WE ARE ALL IN THE SAME BOAT

The nation’s cry is to “Make America Great Again”.  The Church’s cry is for “Revival”.  Jesus’ cry is for “Repentance”.  My belief is that we need to start with Jesus’ cry first and the others will probably follow suit.

I cannot speak to the world for I am in the world but not of it.  I have chosen a different path, that of God and His kingdom.  But I can speak to those who claim to know and follow Jesus and His principles.  We all need to Repent, “humble ourselves, seek God’s face, pray, and turn from our wicked ways so that God will heal our nation.”  (2 Chronicles 7:14)  God is clear that the wicked ways He speaks of are, “forsaking Him and hewing our own cisterns” AKA doing things our own way.  (Jeremiah 2:13)

I believe this country was established, not as a Christian nation, but it was established on Godly fundamental principles.  Those principles are foundational for the freedoms this nation enjoys.  When we turn away from the fundamental principles we abuse the freedoms by not using them responsibly.  Once that happens we turn freedoms into “rights” and demands because we have exchanged the Godly fundamental principles for anarchy, which results in disorder and confusion, which results in each person doing their own thing, becoming their own authority, which results in chaos. It is my belief that this state of disorder and chaos is where Satan thrives, grows vigorously, and flourishes.  One need only to look to the news and see this is our condition today.

All of us have blown it; we are all in the same boat in the middle of the storm, and sinking fast.  Believers, nonbelievers, churched, unchurched, Republican, Democrats, liberal, conservative…all of us are in the boat with the waves and wind throwing us around ad battering the boat that will not endure much longer.  What good does it do to shout at one another?  What good does it do to cry “let’s be great again” or “let’s have revival?  Only the one who has power and authority over the wind, waves, and storm can help us now and that One says Repent, humble yourselves, feel regret and penitence for what we have done or failed to do, seek God’s face, and stop our wicked ways.  Then God will hear us, stop the storm and in the calm heal our nation.

Ours is a diverse culture consisting of many religious views and beliefs.  It would make my heart happy if everyone would choose the path I did and enter into a personal Relationship with God through the work of Jesus Christ.  I don’t see that happening at this point in time.  But that doesn’t mean we all can’t at least acknowledge that those who were the Founders of this country did look to God as an authority on what works for a society to dwell together.  Adherence to Godly principles was seen as good and necessary.  If we can at least get consensus on that we can sail in smoother waters and make it to the shore where we can live in freedom and peace in a responsible and respectful way.  This requires responsible behavior and sacrifice for all, but in the end we will all benefit, so it is worth it.

WHEN DID NASTY REPLACE NICE AND BECOME CHIC?

UPDATE

I wrote this and shared my concern on Facebook.  The responses I got were mostly about how this is a reaction to men’s feeling about woman and Donald Trump’s remarks that were exposed during the debates.

WHEN DID NASTY BECOME CHIC?

When Did NASTY become chic?  Houston, we have a problem!  This seemed to be a common thread in the signs I saw and the rhetoric I heard at the Woman’s March this past weekend; “Nasty girl” signs being carried by kids and mothers being proud of that.  This breaks my heart.  We have crossed the line of decency when Nasty becomes our role model and goal.  We have become an adulterous and sinful generation and that is topped off by offending children and making them thing this is the new norm.

Nasty: Disgusting to see, smell, or touch; filthy; malicious; spiteful;

            unpleasant; disagreeable.

Is this really what we want our little girl children to grow up to be?  Is this really what women really want to be?  If we believe our world is a mess now, wait until these ‘nasty girls’ become of age.  Shame on us!  The illusion of happiness and celebration of sisterhood and solidarity is just that; an illusion.

Todays journal entry is a response to my pondering about the responses.

25 January 2017

Who do I look to to define my behavior?  I like to think I am the one who does that but I do have role models I look to for some ideas.  I have been fortunate to have good role models to look to.  I have been mentored by some very strong women who were able to be strong without losing their gentle, kind, and modest selves.  Nice had not become a bad trait like it appears it has become today.  As a follower of Jesus I look to Him to pattern my heart, mind, and soul after. I know that while in the flesh He was male but in reality He was in the form of one flesh, male and female, which is what we will be in our Spiritual being.  Thankfully God kept record in His Story in the Bible of some very strong women who lived in times when women were considered nothing.  But Jesus showed the world something very different.

I am eternally grateful for all of the many role models I have had and I am pleased that I am who I am because of their influence.  My heart goes out to those who have only the allure of what the world says is appealing and what to be desired.  Those role models are an illusion and are not real.  It is clear to me that the “prince of this world” is still as crafty and deceitful as he was at the beginning of time.  It is as if he knows his time is short and he is pulling out all stops.  It is clear to me who our true enemy is in these difficult times. 

It is my prayer that we would not give into “the schemes of the devil.  For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rules, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:11,12).

Let’s make Nice chic again, instead of nasty.

Nice: Pleasing, appealing, considerate, well mannered, respectable, virtuous,

         fastidious, exacting.

There is nothing weak in being nice.  In the end it beats out being nasty, hands down.  Love overpowers hate just as light overpowers darkness.

PS…My reading this morning was in Mark 16.  It was the women who Jesus appeared to after His resurrection.  He told Mary to go and tell the other disciples.  They did not believe the women.  “Afterward He appeared to the eleven disciples and UPBRAIDED them with their unbelief and hardness of heart because they believed not them which had seen him after He was risen.”  (UPBRAIDED means to scold or chide vehemently.)  I smiled.

In the end we will all be held accountable and responsible for our words and behavior.  I want to make good choices.

I Don't Know How But I Do Know Who

Matthew 11: 28-30

Mark 4: 26-28

I find this world exhausting.  I find the negative energy exhausting.  The anger, holding on to grudges when things don’t go my way, unforgiveness of wrongs done to me, holding on so tightly to what I perceive as my rights;  it all just exhausts me physically, mentally, and spiritually. 

These past few years have been restorative for me.  I have been able to resolve things that I could and have learned to let go of the others.  I have come to the conclusion that forgiveness is freeing and repentance is restorative.  The conditions of this country, this world, continually show me that I am right in my thinking and beliefs.  The consequences of the denial of God’s Way for His creation have been played out right in front of us.  I believe an acceptance of God’s Way for His creation is the only satisfactory and sustainable solution.  I know that by the ultimate Truth revealed in Jesus and in the Bible.  I know that by personal experience.

God created human beings for a wholesome Way and a particular path; it is the life and teachings of Jesus Christ that speaks to and provides for that Way to be lived by me.  There is no other Way, Truth, or Life.  When I receive, believe, and commit myself to that Way, I will do well and the snares of Satan will have no hold on me. (Genesis4)

Holding on to wrongs done to me is like running poison through my veins.  It makes me judgmental, mean, angry, and vengeful.  I harm myself as much as whatever was done to me.  I had the opportunity over the past few years to revisit people and situations that did harm in some way to me that I have been holding onto for many years.  I was able to bring resolution and restoration to most of them.  The ones I was unable to revisit I simply needed to forgive.

Some of this work was conscious; some was hidden deep within that I wasn’t even aware of.  But at some point in time I felt a lightness and a freedom in my sol that just manifested itself one day.  I knew something had changed deep in my inner self that was now coming out in my thoughts and feelings.  I felt a joy and a peace that passes all understanding and I knew I was  different as I sat there enveloped in joy, peace, and awe.

What I find true now is that I don’t want to be judgmental, mean, angry, or unloving even when in my mind I can justify being all those things.  It isn’t worth it anymore to be “right” in my mind but hardened in my heart.  I don’t know how this, what I would call a major miracle came about, but I do know Who accomplished it.  I am eternally grateful.  I know now that I want to be yoked together with Jesus forever.

The Bible is God's Story Beginning to End

CATCH THE VISION

God is so much bigger than the cares and concerns of this transient world.

Jesus is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.   The Bible tells me God’s Story, the beginning and the end.  It gives me the panoramic picture, the bird’s eye view of all of life on earth and a glimpse of what it will be in the new heaven and earth.  Looking at that full view gives me perspective for my life in the here and now which is transient and passing by.

Beside the Bible I have a Relationship with the Holy Spirit who knows all that is written on the unrolled scroll of the ages that reveals the future as clear as the past.  The Spirit knows all and daily encourages me to seek the wisdom of God and the secrets that wisdom holds.  Those secrets are revealed in God’s time for God’s people to know, to obey, and to pass them down to our children to know and obey. (Deut. 29:29)

To me the Bible is a treasure book.  It tells me who God is; who I am in God;

what Jesus did to make that Relationship possible; it shows me what a life following Jesus and walking with God looks like.  The Bible prepares a strong foundation for me to stand on when the winds of adversity blow strong; it continually shows me how much God loves me and all He created; it promises me a life forever in His Presence.  My Relationship with God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit always comes first.  But next comes the Bible and its words of love and guidance that strengthens and enhances my times of being in His Presence.

I Choose Enough

The root of ENOUGH yields the fruits of the Spirit

Love, joy, peace, longsuffering,

Gentleness, faith, meekness, temperance.

The root of ENOUGH yields gratitude and thanksgiving.

When I drink from the Fountain of Living Waters

I have no need of building my own cisterns.

When I drink of the water that Jesus gives me

I shall never thirst nor need an empty water pot.

When the Lord is my Shepherd

I shall not want or need anything more.

When I seek first the kingdom of God

All I need will be given to me and I need nothing more.

When I know who God is and who I am in God

It is ENOUGH…I want nothing MORE!

God makes a “Social Contract” with His people

That social contract is based on a Covenant Relationship

Between God and His people.

For me it is ENOUGH

I want NOTHING MORE!

Following Jesus and walking with God is an ENOUGH LIFE

Following the world will always keep one WANTING MORE

I choose ENOUGH!

Enough

Wanting more has been the wile of God’s enemy Satan since the beginning of time.  He empted Eve with gaining wisdom and being like god by eating from the one tree that God told them not to eat from.  God made male and female in His own image and gave them everything they needed; but Satan promised more.  The Israelites were tempted by the ungodly nations to want a king to rule over them rather than God who had led and provided for them for over 40 ears.  Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness with all that was not his to give by saying, “If you are the Son of God do this”, as if being God’s Son wasn’t enough.

Wanting more destroys nations and creates wars.  It makes people envious and jealous of one another.  It feeds the gods of capitalism and consumerism, which results in slavery, classism, and discrimination, the very things that pollute and destroy a society from within.  Wanting more is a most dangerous and destructive weapon because it hides and disguises itself as progress, success, and ‘doing good’ in the world.  But in the end it only corrupts individuals, societies, and nations.

In the movie Babe a powerful statement is made by Babe’s owner.  After Babe completed his task of rounding up and penning the sheep, his owner shut the gates, looked down at him and said, “Enough pig, enough”.  Then they both smiled at one another, those “get ya” smiles that say “all is well with the world”.  It’s that smile that I expect was on God’s face on the sixth day of creation.  It was on that day that He told Adam and Eve that He had given them everything they would ever need.  And God saw everything that He had made and saw that it was good…very good.  In other words, “It is Enough”.

God provided everything that was needed by the Israelites in the desert for 40 years.  They had manna, quail, water, and clothes and sandals that never wore out.  They lacked nothing.  It was Enough!  Then God brought them into the Promised Land and provided great cities which they did not build, houses full of good things that they did not fill, wells which they did not dig, vineyards and olive trees they did not plant.  And then He warned them. “Beware lest thou forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, from the house of bondage.” 

Unfortunately they did forget and did exactly what God told them not to do.  They went after the other gods of the people that were around them.  That behavior and those choices took them right back into bondage again; a bondage that we have inherited and suffer the consequences of.  We ignore the ENOUGH and live in the WANTING MORE, and then complain that we are in bondage and not free to enjoy life.

Jesus shows and teaches us the ENOUGH life in God’s kingdom, where He provides all His people could ever want or need.  It is a life filled with the fruits of the Spirit that are ENOUGH for all.  It is a life lived in God’s Presence that is ENOUGH for all.  It is a life of drinking freely from the Fountain of Living Water, and it is ENOUGH.  Everyone had everything and it is ENOUGH!

Be Not Earthbound

“They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.”

John 17:16

BE NOT EARTHBOUND

“Be not entangled in the things of the world, for they are transitory.

Be not over concerned as to they personal needs,

For your Heavenly Father knoweth what ye have need of

And He will supply it.

I will be to thee what the sun is to the flower;

What the water in the ocean is to the fish;

And what the sky is to the birds.”

BE NOT EARTHBOUND

“Come Away My Beloved”

God Presence is immense.  It is everywhere with no boundaries or tethers.   His Presence is total freedom for my soul.  If I feel out of His Presence or if I feel tethered, those are my feelings, my perceptions.  He puts total trust and faith in me to be His child.  Any chaos or change in our relationship

is my action, not His.

God provides me with all I need or could ever want.  I am free to take all of my inheritance and wander off looking for life.  I am free to squander all of it away and end up in the gutter or feeding pigs somewhere.  That is not God’s Way for me but He never tethers me to His Way and allows me to go my way, no matter how wrong that way is.  But even in my rebellion and wandering off He is always there, waiting for my return. 

No one but me can make the decision to go home.  I must come to my senses on my own, in my own experience.  When I do I will humble myself through conviction, not guilt.  I will remember and realize how good I had it and will return broken and willing to simply be a servant in my Father’s house.  But that is not His intent.  He waits for me, His child, to come home on my own free will…my freely made choice.  When I do I am welcomed and celebrated as His child.  I have had a couple of instances when I didn’t come to my senses and God sent a Nathan to me, just as He sent Nathan to David to make him aware of His wrongdoing.  This is just further proof of how immense God’s love is for me.

The other side is true as well.  God doesn’t want me feeling tethered or corralled, looking out at all that the world offers, feeling obliged to be good but wanting to experience life as the world gives it.  God’s Way is not a Duty to perform, like I am doing God a huge favor by staying in His Presence.  That is a worse squandering of ones life.  One needs to come to one’s senses about that attitude as well.

I look back over my life and see how foolish I was over and over again.  I made bad choices and lived in the consequences of those choices way too many times.  God never left me and I was always welcomed home from my foolish adventures.  I wouldn’t want to squander my life away like that again but I learned from those experiences so I wouldn’t want to change anything. They all go into the compost pile that I keep raking and using to enrich the new growth in my daily life.

The most important lessons that I learned is how much God loves me; I learned what a good Father He truly is; I learned His Way is the best way for me; I learned how much this Relationship with Him means to me. There is nothing that this world offers that even comes close.  God doesn’t tether me.  Being with Him and loving Him isn’t a Duty.  I freely yoke myself to Jesus because I enjoy and receive life from that Relationship and Presence. There is nothing better.

What Will Fix A Broken World

Governments and Institutions are not going to fix our broken world.  I think they are the ones who took part in breaking it.  I used to be a political person, back in the 60’s.  I listened to JFK say, “Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country.  Of course that was back when the government was sending people in the Peace Corps over to underdeveloped countries and helping people develop their land.  Soon we evolved into a government that was sending soldiers over to under developed countries and killing their people and destroying their land.

Many of those soldiers were boys I went to school with and were friends with.  It was then that I became political, not by asking what I could do for the government but demonstrating against what the government was doing to us.  My disillusionment led to a distrust of government and institutions that turned their attention to their form and structure rather than the people they were created to serve and help.  That is the root of my becoming not a Political person but a People person.

Years have come and gone and I have watched governments and institutions rise and fall due to their malfunction.  Unfortunately I have also watched the fall of those governments and institutions bring many people down with them, including myself.  My disillusionment developed over the years into bitterness and cynicism, neither of which becomes me.

I studied Behavioral Science and Psychology to help me figure out what makes people tick, including myself.  I also became a Follower of Jesus, not a denominational or institutional church person.  I began to look seriously at Jesus as I read about Him in my Bible.  I tried my best to do what He did, especially in His encounters with individual people that he met along the way. Following His example suits me.

I have very strong beliefs. I know and love many folks who have very different beliefs than me.  But the way I see it is we are all human beings and we all have hearts, hopes, and dreams that are important to us in our lives.  And we all have a story to tell.  That is where we can meet and love and respect who we are as individuals.  That is where we can become friends rather than adversaries.  Once we meet where we are the same and give one another a safe place to be in each others presence, then we can lay down our weapons and our defenses, pick up a cup of coffee or tea and begin to talk about the what, whys, and wherefores of how we see things differently.  When I look into someone’s eyes I see their heart and humanity that is just like mine.  When I listen and hear their voice speak their cares and concerns about their families and loves ones, and the world they live in, I hear their heart and humanity that is just like mine.  I believe something in that encounter will transform into something good.

For me it is in that place that Jesus comes and joins us.  With Him the Spirit of love, joy, and peace makes His appearance as well.  That brings the hope of healing and the wholesomeness of wholeness.  That is what builds bridges over the divides and can repair the brokenness of this world.

The Bible Is The Story of God Not A Weapon For Terror

I am reading the book Terror In The Name Of God  by Jessica Stern.  I majored in Behavioral Science in college because I have always been interested in understanding why people do what they do, including myself.  Studying it provided not only a degree but also a way to get free therapy.  I like those two for one deals.

The thing I am finding most disturbing as I read these many interviews with Religious Terrorist is the conviction these folks have of what they are doing is based on their belief in the God and in the Holy Scriptures of their declared faith.  They can turn to and point at chapter and verse to justify their behavior that includes killing people and defending their rights to inflict terror and torture on other human beings because of their judgments on them for not believing as they do.  It is clear to me that my understanding of God and my understanding of the Bible is very different from theirs even though the words read are the same.

I am aware that anyone can use verses in the Bible as proof of many things that have nothing to do with God and His Word.  Anyone can justify just about anything by pulling out a verse of Scripture.  I am aware and ashamed that the Bible has been used (misused) for horrible things throughout history.  It sickens me to see verses used as bullets and the Bible used as a weapon.  My knowledge and understanding of God precludes the thought that God inspired His words to be used in that manner.

I have been in an intimate relationship with God and with the Bible for over forty years now.  I read the Bible every day and have read through the entire Bible many times.  I have been to Bible College, and have been blessed to sit at the feet of many competent teachers of the Bible.  To me it is The Story of God and to me it is the Greatest Story ever told.  The Bible is inexhaustible in Truth and guidance for living life well and for how to be in this world with one another.  To have it misused for anything other than good grieves my heart.

One thing that has helped me in my love of reading the Bible and of understanding the intention and purpose of its message and mission, is seeing it as the whole Story of God, not just random verses and bits and pieces to be used individually.  Jesus is the Alpha and Omega of all things; the beginning and the end.  Jesus is the comprehensive Truth of that Story.  The Holy Spirit is the comprehensive narrator of that Story.  God’s words culminate in God’s Word, in Jesus Christ the Messiah.  The Story of God in its fullness is The Truth, the whole Truth, and nothing but the Truth.

Knowing and understanding the whole Story of God was the last lesson Jesus taught His disciples.  Through out the gospels He kept asking His disciples if they understood what He was saying and teaching them.  They kept saying yes but their actions revealed that they really didn’t understand comprehensively.  They really couldn’t until Jesus completed His mission of dying and rising from the dead.  They really couldn’t until Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to give them understanding and comprehension.  Jesus knew that and was patient with them in their frequent blunders.

(Luke 24)

When Jesus completed (finished) His mission of dying on he cross and rising from the dead, before He left to return to the Father He gave them His final and maybe most important lesson.  After showing them His nail scarred hands and feet, and sharing a meal with them, “Then He said to them, ‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophet and the Psalms must be fulfilled.’ Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.”

His disciples were to be His witness of His mission; to die, rise from the dead for repentance and forgiveness of sins so we can be reconciled to God.  He then empowered them with the Holy Spirit, and then He left to return to His place with and as God.

It is clear to me that the Bible has a prominent place in my life, in all lives that claim to know and understand God and His work through Jesus, and that place is not as a weapon or an instigator of hatred or terror on mankind.  It is to tell us the Story of God, to fill us with the sense of awesomeness of who He is and how much He loves us.  It is to teach us how to live life well and how to live life well with one another…all one anothers, in God’s love, God’s joy, and God’s peace.

Obedience To God Is Following Jesus

God speaks and His people do well to listen and do what He says.  In the Old Testament it was about obeying Him.  In the New Testament it is about following Him.  The end result is the same but for me FOLLOWING makes it more meaningful and personal.

Jesus fulfilled the Law and the Prophets.  He IS the Law and the Prophets.  He manifests a life of obedience to God in all that He says and in all that He does.  He them invites those who follow Him to do the same.  In that, obedience is not a burdensome duty; it is a delightful devotion.  When I read Psalm 19 and 119 I suspect that was what the Law was always meant to be.  It is a delight to do what God says because it is nourishing and enriching for the soul.  Being yoked with Jesus isn’t bondage; it is perfect freedom because He knows the Way we are going; He is the Way.  Following Jesus provides the Way to Truth and Life.  What greater delight can there be?

It’s always interesting to reflect back on my life.  It seems like I was always fighting to have my way; fighting people, systems in the world, and fighting God in my life.  I liked my independence and rebellion because I believed they made me free.  I was wrong; it did not make me free because I was continually having to fight to keep things going the way I thought they should be going.  These were good ways not necessarily bad ways…But they were MY ways.

At some point in time I just got tired.  I felt like I was hanging over a cliff, hanging on to the edge of a rock so as not to drop.  My fingers were bloody and I was exhausted, and finally I bit the bullet and just released my grip, closed my eyes, and dropped.  When I opened my eyes I found I was really only a few inches from a wide platform and I sat down and wept.  All that energy, all that pain, trauma, and drama, all that time clinging to My way on a cliff when on the other side was beautiful, empty space.

There was no question in my mind that God was that platform and that He was that beautiful wide open space.  But to be in that free space I needed to let go of my way of being and begin following His Way of Being.  Even in the worst of circumstances I have never regretted that decision.

I lived through an often “hard knock life” with the Bobby McGee attitude that “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose, nothing ain’t worth nothing but it’s free”.  There is some truth to that.  It is necessary to lose everything, including my Self reliant, independent, and I’ll do it my way attitude.  But God puts something beyond that loss; He puts a life.  He puts a life of everything I could ever desire or need beyond the emptiness.  God also provides the Way to that Life in following Jesus who is the manifestation and fulfillment of all the rules, commandments, and precepts that yield that perfect and absolute freedom.

A Discussion With Friends From The Past

God created us to be free.  He created us with the ability to choose.  Right out of the gate we made the wrong choice; we chose no to listen and obey what God had told us to do; we decided to choose to do what we wanted to do. Yes, we were tempted by Satan, listening to what he had to say about God and what we should be desiring.  But the ball was in our court and we made the wrong choice.  No matter who we blamed, it was in the end our bad, and we still continue, even after all the chaos and consequences that wrong choice caused and cost.

God did not create puppets.  He created people whom He loved and wanted to be in relationship with.  He gave us all we could ever want and need but we continually reject it and think we can do better.  He is a Fountain of Living Water and we continue to build our own little cisterns that quickly break and can’t hold water.  He provided a rule and reign that was holy and righteous, filled with love, joy, and peace, but we wanted a king like everyone else had even though that king did not have our best in mind but wanted power and control over us, eventually taking away all our freedom and making us slaves.

And today the ‘beat goes on’ and we continue to do things our way even though we know our track record for making bad choices.  What’s up with that?

We have a God who says, “If my peoples who are called by my name humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”  What is our response?  “I, God, have called and you refuse to listen; I have stretched out my hand to you and no one heeded; you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof.  You hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord, would have none of my counsel.”

God offers us a Fountain of Living Water and we keep choosing our puny little cisterns that continually break and hold no water.  We continually choose our way to live and our way of doing things, thinking that we know best.  What’s up with that?

God’s response is to stand back and let us have our own way. “Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way, and have their fill of their own devices.”  So bad is our behavior that it even causes God to say what is not in His heart, what is not what He does at all because He can’t.  “Because you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof, I will laugh at your calamity. When you call I will not answer; when they seek me they will not find me.” 

We know the whole Story of God and we know that is not what God did.  He continually hears us, sees our mess, and always comes to our rescue.  In the end He sent His own Son to clean up the mess we made and to die for our sin and our rebellion so we could be back in relationship with God.  Behold, what manner of love is that?

At some point in my life I, like the son who was stuck in the mire and mess of the pig sty, realized something.  Oprah calls it a “ha-ha moment”.  That wayward son came to the end of his self, the end of his ‘doing it my way’, and truly came to his senses and realized how good he had it at home with his father.

I realized I was slugging my way through the pig sty, trying unsuccessfully to make do with my waterless, empty cisterns when I could be swimming in the Fountain of Living Water.  Everything changed for me, most important my perspective on God and what I wanted my life to be about.  I now know that when my way is truly God’s Way, all will be well.  My prayer is that everyone will come to that point in their life and have that “ha-ha moment”, and leave their broken cisterns, just as the woman at the well left her water jug after her encounter with Jesus, and come and enjoy the Fountain of Living Water, who is God Himself.  I pray that for all people and all nations.  Then God in His amazing steadfast love will heal each and every one of us and will heal our land.