Sunday, March 17, 2024

Everything

Judas (not Judas Iscariot, but the other disciple with that name) said to him, “Lord, why are you going to reveal yourself only to us and not to the world at large?”

            Jesus replied, “All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them. Anyone who doesn’t love me will not obey me. And remember, my words are not my own. What I am telling you is from the Father who sent me. I am telling you these things now while I am still with you. But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.”

Can you imagine living in that moment? Being one of the chosen twelve disciples? Being one of the men whom Jesus entrusted with EVERYTHING about His life? And trying to understand it all.

We don’t realize how lucky we are. We have the entire Bible to study and learn from. We aren’t living in the moment, two thousand years ago, being told by our Teacher that bad things were going to happen to Him and then watching this Friend die on that cross.

But we still don't know everything. All we have is the indescribable joy of knowing that He rose from the grave on the third day. 

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

The Tree of Knowledge

When bad things happen, everyone asks – why would God do this? Why would a loving Father allow believers to suffer? Why would He let innocent little children die painful deaths?

People search all over the Bible for answers to those questions, and they sometimes find good ones. I’ve asked God all those things – and more – as I struggled with pain and a list of other maladies over the past eleven months. And I’ve found some answers in the Bible, too. But way back in the second chapter of the first book of the Bible is the answer which works best for me.

Then the Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and guard it. He told him, “You may eat the fruit of any tree in the garden, except the tree that gives knowledge of what is good and what is bad. You must not eat the fruit of that tree; if you do, you will die the same day.” (Genesis 2:15-17, Good News Translation)

Maybe we just aren’t supposed to know why things happen. Maybe if we knew the answers to those questions, we wouldn’t be able to handle it. Maybe we just need to trust God that He knows what He’s doing. He has knowledge and that needs to be enough for us.  

Sunday, March 10, 2024

Who Is the Holy Spirit?

“If you love me, obey me; and I will ask the Father and he will give you another Comforter, and he will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit who leads into all truth. The world at large cannot receive him, for it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you do, for he lives with you now and some day shall be in you. 

"No, I will not abandon you or leave you as orphans in the storm—I will come to you. In just a little while I will be gone from the world, but I will still be present with you. For I will live again—and you will too. When I come back to life again, you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. The one who obeys me is the one who loves me; and because he loves me, my Father will love him; and I will too, and I will reveal myself to him.” (John 14:15-21, Living Bible)

Once again, the apostle John packs a lot into just a few verses. So, I’m going to focus on just one thing here – the Comforter. Other versions of the Bible refer to this as the Advocate, Encourager, Helper, or Counselor. But Jesus sets us straight when He says that this is the Holy Spirit.

When we think of God the Father, we can picture a grandfatherly man or another older person with a kind yet strong demeanor. Everyone has pretty much the same picture in their head when they think of God the Son – you know, that painting of Jesus with shoulder-length brown hair, a neatly trimmed beard, eyes looking heavenward, wearing a white tunic. (I’d share that picture here, but I want you to see it in your own mind.)

But what comes to mind when we say God the Holy Spirit. He’s a spirit, right? So maybe He doesn’t have human form and maybe that’s why He’s the hardest element of the triune God for us to understand.

But maybe He should be the easiest. Read what Jesus said about the Holy Spirit – He is with you forever and will never leave you, He lives with you now and later will be in you. And remember, He is also your Comforter, Advocate, Encourager, Helper, and Counselor.

And also, usually portrayed as a dove, and not the goofy bird above.  

Friday, March 8, 2024

Another spin of the wheel, or of the merry-go-round


The only amusement ride I've ever liked. 

I’m sorry that I didn’t write a blog on Wednesday, but the Wheel of Misfortune spun a new one on me. This time it wasn’t pain, it was vertigo. Room-spinning, floor-tilting, nauseating vertigo.

I had one ER trip, one doctor’s office visit, and one therapy appointment, in three days. If any of you have ever had this – medical term usually being Benign Positional Vertigo, or BPV – you know it can be debilitating. We’ve all been dizzy or off-balance, but this is like having had too much to drink and then stepping on an amusement park ride, but there’s nothing amusing about it.

The cure is simple – something called the Epley Maneuver. (I know BPV already sounds a little sketchy and then you do some kind of maneuver? Creepy.) (Just kidding.) 

Working in health care, I’ve heard of this before, but silly me, I was under the assumption that this little maneuver would cure the vertigo after one hit. Nothing is ever that easy, right? And certainly not that easy in my life.

So, I do this thing – turn my head and lay down and let the dizziness pass – twice a day and it should get better in a few weeks. It’s all from crystals in our ears getting into the wrong canal and this move makes them shift back to where they belong. I still find it hard to believe that this is actual traditional Western medicine.

Anyway, wish me luck, once again.

Sunday, March 3, 2024

Will Jesus Answer our Prayer?

“I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father. Yes, ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it! (John 14:12-14)

What a great thought! Believe, do as Jesus has done, and then ask for anything; it is as good as done!

So, then, how come all our prayers don’t get answered? How come we can pray night after night for a relative to be cured of cancer? Or for a loved one to come to know the Lord? Or for safety during a tornado or other disastrous event? And those prayers don’t seem to be answered?

A couple of things are happening in the short final sentence in the above Bible verse.  First, “Ask for anything in my name.” Did you ask in Jesus’ name? Sure, you said Christ’s name in your prayer, but did you mean it? Did you feel it?

And do you know what it really means to pray that way? It means you have turned your request over to Jesus, and it’s now his decision how he “will do it.”God isn’t a puppet on a string to do our every bidding. We must trust that both God the Father and God the Son have our best interests and will take care of us and our prayers.

Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Going over the Falls

I shared this story before, and I’m not sure why I felt compelled to share it now. Perhaps I just needed to recall a time when I was young and daring and able to climb around and do crazy stuff. 

In March of 1993, just thirty-one years ago, my sister Pat and I decided to start photographing all the waterfalls in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. I don’t remember how many we got, but I know we didn’t come close. 

Our first one was O Kun De Kun Falls. This was the first time we had been there, but it quickly became one of my all-time favorite waterfalls. 

Even though the sign at the start of the trail read 1.3 miles, we didn’t think that was very far. 

As we tramped through the woods, the cool July morning turned into a warm early afternoon, and before long, we were sweating in our jeans. 

Finally, we burst out of the pine trees at the river’s edge, just at the top of the waterfall. A series of several short falls ended in a plummet to the Baltimore River, some 20 feet below.

“Hey, there’s nobody around,” I told Pat as I stripped off my pants.

“Look,” Pat pointed, after she had laid down her freshly-shed jeans. “A ledge goes all the way behind the falls.”

“That would make such a cool picture,” I replied. 

“I’ll hand you your camera after you crawl back there.” I had a flashback to a similar conversation many years before. Dad had brought home this huge safe, and Pat bet I could fit in it. Why did I always do the dumb stuff she suggested?

So, of course, I crawled behind the waterfall on a slimy eight-inch sheet of rock. Just as I was in position and about to reach for my camera, my foot slipped. I have no idea how I hung on, but somehow, I kept myself from going over the falls. The picture I snapped from behind the falls wasn’t really worth it. And the shot Pat took of me? This is the first time it has seen the light of day. 

Maybe that’s why I decided to share this story again, along with the picture. I’m getting too old and have been through so much over the last year. There’s nothing left to embarrass me.  



Sunday, February 25, 2024

Three in One

       Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father. That is all we need.”

       Jesus replied, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don’t know who I am? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! So why are you asking me to show him to you? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I speak are not my own, but my Father who lives in me does his work through me. Just believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Or at least believe because of the work you have seen me do. (John 14:8-11)

Sometimes it’s hard to comprehend that God is three persons in one – the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. What did Jesus mean when he said that his Father was in him and he was in his Father? It didn’t make sense to the disciples who lived with Jesus; how can it possibly make sense to us?

I was visiting Holy Hill Basilica in Southeast Wisconsin many years ago, when I overheard a little girl asking her mother what it meant that God was three people in one.

The mother replied, “Well, your daddy is one person as your daddy, another person as my husband, and a third person as the manager of where he works.”

The little girl bought her mom’s story, but I think we all know that the Triune God is way more than that. But as Jesus said, “Just believe.”