Schrodinger’s End Times

Radio

^        When I was growing up the folks had this truly magical, as far as I was concerned, radio. It was kind of a creamy white with a gold colored dial. The top half of the dial was AM radio. The bottom half—the world! It could not have been an expensive radio if the folks had it.

^        The bottom half of the dial was a wonderland. We could get stuff from all over the world especially late at night or under certain atmospheric conditions that we knew nothing about. It required a delicate touch on the bottom half of that dial that foreign voices would speak out from along with conversations from Ham radio operators. The slightest twitch and the carefully tuned in station was lost.

Panic in the streets.

^        It was on one of those searches of the radio cosmos that I tuned in a preacher talking about the “END TIMES” that we were living in and that very soon life as we knew it would be over. Other than going to church with my grandma when I stayed with them in Missouri sans parents we were not religious folks then. I was scared enough to ask my dad about it the next day. Dad said, “They’ve been scaring people with that crap since I was a kid. Don’t worry about it!”

^        As far as I was concerned then Dad was the final authority. Case closed.

Kill the white man!

^        My last duty station is the Army was in Giessen, Germany. We were housed in old German barracks. The Germans were housed in the new barracks. That’s where I spent the last 5 months of my four year hitch. The Army would send people close to getting out overseas to a better duty assignment. Guys would like what they saw of Europe and reenlist. Then the Army would send them to Viet Nam. I passed on reenlisting. I’d had enough fun.

^        I was in our four man room late one night writing a letter home. All the other guys were either out on leave or at their duty station. It was quiet. One of their radios had been playing all day. I didn’t bother turning it off. One of the brothers had it set on a pirate radio station. This station was transmitting from somewhere off the coast if I remember correctly.

^        Anyway a program came on where some guy was saying over and over, “We must kill the white man. We must rise up and kill the white man. We must kill the white man. Kill the white man. Kill the white man.” Over and over and over. Non-stop. It was just playing in the background and I just ignored it and kept writing. I should mention here that there were some racial tensions in the Army during the time I served. As I was writing along I remember thinking yes we must rise up and kill the white man. I had to stop and look down to make sure that I hadn’t actually written that. I was and in fact am white. That’s when I realized that perhaps I should get up off my ass and turn the radio off.

^        A couple of my room mates were brothers and good friends. I would listen to the sermons that Will’s church sent him via audio recordings. They were great. I mean foot stompin’ “Yes, Jesus” great. Will was also a loan shark. I was also their barber. I couldn’t cut a white guy’s hair to save my life but I could cut a modified (short) afro easy peasy.

^        There weren’t any uprisings of mass killings while I was there. The point is in case you’re wondering if there is one is that having the same message delivered over and over can have an effect. It does. That’s what we’re living today.

Not an expert.

^        When I first started to read the bible in earnest it seemed obvious to me that the people of the time thought that Jesus was coming back sooner rather than later. Some thought that he would come back in their lifetime. I had explained to me later that this was not in fact the case. Obviously. Two thousand years have passed. Men that had a much deeper understanding of the bible than regular people have figured out a way to explain the discrepancy of a few thousand years.

^        So if somebody just finds a bible and tries to figure it out or apply what they have learned on their own they will more than likely get it wrong unless they have an expert or at least someone more knowledgeable on hand to explain things to them.

 Experts needed. Apply within.

^        In other words when I read that God had a plan for that one guy and thought that God just had a plan for that one guy I didn’t know that I was wrong about that. God in spite of our free will has a plan for all of us. So when I a guy steps out and gets hit by a bus God planned that. Miscarriages? God’s plan.

^        Where I might read a verse and think that it’s okay to kill a disrespectful kid an expert can explain that this is not the case and perhaps just a good talking to and grounding might be more appropriate. Or if you’re a Southern Baptist just give the unrepentant tot the thrashing of their life.

^        I’m just going to leave that whole the proper way of sacrificing of animals alone other than to say that they must have had very sharp knives back then. What a mess! Interestingly no one ever talks about who is going to clean that mess up afterwards. I’m going to guess a woman or women depending upon the size of the sacrifice.

^        Suffice it to say that the bible isn’t really a standalone book unless an expert happens to have left a really really good set of Cliff Notes with it.

^        We need guidance! Case in point right here.

 Back to the End.

^        I talked about the End back at the beginning of this. Technically people that didn’t know any better have thought that they were living in the End Times since the time of Jesus. So we are both living in the End Times and Not living in the End Times until we are actually in the End Times whether we know it or not. So the people that are always predicting the End Times are both right and not right unless there’s a cutoff point at some point in the past that I haven’t had explained to me yet by a person that knows.

^        There could be a cutoff date say a few hundred or thousand years back where those that predicted the End Times were actually deemed to be wrong. Expiration date exceeded. Out of warranty. Sorry buddy or budette take that class over.

^        This is how guys like Copeland end up making $300 million dollars off of rubes. He knows. Or at least he says he knows. Try and prove him wrong. Can’t be done. Can’t prove him right either. Well there is a way.

Jesus.

^        He either has to show his face or he doesn’t. Depends upon the time frame. We’re either deep into the End Times or just starting. Depends upon what expert you’re dealing with. If you like scary apocalyptic movies go with that expert. They know. Or they don’t. Could be that they’re just a fake prophet or smoking a little too much of the good stuff. Depends upon what their Godometer is forecasting at the time.

Who’s to know?

^        Here’s what I do know.

^        Don’t drink the Koolaid!

^        If your pastor is telling you that you need to all get close together in the middle of a pandemic they are bat shit crazy and endangering people including all the innocent bystanders that come into contact with the flock. LEAVE. Jesus doesn’t want you dead! Jesus doesn’t want other people to die because of you.

^        Team Trump jesus may not care if you’re dead but the real Jesus doesn’t want you dead. Jesus doesn’t need the Constitution to be believed in. Not a part of the Good News.

^        Holy Spirit is with you wherever you are. Jesus is not confined to four walls. Pray to God wherever you are. God is there.

Go with God.

 

The two Great Commandments [Religion/Homosexuality]

          I don't want to start a war of scriptures here. I'm just sharing my guiding life verse, Matthew 22:34-40. "But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together. Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." For the quoted text I used the King James Version bible that my grandma gave to me so many decades ago.

If I hold to the above scripture it keeps life and what I'm supposed to do much simpler. Otherwise we quickly descend into interpretation, definitions, context and then what did the original Greek word mean. It just never ends. Scripture is hurled back and forth like word grenades. No quarter is given.

As an example, would it be neighborly or loving of me to call a gay neighbor an abomination? If that neighbor is a "None" (No religious affiliation) that I would like to talk with about Jesus, being saved and Christianity? That really wouldn't be a good way to start a conversation let alone build a neighborly relationship. The problem we have in building the faith is that MILLIONS of Christians are SHOUTING from the rooftops and the World Wide Web that gays are an abomination before God as well as citing any number of other hateful, non-loving scriptures to anyone that will listen.  

Churches are being busted up and/or closing over the issue of homosexuality. People are leaving the faith. Families are being torn up. In the United States, the Christian faith, based on the bible, declines in numbers with each passing year. People have made an idol of words. They worship the words.

There are some hard words in the bible. Real. Hard. That’s the truth of the matter. We have to live with that. But we do have the example of Jesus before us as well and those two great commandments. So would gay people be an abomination before Jesus? No. No, they would not.

Do we as Christians fulfill the second great commandment if we deny our neighbor a service like baking a cake for their wedding? Jesus would have baked them 2 cakes.  People will argue with that. People will argue with any number of simple acts of kindness and love. In the final analysis Jesus had a servant’s heart and encouraged the same in us.

We reduce arguments to niches, clichés and often make it personal. I read a comment that said if we want our nation to be Christian (I'm paraphrasing) then we need to stop voting for Liberals. Then we place people in niches as being conservative, right wing, left wing, liberal or some mix thereof.

If we’re going to use clichés and niches then Jesus would qualify as a bleeding heart liberal with the things that he says. At least that is what the Pharisees would say.  He put the poor waaaay before the rich. It seems I remember him telling some rich young guy to sell all his stuff and give it away. He didn’t. He liked his stuff. What would Jesus tell the “one percenters” of today to do with their incredible wealth?

I'm old enough to remember the time when people who were divorced were looked down upon by the church. (Some still do.) If Christianity hadn't loosened up as to the treatment of divorced couples the numbers of church members would have been decimated even further.

People can't talk me out of my faith. Even for the four decades that I didn’t go to church I never lost my faith. It’s like that for some of us.

The Nones may not even want me trying to talk them into the faith. That’s their call. That’s the way it works. But if I do try, I don’t plan to insult or vilify them first.

 So as believers we're stuck in a Catch 22 because we're supposed to talk about our faith; bring people to the faith. We certainly aren't supposed to deny it. That's why our actions, how we behave and what we say are so important. We have to look like we have something that people want, something that they can apply to their daily lives that will have relevancy; that will make them want to talk to us. Whether they talk with us or not we have done what we are supposed to do. We have served humanity and a higher purpose by looking past ourselves in the service to others. 

Prayer, what is it good for? [Religious]

The title is a play on a song title and a question posed. Some would give the same answer provided in the song.

For the record I have not been to seminary. I am not fluent in scripture. Greek is…well…Greek to me and that’s all. I have several bibles. My wife Shelley makes me go to church. (Kidding!) I like beer. I screw up on a regular basis. After much thought in the matter I am willing to accept that I have benefited from white privilege. I’m retired. Thanks to the internet I am now an ordained minister. I am of the faith. Those are some of my bona fides.

Over the years I have wrestled with a lot of questions about prayer. What is prayer? Does one prayer count for more than a thousand? Does God hear all prayers? Does God answer all prayers? Is the prayer of an adult more important than the prayer of a child? Are there some things that we shouldn’t pray for? Can non-believers pray? If they can’t can we pray for them instead with any possibility of such prayer being answered? Does a prayer have an expiration date? Are bar codes involved? (I hope not.)

I’m sure that others have biblical answers to all of the above questions and more when it comes to prayer. There are also disclaimers in the bible as to why prayer won’t work for some. Usually having to do with guilt, being sinful in some fashion or not being righteous enough. Frankly it just all gets too confusing. After reading some of the verses dealing with prayer I’m not sure that anyone is truly qualified to have prayer answered.

It seems to me then that the best time to pray is right after a person accepts Jesus because they haven’t had a chance to be sinful again yet. That doesn’t sound right though does it? We’re going to screw something up. It’s what we do. We’re fallible. Even the best of humanity.

Perhaps it’s better to start with what prayer isn’t. Prayer isn’t magic. Abracadabra in the name of Jesus you’re a lottery winner! If you pray this prayer abracadabra you’ll make a lot of money this year! Hocus pocus if you’re righteous you will have material wealth if you pray just right. Praying to a bobble head Jesus on your dash will keep you safe from wrecks.

I don’t believe that giving the church or other intermediary money gives a prayer a better chance of reaching God’s heart. (Unless of course you want to give me a million dollars and then at some point I will personally deliver your message. If this helps you in your decision to give me a million dollars I am getting old. I’m not that many years away from having a lifetime supply of pills in the medicine chest.)

As a Christian I think that the answer I most often heard from childhood to adulthood is that God answers all prayer but with the caveat that prayer isn’t always answered in a way that we expect or understand. The perfect disclaimer of absolution. I believe that answer leads to unrealistic expectations on the part of Christians and validation for those not of the faith that prayer obviously doesn’t work or we wouldn’t need such an addendum.

Really if prayer always worked then children wouldn’t die and we would have world peace. But children do die and we don’t have world peace.

But sometimes children and others don’t die when they should have. So I think that we need to use the modifier “sometimes” when saying that prayer works. This is about the time that God’s plan or will jumps into the prayer fray in discussion. In other words a prayer contrary to God’s plan or will would be DOA. Praying for something evil is a non-starter. Prayer isn’t vindictive but we can pray for mercy as in letting a loved one slip away from their suffering.

I saw a great meme on Facebook the other day about prayer. A doctor was giving the grieving family the news that they lost someone because they were 2 prayers short on Facebook or something like that.

Rewards-based Christianity. I can’t tell you how many testimonies that I’ve heard over the years from people saying that prayer or tithing to the church has made them wealthy in the material sense. That always makes me wonder if poor Christians who tithe are somehow doing something else wrong, like not praying right. Evidently they’re guilty of some biblical infraction. After all we are a rewards-based society. Do something right—get rewarded; have your prayers answered. Do something wrong. Get punished. It’s only natural to want to have something to threaten the opposition with. Too often our prayers imply an insult to those less fortunate – that if only they believed (and prayed) harder or better or longer they would not be homeless, or poor, or in ill health.

God set the universe in motion as well as all the laws governing it. So there’s the free will of the physical world as all those myriad forces act with one another as well as our own free will thrown into the mix. What I mean by the free will of the physical world is that regardless of what we do there will be earthquakes, volcanoes, storms, heart attacks, disease, accidents, etc. In other words—stuff happens. Lightening will strike some people because they’re in the wrong place at the wrong time. The free will of the physical universe means that yes our world can be obliterated by a stray asteroid. We can pray of course that won’t happen. Sometimes our prayers and the free will of the physical world coincide like when seas part.

Man! I’m bringing myself down here. Things were going fairly well until I got to that sentence about obliterating the world. I’m thinking here it might be time to delve into why I do pray.

I’m sure there are reasons prayers are or are not answered but they are simply beyond our ability to sort out or understand. For sure though if there is no prayer there is no answer and can be no fulfillment. Why pray then?

Well, I pray because sometimes it works. While I can’t explain or understand why some prayers aren’t answered I do believe that some prayers are answered. I pray every day; more often than not several times. I also believe that miracles both large and small happen on a regular basis. I believe that God speaks to us but we have to pay attention. It’s easy to miss all of these things as the chaos of free will swirls around us.  We’re so busy dealing with the world that we often miss the miracles occurring around us. We’re so busy coping with life that we forget to live it.

Testimony needs to be personal. On a personal level, since September of 2015 I have been dealing with some health issues. It started out with me having some serious chest pain. That led to tests. The tests attributed the chest pain to stress. Evidently I wasn’t handling the stress of selling a house, buying land, moving stuff to a half dozen storage facilities, finding a new place to live in another state, getting bit by a brown recluse spider, 2 bouts of shingles, working up home plans with an architect, having our church come apart and losing a loved one (Paul) real well. (I should mention that Shelley went through this with me and did a much better job of handling the stress. Including one wild Beverley Hillbilly style ride pulling a trailer.) Those tests led to my being diagnosed with an enlarged ascending aorta like my older brother had. The doctor was surprised that I didn’t already have a cardiologist and told me to be sure and get one when we got moved to Missouri. A follow up with doctors in our new locale ended up with more tests confirming the original diagnosis.  

Fast forward a few months, to a new CT scan done in order to check and see if the aneurysm had gotten any bigger. The nurse called to give me the results of that scan and informed me that I now have zero aneurysm. What?! However, the CT scan showed up a nodule on my lung. Swell! I had subsequent PET scan to check that out to see if there was any indication of malignancy. There wasn’t any. Needless to say, there had been a lot of prayers going up about both of these health issues. It’s obvious to me that they were answered.

Shelley and I also credit prayer for where we are now. It was Shelley’s prayer that brought us here to Table Rock Lake, of this I have no doubt. A couple of years ago Pastor Rob Schmutz gave a sermon in which he told us not to be afraid to pray big. So she did. Unbeknownst to me she prayed that somehow it would be possible for us to move to Table Rock to be near my family. She didn’t share her prayer with me because she didn’t dream that I would ever consider leaving the little town of Park City, Kansas where I grew up. When I turned to her one day and said, “Babe, what would you think about us selling our house and moving to Table Rock Lake?” she said you could have knocked her over with a feather. This is a time of life when we were supposed to be settling in comfortably for the final run.

God frequently takes us out of our comfort zone.

How and where I pray has also been affected by a chance encounter with another Christian in a rather odd circumstance.

Once upon a time on our way home to Park City, Kansas from Table Rock Lake Shelley and I stopped off at an Iron Skillet for a bite to eat. After the waitress had served our meal a swarthy man walked slap footed into the non-smoking dining section where we were seated. He had an unlit cigar that had to be at least in inch thick stuck in his mouth. I disliked him instantly. I figured that he was probably going to light up his cigar and stink up the non-smoking section as soon as he sat down.

He didn't light up. I returned to our meal in progress. The next time I looked in his direction the waitress had just delivered his meal and his head was bowed in prayer as he said grace before he ate.

So, did the guy with a cross earring, me, say grace before we started chowing down on our delicious lunch? Nope. What kind of message did I deliver to the young waitress that waited on us or others in the room for that matter? We stopped eating and I said grace. I remembered several lessons while we ate our lunch. I should have followed that meal up with several helpings of humble pie.

Being a Christian only works if we apply the teachings in our day to day lives. Just going for some God time on Sunday between such and such times isn't enough. Listening to the praise music, testimonies, prayer and message from the pastor isn't enough. It won't help us in our daily lives unless we apply what we've learned and know to be right. It won't help if we don't try and make a difference by helping others. It won't help if we don't lead by example. It won’t help if we don’t pray.

There’s a lot of talk about Christianity being under attack these days in this country. From the memes that I see on Facebook you would think that Christians are being persecuted for practicing their beliefs. I do think that we are under attack but sincerely believe that our main adversaries in this country come from within the faith and the lack of practicing what we’re supposed to believe. Instead too often the examples that those not of the faith see from Christians are negative, filled with words and actions that are contrary to the teachings of Jesus.

Doesn’t it seem like we should be seeing more Christians in action being stopped from practicing our faith if we are truly under attack? And I’m not talking about being forced to bake a cake for someone. Jesus didn’t go and ask about the beliefs or lifestyles they lived before he fed the 5,000. Being denied the right to force Christian beliefs on others is not the faith being under attack. Lacking a servant’s heart is not someone else’s problem. Jesus practiced helping the less fortunate in deeds and words.

It seems to me that one of the most obvious things that Christians should be seen doing as everyone goes about their daily lives is praying. Do you see a lot of that when you’re out and around? How many times have you been in a restaurant and noticed someone saying grace before a meal? Have you ever heard anyone in a restaurant saying that, “Hey! We don’t allow no Christians praying here!” Didn’t think so.

One of the easiest ways to get a non-believer to at least think about the faith even if it’s for a fleeting moment is for them see someone praying at a meal. Better yet pray with a non-believer at a meal or wherever you’re at. (Ask first! You might be surprised.) I have told people not of the faith just to think of us as wishing them well to a figment of our imagination. It’s an offering of kind thoughts for them at the least and an introduction to the faith at best.

This country full of Christians doesn’t pray in public that much on a consistent day to day basis. It seems to me that Christians avoid the most obvious way of sharing and promoting the faith on a regular daily basis. Think of how many people would be reached if Christians started praying in public as well as in private. Think of the statement that it would make if you went to a restaurant and half of the people there were praying. You aren’t liable to see that happening frequently any time soon.

When I pray I give thanks for the day and all that we have because prayer reminds me to be aware of the bounty that surrounds us. I am thankful for the day and the beauty that can be acknowledged even during the power of a storm. There is beauty in the day. Prayer on a regular basis helps me be mindful of others less fortunate (without insulting them in the process).  

Some of the things that I will pray for on a regular basis for myself and others are healing, knowledge, guidance, understanding, strength of character/body/mind, peace, discernment, lightening of a heavy burden, a joyful heart, to be a better person/friend/husband, seeing through the clutter of life, perspective, safety, forgiveness. Prayer helps me stay positive.

What kind of Christian will I be today? I will pray that I’m a better representative of Christ.

Prayer, what is it good for? Absolutely somethin’!