An A to Z Introduction to HELL

Let's pretend you believe in hell. I don't need to pretend because I do believe in hell. The Bible talks about it; Jesus talked about it quite a bit. Plus, it makes sense. It doesn't make me feel good, but there are many real and nasty things out there which make me feel bad. If it's real it's real. To proceed with this discussion then, just pretend that you believe it exists.

So what's it like?

Let's never mind about the devil. Hell will indeed be his place, not to manage or operate or use for his sadistic delight; nor even for him to "dwell" in as some kind of suitable habitation for one of his ilk, but it will be a place for him to suffer in, with the ever-painful realization that he rejected his creator God. We know he will be thrown there. That part is settled. But what about you? Will you choose to go there?

I know that sounds funny. "Who would CHOOSE to go to hell?" you say. But when we die, we don't stand at the door and choose smoking or non-smoking (that used to be a thing), paper or plastic, red state or blue state. Rather, all the while we are making decisions like these in life, we are also in the process of deciding on heaven or hell. It may or may not show on the surface of your life--in your association with or without religion; in your words and deeds; or even in your thoughts. But down deep in your heart, where only God can truly look, your chosen "bent" is clearly seen.

Think about this question: If you found reasonable answers to all of your intellectual and cultural objections to trusting in God, would you? Or would that internal bend still refuse to lean toward Him? If you are not immediately responding with a "YES!" then the answer is "NO!" and you know it.

The A to Z posts this month will try to envision a life in hell. An ongoing, eternal and ever building process of "life" in that place without God, but full of you. The Bible says that right now if we struggle at all, we struggle against "the world, the flesh, and the devil." I propose that in hell, all three of these enemies will be rendered moot. There will not only be the incredible absence of God, as Jesus felt on the cross when he cried out "My God, my God! Why have you forsaken me?", but there will be no "world," no "flesh," and no "devil" to contend with. But worse. There will be the sinful you.

The series opens on Saturday April 1st with "ANGER in HELL."




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Meet Me in Heaven!

Everyone wants to "go to heaven".  If heaven means experiencing even 10% of all we can ever dream of, then why not?  If your favorite long lost pets will all be there, and every beloved Grandmother and Grandfather is waiting to greet you; and if all there is fair and benevolent, and if each of the religions of the world represent just one more way to get there, and if everybody you know or ever heard of will be let in just because God MUST be so nice..... then forget about it!  That sounds too much like the here and now for me!

Ever since sin was introduced into the human drama, we have all gone astray.  Forsaking the only prohibition God gave us, at first, we now ignore everything He says.  But one by one,  the Holy Spirit works to reach each human spirit. God has tried to draw us back to His side; back to the place where each individual might walk with Him in good fellowship.  He made this possible through the redeeming work of Christ, but it is up to each individual--to you--to accept His one condition (repentance) before a future eternity of friendship with God, in heaven, is possible.

Members of all religions, or of no religion, are invited and welcome to come.  Christians are not those who were born to "christian" parents, as if it were something to be inherited or rubbed off, but Christians are only those who have indeed come out so far.

God is all about change.  Since we are sinners, we need to change, but since we are sinners, we can NOT change.  Only with God's help can we even recognize the need to change, and then with His help again, can we surrender and let Him do the necessary work.  He will make us fit for life in heaven so that we don't show up there (as if any one could  barge into God's home!) as we are, and ruin the place!

If you do not accept God as your Creator, nor believe or even like all that He has revealed about Himself to you; and if you can not accept the most precious gift He has to offer, which is an invite to His home, then please stop talking as if you want to go there.  Frankly declare that you would rather not abide by His company, and that you will just stay outside of heaven (a place called Hell).

On the other hand, you might simply admit that you do need a savior, be saved, spend the rest of your life as His disciple, and then someday go and live with God in heaven,  Of course, you might have to get used to His particularly rigorous attentions:

He will wash you perfectly clean,
He will dress you perfectly well,
He will carry you there in His everlasting arms,
He will wipe every tear from your eyes, and
He will do so much more than you can ask or imagine!


We will probably never meet, in this life.  But I have accepted God's invitation to join Him in heaven, by receiving His simple conditions, and I hope you do the same so that we can meet there!






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Evil Enemies Established!

My title today seems like a horrific headline torn from the front page of the newspaper.  Is it about Al Quaeda building up a firm base in Kansas?  Iran's success in putting together their first atomic bomb?  Mexican cartels taking over illicit drug business across America?  Well, yeah, it might be any one of these, but I found these three "E" words in the first chapter of Paul's letter to the Church in Colossi, and the good news is that it is not the evil that is being established.

Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.  But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel.
Colossians 1:21-23

Some people have the idea that Christians have gotten together and formed some kind of exclusive club.  That we go to church and celebrate the fact that we are not like the "real sinners" out there.  Perhaps they think we sit and dream of heaven being reserved only for we "good" folk and can't wait to look down from the balcony up there and watch those oh-so-evil reprobates suffering in hell.

Is this anything like the idea you might have of Christians?  It breaks my heart to think so, because a Christian in fact, is simply another one of the "real sinners" that populate this planet.  The only difference, which is both a slight variance and a huge distinction, is that a new Christian is simply a sinner confessed.  As the verse above (which was written to believers) says, our sin did once separate us from God, but here and now, having accepted Christ's physical death as if it were the death we deserved, we live "free from accusation".  We are now "established" in hope!

Of course we gather and rejoice in this very good news, and we worship Him who has given us so much hope, but we strive to share our joys with whomever we can; with those still entertaining "evil behavior", who might feel as we felt before--that we were God's "enemies".

Read the Bible carefully and you will find so many deliberate distinctions like the one here in the middle of the first sentence.  Yes we are all alienated from God (because of our choices).  That is given as a fact, and that's why we call this idea part of the Christian doctrine.  But the rest of the verse is very telling.  It suggests that if we are "enemies" of God it is only a one-sided war.  Paul tells the Colossian believers that you "were enemies in your minds"!

Honesty requires us to admit that our behaviors are generally evil.  Not that we go around torturing cats or stealing the life savings of the elderly, but that we all exercise an independent I-don't-need-God-because-I-am-my-own-god kind of pride, and we decide for ourselves what is good and bad.  But this evil nature we bear has not made us enemies IN GOD'S MIND!  He longs for each of us to simply repent and come back to Him.  When Christ told His followers to "love your enemies", He was telling us to be like God, for He is ready, willing and (because of Christ) able, to forgive us and see us established again in His corner!






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Industrial Do Overs

"Do-over, schmoo-over", I said to myself when I read this week's topic.  "I'm not sure I believe in do-overs."

It sometimes seems that, people want to act like the crime they just committed, or the stupid thing they just said, or the false idea they tried to live by, should simply be overlooked or erased or ignored.  As if there were no consequences to any action, folks want a "do over".  As much as I would like to pretend that I didn't just move my rook to the wrong square and leave my knight hanging out there all alone, the deed is done; good-bye horsie!
Perhaps nobody noticed that every other note in that last song I sung was flat, but it's there on the tape, and will not be undone before being perused again, and laughed at.  If only I could always think through my little one-liners before they leave my suddenly embarrassed lips....but alas.

In the meantime I went to work in the shipyard struggling for the right idea to address this theme.  I worked on the Sykes which is having a major bulkhead between two giant cargo tanks replaced.  We set up scaffolding in the Block so the fitters could repair a major dent high up on the starboard shell.  The PRT needed some cracks in its large framing members rewelded.  A barge is in the dry dock (What did I hear?  It costs $50,000 per day?) for some big-time rework after the hull was crumpled by a few stubborn rocks that proved tougher than the barge's thick steel hide.  One of these near 1000 foot ships is being repowered this year: Old engines being totally replaced by brand new ones which requires large shafts to be cut right through many steel decks.

What do I know about do-overs?  Well it suddenly hit me (too), that each of these few jobs, of the many being done during this winter's recoup, is in fact, a literal industrial strength do-over!  A dozen ships are docked there in the ice and waiting for stagers and ship-fitters, and machinists and welders and electricians and boilermakers to swarm through their decks and cargo holds and ballast tanks and engine rooms.  Broken parts and worn steel will be identified, excised, and renewed as new equipment and freshly fashioned steel crops and plates are installed.  When done, each ship will leave as soon as the frozen lakes allow, entirely ready to load up with tons of coal or taconite, confident in its refurbished condition.  Now, every time I hear, or use, a word with the prefix "re" attached, I will think "do-over".

As opposed to the context I referred to above, where one hopes to satisfactorily ignore or dismiss a real problem, most things, and all people, are like the Great Lake's freighters; in desperate need of the costly, extreme and vital work of a do-over.  Every thing we own breaks down, and our bodies certainly wear out (especially in the shipyard!).  But most importantly, our very spirits were born broken, and tending toward rebellion against our God.  If you deny your need to be forgiven, your ship will soon sink either when it runs aground at full steam or as it settles to the bottom from all the slow leaks.

The very good news is that Jesus says "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest."  A true "do-over", performed by the Great Creator Himself, is offered and available to all who will sincerely ask for it.  His only requirement is the admission of the need, and the acknowledgement that, like a broken ship foundering in the lake, one can not save himself.  As He died on the cross and then rose again, so our sin enslaved spirits must die (good riddance!) and be resurrected into a brand new, permanently replaced, life in Christ!  The ultimate "do-over"!

FLASHBACK FRIDAY! The Old Money Tree!

This old post still gets a few hits every week!  Are people seriously searching for a money tree?  There is something better that is truly available!

The Proverbs 31 Project: Commenting January 19th on Proverbs 19:1-5

January 19;  Proverbs 19  Verses 1-5

[Please note: The first two paragraphs below are repeated each day for new readers.  My amateur comments are offered below the verses from Proverbs.]

Christians looking for a simple way to review the Bible regularly, have long been convenienced by the fact that the book of Proverbs has 31 chapters, the same number as most of our months.  Each chapter includes multiple bite-sized verses (uhm, proverbs) and can be read through simply in one sitting, one appropriately numbered chapter per day through the month.  A person might read through the Proverbs a chapter a day during any month, but why mess with your head (reading an extra chapter on one, two, or three days!) like that when there are 7 months every year perfectly suited for the endeavor?

My idea here is to reprint about 1/7 of the verses from each day's chapter throughout this year, every time a 31 day month pops up, and then offer a few comments from The Barking Owl.  So in January, we will get through the first few verses of every chapter and then in March, the next group, and so on, until December comes around and we can finally get to the last set of verses in each chapter and complete the book's reading.  If you are smarter than I am (is there any doubt?), you will read the whole chapter every day, every 31 day month, and then you will have read the whole book 7 times this year!  By then you are guaranteed to at least be wiser than The Barking Owl , though no one will ever match the wisdom of Solomon!

[All Bible passages are from the NIV, and are copied from www.Biblegateway.com]

Proverbs 19

¹ Better the poor whose walk is blameless
   than a fool whose lips are perverse.

 ² Desire without knowledge is not good—
   how much more will hasty feet miss the way!

 ³ A person’s own folly leads to their ruin,
   yet their heart rages against the LORD.

 ⁴ Wealth attracts many friends,
   but even the closest friend of the poor person deserts them.

 ⁵ A false witness will not go unpunished,
   and whoever pours out lies will not go free.

1) What kind of person would choose to be perverse, instead of choosing to be blameless?  I think the sad answer is that it would simply require that the person be a human person.  Romans 3:23 tells us  

" for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

It is going against the stream to be the one who would rather be poor and blameless, than perverse.  And the 'stream' is more than the culture at large.  We each are born with a stream of original sin.  A bend of pride, or a leaning of self-authority, that moves us away from submission to our Creator, and toward the falls of rebellion.  But the small voice of God speaks gently to our spirits, and we either choose to listen, and swim upstream, or quench the voice and go with the flow.

2) Sometimes it has taken years before I learned that a certain attitude, or interest, or taste was not good for me.  A simple dose of new knowledge makes a big difference in what I might then desire.  Solomon likens this truth to our desire to get someplace fast.  I know that once in a while I think I know the way somewhere so I don't stop to check a map before I go.  Then, when I'm muddling back and forth on some mysterious country roads, I realize that my haste has produced waste.  (Hey, I like that: haste produces waste!  Think it will catch on?)

3) This idea that people have of blaming God when things go wrong is so common!  The conclusion is never arrived at through careful judgement, but is leaped upon in a 'rage' as Sol says.  Such easy anger is often used as a smokescreen.  If we let the dust settle after a calamity, we might see the footprints of our own involvement leading to the point of ruin.


4) A sad commentary indeed.  What kind of friendship is it that depends on "what's in it for me"?  Solomon, we are told, was the richest man ever.  I imagine he had either millions, or zero, friends.


5) The ultimate application of this verse is revealed at our day of judgement.  The lies we have told ourselves about the need for salvation, about the sum of our good deeds earning a place in heaven, about the dream that we only face annihilation at worse and automatic entry into God's home just because "I never KILLED anybody!" are endless.  We are told many lies yes, and those liars "will not go free", but believing a lie, and living by it, is the same as being the one who "pours out lies".


Simply accept Jesus' offer of forgiveness of the sin you must confess, and His covering of righteousness will make you blameless!

Merry Christmas! Or Not?

"Merry Christmas!"

You're offended?

But I'm wishing you a Merry Christmas?

Would you rather have a Rotten Christmas?

Christmas is here, and I wish that you would enjoy it.

You're not a Christian?

So, you're not going to live through the day with the rest of us?

If you're going to skip over the 25th, let me know and I'll wish you a Merry Day-After Christmas, or something.

If you would rather be less than merry on Christmas, then I will wish you get a flat tire in a blizzard.  Oh, but then you would apparently be pleased with the calamity and you'd end up merry anyway. And I don't want you to have a flat tire in a blizzard.  That would be awful!  Is it OK if I wish you a non flat-tire-in-a-blizzard Christmas? Cause that's essentially what I mean when I say Merry Christmas.  No flat tires, no accidents, no lost wallets or cell phones falling into toilets.  I hope your shovel doesn't break and your ham doesn't burn and your kids play nice.  I wish that you don't lose it with your spouse, or get drunk, or scream at that obnoxious uncle of yours.  I hope you don't go to bed with loneliness or wake up with a jerk.  May you have everything you need and be warm and well-fed.

Maybe you wish me a Happy Holiday.  Well, thank you!  I know our wishing stuff for each other doesn't really carry much power, but I certainly appreciate your kind intent.  Perhaps you will elaborate a bit.  If you think about it, what do you actually wish for me?

As a regular person who is also now a Christian, I simply want to share what I have found with you.  Like a debtor who has discovered an ever sprouting money tree and now has his bills all paid off, I wish to share my good news with you, and I hope you will come and take a good look at that tree for yourself.

Ultimately, I wish that your sins would be admitted, your guilt removed, your chosen-by-default destiny without God cancelled, and a joy that you've never known or imagined would be gained as you decide to be offended by your own rejection of God's gift and then, accept the redeeming work done by that little incarnation of God's perfect love that we recognize sleeping in the hay.  Wow!  That is one long sentence!  Can't I just say "Merry Christmas!?"

Seventh on my Bucket List: The VESSEL

What is a BUCKET LIST?

Well, it means one thing to everyone in the world, and if you have been reading these posts since I started addressing the theme last weekend, you know it means something else to me. 

I think it means... 

a list of buckets. 

With the help of thesaurus.com, I came up with a literal bucket list and now I have gone off the deep end waxing philosophical about each type of container, somehow relating it to our human condition. This is the list of containers I have empathized with this week: the brazier, the can, the cask, the hod, the pail, and most recently, the Vat. I suggest you go back and read those in order, to get the most out of this series.  Today's bucket reference comes directly from the Bible, and is my very favorite 'bucket'; 

The VESSEL.

A vessel is a bucket.  You probably predicted I would say that, but it is true nonetheless.  I have always had a thing for vessels.  Tupperware containers, empty check boxes, large yogurt containers all cleaned up and ready to be put back to work; even larger prescription capsules can be used to stow and stash stuff in an organized way.  Big bags and bulky boxes are then of course indispensable....for storing all of those other containers away so they don't overtake the basement!

Am I really such a neatnik?  Or am I trying to act out some control issues in my life?  Perhaps I am desperately trying to organize my outward life to somehow appease my inner turmoil.  Yipes!  Maybe  I should stop giving out ideas and get on with this subject!  

In the case of THE VESSEL, the container itself is far less important than what it carries.  We people are the walking vessels, but walking ever carefully because we are made, more literally than figuratively,  of clay.  Dirt.  Dust.  Earth.  Trying to live independently, we are dry and empty inside; ending up fragile and foolish, temperamental and tempestuous, callous and corrupt.  Without simply receiving the precious good that fills cracks, creates stability, and brings new life, we will fall apart.   What is this good that mends all breaks?  It is the light of God Himself.

 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.

 ⁷ But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.  2 Cor 4:7 

If you watch this video, don't necessarily watch, but do listen.    The words are also included below.

EARTHEN VESSELS by John Foley
Based on 2 Corinthian 4: 6-7
1 Corinthian 1: 27-29

We hold a treasure, not made of gold,
In earthen vessels, wealth untold,
One treasure only: the Lord, the Christ,
In earthen vessels.

1...Light has shone in our darkness:
God has shown in our heart,
With the light of the glory
of Jesus, the Lord.

2... He has chosen the lowly,
who are small in this world;
In his weakness is glory,
in Jesus the Lord.

Fourth on my Bucket List: The HOD

BUCKET LIST means different things to different people. Well, it means one thing to everyone in the world, and maybe something else to me. I think it means a list of buckets. So with the help of thesaurus.com, I came up with a literal bucket list and now I am trying to wax philosophical about each type of container, somehow relating it to our human condition. This is the list of containers I will be trying to empathize with this week: brazier, can, cask, hod, pail, vat, or vessel. So far I have delved into the brazier, the can and the cask.   Today's reading about THE HOD might make more sense if you click on those and read them first.

Have you ever heard of a hod?  If you have, how of a hod had you heard?  Ok, that's enough of that.  A hod is a bucket.  If a bucket is anything that contains something.  In this case a hod is  like an open box with the top, one side and one end removed.  A long pole attached to the underside where two sides meet allows the box to be carried over the shoulder.  Masons, or mason's helpers in particular, use a hod to carry either bricks or mortar from the base of a new brick wall project over, up, and across to wherever the masons are currently laying bricks.

If a hod is a tool that facilitates a mason's work, what is the 'hod' you depend on to do your job?  Today was a crazy mixed up day for me, and with this more general connotation applied,

you might say that I used several different hods.  This morning I was sanding the newly dried joint compound upstairs with a sanding pole.  Later I was brushing and rolling paint at a job, where I relied on my finesse and practiced technique.  (That sounds impressive eh?)  And then I ended up the afternoon hauling firewood!  My hod in the woods consisted of my arms, my back (ugh!) and my dwindling stamina.  Finally this evening my hods of duty and devotion came out of the tool box when I had to go shopping, make dinner, and run to the pharmacy!

So if there is a base tool for any activity, we'll call it a hod.  But I propose that there are really only a couple of basic elements we use in our work, and I ask;  is your hod your brain, or your brawn?  Perhaps most careers require an element of both.  I know at my age, that my brawn is tuckered out and ready for the old brain to take a good long turn.  

One thing I know for sure.  If every important task is associated with its relevant 'hod', our very life, our living body with attached soul and spirit, can be seen as the ultimate hod--a mere tool meant to facilitate a real goal.  Our duty then is to determine to what great end, we will direct our great lives.

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”                                           Mark 10:45

Second on My Bucket List: The CAN

Not being able to decide which meaning of BUCKET LIST was intended as this week's blogging theme, I have decided to combine the two possible meanings of the phrase.  I have produced a list of buckets (aided by the synonym experts at thesaurus.com), and now I will try to imagine what each 'bucket' would do with the rest of its life.  Here is the list of containers I will be trying to empathize with this week: brazier, can, cask, hod, pail, vat, or vessel.  





The CAN


If I ever do have to be a can, I sure hope it's not the can my Mom found me with in the back yard of our house on 59th St when I was 7 or 8 years old.  I was hard at work with a bunch of her steak knives and other needy cutlery.  It seemed that when she said to me "WHAT are you doing?", it was more than a simple query.  And when I told her that repeatedly stabbing this tin can would sharpen her knives, she seemed somehow doubtful.  No.  I would not like to be that can (or that boy, for that matter).


As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.  Proverbs 27:17




Have you ever been canned?  Once, I was fired.  Repeated car trouble lead to repeated tardiness at one job and when the boss showed up before I did, he lost it.  He told my foreman (his brother-in-law) to fire me when I got there, and then he left.
Poor Joe eventually got around to half heartedly informing me that John told him to fire me.  I think it hurt him more than it hurt me.  Less than a week later John was begging me to come back, but by then I was my own sub-contractor and he had to pay me a lot more!  Good old car trouble!


And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.                     Romans 8:28




Were you ever canned?  I'm picturing a paint can.  A bunch of harsh chemicals are dumped in the steel can and a steel cover is laid on top and beaten into place with a mallet until only a special tool and a lot of repeated effort will get it off.  Those parents who stash and store their kids like this were probably treated the same way.  They come to think that simply containing the elements of youth; the curiosity, the experimentation, the angst--is enough. Little thought is given to what ingredients were tossed into the can, and even less is realized about the fermentation process. 



If some are contained by, and sealed in abuse there will be a rotting; when some are ignored and uncared for, there comes a spoilage; or when some are treated without justice and kindness, a debilitating discouragement will build and will last.

Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.                               Ephesians 6:4

Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged.                                
                                                                               Colossians 3:21

Or were you canned?  Some kids are pruned and picked and processed with loving care. They are given everything they truly need and protected from harmful contaminants all along the way. While trusting teenagers wait securely under a tight seal the rightly blended ingredients are melding and coalescing to form a fine product, until one day the lid is removed.  Now the young adult enters life with maturity, wisdom and good humor, and is received everywhere with gladness.  A new spouse, even the world at large, is delighted again and again as the well prepared and preserved contents of that jar are served up and shared.  The fruit of this process is a long fulfilled bucket list of accomplishments that bless all of society.


Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: 
                                                  Proverbs 31:28




No matter how we were 'processed' or 'canned' or 'labeled' by our families or by our own choices, our God loves and cares for us like no other.  He takes us as we are when we acknowledge Him and can remake whatever is wrong.  


Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!                                            2 Corinthians 5:17