LIVING IN THE LAST HOUR

We could all be living our last hour.

Recent Posts

  • There is a time and purpose for everything

    Life happens in stages. We know that to well. Each season prepares us for the next one or should anyway. Humans go from conception to birth to infancy to childhood, to youth to young adult to full fledge grown-up, then middle age hits, followed by the long-awaited twilight years that welcome us, but not always with open arms. I don’t have a favorite time. Every stage of my life was challenging. That I managed to move from one stage to the next was nothing but God’s grace. I would not want to relive or change any part of it. I have no idea the kind of woman I would have become had my life gone off in a different direction. 

    I am reminded of a movie Failure to Launch, a 2006 movie, with Sarah Jessica Parker. Her character is hired by parents whose adult son has yet to move out on his own. In his mid-thirties, this grown man shows no interest in moving out. He has it made. Why would he want to disrupt his cozy life? I can admit, the only men I knew still living at home had taken on the task of caring for an aging parent. They moved from one stage to one they probably were not expecting. I moved from being married to being divorced and a single parent. I was not expecting that turnabout of events.

    So to everything, I have accepted, there is a season and a purpose under God’s direction. What that is, well…

    I am persuaded that God directs our steps. And that they do not always lead where we want them to go. The lessons inevitably await us.

    I started feeling ill late last week. I have a lot of GI issues. When my stomach aches I have a routine that resolves the pain. I did not want to alarm my husband, but this time around, the pain felt different. It was more intense. Not eating for a day calmed my ache for a bit, but on Sunday, yesterday, the pain was back. My husband asked how I was feeling. I finally told him I should go to urgent care to make sure the pain was not something more serious, like with my kidneys. So, we went. Being Sunday morning, I did not have to wait. I saw the doc and explained my pain and such. When she examined me, she was like, “You are tender all over.” I had to agree. I was in pain. So, she ran some tests, blood, urine, x-rays and an ultrasound. Well, she asked if I was going to wait for the results. I was in pain so yes. We waited for the results.

    Well. This took most of the morning. When the results came back the doc calls me back. She sits next to me and says, “You have a lot going on.” I was like, “Oh no.” As it turned out my pain was indeed different. First, the x-ray showed I had a kidney stone. The blood work showed my pancreas was irritated. The ultrasound showed stones in my kidneys. And my liver has signs of hardening. The liver info, I did not quite understand. She explained a bit and said it was probably a fatty liver, but she was referring me to a liver specialist for further evaluation. Well. I shared the results with my husband. And he was surprised by the results but also thankful that I had decided to go the urgent care clinic.

    Hearing the results did not shake me as much as when I was diagnosed with cancer in the palate in 2023. I was shocked by that diagnosis. I did not even know you could get cancer in the palate – but you can. The following year my sister was diagnosed with breast cancer. That same year my brother was diagnosed with skin cancer. On Saturday, I was at a church function and met a woman there who had undergone chemo therapy for stomach cancer. She actually had to have her stomach removed. This woman shared part of her testimony with us. And her story was all too familiar, one of survival of childhood trauma and cancer to boot. As she shared her story, I thought about a close relative who had experienced a very similar childhood. And I thought. Gosh, I think most of us have more stories of survival, and redemption than we care to admit, or even recall. Too often, an illness brings up many of these memories.

    Our shared experiences make us human. These experiences connect us in ways that sometimes, we can’t even explain. Sometimes, hearing others share their stories remind us of our own, or someone else’s. At least, it does for me. Through it all, I see the Lord working in us, through our experiences, to get us to a place where we consider the human experience. There is a purpose. We are not just born into a world where we live and die unto ourselves. We touch the life of others. They may be in our orbit, maybe not. But in some fashion, at some point we do touch the life of another. Maybe not everyone is touched by my lived experiences, but my experiences are not anymore or any less consequential in the eyes of a holy God.

    This world is passing away. As fellow believers how we live out our lives matters. We never know when our lives are going to touch another life. Our stories of survival and redemption are for a season, for a purpose under heaven orchestrated by a holy God. I rarely talk about my palate cancer. But, I have seen many people share their cancer journey on social media. In that instance, my experience does not compare. Cancer is an experience I would rather not share, but…

    But there is purpose to everything the Lord had created.

    Be blessed.

  • Gospel Alert: the sincerity of the gospel is lost

    The truth of God’s message, the gospel of salvation and all its promises is out there. Somewhere out there, are the faithful, the righteous people of God, those who have not compromised their faith to gain the things of the world. The church, those who stand to speak, to teach and spread the message of salvation, everyone today, is selling a lot half- truths, more than a handful of redemption stories, a lot of Christian cliches, tons of positive affirmations, hundreds of promises of financial blessings, lots of watered down preaching, but somewhere in the mix is God’s truth. Or maybe, the truth is right next door, or on the street corner where you last saw that torn and tattered homeless man asking for a handout. Did you tell him to get a job?

    The Scriptures are living words from a living God. When men interpret the Scriptures, they use their biases, and prejudices to spin it to fit their beliefs. With each interpretation Scripture can take on different meaning. My husband uses a Bible published by a well known pastor. He was reading a passage from Ezekiel and he was shocked by the language saying it was rather suggestive. I read my version but it did not read the same. When I read it to him, he agreed that it did not create in his mind, the same image as his. That’s what modern-day interpreters do. The idea is to get readers to understand scripture by creating mental images of spiritual truths, which is good, but this tends to water down scripture, to much, opening the door to false teachings.

    It takes spiritual discernment, and wisdom to live for Christ in a world full of temptatious lusts, and imitation fruit. Stealing, stretching the truth, lying by omission, manipulating situations, and people, cheating, lying, hate and greed, self-promotion, one or two, or all these actions, seem innocent enough for most Americans. My ex once told me that a family member told him, a Christian mind you, that if he was not happy in his marriage, it was ok to seek happiness elsewhere. This was right before our marriage ended. And the reason it ended. Christian spouses cannot go around seeking happiness elsewhere. No. No. No. God’s children are not most people. God works in our life, but He is working His will, everywhere. He creates change in us, first, otherwise, how can His children be His righteousness, if we are no different than the world? The Lord is gracious in dealing with us, the wretched people that we are. To become like Christ, to be transformed into His image, and to be able to love as He loves – takes a refiner’s fire to accomplish the transformation. It’s not melodramatic. Jesus did not come to earth prepared to battle Rome, or Egypt. Think about that. He came to expose the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. He came to bring the message of God and to fulfill prophesy, first to His people, then the rest.

    These days, I hear it often. Those liberal minded Christians, and politicians are destroying this nation. I do not believe it. Liberal mindsets are not the problem. An equal but separate society was not solely the creation of one party. The fall of man did not just happen because the woman was disobedient. Nor did God curse only the woman. My faith does not fail me, because there is only evil in the world. I do not expect a fallen world to embrace the things of a holy God. The only people who feel threatened and fearful and have a need to take back control of “whatever they feel has been lost” probably point the finger at only one person, one group, etc.

    The heart of man is continually evil (Genesis 6:5).

    “‘…they have pierced My hands and feet…’ this, to me, is a most significant details. The hands of Jesus — the hands thru which His healing power so lavishly flowed, the hands with which He broke the few loaves and fed the masses, the hands He lifted in praise and put to service were stretched and pinned to a cross that keeps them from the work they were so prone to. And Jesus’ feet — the feet that carried Him from Galilee to Judea, the feet that won the support of an angry sea and received the fragrance of a woman’s praise, were immobilized — nailed helplessly against the wood. For that moment, Jesus could not extend His hands for healing or move His feet to serve. He hung helpless, stuck to the sinfulness of mankind by the wrath of God. This, of course, is not where it ends, but in our preoccupation with the glory of ressurection, we often glib over or totally ignore the key that opens the door to that abundancy of life — death. Like the Jewish leaders that Jesus denounced, we equate success with life within God’s will. To do this, friends, is to empty the cross of its meaning and to replace the true glory of Christ’s character of servitude with the glitter of cinematic heroism.” — Rich Mullins [“Meat,” Pretty Feet Publications, Vol 1, No 4, Zion Ministries] #richmullins

    Be blessed.

  • Persecution – Not Really – Christian character matters

    During Covid, Christians and evangelicals believed that persecution was upon them. A microspcopic bug, contagious, deadly, with no protection against it, the measures taken to limit its spread threw Christians into a conspiracy spin. Faith? They forgot they had any. They forgot that God was the Creator of all things, even viruses. They spewed out so much hate against the protocols to limit the spread. Fellow believers were not concerned or cared that the rhetoric was pure hatred against authorities. Hatred was justified by scripture. It is better to obey God than man. And the hate for, well..pretty much everything, except for prosperity and American freedoms, has sent society back over one-hundred years. Think about it. In the year 1916 America was dealing with WWI, public health issues (the Spanish flu was on the way), domestic sabotage, social inequality, racial tensions and on and on.

    Christians, evangelicals, believers, whatever label Jesus followers wear, none of them want to say, much less believe that one man could send our nation back in time using a sling-shot effect – like in Star Trek 4, the Voyage Home. That’s my favorite movie. There is only one group of Americans that would even have a desire for this nation to go backward. Only one group of Americans would gain. But, American society has grown, diversified and Americans are no longer satisfied with the status quo. Civil Rights, Women’s Rights, Voting Rights, etc. labor laws, immigration laws were all established because the laws of this nation make it possible. It’s that simple, even though the road to establish any law is not. Slavery lasted until 1865. It was followed by Jim Crow which lasted for another hundred years. That was a long road to end one inhumane practice. Think about that. In four and a half years we could be back to the time of the robber barons. Well, with all the tech giants, it kind of feels that way now.

    The Lord has said to be still and know that I am God. But God’s people were always and still are known for doing things that are right in their own eyes. The persecution of God’s people is always present. Perceived persecution is not the same thing. During, the COVID pandemic, misinformation led to much perceived persecution among Christians. Let’s face it though, real persecution, is the price to follow Jesus.

    Today we see the gospel of Jesus Christ being trampled across the country and Christian leaders and evangelicals couldn’t care less. Many well-known evangelical leaders embrace a new Christian doctrine. Call it a mixture of Christian values and political power that allows them to do – again – whatever is right in their own eyes. They cannot help themselves. And the thing is, once Christians go to that dark place, there is only one way out. Anyone that tramples the gospel, the very words and commands of Jesus may find himself battling God. The Scriptures tell us, that he, who does not obey the words of Jesus cannot possibly obey God, because He and the Father are One.

    Christian character matters

    The last few weeks. I have been helping some Christian friends with some business paperwork. Lo and behold I was surprised by their attitude. They had no qualms about going around tax laws. I mean, there are many loopholes in the tax laws that allow for certain practices without getting in trouble with the IRS. And while it may be legal, is it ethical? I found their “as long as it’s legal. It’s ok with me.” attitude a little rattling. Maybe the IRS would flag the practice, maybe it wouldn’t. If the leaders approve it, it’s ok. I guess. Except for, this particular practice is not a norm. It is not condoned. It is not allowed according to business practices. But, these folks see it as a blessing from God. Could they get in trouble? Possibly.

    This is where the Christian man is today. Compromised.

    We are to celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord on Sunday. Jesus died so that “we” all who believe in Him would not perish but have everlasting life. This event is packed with spiritual truths. And though we who believe, live in the world, we are not of this world. So, why do we choose to live as if we do? Is it easy? No. It was never meant to be easy to live for Christ. He told us that we would be hated because of Him.

    The apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 10:23 “All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful; all things are lawful for me, but not all things edify.”

    This nation is full of lustful things, full of privileges and freedoms to satisfy every whim we have, but that does not mean we should take advantage of or practice or embrace such things. They do not edify the spirit and certainly do not give God any glory.

    Compromising, it is here where we lose credibility as children of the living God. The one thing that makes any man, or woman sin is the condition of their heart (Matthew 15:18–20) Christian character matters.

    Have a blessed weekend.