W Is For Would You Believe I Have Finally Written More Of My TESTIMONY? Part Four

In the last segment of this testimony, posted almost two years ago, I was writing about my high school and college years.  This was the critical period in my walk with the Lord because over those few thoughtful years I came to know both my sin and my Savior.  Through a progression of observations I had come to realize, contrary to my early presumption, that my neighborhood was not perfect, that my classmates were not perfect, that my parents were not perfect, that my big brothers were not perfect, and even that priests and the church itself were not perfect.  Ultimately, and you may find this hard to accept, but I finally came to admit that even I...was not perfect!

I came to discover later that the Bible would codify and clarify what I had observed for myself.  In Romans 3:23 Paul speaks of what God had long known about people: "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." This understanding is only the first step in the walk of faith I had begun to take.

As the following years came and went, my sinfulness--my natural bent--was continually apparent. But God's grace to cover my guilt under the sacrifice made for me by Jesus Christ, and his forgiveness and redemptive power could handle it.

Over 35 years have passed since I stood up at a convention in Chicago, in response to a challenge given by Bill Bright, the founder and head of Campus Crusade, and gave my life to God.  I accepted the free gift of salvation offered by God, which I could never have earned for myself, but which Jesus did for me.

In his letter to the Philippians, Paul says to "work out your salvation with fear and trembling."  This is not referring to some effort to EARN salvation; that is already accomplished.  But how do we APPLY this great gift to our lives? That is what we must be "working out" over time, and through the many challenges life brings.

My challenges?

Since my conversion that New Year's Eve in Chicago, so many and varied things have happened.

With my first girlfriend I sang at the Catholic "guitar mass" every week, but eventually broke up with her and the Catholic church.  My beloved Mom died about the same time, after just a few months struggle with cancer.  I met my wife, Kiki, at Mom's funeral.
I was flown to a couple of job interviews after graduating with a degree in Geology, but ended up working in a factory for a year. I then moved to Alaska and worked for a summer as a geologist in a mining exploration camp where I got to fly off to "work" every morning by helicopter, before joining the staff at a Christian school in Ketchikan.  Kiki and I were married there, that fall.  Victoria was born to us the following year, and one of the long term missions of our lives (parenting) had begun.
Through our nine years in Ketchikan we were members of a great church and found wonderful teaching, fellowship and ministry opportunities there.
I drove tour bus for two summers and was at the wheel when my bus load of 54 passengers rolled into a ditch. Several years of legal issues began (I was sued for ruining the sex life of one of the older couples!).  I began to work as a carpenter that year (1984).
We suffered a miscarriage in 1985, but Noah was born in '86 and gave us great joy!  We soon bought our dream home out in the country and near the ocean, and Josh came in 1990 to make our family complete.
A year later we decided to move back to Wisconsin, selling all and virtually starting over.  Dad died the next year ('92), as I was struggling to find the best work opportunity. We found another good church and rented several homes, including an old farm house we enjoyed for one year, and then moved again to a new town and a new church.
Raising kids and battling bills, and fending off medical mayhem filled quite a few years. The kids are all adults now so only two of the three issues pervade our lives today.

Through it all I have found that being a disciple of Christ and having a connected relationship with God is so very critical.  Temptations and threats and disappointments and failures and achievements and joys and drudgeries and pains and triumphs and peace.  These things all take their turn in relation to our bodies or our souls (mind, emotion and will), but when my spirit is in touch with God's spirit, walking with him in obedience instead of independently, the circumstances of life have little impact on the real me.

I have come to a few basic prayers that rather sum up my Christian walk:

"Lord, don't listen to me."

I pray along these lines to God when I recognize that what I might otherwise be asking him for is purely selfish and does not take into account what HE might see as the most important thing.  It is my way of confessing that my flesh is still sinful and greedy, and of saying, "your will be done, not mine."

"It's you and me Lord."

SO very often in this life we face frustration and disappointment because other people just don't get us. (Or is it just me?) Whether it's in the family or outside, there are always so many built in impediments to true understanding and deep friendship; basic linguistic blockages or hidden neurosis can interfere and leave a person feeling distant and lonely.  In a crowded room or on one distant edge of a shared bed, a person may feel horribly isolated, but our creator God would not leave us there.  GOD is never out of reach, or out of touch. Through the giving of his Son, Jesus Christ, and by way of our mere acceptance of this gift, God has opened a way for us to enjoy the very best of fellowship with himself!










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V is for that Vital Moment of My Testimony: Part Three

My testimony started here and here, and now continues.

In high school I was the guy who got along in every group.  Not very good in academics, I nonetheless hit it off with my smarter classmates.  Not a jock, but I gave it my all and won some respect in sports.  I could shoot a basketball fairly well just standing there, but never under pressure in a game!  I was the odd guy who excelled with the unicycle, but really enjoyed sharing it and teaching all who were willing to risk life and limb.  I was always a singer, though I neglected to become a musician    All things considered, I think my main  ability was in finding common ground with just about everybody in the school, and appreciating something about each one.  In fact, on of my proudest moments came when the Senior yearbook came out and I found that the editor had noted that my friends knew that I actually loved them.  Oh yeah; and there was some rumor that I had a sense of humor.  One of my nicknames was King DJ, which supposedly meant something like King of the Dumb Jokes.

College was different.  Like the high school jock whose standout skills seem to fade among the stars from schools all over, my new surroundings put me back into social beginner mode.  My roommate was semi-rowdy (I could always find my dorm room's window by the giant speakers placed therein and blaring Supertramp or Foreigner every afternoon) and was well established with like-minded friends on the floor, but I was bookish and shy while I found my bearings.  Once, and all of a sudden, there was a clamor down the hall and a bunch of guys were calling my name and tramping my way.  The annual campus wide trivia contest was on the radio and my roommate's team needed a quick answer to a Bible related question.  I had been seen at least dabbling in my Bible, so I was suddenly the go-to guy.

Later I moved to a single room on a different floor and started from scratch again.  Then came the knock on my door.  It was the staff guy from some group called Campus Crusade for Christ.  Never heard of it, but I was intrigued and thought maybe he had heard about my penchant for Bible trivia.  Not really, but my own pride was always eager to direct a conversation to something ego-centric.  When he opened our encounter by asking me if I knew much about the Bible I answered by saying "Well, I went to seminary for four years," and then stood waiting for him to ask me to take over his position or something.  The guy didn't go that far, but when he did react as I desired, by saying "Then I guess you really know your Bible!", I was deeply stung.

There was no biting sarcasm or challenge in his words or tone, and it wasn't Dave (I think his name was Dave) who seemed to slap me hard across the face in that moment.  I believe it was the Holy Spirit who struck me with a deep shameful sense of my sinful pride.  I was stricken, and ashamed.  I knew that my seminary years failed to give me any full sense of the Bible's main truths; that my academic response to God's word had been miserable (I mainly received C's and D's in Theology class each year), and that my own approach to the Bible was apathetic, careless and haphazard.  And yet I tried to put forth this picture of the mature and accomplished Bible scholar by acting out with such a brazen response.

That slap worked.  The Holy Spirit is a gentleman, never invading another's rightful territory, but only coming in freely where a door has been opened.  He knew that my heart's deep desire was to please God, even though my pride needed a violent prompt to admit it.

It wasn't long then, before I was immersed in every Bible study this campus ministry group offered, and eventually became a leader and teacher.  God can do anything.  And use anything, as He used those few lines of a conversation to reach into my heart and convict me of my sin.  I might have refused the poke; been hardened further instead, and inadvertently challenged Him to try harder to get my attention.  But when I think about it now, perhaps that "slap" was already an elevated attempt to prompt my repentance.  I might have enjoyed God's presence and love much sooner had I given my Mom, in particular, more credence when she was trying to get through to me.

My commitment thus far was largely only mental.  Important steps were yet to come.




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U Might Like To Read More of MY TESTIMONY: PART TWO

Continuing from yesterday's post.


And so I lived, thinking that my own natural status was the standard others should judge the truth by.
All on my own I decided that the Catholics were messed up, that my parents were overzealous and that I wasn't going to make some of the mistakes my brothers stumbled over either.

After four years of an all boy seminary boarding school, and I was finally exposed to GIRLS when I went to public college in Wisconsin, I began to discover how naive I was.  I invited one girl to my dorm room to "play cards" and when all we did was play cards (no quotation marks required) she tried dropping hints on my numb skull when I walked her home.  She told me she collected Playgirl magazines.  That was too much for me; and anyway, she was a Lutheran!

Most of my HS friends had followed our priestly examples and had learned to drink beer and mixed drinks.  I never could stand beer, though I learned to hold a full can long enough to blend in with the gang.  And I guess I could stand a screwdriver as long as it was mostly orange juice.  One time, our math teacher took a bunch of us (underage students) to the pizza place in town and I drank too much dark beer (which I could actually imbibe, probably because it was mostly sugar).  I remember getting out of his car and running across the front lawn of the school that night thinking; "So this is what drunk is!"  Even though I did fall down once (Egad!), I had to drum up the realization that I was drunk because it wasn't any more of a thrill than a good book, or a good grade on a math test might produce.  And that has been my only "drunk."  I have never experienced all the excitement of puking on a girlfriend or standing and peeing in my parent's bedroom garbage can.  I don't really get it when coworkers talk about such "exploits" or boast about their hangovers.  Woe is me!

But as a college freshman, when Wisconsin's drinking age was 18, I did fall for the marketing maneuvers of a certain company.  "Riunite on ice; that's nice!" they told me in their commercials, and I started buying and drinking wine all alone in my single room.  I felt no serious outside pressure from my friends to drink, nor any to abstain, from my parental home, though Mom and Dad never did know what I was doing in my isolated world.

Finally I found an alcoholic drink that I liked!  But as I was carefully experimenting with life choices, all on my own, it occurred to me that when I drank wine, I became different.  "Duh!  That's the idea right?"  Yes, but remember I was "born right the first time...blah blah blah" and I did not like my spirit being altered by other spirits, so to speak, and I quit drinking.

(Skipping ahead a bit: My first very serious girlfriend (and present first wife) told me about the trauma of her childhood alcoholic home.  I quickly resolved that, if we married, she would never have to fear a similar situation in her own new home with me.  Nor would she ever have the near temptation alcohol might provide if it came into our future family life.  "Thanks Riunite, for helping me settle the matter early!")

Then came the "knock on the door"!








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T Is For MY TESTIMONY: PART ONE

Some would claim that there is no better apologetic (a reason for believing) than a personal testimony.  I am not sure if that's the case or not, but an eyewitness account, given in terms common to all, and the testimony of a few generally reliable witnesses, can readily settle a matter in a court of law where the truth is honestly sought.  Here I offer my own personal story of how I came to believe that Jesus Christ came in the flesh of a man, though He was "one with God," and of how that admission changed my life.

Born in 1958, I was raised on Chicago's south side as the sixth of eight Catholic children.  Our folks were strong Catholics in the sense that not only did they bring all of us to church (where we filled our own pew), but they brought church home to us.  We knelt and said the rosary every night after dinner (unless we were made to sit at the table even until our cold mashed potatoes were all gone), and every year the 2 or 3 foot statue of Mary was brought to our home for a week and the neighbors came there for some special prayerful function or other.

Four of the five boys at least made a stab at the seminary high school.  I put in four years at the boarding school seminary over in Michigan.  The real reason I was there (I can admit now) was because I felt a calling to the 600 acres of wooded sand dunes and 2 miles of Lake Michigan beachfront the school owned.  I had told my Mom when I was 12 that "I either want to be a priest, or a construction worker," but early on my innate romantic nature determined that I would end up married, and not celibate.

Through those four years with a live-in, day to day contact with a bunch of priests ( fallen people) and a preponderant repetition of daily morning prayers, mass, and evening prayers (man-made religion), I lost any deeper attraction to Catholicism that might have been engendered otherwise.  Yes, I was molested by a priest in one short-lived incident, and I know that other boys were more victimized.  At least the one priest that "checked me" for a hernia when I reported sick one day was later kicked out of the priesthood.

Before I ever left home to go to school, my folks were somehow exposed to an "evangelical" group of Catholic friends, and they were "born again"   (John 3:3)  At various times my Mom tried to pin me down to explain what that meant, but perhaps because I was the sixth child I was very independent minded.  It seems that I pretty much took care of myself.  Even "spiritually."  I remember saying, not to Mom, but at least to my own stupid and insolent soul that "I don't need to be born again;  I was born right the first time!"

And so I lived, thinking that my own natural status was the standard others should judge the truth by.



To be continued.......





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The Art of Science

Back on April 12th ("K" day) I wrote about the value of knowledge.  Whereas a Facebook friend had claimed that Christians are told that knowledge is evil, I believe I demonstrated that God's intention was to protect the first two people specifically from the knowledge of evil.  Knowledge is just one of the basic building blocks of a life well lived.  As atoms are to matter, knowledge is to science.

Science is nothing more than knowledge codified.  Science is the art of observing and verifying a set of facts, then working to discover their relationship in the real world.  A good theory is then formulated to try to make sense what is known.  Besides explaining how proven facts (only those which are testable and repeatable) relate to each other, such a working hypothesis should also make predictions.

Classically, scientific theories have been evaluated by the quality and essence of the predictions that might follow.  One good set of understood facts should forecast another.  If such predictions are rare or vague or proven incorrect, the original theory must be either modified or discarded.

Of what true value is a theory that relies on improvable assumptions, has untestable conclusions, and makes incorrect predictions?  Such a theory is only maintained and supported for other than scientific reasons.  I submit that the theory of evolution was envisioned and propagated mainly by those interested in finding any explanation for our origins, other than an "ex nihilo" creation by the God of the Bible.  True scientists, willing to follow a solid trail of certainty instead of an ever changing flow of assumptions, do not end with a theory that is really only a collection of beliefs; a religion, as it were.

So many of the world's most famous scientists, those who researched and studied and discovered marvelous and highly applicable truths, believed in God.  In fact, in many cases, these men and women started with the conviction that all was created by a God of design and order.  This premise meant that they might find and follow a rational train of thought either forwards or backwards to unveil new insights into either primary causes or potential effects.

From Copernicus to Newton to Einstein, the belief in a creator God helped, and did not hinder the exciting, careful and deliberate discovery of the deeper mysteries.     

In this proverb (25:2) God equates ancient kings to present day scientists.  Not in the sense that we should allow our scientists to be our lordly tyrants, but because unveiling God's deep mysteries is a majestic privilege.

It is the glory of God to conceal a matter;

to search out a matter is the glory of kings. 

  



http://www.godandscience.org/apologetics/sciencefaith.html


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The Restrainer

Maybe I should have used this word last year when my A to Z theme was "weird words from the Bible."  Did you even know this word has a Biblical application?  It does, and it relates to eschatology, or prophecies regarding the ever nearing "end times."

Perhaps you have heard of "the rapture."  According to many Bible scholars, the rapture is the next event we can expect in the chronology of God's end times agenda.  If you are not a Christian, if you have not yet freely admitted your need for a savior and called upon Jesus to apply His saving work to your need, then you may very well be a witness to the most dramatic world event to ever occur, since the resurrection!  I would rather you partake in the rapture, than be an outside witness, however; because what follows for those who remain on Earth is called The Tribulation.  A time of chaos and ruin when God's wrath, and Satan's unrestrained enmity, will be a torment to all.

Rapture means "caught up."  In one tiny moment every believer, first those who have died, and then those still alive will be resurrected or simply taken away from whatever they are doing at the time, and be brought to Jesus.  As "the Church" (the complete body of believers in Christ) is thus removed from the planet, so is the Holy Spirit's role as "the restrainer."  Through the past two thousand years His powerful supernatural presence indwelling each believer, has actually restrained Satan from his goal of establishing the Antichrist on Earth.  After the rapture the restrainer will no longer restrain and the tribulation period can begin.

For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way.  And then the lawless one will be revealed   2 Thessalonians 2:7,8a

We can observe that there is in fact a "power of lawlessness" oppressing the people of the Earth.  All kinds of evil runs rampant, and is ever more liberally tolerated.  But what we don't realize is how much this anti Christ attitude is tempered by the presence of the Holy Spirit at work through the Church today.  Those who miss the rapture-- who might even rejoice once it is figured out that only Christians have suddenly vanished from their posts--will soon discover first hand just what effect the "Restrainer" had over "the lawless one."

For more (and better) explanations of these topics and more, I recommend "The End Times in Chronological Order" by Ron Rhodes.

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Question Everything! Even This?

A few years ago I was reading a magazine about creation science in the shipyard lunchroom.  Another carpenter friend came by and asked me "Are you open minded about that?"  I thought about it for a minute but finally said "no."

Now before you go off proclaiming how "closed minded" Christians are, etc., think about it for a minute.  We are told to "question everything," and rightly so, because that is how truth is found.  But do such teachers really  mean "everything"?  I don't think so.  Who do you know that is credited for questioning the theory of evolution, for example?  In this society, the good people are the ones who concede to what they are told, but only by the natural culture at large:  man made global warming is a fact; gay marriage is only fair; illegal border crossers are now "undocumented immigrants."; those opposed to our left-of-center President's policies are racists; etc.  The mantra to "question everything" is expected to be applied only to those issues which the politically correct have asserted to be politically incorrect.

This imposed imbalance is the problem.  A growing human must question all things fairly and judiciously.  It is the mark of impending adulthood when teenagers, who for so many years simply believed everything their parents said, instead begin to "question everything" that ever passed their parent's lips.  But maturity is finally  manifest in these young lives when they begin to draw solid conclusions on a host of major issues.  The questioning must come, but it must also end.  A person who uses their open mind to gather good facts and consider a range of intelligent opinions should eventually be satisfied with a quality answer, and then close his mind and move on.  It sounds terrible (politically incorrect?), I know, but here is the Biblical proverb related to this idea:  A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.  James 1:8

After earning my BS in geology (while regularly finding the weaknesses in the "evidence" for natural spontaneous origins which my professors offered in the classroom), continuing to read and study and listen to hundreds of straight assertions regarding evolution, and looking deeply into the arguments made by creation-concluding scientists, I found that I had made up my mind on the subject.  My mind was as closed (established) as my friend's was.  I was certainly open to discussions on the subject because each of us loves to rescue others from their false ideas and win over converts to our much better side, right?

There are two points to be made here, regarding apologetics, the theme of this month's A to Z postings:

First, let's not deprecate those who have their minds made up as if they have supposedly failed to "question everything."  Before you conclude that the reason they believe in "such foolishness" must be because they have just accepted some teaching without thinking, or simply because their parents had similar views, offer to compare ideas and discuss the merits of your differing beliefs.

Secondly, we must take responsibility for ourselves to make sure we do "question" enough.  Perhaps a hundred years ago, the cultural pressure to "be christian" in this country created a lot of unthinking religious people.  The tables have turned now, and the pressure to be secular and humanist may cause many to bypass the riches of Christian discipleship without ever realizing, or questioning, the loss
 


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