctly, ‘they’ is actually us. A future us, directing, as best we can, the more primitive now us. Because, well, because, sometime in the future we are going to finally figure it all out and fix everything.

That arrogance might be one of many reasons I don’t find modern films satisfying. Perhaps I’ve evolved and left in the dust the doubters, deniers, and humanists who believe in the best good us is achievable if we would simply stop hating and love and focus on the reality of science. To ponder the questions that have already been satisfactorily answered for me feels akin to a high school student being asked to repeat first grade. 

Here it is - I can’t un-know what I know and that makes speculation on the topic of why we are here and what our destiny is moot, if not juvenile, for me. Some might call this closed-mindedness but to that I can respond with a question: Let’s say you have a degree in Quantum Mechanics, how would you explain quantum physics to a six year old? You can’t. Does that mean you don’t have some understanding of quantum physics just because you can’t explain it to someone who doesn’t have an advanced education? 

Others might call this arrogance on my part, to boldly declare that I know things that many do not, but in an age where evil is good and up is down, I ask... 

What if the worst kind of arrogance is embracing anything that refutes there is a Sovereign God and another dimension of being that our minds cannot understand, and that there is an ultimate day of reckoning for those who are determined to ignore the existence of a reality because it challenges human intelligence? 

What if indeed...

For Him,

Meema

(Luke 13:24) Strive to enter in by the narrow door: for many, I say unto you, shall seek to enter in, and shall not be able.  (13:25) When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, open to us; and he shall answer and say to you, I know you not whence ye are;  (13:26) then shall ye begin to say, We did eat and drink in thy presence, and thou didst teach in our streets;  (13:27) and he shall say, I tell you, I know not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity.  (13:28) There shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and yourselves cast forth without.  (13:29) And they shall come from the east and west, and from the north and south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God.  (13:30) And behold, there are last who shall be first, and there are first who shall be last.