Category: Wildman Journey (Page 1 of 87)

Through the prophet Jeremiah, God  accused Judah of defiling their land.  The last few summers here in Northern Minnesota the fresh, crip, clear summer days have been defiled by smoke pollution from the forest fires in Canada. There have been clean air advisories, warning people to stay inside because of the bad air.  It is defiled (polluted).  Like Judea, many in our day, can not see how spiritually defied our land has become.  God had given us a fertile land.  “I brought you into a fertile land to eat its fruit and rich produce.  But you  came and defied my land and made my inheritance detestable” (Jer. 2:7). As a nation we are no longer fertile (filled with hope and promise). 

The prophet was pointing to their worship of idols as the source of pollution.  But they were living in denial. In dramatic fashion, the prophet says, “How can you say, ‘I am not defiled; I have not run after the Baals'”?  Then in vivid imagery the prophet asks them to look at the evidence, “See how you behaved in the valley; consider what you have done.  You are a swift she-camel running here and there, a wild donkey accustomed to the desert, sniffing the wind in her craving – in her heat who can restrain her? Any males that pursue her need not tire themselves; at mating time they will find her” (Jer. 2:23-24).  In the next verse comes their rely.  “I can’t help it.  I’m addicted to alien gods, I can’t quit.” 

The people are pictured like a “camel in heat” who is crisscrossing her tracks as she wanders aimlessly about. “It is a description of an animal consumed by carnal lust.  In like manner Judah eagerly sought out its idols.  The idols did not have to seek the people.  They were acting like people obsessed, running after their desires until their shoes wore out or they were consumed by thirst.  Their response to his appeal was, ‘It’s no use!’ Like a person hooked on drugs or alcohol, Judah had no desire to give up its gods in spite of warnings of the consequences.” (Huey). 

Jeremiah warned Judah not to follow the example of Israel, even though they saw what happened to Israel.  Jeremiah says, “Israel treated it all so lightly – she thought nothing of committing adultery by worshiping idols made of wood and stone.  So now the land has been polluted.  But despite all this, her faithless sister Judah has never sincerely returned to me.  She has only pretended to be sorry” (Jer. 3:9).  Later God warned Jeremiah of the people going, “backward and not forward.” ( Jer. 7:24). 

God called Jeremiah ” a tester of metals.”  He would be testing the will of the people.  “They are all hardened rebels, going about to slander.  They are bronze and iron; they all act corruptly” (Jer. 6:28).  But his refining would not be successful, for “wicked are not purge out.  They are called rejected silver, because the Lord has rejected them” (Jer. 6:30).  They saw the prophets as a bunch of windbags.” “Nothing bad will happen to us, neither famine nor war will come our way. The prophets are all windbags. They speak nothing but nonsense” (Jer. 5:12-13 MSG).

Today our spiritual air is polluted with many idols and other gods, because we followed our passions.  We are going backward and not forward.  God has been testing our culture, finding it to be “rejected silver.”  We reject the voice of God, saying those folks are a bunch of windbags.  We continue to follow the stubborn inclinations of our hearts.  Could God be saying, “I have spoken and will not relent.  I have decided and will not turn back” (Jer. 4:28).   

I have been reading a book by Dr. David John Seel entitled “Aspirational Masculinity.”  It has been very informative as I continue to process what it means to be a man, living for Jesus in this new year (2026).  He acknowledges that masculinity is in a state of flux.  Even though men are listening for the male voice of others, they are not at all confident in knowing what a man actually is and how he should behave in our day.  Men wonder who they can  follow or trust with their “life aspirations.”   

Dr. Seel asks an intriguing  question, “What if men must lose their autonomy to find their authenticity?”  How are men to behave in a society, where men are  “being minimized, erased, and blamed.”  The crisis of masculinity in the author’s understanding is more a crisis of personhood.  Seel notes, “a man who is fully alive, is a man who is living his life in Christ; a man both aware of his Creator and dependent on his Creator for a re-created inner life.” He  lives in reliance on the indwelling presence of Christ.  Masculinity is about becoming someone new.

Dr Seel focuses is on being rather than doing . “Masculinity is not a noun, something we are, but a verb, something we are in the process of becoming, by living in the inner spiritual presence of God within us.”  Jesus’ incarnational presence in our lives makes the difference. Jesus is not an idea but the actual presence in our life.  “It is this mystical spiritual relationship, living life in Christ,” maintains Seel, “that animates all else in our live and brings it into a unified focus.”  God did not come to make us marginally better persons, but a whole new kind of person.  “An aspirational male,” maintains Dr. Seel, “is a new kind of creature, not merely a nicer male.” He quotes C. S. Lewis: “Our real selves are all waiting for us in him…Until you have given up yourself to Him you will not have a real self.”

Dr. Seel has a challenge  for men.  “Are you ready to live as a “modern mystic,” embracing the deeper meaning of life?  How does this fit with your goals?”  Men will ultimately find their security and significance in the inner presence of Christ.  It is this dynamic that makes men whole men, able to embrace their full masculine self.  Dr. Seel is firm in his conviction: “There is no other way to find ourselves as men.”  I agree with Seel in his observation of men viewing talk about “the presence of Christ within” as rather weird.  “This is a mystical spiritual relationship, but it is no less real or objective because of it.  Our problem is our cultural bias for materialism and scientific empiricism.”  

An aspirational masculinity is based on a choice to “align ourselves with our true nature and with the true nature of reality.”  We align with something outside ourselves, giving us the ability to find who we really are. Our personhood is unified in Christ.  The four components of manhood  – spirituality, identity, work and marriage are harmonized and empowered in Christ.  “This is the coherence we all most desire in our lives.” We can aspire to such a lifestyle.

I find Dr. Seel a fresh breeze in the affirmation of the masculine.  1) His insistence of “self-abdication,” 2) Personhood in Christ – a totally new man.  3) Masculinity being more “verb than a noun” – more about becoming than doing, 4) Embracing the mystical – life of Jesus within,  5) Find meaning  in a unified lifestyle – God, self, marriage and work,  6) Balance of head and heart – the objective and subjective.

Jeremiah, the prophet was given  a ministry of speaking for God to a people who were hardened in their sinful ways.  Jeremiah was sent to shake them up.  “See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant” (Jer. 1:10).  That is quite a calling.  But God promised to give Jeremiah strength, enabling him to endure their resistance. “Today I have made you a fortified city,” the Lord told Jeremiah, “an iron pillar and a bronze wall to stand against the whole land – against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests and the people of the land (Jer. 1:18). It sounded like Jeremiah would be facing significant opposition.

The people would not listen to Jeremiah.  He would agonize as he saw the impending judgment  the people would face from the invading Babylonian army.  He is  open and vulnerable about his spiritual state.  “Oh, my anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain.  Oh, the agony in my heart! My heart pounds within me, I cannot keep silent.  For I have heard the sound of the trumpet; I have heard the battle cry.  Disaster follows disaster; the whole land lies in ruins.  In an instant my tents are destroyed, my shelter in a moment.  How long must I see the battle standard and hear the sound of the trumpet” (Jer 4:19-21).  He knew he would share in the consequences of the coming invasion from the north.

Jeremiah was not comfortable in his preaching. “To whom can I speak and give warning?  Who will listen to me?  Their ears are closed so they cannot hear.   The word of the Lord is offensive to them; they find no pleasure in it.  But I am full of the wrath of the Lord, and I cannot hold it in” ( Jer. 6:10-11).  He know his message would be an offensive to people who had become comfortable in their religious practices.  But the message burned in his soul.  “The words are fire in my belly, and burning in my bones.  I’m worn out trying to hold it in.  I can’t do it any longer” (Jer. 20:9 MSG). 

He was  frustrated with the religious leadership.   “Unspeakable! Sickening! What’s happen in this country? Prophets preach lies and priests hire on as their assistants.  And my people love it.  They eat it up!  But what will you do when it’s time to pick up the pieces? (Jer. 5:30-31 MSG) He accuses the people of defiling the land with their religious practices.  “The priests never thought to ask, ‘Where’s God?’ The religion experts knew nothing of me.  The rulers defied me. The prophets preached god Baal and chased empty god-dreams and silly-god -schemes” (Jer. 2:11 MSG). 

God was making the prophet “a tester of metals.” (Jer.6:27).  The people are like ore, “that you may observe and test their ways.  They are all hardened rebels, going about to slander.  They are bronze and iron; they all act corruptly”.   Jeremiah as the refiner would not succeed.  “The refining goes on in vain; the wicked are not purged out.”  In the end they would be called “rejected silver, because the Lord has rejected them.” 

Those in our culture, who have the Word of God burning like fire in their heart, will certainly experience frustration with the rejection and down right hostility. Ultimately, God would destroy the nation of Judah in an invasion of the Babylon from the north.  Ironically, only a remnant that were willing to be taken into exile would survive.  I wonder if God is preparing a remnant to survive in the days to come?  May we not be considered  “rejected silver.”

“Confused Excuses” is the title Christopher Wright gives to Jeremiah 2:20-37.  I found it in the “Bible Speaks Today.”  Some self disclosure – I have made a commitment to understand the prophet Jeremiah, so that I might share some of what God has to say through the prophets for our day.  It is hard work.  But I want to be obedient to the Lord.  Jeremiah has been a real challenge for me to grasp both in its content and making application for our day. 

Anyway, as for Jer. 2:20-37,  Wright makes this observation regarding this passage. Jeremiah records seven direct quotations from the people.  In this way, Jeremiah “cleverly exposes how they swing back and forth between brazen denial of sin and abject acceptance of it.  Their words are simultaneously self-excusing and self-condemning.  The confusion is astonishing.  But it is simply what happens when people become so embroiled in sin that they can no longer think straight.”

In v. 20 the people reject God, “I will not serve you.”  But then in v. 23 they claim “I am not defiled; I have not run after the Baals.”  But then in v. 25 they admit what they denied in v. 23, “It’s no use! I love foreign gods, and I must go after them.”   In v. 27 they seem to view the sexual symbols of fertility as both providers and protectors, “You are my father,” and “You gave me birth.”  But then in the same verse they cry out to God to save them, “Come and save us!” 

When reading v. 25, “It’s no use! I love foreign gods, and I must go after them,” along with v. 35, “I am innocent; he is not angry with me” these comments reflect an addictive attitude. Wright notes, “their sin is compulsive, something over which they have no control.”  “These insights of Jeremiah,” contines Wright, “show that the psychology of addiction is not confined to individuals, but can come to characterize a whole community.” 

Wright then gives us God’s perspective.  “God’s response (v. 35) shows  that such a hollow defiance will simply not stand up in his court.”  God says to them, “But I will pass judgment on you because you say, ‘I have not sinned.'” The Message translates verse 35 as follows: “Don’t look now, but judgment’s on the way, aimed at you who say, ‘I’ve done nothing wrong.'” Could it be that God is judging our culture because of all the excuses we are making for our behavior?

A good question to ask ourselves, “Do we ever try to excuse or defend ourselves before God?”  In our day the rhetoric is usually tilled toward blame rather than responsibility.  Being even more introspective, do we consider how our excuses appear to God?  I have to ask myself, “Do I come before my heavenly Father as someone who is totally dependant on His mercy and grace or am I wanting help with my own ‘self-improvement’ projects?”  

Even more searching is the question, “How is addiction to sin demonstrated in people’s lives today?” A good thing can become an idol when it becomes the ultimate thing.  What is the focus of our time, talent and treasure? Is God the ultimate reality or one of the idols of our culture?  Earlier in Chapter 2, God asks, “What fault did your ancestors find in me, that they strayed so far from me?  They followed worthless idols and become worthless themselves” ( Jer. 2:5). 

Living as we do in a spiritual vacuum, our creator God is being replaced by a lot of other gods.  What becomes foremost in our hearts is our God.  Any worthless idol, will according to Jer 2:5 cause us to become worthless ourselves.  

Mark Hancock, CEO of Trail Life USA, had a thought provoking article in The Daily Signal, about young men in America,  observing, “America is waking up to the reality that the ‘Y’ matters.”  Referring to men he points to the Y chromosome, “The ‘Y’ doesn’t just mark their biology – it point them to their purpose.  The  ‘Y’ give them their Why.”  

He states bluntly, “The crisis began the moment the “Y” was dismissed…. Influential voices turned identity into a DIY project, erased the Y chromosome as a marker of manhood, blurred essential boundaries, and loosened every anchor that once helped boys grow.  Time-tested anchors of family, faith, community, mentors, and clear expectations were discarded…….boys were told that male and female were interchangeable, that fathers were optional, and that masculinity was either threatening or foolish.  We’re now living the consequences: Boys are faltering, and a generation is stalled on the road to manhood.”

The result is a generation of confused young men.  Hancock warns, “confused boys become wounded boys.”  They then become wounded men, who are associated with “toxic masculinity.”  Instead masculinity should be seen as strength serving in love, and power that has a redemptive purpose.  In the midst of this confusion, the void is filled with influencers who promise, “strength, belonging, answers, and initiation.”

The “Y” chromosome is not a cultural construction but rather God’s unique design for each man.  Every man is born with a Y chromosome.  “But only intentional formation give him his Why.”  “Masculinity” states Hancock, “was God’s idea first, not a social disease that needs to be eradicated….. We need masculinity ordered toward courage, conviction, humility, and love.”  

Hancock points to Jesus as exemplifying “rightly ordered” masculinity.  Jesus is “the One who confronted hypocrisy and welcomed the broken, who overturned tables and washed feet, who carried the weight of the world not to dominate but to redeem.”  Then he makes a statement that challenged me, as a member of the “silent generation.”  “This is the standard that boys are starving for.”  Boys are waiting…. “for men to step in with the clarity the culture refuses to give.” 

Boys need men in their formation.  They need father and mentor, “who teach them how to carry weight, how to honor women, how to master impulses, how to take responsibility, how to use strength for the good of others – strength that serves, not dominates.”  Men need to walk with younger men.  We need to model “strength ruled by love.”  We need to show boys “how to build, protect, serve, and lead.”  

A generation of young men is watching.  Who will show them the way?  “Masculinity doesn’t emerge by accident,” Hancock states.  “It is shaped by steady hands, steady hearts, and steady men……Families need men who know who they are – and why they’re here.”  The author pleads, “America needs masculinity right now.”  “It will take restoring the principles that created the greatest generation to build a new generation that doesn’t just navigate this destructive tide but turns back the tide itself.”  Hancock ends with this challenge, “the ‘boY’ matters, and boys are looking for men to follow.”

As an “old timer” I was convicted by the thought of young men watching, wanting to know the way.  Dr John Seel writes about the importance of who men aspire to be.  He notes that becoming fully male is “a verb not a noun: a state of being, an ongoing relationally and spiritually derived process.”  This is a lifelong commitment to a direction, dependance and development, becoming the best version of our masculine self.  I am committed to live for Jesus and be formed by him.     

This was the title of an article by Dr. John Seel.  He believes we are living through a “civilizational inflection.”  The West is gravely ill.  The disease is spiritual. The need is repentance not policy. “The patient,” suggests Dr. Seel, “still breathes, but the pulse of purpose is gone.  We are a zombie culture, animated yet dead.”

A culture cannot heal if it refuses to name its disease. Being influenced by Phillip Rieff,  Dr. Seel sees our culture as severing its link to the sacred.  Culture is a living organism that shapes and informs our lives.  Many believe we can resuscitate our culture, but Seel warns, “to confuse resuscitation for what is really needed resurrection is the final illusion of a dying civilization.”     

 “The sacred once ordered the social from above; now politics dictates culture, and culture manufactures its own religion,” notes Seel.  This reversal is mostly complete and is catastrophic.  “God created man in His image.  Now man perceives he can create God in his image or replace God with AI colonized by algorithms.” We have dethroned transcendence, while  enthroning ourselves. “We have retained the moralism of religion without its metaphysical grounding.”  Rieff saw such practices as “deathworks – cultural creations that invert the meaning they inherit.”

The result for our culture is a “dark enchantment – the return of pagan imagination under technological conditions.  The world is not disenchanted; it is enchanted by idols.”  The cure for such dark magic is divine enchantment.  We need “liminal leaders” – “men and women who can live between the lightning and the thunder, reading the weather of the age and preparing the ground for what comes next.”  

A liminal leader will exhibit four virtues: 1) “vision” – “The capacity to see beyond collapse toward renewal.”  2) “Courage” – “the willingness to act without institutional permission.” 3) “Humility” – “the conviction that renewal begins with repentance, not strategy” and  4) “Exploration” – “the willingness to seek what they do as not yet know.”  It is leadership that is restorative.  “It resists both despair and distraction.  It builds dense networks of meaning, small communities of faithfulness, and institutions ordered by truth rather than lies.”

“We are living through a liminal period of withering,” notes Seel.  It is a, “500-year inflection point,” in which “the ideas of modernity are imploding, the institutions of modernity are paralyzed, and the instruments of modernity (namely AI) are exploding.”  We are the first civilization without a shared sacred symbolic. It is a time for watchful discernment and courageous leadership. 

 I accept the challenge of Dr Seel.  “There has rarely been a more exciting time to be alive as a follower of Christ than now. Ours  is a turning point.”  We live in “the pause between to lightening and the thunder.”  We live close to the coming storm.  Seel quotes C. S. Lewis, “You can’t go back and change to beginning, but you  can start where you are and change the ending.”     

Our culture has a deep spiritual sickness.  May I  have “the courage to resist its idols, to honor objective reality, and the imagination to rebuild on foundations of transcendence.” As I pray, “Come, Lord Jesus,” may I not focus the turbulent weather patterns of the present age, forgetting the kingdom reign of King Jesus, as the unifying narrative of our time.   

Dr. Seel’s article is a prophetic call for men to come forth.  I write this blog to encourage men to be “liminal leaders.”  “The age is changing. This time, it truly is different.  The question is whether we will merely survive the transition – or sanctify it.  May we stand, liminal and luminous, as witnesses to the sacred in an age that has forgotten how to bow.”   

Variety magazine reported recently that Disney has “boy trouble.” Bill Winters believes, “They’re going to have to ditch an ideology that sneered at masculinity.”  Disney is losing the interest of Gen Z men (13-28), whom they describe as  a “lonely, gaming-obsessed group who were hampered in their formative years by COVID-19 lockdowns.”   Winters points out that Disney has part of the diagnosis correct, but the corporation needs to realize  young men have become alienated even more by an ideology that is undermining what was once celebrated by Disney.  They need to change the stories they tell. 

Winters maintains, “they’re going to have to ditch an ideology that sneered at masculinity, chivalry, righteous honor, power for noble purposes, the warrior ethos – all these things that coded as toxically male – and accepted these attitudes are actually good and necessary for any healthy society and worthy of exploring in entertainment.”   

“This ideology was obviously anti-men,” insists Winters.  There is a need to return again to tradition.  Traditional stories stick around for a reason.  One of the  moves Disney can make in Miller’s opinion is “to return to traditional storytelling.”  This means, “courageous heroes, nasty villains, and incredibly high stakes for believable characters who wrestle with timeless challenges like family, romance, revenge, redemption.”

“Gen Z males,” insists Miller, “are hungry for brotherhood and purpose.  They want demanding missions where success is deeply consequential not just for them but for the people they care about.”  Young men are looking for stories that contain these three elements, “authentic brotherhood, transcendent purpose and patriotism.”  

Miller is optimistic about the future of Disney.  But they will need to work at renewing and reviving our great institutions. But like the rest of America, Disney must be, “willing to do the hard work of renewing and reviving our greatest institutions.”  He sees Disney’s crisis as a blessing in disguise.  “Really, Disney’s ‘boy trouble‘ crisis is a gift for the company…..If Disney starts telling authentic, powerful stories that men actually want to see, they will capture a rising demographic and participate in a renewal of American culture in a way worthy of the greatest institutions.”

For a Christian the greatest story is telling the “Good News.”  Jesus came to show us a better way to live. He came to defeat the power of evil.  He calls men to radical commitment.  “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” (Matt. 16:24).   

The Good News calls for young men to be involved in brotherhood.  There is no greater brotherhood, then a group men  committed to the cause of Christ.  Early after high school, in my surrender to Jesus, I found the need for men in my life, who  were intentional about  their walk with God.   This is still true in my 80’s.  The modeling of godly men is vital for me to stay in the fight. We are in combat together, as we rescue people from darkness. 

The Good News certainly provides a transcendent purpose. Jesus taught us to pray, “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”   I am eternally thankful for “the Good News” of Jesus and his kingdom.  I have given full allegiance to this story.  It is the same yesterday, today and forever.  It has eternal consequences. 

I have been blest to live in a country where the story of Jesus has shaped a lot of our culture.  “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news” (Is. 52:7). It is inspiring to be surrounded by men who are excited about sharing the good news in our troubled culture.   

Brad East, a professor of theology at Abilene Christian University, has become one of my favorite theologians.  I value theologians, who I can trust to be scripture centered, but yet speak clearly, in a fresh, new way the “old story” of Jesus and his love.  Recently he wrote an article for Mere Orthodoxy entitled, “Once more, church and culture.”   He begins with this statement: “The West will always carry within it its Christian past – whether as a living wellspring, a lingering shadow, a haunting ghost, or an exorcised demon – but it is indisputable that whatever the West has become, it is not what it once was, Christendom is no more.”

East believes “there is no one ‘correct’ type, posture, or model” in engaging with our present day culture. “Instead, the church has four primary modes of faithful engagement with culture.  They are inevitably overlapping and essentially non-competitive with one another.  Which mode is called for depends entirely on context and content……..typically they are all at work simultaneously…….each mode applies in every possible historical and political context: premodern and postmodern, established and disestablished, privileged and persecuted.”  Here are the four modes:

First, Resistance: The church is called to resist injustice and idolatry.  Sometimes all that it takes is sheer perseverance, while on other occasions the cost is higher. 

Second, Repentance:  The church is always and everywhere called to repent of its sins, crimes, and failures.  Judgement must begin at the house of  God (I Peter 4:17). The credibility of the gospel is rarely threatened by the church’s failures as much as by its unwillingness to admit them. 

Third, Reception: The church is always and everywhere called to receive from the world the many blessings bestowed upon it by God.

Fourth, Reform: The church is always and everywhere called to preach the gospel which is the word of God’s saving grace in Jesus Christ.  Another term for this task of proclamation is prophecy. 

East then lists six benefits he sees using  this fourfold model:

First, it does not privilege any one mode but takes for granted that context is everything.  

Second, it does not prioritize work as the primary sphere in which the church encounters a culture or makes its presence known.

Third, it does not focus on any one class or persons within the church but instead on the community as a whole

Fourth, these modes are not necessarily measurable in terms of external and tangible impact.  These forms of engagement are “modes” of life.

Fifth, there is no specific social arrangement or political regime either presupposed or generated by this proposal. It applies whether the church has power or has none.

Sixth, the proposal understands that the faithful presence of the church is a differentiated presence.  The church’s witness is measured not only by its presence to the world but also by its difference from the world.  That difference is called holiness. 

East’s proposal is his attempt to speak about the church’s place in society after Christendom.  As followers of Jesus, we each in our own context will  continue to struggle with the question of Christ and culture.   Each of East’s modes are always in play, that is, they naturally part of our lifestyle. 

For men, this proposal helps remind us of simply wanting to be humble, loving followers of Jesus.  Phil. 2:1-2 seems to fit East’s proposal, when it asks, “Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit?  Are your hearts tender and compassionate?  Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose. ”   

I recently heard Amy Grant’s new single entitled, “The 6th of January (Yasgur’s Farm)”  I felt some nostalgia, as the song took me back to the 60’s when I was just a new convert.  The song didn’t have a preachy tone, rather it was almost contemplative, causing older listeners to reflect on their story and the present narrative of in our nation.  It did not ask us to do anything, but rather to ponder what might have been lost.  The last phrase of the song, leaves us with a challenging question for our conflicted time.  “I look ahead and realize we’ve lost our way.”  

I identified with the song because Amy Grant was a contemporary Christian artist, who was a part of my spiritual journey.  She now is older, having endured some difficult times on her journey.  Anyone who grow up with Amy Grant and lived through “Woodstock” will immediately be taken down memory lane, reflecting on the culture of the 60’s and its affects on our day.  

Here are some of the lyrics.  The first verse: “Maybe it’s the time of year/ Or maybe it’s the time of man/ 60’s playlist and a beer/ I’m suddenly 16 again/ What’s the future hold in store/ What’s it hiding up its sleeve/ All that wide-eyed hope/ Were we so naive.”  This seems like a longing for the past and a questioning of what was once experienced.  For those of us who are older, our response  is tied to our memory of the “old days” while those who are younger can only wonder what is being communicated.

Here’s the chorus: “Hey mister where’s the road to Yasgur’s farm/ He stares at me with pity and alarm/ Says that crowd left here long ago/ Scattered all to hell and Harper’s Ferry/ On the 6th of January.” Yasgur’s farm was the site of “Woodstock (1969)” and the summer of love.  Harper’s Ferry is identified with the civil rights movement.  Of course, January 6th refers to the confusion regarding the protest in our nation’s capital.  

The second verse includes the following,”I’m shopping for some groceries/ Muzak piped in overhead/ They only play the melody/ I hear the words John Lennon said/ Asking me to imagine/ As I fight this cart with crooked wheels.”  The bridge to the song seems to leave us wondering; “And we’re driving home and the radio plays/ What’s going on – Marvin Gaye/ Is it right on red or left on MLK/ I look ahead and realize we’ve lost our way.” 

 From the Message we read in I John 1:3-4, “We saw it, we heard it, and now we’re telling you so you can experience it along with us, this experience of communion with the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ.  Our motive for writing is simply this: We want you to enjoy this, too. Your joy will double our joy!” As a seasoned follower of Jesus, I share with my readers the joy of having communion with  the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ, since before the “summer of love.”

When I listen to Amy Grant, I do not have regret, sorrow or any longing for the “old days.”  Jesus has carried my wife and I, as we raised our family, during those  turbulent times brought about by “the summer of love (1968). To those who are younger, wondering what Ms. Grant sings about, I say, “keep your eyes on Jesus,” He is “The Way.”  Yes, “imagine” Jesus.  He will see you through.  I am living proof of what  the Lord has done in one man and his family.  Keep looking to Jesus and a future with Him.

Jeremiah was called by God to  warn the people of Judah.   One of the words he uses to describe their lifestyle is the word “deceit.”  Deceit in today’s culture is described as “the practice of deceiving; concealment or distortion of the truth for the purpose of misleading; duplicity; fraud; cheating.” In 5:27 the prophet accuses the wicked of living in houses “full of deceit.” “The wicked lie in wait like men who snare birds and  like those who set traps to catch people.  Like cages full of birds, their houses are full of deceit” (Jer. 5:26-7). 

These wicked men were compared to hunters luring unsuspecting birds into a trap. The poor were helpless in resisting their schemes.  “Like cages filled with small birds used for sacrifices their houses were filled with the possessions acquired by their deceitful practices” (Huey).  The Message describes it well, “My people are infiltrated by wicked men, unscrupulous men on the hunt. They set traps for the unsuspecting.  Their victims are innocent men and women. Their houses are stuffed with ill-gotten gain, like a hunter’s beg full of birds.” (Jer. 5:26-7).

It seems that deceit was all pervasive in the culture.  “From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; prophet and priest alike, all practice deceit” (Jer. 6:13).  The amplified says, “Everyone deals deceitfully.” The prophet laments their attitude, “They cling to deceit; they refuse to return” (Jer 8:5).  The ESV says they are in “perpetual backsliding.” The prophets and priests alike, “all practice deceit” (Jer. 8:10).  But they refused to change.  The Lord declares, “You live in the midst of deception; in their deceit they refuse to acknowledge me (Jer. 9:6).

It has begun to cause conflict in relationships.  God warns them of social disorder due to their deceitful practices.  “Friend deceive friend, and no one speaks the truth.  They have taught their tongues to lie; they weary themselves with sinning.  You live in the midst of deception; in their deceit they refuse to acknowledge me” (Jer. 9:4). Their tongue were like, ” a deadly arrow; it speaks with deceit.  With his mouths they all speak cordially to their neighbors, but in their hearts they set traps for them” (Jer 9:8).  

Above all, in Chapter 7, Jeremiah points out the deception of their worship.  “Do not trust in deceptive words and say, ‘This is the temple of the Lord.'” (Jer. 7:5).  In their worship, they were, “trusting in deceptive words that are worthless” (Jer. 7:8).  The people felt they were safe, “safe to do all these detestable things” (Jer. 7:10)  The Lord was watching as his house became “a den of robbers.”  

God told Jeremiah not to pray for them any longer.  For the people, “did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubborn inclinations of their evil hearts” (Jer. 7:24).  They were going, “backward and not forward” (Jer. 7:24).  God warned Jeremiah, “When you tell them all this, they will not listen to you, when you call to them, they will not listen” (Jer. 7:27).  Their worship was deceptive:  false and only going through the motion.  Why!! Because, “Truth has perished; it has vanished from their lips” (Jer. 7:28)

With all the deception in our culture, we need vigilance in our worship of God.  It can become rote and filled with worthless word, where  we, “only pretend to be sorry” (Jer. 3:10).  We have nothing to boast about. “But those who wish to boast should boast in this alone: that they truly know me and understand that I am the Lord who demonstrates unfailing love and who brings justice and righteousness to the earth, and that I delight in these things” (Jer. 9:24)