Category: Brother Al (Page 6 of 68)

Chapter 12 of Ezekiel records two dramatic prophecies.  The first (3-16) is an enactment of God’s people going into exile.  The second (17-28) dramatizes the stress that is experienced by the impending disaster.   In verse 18 the Lord informs Ezekiel, “Son of man, tremble as you eat your food.  Drink your water with fear, as if it were your last.”  Ezekiel was to give this message to the people because, “they will eat their food with trembling and sip their tiny portions of water in utter despair, because their land will be stripped bare on account of their violence” ( 19).  God was asking Ezekiel to roleplay a captive in Jerusalem at the time of the siege on the city.  God was giving fair warning regarding the stress and anxious in the days ahead.  Could this apply to our nation?  Will we experience a collective collapse emotionally and spiritually?    

Then in verses 21-28 the prophet warns the people that judgment was about to come.  Less than six years after these warnings were given, Jerusalem would be captured.  The people had come to believe an often-quoted proverb, “Times passes, making a lair of every prophet” (22).  But Ezekiel was to give a new meaning to the proverb, replacing the contemporary proverb. “The time has come for every prophecy to be fulfilled” (23).  God does not favor all “the false visions and misleading predictions about peace in Israel. (12:24).  The Lord declares, “For I am the Lord!  What I threaten always happens.  There will be no more delays, you rebels of Israel!  I will fulfill my threat of destruction in your own lifetime” (25).

The Lord spoke further about the apathy of the people.  “Son of man, the people of Israel are saying, ‘His visions won’t come true for a long, long time'” (27).   But God wants them to know there will be, “No more delay! I will now do everything I have threatened! I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken.” (28). There was a dismissive attitude about the words of Ezekiel, in which the people acknowledged the prophet’s words, but really wondering if his timing was off.  The people could not fathom the fall of Jerusalem.  In effect, they were saying “Right word, but wrong timing, Ezekiel.  Good try!” But the Lord who gives the word will also bring it to pass, without fail.   

Recently my wife and I were on a spiritual retreat with another couple we have known for many years.  We had plenty time alone. During one of those times, I felt I was being asked to answer three questions.  Each of these relate to this passage in Ezekiel.  1) Are you ready? 2) How are you preparing? and 3) Are you willing to suffer?  I would like to reflect on each three questions for men in the light of our cultural propensity to avoid the thought of God’s eminent judgment on our nation.

First, are we ready.  Jesus warns us, “So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him” ( Matt. 24:44).  We are not the follow Jesus as “part-timers.”  We need to be all in for the long haul.

Secondly, are we prepared?  Remember the story of the ten virgins?  Only the virgins who had enough oil in their lamps were able to meet the bridegroom.  Men, do we have enough “oil” in our spiritual lamps for the days to come?

Thirdly, are we willing to stand and suffer.  Jesus warned, “All men will hate you because of me.  But not a hair of your head will perish.  By standing firm you will gain life” (Luke 21:17-19). Our confidence is in Jesus, but the coming days will bring stormy weather.

I am writing this blog on Sunday night (the 3rd of Nov.) before the aftermath of the elections.  I am writing to warn men who read this blog to have godly restraint in the days to come.  The enemy has stirred up anger and hatred to a fever pitch in the media.  Men need to refrain from falling into this ugly stew.  We have a wonderful opportunity to show those around us who we really are –  Overcomers.  “This is the victory that has overcome the world, ever our faith.  Who is it that overcomes the world?  Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God” (I John 5:4-5).  

In our weekly bible study in our apartment building, believers gather from  different church backgrounds.  I consistently tell them that we will not talk politics, leading us into  rabbit holes with no hope of finding light.  I have said repeatedly that our focus is three fold.  First, the guidance of God’s eternal word; second, the Lordship of Jesus in all our affairs; and three, the kingdom reign of Jesus.  We pray often, “may our kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”  On these three issues we have a firm standing.  Men, may you be on solid ground.  We will be able to withstand the coming storm with a focus on these three principles.

We don’t know the future, but we have absolute confidence that in Jesus we are overcomers.  Paul give us encouragement. “We don’t yet see things clearly.  We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist.  But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the  sun shines bright!  We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!” (I Cor 13:12 Message) Then Paul reminds us of love showing the way.  “But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly.  And the best of the three is love” (I Cor 13:13 Message).

Earlier in Chapter 13 of I Corinthians, Paul give a picture of  a loving person.   Men, ask God to be merciful and gracious to you, giving you the courage  to be a loving man in the days to come, a man who has overcome in Jesus.  You don’t know the outcome of the elections for our nation, but you are reigning with Jesus.  All thing will  work for the good of God’s reign in our affairs.  

Paul says the love that God puts in our hearts will have the following result in our attitude.  “This love of which I speak is slow to lose patience – it looks for a way of being constructive.  It is not possessive: it is neither anxious to impress nor does it cherish inflated ideas of its own importance…..It does not keep account of evil or goat over the wickedness of other people. On the contrary, it shares the joy of those who live by the truth.  Love knows no limit to its endurance, no end to its trust, no fading of its hope; it can outlast anything.  Love never fails. (I Cor 13: 4 &6-8).

Men, in the days to come, know that His love in you will help you weather the storm that is coming.  Paul prayed, “And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.  May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully (Eph. 2:18b -19 NLT). 

This is the title of an article in First Things by theologian Peter Leithart.  I marvel how spiritually astute theologians  can express their thoughts in such a concise and profound manner.  I found this to be true of Leithart’s discussion of sexuality.  I hope I can do justice to his very insightful article in this short blog. He begins with this insightful statement, “Ours is an age of sexual insanity.”  After giving a litany of examples, he notes, “Our sexual ethic reduces to a single prohibition: Thou shalt not suppress any sexual desires.”  

“How can we free ourselves from the morass,” wonders Leithart.  He points us to the Song of Songs (S of S 4:16-5:1). “At the center of the Song of Songs is a garden scene: Bridegroom and Bride rejoice in one another in an erotic Eden, which rekindles the sexual bliss of a new Adam and a new Eve, fired by the unquenchable flame of Yahweh’s love.”

He asks, “What is restored?”  It is found in the dance of mutual desire between male and female.  “The Bride initiates the duet, longing for the Bridegroom’s inebriating kisses, intoxicated by his fragrance, hoping to escape to a chamber where they can drink together the wine of love….. .their desires are fulfilled in an erotic banquet where each is both host(ess) and fare.”   Sexual purity is restored as it burns white-hot.  Leithart notes, “Each receives, each gives; each is consuming, each is consumed.  For Solomon, something like erotic delirium, charged by the current of mutual passion, is the pinnacle of sexual rationality.” Leithart suggests, “far from dividing or separating, sexual disjunction ‘links.'”  

Solitude isn’t good for either men or women.  “In the erotic Eden of the Song, woman becomes herself by virtue of her magnetic attraction to the man, while the man is man as he bends in desire toward his bride.”  We are not able the understand the reality of “woman’ without co-implicating the reality “man.”  When man and woman are restored to their polarity and harmony, the Song’s erotic Eden portrays a humanity no longer disabled.

Bu the Song isn’t just a love story.  The bridegroom is the lover, Yahweh.  The bride is not a generic beloved, but the Bride of Christ.  The erotic Eden of the Song is also a liturgical Eden, where the Creator communes with man in the original marriage whose icon is the disjunctive union of male and female.”  If we read the Song as both a poem and allegory it helps us with sanity.  We need to see the liturgical Eden as well as the erotic Eden.

Leithart closes with this observation.  “But we can’t reach past the liturgical Eden to seize the erotic Eden.  The liturgical enacts the archetypal reciprocity and bi-polarity of Bridegroom and Bride.  The path to sexual sanity passes through the liturgical dialogue of Christ Jesus and his church, which alone restores our broken sexuality and models the polyphonic love for which God created us in his image as male and female.” 

I embrace the images of erotic and liturgical Eden.  Most evangelical have not focused on the liturgical Eden, whereas the past history of Christian spirituality has given us many commentaries on the Song, seeing the church as the bride and Jesus as the bridegroom.  This has been my view for nearly thirty years.  It has helped me to experience my sexual energy intermingled with my spiritual energy.  My sexual passions are as holy as those of my spiritual passions.  I can admit that I am a soulful man with erotic desires.  May my deepest passion be for the Lord, while not being ashamed of my sexual energy.     

My journey as a follower of Jesus, in the fourth quarter of my life, has been influenced by the Carmelite spiritual stream of the Catholic Church, especially St John of the Cross.  I have needed help to making St John relevant in my life.  I have found help in the person of Fr. Donald Haggerty in his teachings on contemplative prayer.  One of his books “Contemplative Enigmas” includes a quote from Saint Edith Stein, a Jewish convert to the Catholicism.  Here is her quote.

“We are a spiritually impoverished generation; we search in all the places the Spirit ever flowed in the hope of finding water.  And that is a valid impulse.  For if the Spirit is living and never dies, he must still be present wherever he once was active forming human life and the work of human hands.  Not in a trail of monuments, however, but in a secret, mysterious life.  He is like a small but carefully tended spark, ready to flare, glow and burst into flame the moment he feels the first enkindling breath.”  

Personally, I have been struggling in my twilight years to become more of a “soulful” man.  I have always been a “heart” person, that is, someone who is more in touch with his emotions then with his “head.”  I connect first with heart, then head.  Even so, I have been reluctant to become aware of my inner life.  In my cry for transparency and authenticity, I have come to realize that I have been more of a “surface” man rather than a “soulful” man.  My time in retirement, having a home in a senior apartment complex, has given me ample opportunity to practice “soul care.”  It has been both liberating and painful.  But my wife (my spiritual director) thinks I am making progress. 

I have learned to embrace such terms as “longing, desire, thirst, and hunger” in my walk with the Lord.  After 40 years of being exposed to the teaching of St John of the Cross on the spiritual life, I am finally making some connections in my walk with the Lord.  The concept of “The living flame of love” speaks to my longing for God.  Deep within my soul the presence of the Lord is like a flame of love, waiting for me to discover the depths of His love for me.

The Palmist wrote, “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.  My soul thirsts for God, for the living God” (Ps 42:1-2a).  In his poem, St John puts it this way.  “O living flame of love / that tenderly wounds my soul / in its deepest center! / Since now you are not oppressive, now consummate! / If it be your will / tear through the veil of this sweet encounter!” My interpretation – “God you have come to my deepest center in love.  You call me your beloved.  But I have a hard time knowing your love for me.  Brake through the veil of my ignorance so that I may rest in your love.”  This for me is a lifelong process.  John has helped me.

One more passage from the “flame of love.”  “How gently and lovingly you wake in my heart / where in secret you dwell alone; /and in your sweet breathing, /filled with good and glory / how tenderly you swell my heart with love.”  My interpretation – If I am still and listen to my soul life, I become more aware of His love for me which “passes all understanding.”  I don’t understand or fully discern His love for me, but I have the assurance beyond my comprehension that I am His beloved. 

Axios Twin Cities had a very disturbing online article entitled, “Right to lie.”  They were dealing with the issue of “why campaign lying is generally legal.”   As the campaigns attempt to sway voters during this campaign season, politicians will “face few, if any, legal consequences for stretching the truth or telling outright lies.”  Voters are going to be inundated with political TV ads, mailers and texts.  There will be many questionable claims.  “But a long history of court rulings protects politicians’ ability to lie in most cases.” 

Political speech is foundational under the First Amendment. “Lies are not only protected, but even more so for politicians.”  Travis Ridout at Washington State University notes, “We do have laws against defamation, but usually the burden is very, very high when it comes to public figures.”  A lot of leeway is provided for politicians to make exaggerated or misleading campaign claims. Victor Menaldo at the University of Washington points out, “voters should always be skeptical and never take what politicians say at face value.” Then he makes this incredible observation, “Politicians are not in the truth business, but in the power business and quite often the truth is collateral damage.” 

During this political campaign cycle Americans’ top concern around misinformation is politicians spreading it to manipulate their supporters.  “54% of respondents in a survey agreed with the statement, ‘I’ve disengaged from politics because I can’t tell what’s true.'” Half of the voters who were polled said when it comes to political news and the media, “it’s becoming too difficult for them to tell what is true and what if false.”  John Gerzema, CEO of the Harris poll observed, “It used to be, we were worried about China or Russia, fake ads or Facebook.  Now, no, it’s coming from the campaigns.”  

Like so many Americans, godly men are frustrated, not knowing who to believe during this election season.  “Eight in 10 voters said they believe that misinformation can significantly affect election, political discourse and civility.” The article encouraged readers to check other sources to fact check the information they receive.  But we are told to be patient.  “It can take time for reporters and others to get to the bottom of whether a claim is true or false.  If something you see seems unbelievable, it’s smart to take a beat before sharing it more broadly.”  

So, who is the best source for “fact checking.”  As follower of Jesus, we have a great fact checker.  When Jesus was confronted by Pilate, the reply of Jesus during this intense political confrontation should give us guidance in our fact checking. Jesus declared, “I was born and came into the world to testify to the truth.  All who love the truth recognize that what I say is true?”  To oppose Jesus and His kingdom is to believe and be deceived by a lie.  

Jesus warned us that our arch enemy, the devil is behind all lies. “He was a murderer from the beginning.  He has always hated the truth, because there is no truth in him.  When he lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44).  Men, remember during this election season, we are in a battle for the truth.  Jesus is the truth. The devil is a lair.  

We still have to do the work of discerning the truth along with fact checking.  Knowing truth will not be easy.   Praise God, with our eyes on Jesus during this election season, we will be following the truth.  So, in dialogue with others, while not having the full answer, we can declare Jesus as the sure truth. 

Matthew 7:1-3 reads, ” Do not judge, or you too will be judged.  For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and  with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”  The Message translation makes clear a critical spirit is the result of judging other people. “Don’t pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults – unless, of course, you want the same treatment.  That critical spirit has a way of boomeranging.”   

The Message goes on to translate verses 2-5 as follows.  “It’s easy to see a smudge on your neighbor’s face and be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own.  Do you have the nerve to say, ‘Let me wash your face for you.’ when your face is distorted by contempt? It’s this whole road-show mentality all over again, playing a holier-than-thou part instead of just living your part.  Wipe that ugly sneer off your own face, and you might be fit to offer a washcloth to your neighbor.” “A holier-than-thou” attitude is convicting to me as I encounter the decadence of our day. 

I must confess that I am convicted of having a “critical spirit.”  In today’s cultural environment, which is intensely polluted with anger, , and vindictive attitudes, I have to be vigilant to not pick up a “critical spirit.”  Rather I desire to be loving, forgiving and putting the best construction on another person’s belief, behavior, and especially attitude.     

Years ago I was influenced by the healing ministry of John and  Paula Sandford.  I learned that a critical or judging spirit, will set in motion the principle of sowing and reaping.  They taught, “The fundamental laws of God are written into the universe and affect our lives as surely as gravity.”  When we transgress these laws, we set in motion forces that will be reaped by a simple, impersonal law. “In our sinful responses to wounding, we begin early to develop patterns of behavior that cause us to reap in adulthood the very things we hate.” 

We will sow and reap in kind.  We judge and do more of the same.  “The pain we reap often seems out of proportion to the harm we have done.  But Matthew 7 is clear.   “A critical spirit has a way of boomeranging.”  We are reminded in Gal 6:7, “Don’t be mislead.  Remember that you can’t ignore God and get away with it.  You will always reap what you sow.”  “This means we cannot ever lose our reward, but neither can we escape our fleshly deeds.  Those who think they have gotten away with something fleshly will nevertheless reap harm.  In fact, the longer a sin goes unrepented, the greater the reaping will be. ‘They sow the wind, and they reap the whirlwind’ ” (Hosea 8:7)

Here are three principles I have to continue to practice, so as not to develop a “critical spirit.”  First, I need to practice a lifestyle of unilateral  forgiveness.  There will be sharp disagreements  with others, I will have a different lifestyle and I will not agree with the behavior and attitudes of others.  But I owe them the love and acceptance of the Lord.  “What is important is faith expressing itself in love” (Gal 5:6). 

Secondly, I don’t want to be someone who  complains and argues about our negative culture.  “In everything you do, stay away from complaining and arguing, so that no one can speak a word of blame against you” (Phil 2:14).

Thirdly, in the midst of so much bad news, I want to be an instrument of “Good News.” “The Kingdom of God is near! Turn from your sins and believe this Good News” (Mark 1:15). Focusing on the kingdom is “Good News.”

In an article entitled “Men only want one thing” in Comment magazine, men are referred to as being like “timber.”  “Will they be shaped into good, sturdy beams and joists that will shelter, support, and protect?  Or will they shape themselves in their own wild ways, producing knotty. weak, and crooked lengths that don’t do anyone any good?”  May we be “good timber.” The author, Nathan Beacom, suggests “there’s something about America today that doesn’t jibe with the male psyche.”  The author believes monasticism offers keen psychological insights into the psychic and moral wounds of men.  

Beacom offers a spectrum of manhood.  One the one end is “the tough man.”  “For many men this tough guy leaves festering wounds of inadequacy and insecurity that can lead to all kinds of pathological behaviors.”  On the other end of the spectrum is “the sophisticated ally.”  “The ally tends to talk down his own sex in an effort to set him apart from the negative strands of masculinity.” Then there is the “full man,” having the moral ideal of a man expressed in gentleness and goodness.  “Failing this, strength, size, speed, aggression, and active sexual desire remain – but untutored and undisciplined.”

The author favors a “gentle man,” who is an integrated man, “both iron and disciplined on the one hand and gentle and patient on the other…….[which ] finds a harmonic resonance with the Christian monastic tradition.”  The Rule of Saint Benedict, “contains sharp and enduring psychological insights into the process of taking the raw material of masculinity and shaping it into good manhood.”  The Rule identifies “three key developmental strands that are lacking in our culture today: fatherhood, brotherhood, and discipline.”

First is fatherhood.  “Manhood is passed in only one real way: from man to man.”  The rule sees the self-willed man who sets his own law based on his desires.  “This is the shepherdless man, the hedonistic man, the destructive man.”  “Cultivating good young men requires that we support structures that prioritize male-to-male mentorship.”

Secondly, along with the fatherhood of the monastery is its “brotherhood.”  “By intentionally living among brothers with a common vision, men set a higher standard toward which they could encourage each other and against which they could measure themselves.”

Finally, there is the life of abstinence, of asceticism, of discipline. The monks know “asceticism (spiritual discipline)…..is not a simple refusal of good things.  Rather, it is a way of disciplining the soul and a chief weapon in the battle against the self.” 

Beacom goes on to offer a simple formula for the duties of manhood: “protect, provide, and establish.” “We need,” the author suggests, “the moral equivalent of monasticism.”  What does this mean?  “We need to be intentional about cultivating male spaces for brotherhood and mentorship in the path of virtuous living.” 

The author closes with these words.  “Our men must be gentle, and they must also be men.  The idea of a gentle man embodies a fullness of vision that embraces all that is positive in men, including their unique ways of displaying gentleness, tenderness, and charity. We cannot have one without the other……..the tradition of the monastery embody some of what is best in the combination of manhood and gentleness for all men.” 

The early monastic movement was an attempt to flee from the world in order to save it.  The monks made a significant contribution in preserving western  culture.  Could the monastic model be modified so as to rescue men from our present dying culture, in order to help men to be “good timber” in our day?  Could it be that men banding together, might find a model among the monks?    

On April 15, 1912, when the liner Titanic was declared doomed, men gather each year on that date at the Titanic Memorial in Washington, D.C. The Men’s Titanic Society gather to honor the passenger who donned evening clothes in order to die like a gentleman. They annually offer a toast: “Chivalry, gallantry, bravery and grace….To the young and old, the rich and the poor, the ignorant and the learned, all who gave their lives nobly to save women and children.  To those brave men.”  

“Men seem to instinctively treat masculinity as the call to die so that others may live – the highest form of sacrifice,” notes Nancy Pearcey. That principle seems to be built into men’s created nature.  Pearcey, however, makes a distinction between a “good man” and “real man.”  She calls the “good man” ideal as the software of God’s creation, while the “real man” stereotype reveals the “virus of sin.”   

In her book, Pearcey notes the work of sociologists, who have discovered that active churchgoing evangelical men have the lowest rates of divorce and domestic violence,  while the “nominal” men who identify as Christians because of their cultural roots, but rarely attend church, have the highest rates of divorce and domestic violence – even higher than secular men.  These “nominal Christian men” often “internalize the real man script, while defending their behavior by pinning Christian language on their abusive beliefs.” 

“When it comes to real issues in the lives of real men, far too many religious leaders are looking the other way,” she observes.  Meanwhile books are being sold with titles such as, “I Hate Men,’ “The End of Men,” “Are Men Necessary,”Boys Adrift,” “Why Boys Fail” and “Why Men Hate Going to Church.”  

Pearcey makes this insightful observation: “On Mother’s Day, we hand out roses and praise mothers.  On Father’s Day, we tend to scold men and tell them to do better……We need to talk about the positive things men are doing, while also trying harder to find ways to reach out to the nominal men and speak the truth about what it means to be a good man.”  She warns the church, when she says, “The most common mistake pastors make is to assume that domestic violence is a marriage problem and to offer marital counseling – bringing both spouses into the office together.  The wife may be afraid to reveal any serious mistreatment.”  

Lord help me to be a “good man,” motivated by  your spirit,  not just pretending to be real. I don’t want to hide from you. “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me…..Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the Lord, who do their work in darkness and think, ‘Who sees us? Who will know?'” (Isaiah 29:13 & 15).  

My intentions are to be a “good man.”  But I am a work in progress.  Becoming  a “good man” can sometimes be painful.  Remember, Al, you are the clay; He is the potter.  I can not hide from God. “How foolish can you be? He is the Potter, and he is certainly greater than you, the clay!  Should the created thing say of the one who make it, ‘He didn’t make me’? Does a jar ever say, ‘The Potter who made me is stupid'” (Is. 29:16 NLT).

At a recent pastor gathering, two other pastors shared their testimony of coming to Christ through the same man who helped me, Pastor Theodore Hax.  That has now been 65 years of the potter working on this clay (Al Hendrickson).  He is still shaping me, even when it hurts. 

Remnant bog site had an very revealing piece on the deathbed experience.  Pulitzer Prize-winning author and oncologist Siddhartha Mukherjee identified four common phrases expressed on deathbeds, emphasizing that each had a lesson for a fullness of life.  These four phases are:

            1. “I want to tell you that I love you.”

            2. “I want to tell you that I forgive you.”

             3. “Would you tell me that you love me?”

            4. “Would you give me your forgiveness?”

He also noted that delayed expressions of love and forgiveness can lead to regret as well as hinder personal and professional growth. Mukherjee challenged people, “to imbue expressions of love and forgiveness with genuine meaning, urging authenticity and personal significance in interpersonal connections.”   

I don’t know this man’s relationship to the Lord, but his insights are right on when it comes to the deathbed experiences, I have had the privilege of witnessing.  As a pastor I spent many hours with loved ones and their families, as they give support and encouragement to their loved one in their last moments of life.  These were some of the most sacred and holy moments of my life as a pastor, yet they can also be very challenging when I am not sure of the loved one’s relationship with the Lord. 

Now that I am in my mid-eights, I am able to view the deathbed experience from a completely new perspective, since I am no longer in the center but on to edge of life.  Parker Palmer words seem appropriate. “On the edge of everything you can see all kinds of things you can’t see from the center.” I assume my reflections is being read by men who are right in “the center” of life.  You are busy, preoccupied with making a living, caring for your family, wanting to succeed  in your vocation and simply keeping up with the obligations of a husband and father.  It is easy to let your personal relationships slip causing, “relational sins” (Larry Crabb).    

This blog, gives me the opportunity to encourage you with the importance of relating well to those closest to you.  Don’t wait till your deathbed experience to say you love those closest to you.  Don’t put off being forgiving in your relationships.  Remember the author’s challenge of sharing expressions of love and forgiveness with meaning and authenticity, knowing how important they are. 

My testimony – I praise God for his mercy and grace in my life.  I am like the blind man who found healing in Jesus.  His testimony was simple, “One thing I do know, I was blind but now I see!”  Early in my walk with the Lord, I did not see the blessing of having good relationships with my immediate family.  I had to  learn  by God’s grace to have a lifestyle of forgiveness, with a desire to love each family member with the love of the Lord.  The author is right  – “delaying expressions of love and forgiveness can lead to regret and hinder personal and professional growth.”

I am not quite sure about his final two phrases.  But I know this, as I try to visualize my deathbed, I can not demand or expect gestures of love and forgiveness.  But I can prepare “the soil” for such gestures by having sown the seeds of forgiveness and unconditional love to those closest to me. 

Men, I can not stress the importance of showing love and granting forgiveness to your family members.  Please don’t wait until you are on your deathbed.  “Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance” (I Cor. 13:7).    

Arron Renn  on his blog site, featured an article entitled “Christian Buddhism” by Dr. John Seel.   The opening sentence got my attention.  “A number of home grown features of today’s American evangelicalism echo Buddhist themes.”  We live in a mix and match world, where religious seekers are described as “Remixed.”  In Seel’s view there are Buddhist-like tendencies in conservative orthodox evangelical Christian circles due to a “low grade of biblical literacy” that leads “to an impotent faith that has little relevance in the real world of day-to-day existence.”  

There is a wide acceptance of a truncated gospel, that views the gospel as narrowly judicial and gnostic.  Forensic justification as a divine verdict of acquittal pronounced on the believing sinner, can make the cross the telos of Jesus’ redemptive purpose.  This view has been called the “two-chapter gospel” (fall + redemption) or the “gospel of sin management.”  But Dallas Willard and N. T Wright favor a kingdom-oriented gospel or a “four-chapter gospel” (creation +fall +redemption + restoration).  

The telos of the gospel is not merely dealing with the forensic guilt of sin but inaugurating a new kind of resurrection life within the believer.  The failure to appreciate a holistic understanding of the gospel is a “foundation flaw” of Christians today. Willard notes,  “The final hope of Christian is not simply ‘going to heaven,’ but resurrection into God’s new creation, the ‘new heaven and new earth.'” In other words, the gospel is not about getting you into heaven, but to get heaven into you via the indwelling presence of Christ through his Holy Spirit. 

An alternative spiritual story differs in three ways.  First, the story begins here, right now.  Willard maintains, “The gospel is the good news of the presence and availability of life in the kingdom, now and forever, through the reliance on Jesus the Anointed. ” Secondly, eternal life is an intimate interactive relationship with Jesus in daily life.  Thirdly, “the gospel is about making this invisible spiritual connection visible in our bodies and transformative in our world now.” Wright summarizes  this view by saying, “the work of salvation, in its full sense, is 1) about whole human beings, not merely souls, 2)about the present, not simply the future; and 3) about what God does through us, not merely what God does in and for us.”    

Seel sees the influence of Eastern religious perspective in three ways.  First, the aim is to connect with the divine spark within which is intrinsic to your being.  This brings about a sacralized autonomy or a spiritualized self-centeredness.  Secondly, this connection is invisible, immaterial, and impersonal. Rather than connecting to a person, we are connecting to a cosmic energy.  Thirdly, these connections do nothing to challenge  the autonomy of self.  These connections are all Gnostic in spirit.  

“But on closer examination, the promise of the gospel requires repenting of your self-centered life orientation, placing yourself before a personal and moral Creator, acknowledging your sin, and then through accepting the grace of the cross connecting to an indwelling incarnate presence of God within that becomes the presence, purpose and power of your life.”  The great tradition of  Christianity tells a much different and better story.  

My testimony – I daily cry out for discernment to have a clear understanding of my walk with Jesus.  I am not a Christian Buddhist.  Why!! 1) I confess I am a beloved sinner,  loved by God is my stink.  He saved me.  2) God lives within me.  I have joined the dance of the Trinity.  4)  I now live in the presence of the kingdom,  and 5) It is God who works in and through me, not myself.  All honor and glory go to Him.