Living Hazzardously

Little pieces of our journey with Jesus

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Archives for August 2024

Completed in the future

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Have you ever given time travel any thought? What would it be like to travel in time forward to see what’s already done… coming back from the future and knowing who is president? Knowing how long it will take for that Amazon package to actually arrive? Or maybe knowing what investments will pay out so your retirement is actually able to sustain a comfortable lifestyle into your 90’s? 

Yesterday at our family devotional (our kids zoom a bible study every saturday morning from around the world, just to stay connected) we read in Micah a verse about “going out before them” (2:13) and Spurgon got into his devotion about how God has already beaten your enemy, beaten death for us, we have nothing to fear because God has already accomplished victory for us, we do not need to “fight” as he has already done the fighting…..

What confidence should we have? The creator of the universe has already beaten every foe of ours! HE has won the battles, HE has beaten the enemy, everything that can defeat us has already been neutralized before we even arrive. Every war, Every conflict, Every “thing” is done already in the future… but why do I struggle and always feel like I am losing the battle? Why did my son die if the enemy is beaten, in the future? 

What do we say? What do we know? What is the answer to the question… If God is good, truly good, then why is there evil? Is it because God is not all powerful?… If an all powerful God is not good, that would explain evil… OR… If a good God is not all powerful, that also could account for evil… but an all GOOD? all POWERFUL? God? How can evil be in the world?

Imagine assigning our human limits to God, he would be our creation rather than our creator… would our creation stop all evil? Would evil simply vanish? Would our ability to do wrong suddenly disappear? Would we only be able to make perfect choices? Never sinning? 

Evil entered a perfect creation because we wanted to be “equals” yet we cant be equals, God loves us but he also wants a relationship with us… he could have made us to be little toy solders, doing only what we are programmed to do, can a computer sin? Of coarse not, a computer can only do that which its creator has programmed it to do. Humans are a bit different, we can choose to serve God, we can be in relationship with God. Does any sane person believe that a computer can replace a real relationship? No, no sane person would believe that.

There is a verse in the bible about how man makes his own God, he sits down after cutting a tree, cooking his food with that wood he cut and then taking a spare chunk of wood that is left after cooking and carving a God, well actually he carves a god, not God. Does this fool believe this god is greater than the one who carved it? Does this fool really believe this is a god? Does this fool believe this chunk of wood is somehow formed into an image that is greater than the one who carved it?

Every step of the way in creating “Sam’s Place” we see God blessing us, we don’t see us making this building into a god, we see God’s blessing in this endeavor.

It’s not until we truly surrender our will to God that we can see God in our life, until we step aside and let God lead us, we can’t see how the creator has already won our battles. 

God did not time travel to win our battles, he rather created time so we can see how he has already done great things before the time has come. We can not see this because we are in time, God is outside time, God is so much bigger than our battles, so much so that we can not fully understand the greatness of God.

Speaking of time travel, Its time for me to travel to church now, With great love and admiration I leave you with this:

Do you know God or do you know a god?

Does God know you, or does God know of you?

Charlie

The invisible old mancub

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The invisible old mancub

I think a man becomes quiet as he ages for many reasons and perhaps the saddest reason is respect. When  a man lives a passionate life and cares deeply for others, he may come across as “BIG” or “in your face” or “boisterous”, but maybe we misinterpret that energy for a bad thing like “controlling” or “obnoxious” or “rude”… have you ever thought maybe this man is passionate about you? That he wants the best for you? Or maybe he wants to “protect you from all the bad” in the world?

 This morning I was reading about the three men in Colorado who gave their lives protecting the women they love in a movie theater… three men dead, three women alive! It doesn’t matter much what you think of these men, they are true heroes… dead yes, but to lay down your life for another is in fact the highest and most honorable thing a man can do! 

I remember years ago having the “date talk” with each of my three boys, it went something like this:

Son: “Dad? Can I take this girl to the dance at school?”

Dad: “That’s a great question son…Who are you planning to take? And before I can give you my permission, I have a question for you! ”

Son: “Well her name is (fill in the name) and she already said yes! So I kinda have to take her now or I would hurt her feelings…!” (they always thought this appeal was a slam dunk, as I never allowed them to back out of their word)

Dad: “Are you ready to step in front of a gun? Get shot to save her from any harm? Even a little scratch?”

Son: dead silent….

What is it about men that they feel this need to protect others? What makes a man flop down on a live grenade to save those in the foxhole? What makes a man jump in front of a former president that was just shot at? Is he looking for eternal fame? Is he looking to get a paycheck? Is he looking to be a well known dead man?

I think the older a man gets, the more beat up he becomes, the more opportunity he sees to be disrespected and the more he wants to be “unknown”… Don’t be mistaken by the “silent man”, or a “quiet man” an “invisible man”! They are deadly and compassionate, dangerous, fierce… don’t be fooled either by your measurement of a quiet man, a man may look loud to you,  but he may be silently ready to strike at the head of the serpent. (obviously this is generalizing, because but not all will protect)

A man experiences disrespect over time, it may be a wife, a child, a coworker, but don’t be fooled, a man will always gravitate to the area of respect, it’s what a man needs more than air or food or water… respect to a man is the literal life in his bones.  

Old age shows him his own hypocrisy in life, as he accumulates knowledge of his hypocrisy, he learns to shun away from those things that generate disrespect…perhaps this is the all elusive wisdom we read about in the Bible? His “secrets”… his “Kryptonite”… He becomes a secret himself and tries to become invisible from those things that bring disrespect,  hiding until death. Perhaps he now just “gets by” without truly facing the crimes of his past, perhaps even to his own destruction. Or perhaps he has come to peace with his past and is reaching into the void of conflict to find a contentment in a quiet existence… Calm… but sell this man not short of his potential, when he is needed, a real man will bite the head off the serpent that approached his family, he may die from the venom, but not until he is done protecting. The Lion in a “real man” may not go out roaring throughout the countryside, but he knows when, where and how to make his presence known, watch that man, he is dangerous.

Caution! Doors and wind and cussing ahead.

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As we round the corner of this journey, we see a bit of light… is it the light at the end of the tunnel or is it the headlamp of a locomotive? Jess and I have no doubt this work is manifesting in the culmination of God’s good calling on our life. Even when we get hit, we rebound and things work out just fine. 

Last week we pulled the old door out and found a hole where we needed some bagged concrete in the threshold, so we cleaned it out, formed it up and poured it full. NO PROBLEM! Then a fast moving weather front came into town and we needed to cover the masterpiece of bagged concrete that my puppies decided was the only place to “plant the paws” as they blew past the yellow ribbon blocking any reasonable person from crossing… dogs are not human, they don’t even read… “Caution” 

As the weather front started to roll into town I made the quick decision to cover the concrete with plastic to protect it from the impending rain that would surely transition the fresh concrete into a slurry of gravel. 

BUT! The wind hit with no warning and hit so hard and so unpredictably.. I heard the crash, felt the floor shake and turned quickly to see the brand new door that we had leaned into the corner of the entry, laying in a manner that was so unnatural… I instantly recognized the structure surrounding now looked like a bone protruding from a compound fracture… I proclaimed “SHOOT” but it wasn’t the word shoot that flew out of my mouth… The next day I spent a few hours putting humpty back together… you can still see the scar, but it’s fixed, and perhaps it is stronger than the original? 

We waited another day before moving the new door into position, just to give the repair time to cure. The installation went well the next day and I was so grateful for the help I had as we guided the door into its final resting place. 

As I reflected on how quickly my colorful expletive slipped out of my mouth, I remembered where I came from and how my father would have screamed and cussed for hours after something like that. I remembered how he would have thrown tools, smashed anything in his reach, “spanked me” for not preventing this tragedy… Stuff would fly and cussing was normal. The wake of terror I experienced whenever my father was around created more havoc and destruction in my life than I could have imagined and it haunts me still to this day… I remembered I learning how my grandfather would have likely beat my father in this same situation… Looking back and realizing I may have thrown out a cuss word, without restraint, but my legacy, like my father before me, was coming from a long line of abuse. I should just thank God we have come so far from where my grand-father was to where my sons are… Legacy is all I can leave behind for my future family.!  I know I will never even meet many of my future family members but as My father never met my sons and I never met my grandfather, I can still honor them with my legacy… I Pray this trend upwards will continue for many generations. 

I am hoping to start painting no later than Wednesday. God willing, I will have help. But early this coming week, I have to focus on a few items for work. I wish I could just go and paint, but I do have other obligations. So like Nehemiah, we will continue to work on the things I am called to do and praise God for all the help we are getting.