Living Hazzardously

Little pieces of our journey with Jesus

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Relax said the night man

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“We are programmed to receive

You can check out any time you like

But you can never leave”

Yesterday Jess and I talked about the doctrine of eternal security (salvation), basically… its the doctrine of once saved always saved… once you have been saved you are always saved or once you choose to be saved, you can choose to give up salvation…. Losing salvation, that’s a scary thought. 

I was talking to a pastor a few months back and he said something that really hit me hard, he told me in the most dogmatic way “The doctrine of eternal salvation (once saved, always saved) is the worst of all doctrine and this doctrine has sent more people to Hell than any other doctrine there is… 

I’m not sure how this doctrine can send me to hell if God has chosen me and none can snatch me from his hand… but on the other hand, If I have chosen salvation, then I can give it back up, after all, I choose to accept God as my savior so obviously i can “un-choose”

I know this is a hard one to talk about, it’s been a point of contention for about 2025 years in the church (actually it goes back to creation) and although many great men have made dogmatic statements declaring one or the other, somehow this topic is still not settled in the church at large… WHY??

I will simply state what I have discovered after many long conversations. This is a matter of deep reflection and many hours of study, but I challenge you to do the work yourself and not lean on simple commentaries and “wise” men’s explanations. 

Did Jesus die in my place so that I may be saved from the punishment I have earned (death)?

Did Jesus actually die for the forgiveness of my sins or did he potentially die for the potential forgiveness of my sins?

Did Jesus die once for the forgiveness of my sins or does his death only cover some sin, so that I need to earn forgiveness from the rest?

If Jesus died for some, but not all of my sin, how do I figure out if I have earned salvation for the remainder of my sin?

How do I figure out how much sin Jesus covered vs how much I cover? 

If God is loving, how can he send anyone to Hell?

If God is Good, how can he not punish a guilty person for the crimes they commit?

Is God really the one that can make the determination as to my punishment? 

Shouldn’t I be able to determine what punishment is the correct level of punishment for my own sin?

Did Jesus die for all sin?

If Jesus paid the price for all sin, why doesn’t everyone just automatically go to Heaven?

If you open the book of Ephesians, you can read this letter Paul wrote to this church. It becomes very clear, very quickly that Jesus died for those he chose, and not all people… Jesus chose… well maybe Paul got it wrong or maybe we misinterpret Paul’s writing due to “Style”

Romans 8:29-30,  1 Timothy 2:4, and pretty much all of Ephesians is clearly written about this… but, is there anywhere that Paul’s influence is not involved that we discover God’s sovereignty in justice and forgiveness? 

The website “GOT ANSWERS” correctly describes it this way: 

https://www.gotquestions.org/God-is-sovereign.html

God’s sovereignty is one of the most important principles in Christian theology, as well as one of its most hotly debated. Whether or not God is actually sovereign is usually not a topic of debate; all mainstream Christian sects agree that God is preeminent in power and authority. God’s sovereignty is a natural consequence of His omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence. What’s subject to disagreement is to what extent God applies His sovereignty—specifically, how much control He exerts over the wills of men. When we speak of the sovereignty of God, we mean He rules the universe, but then the debate begins over when and where His control is direct and when it is indirect. God is described in the Bible as all-powerful and all-knowing (Psalm 147:5), outside of time (Exodus 3:14; Psalm 90:2), and responsible for the creation of everything (Genesis 1:1; John 1:1). These divine traits set the minimum boundary for God’s sovereign control in the universe, which is to say that nothing in the universe occurs without God’s permission. God has the power and knowledge to prevent anything He chooses to prevent, so anything that does happen must, at the very least, be “allowed” by God.”

The idea that God is sovereign usually only arises in conversations around personal choice. It seems we want to believe we have control in some things but then blame God for things that don’t go how we want? 

I leave you with this incomplete study of God’s divine choice: 

Do you believe God sends any person into hell that doesn’t actually want to go to hell? God gives these people exactly what they want, to be apart from God…. nobody goes kicking and screaming into hell, they all go willingly, just as nobody goes to heaven kicking and screaming, they all go willingly. 

Can a dead man save himself or bring himself back to life?

Can a dead person choose anything?

Can Jesus choose whom he chooses? 

All great questions, so how does a person get saved? If they can’t save themselves? 

If God chooses you, can you decide to go against God’s will and “unsave” yourself?

All I know is this, when I was unsaved, God saved me, I don’t know why, I just know he did… I know it was not my doing, yet I can still be held accountable for my choices. Does this mean God saw I would choose him so he chose me? That’s just not logical, he had to save me because I was dead with sins all around me and he fixed that. Please don’t misunderstand, I still sin, but now… I feel guilty for sinning, I feel remorse for being involved in the torture and murder of Jesus… and yet, he forgives me.

Back to the Hotel in Cali… 

“Last thing I remember, I was

Running for the door

I had to find the passage back

To the place I was before

Relax, said the night man

We are programmed to receive

You can check out any time you like

But you can never leave”

In the light of what Jesus did, these lyrics can mean something very different now.

Have a blessed week and thanks for reading my blog today. C.

Cold-play @ Coldplay

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I am sure you have seen the fate filled night, a loving embrace and the end of a career, marriage, family as we know it. If not, it may be valuable to understanding this blog by just taking a quick peek on the web, type in “Coldplay” and I am certain you will see the heartbreaking betrayal that “everyone is buzzing about”.

What is it that drives a person to such a level of betrayal? What motivates us humans to make a solemn promise, and then break it for a moment of personal satisfaction? 

Jess and I sat at the table talking about another type of betrayal today… IGNORING, or better known as the silent treatment… The silent treatment is betrayal. It’s a form of manipulation and its distinctly different from “taking a break to gather your thoughts” … betrayal? Yes! It’s the intentional withholding of attention and acknowledgement of a human for the purpose of conforming that person to your own desires, will and intent… The cold treatment, silent treatment, cold shoulder, ignoring… This is how I am personally hurt the most deeply, most quickly and most reliably… and with my “big voice” and my “big personality” it is the most common form of rejection I experience… Now enter into my abandonment issues and it’s a perfect screen play. I have been living this drama my entire adult life… to me there is no way to hurt me more than to ignore me, it’s going deep into my trauma responses and the PTSD I live with everyday (the source of my Fibro).

Betrayal, Abandonment, Rejection, Exclusion… remember the kid that got picked last for the neighborhood football game? That kid was me… that kid was the kid whose father had never played ball with him, never brought him to a game, never bought him a football, basketball or a baseball… that kid that was me. I was only taught how to work, how to build a patio, building a terrace garden, Veggie-gardening, digging holes for fence posts. Being yelled at was pretty much the only attention I received from my father… I never got to see how to treat a wife, a child, a brother or how to be treated by a mother, I’m not looking for “OHH POOR CHARLIE” I’m simply saying that getting picked last, every time, for sports taught me to hate sports. It was just more rejection.

 So I raised myself, I grew up basically feral, like many kids in Gen X, our parents had little or no time to teach us what their parents taught them. So we found substitutes, we found music, MTV, Walkman and parachute pants with a rat tail…. I hid from life, from my brother, from my sister and most certainly from the man I called dad… I know what rejection is, how it plays out and how easy it is to give it right back.

I am at a different point in my life now, one of patience, calmness and understanding, I am pretty sure I am a bit more “grown up” now but as I am now closer to 60 than 50 and my body hurts, my mind is foggy and life is forcing me into an easy chair. I fight to maintain my autonomy. I fight like millions before me to stay young, agile, alert and useful. I watch quietly as the generation before me ages out of this world and begins the geriatric journey to meet our maker.

As I enter the age of strokes, heart failure, broken hips and saying goodbye to those I have known my who life, I pause for a moment and recognize an old man unable to stand as the song he once belted out is performed by others and all Randy Travis can sing is the last word “AMEN”.

I watch Ozzy as he ascends from below the stage and is wheeled into position and the chair is locked into place. He grabs the microphone and is able to bellow in a voice that was once powerful for other reasons “MOMMA, I’M COMING HOME”.  I grew up watching Ozzy perform all his crazy stunts, I saw Ozzy and I understood Ozzy, he performed songs that I could relate to, and now I can relate to this song, differently than ever before. Funny thing this life is, funny thing.

So back to the Coldplay concert, I see this performance by a man and woman. I see and feel the hurt they caused. Those who are left to struggle with this betrayal… Betrayal that can never be undone. It’s taken years for me to deal with the betrayal I felt on a crisp September morning.  Today, It plays back in my head and I remember the betrayal I felt. I remember the pain of being the last kid picked for the neighborhood games. I remember striving to “fit in”. I think of our son Sam, as he too struggled to be accepted by his peers. I see those at Sam’s Place that struggle… This life is definitely a “hard knock life” . But if we start to give back, rather than always looking for ways to get more, we seem to do better, find more joy and most importantly, we don’t hurt the ones who love us most. 

Betrayal isn’t about self fulfillment and joy, it’s about stealing that joy and destroying it, for what? A moment? A week? Two years of sneaking around? Destroying the life of a child, a spouse, a friend… I have learned so much and I feel like the more I learn, the more I need to learn. But there is one thing I can share, I have learned the hard way… be good to the ones you have today, because life without them in the future is only a memory of what you had and lost. 

Momma, I’m coming home, one day, I will see you again, say hello to my sister, father and grands, aunts and uncles, friends and neighbors.  I’m not sure who is waiting to be reunited with me, but it will be good to see them again. 

As for the rumors and such surrounding “Cold play” I’ve laughed at many of the memes, reels and references, it’s ok to laugh, but in reality, I find it hard to not feel the pain this betrayal has caused. 

Sing a new song to the Lord my friend, C.

Why I am always the perfect one!

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I remember a man who assumed he knew what I was saying, but he didn’t. In fact he believed my intentions were very bad. He felt attacked, personally attacked and never once did he ask qualifying questions until the end of the conversation. But, I was done! I regained control of the conversation and tried to make it very clear that he was assuming the wrong intent… By then, the conversation went from a civil dialogue to outright hostility.

I’ve noticed that my communication style seems to spawn this reaction too often… yet I honestly believe I assume the best of a person until they have proven the opposite. So, I guess I am the perfect one!

Why is it this way? When I talk to customers, I seem to do very well. I communicate clearly, informatively, and completely. I seldom have a hostile situation with customers, strangers and business… BUT, personal life is very different many times. I can only assume that the way I talk to those in the “inner” circle is different? Or do we make assumptions in the way we receive information from our closer friends? 

This got me thinking. Do we find grace as people get closer or do we increase our expectations of being talked to in a particular manner? Do we automatically determine the closer we are the more offensive a person should be to us? 

“HOW DARE YOU SPEAK PLAINLY TO ME! I WILL NOW ASSUME YOU ARE MY ENEMY, AND FURTHERMORE, YOU ARE NOW TRYING TO START A FIGHT WITH ME… FROM NOW ON, YOU WILL BE TALKING TO ME WITH HIDDEN MEANINGS AND EVERYTHING YOU SAY IS NOW A HORRIBLE ATTACK ON MY VERY EXISTENCE”

What an odd scenario, I must find a way to talk to those I care about in a way that is not offensive yet plainly spoken when I see a stronghold on those I care for… Jesus said something about this:

Mark 6:4 Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and among his own relatives and in his own household.”

Could Jesus define this phenomena? I believe he wrote this for a specific reason, he wanted us to know that those who know you the best, tolerate you the least… How odd! You prove for years you have good intentions, always and still, and yet your intent is now assumed to be that of an enemy. 

Don’t get me wrong, I too judge others intentions by the words. Yet as for myself, I am perfect, so I judge my words by my intentions.….. My intentions are always measured by myself, your intentions are also measured by me.. I can perfectly measure my intentions every time, so obviously that makes us experts on measuring everyone else’s intentions as well… 

My message for you today is to start assuming the best in others and when you start to feel like someone close is “attacking” or perhaps “criticizing” you, stop, take a good look, seek first to understand and then to be understood.

James 1:19 You know this, my beloved brothers and sisters. Now everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger;

Proverbs 18:13 One who gives an answer before he hears,
It is foolishness and shame to him.

Generally, ask this before you assume and become angered “This person I am talking to, are they my friend, do I trust they care about me? Are they invested in my life? Am I trying to just pick a fight because I don’t like what they are saying? Am I just being a snowflake? And lastly…. Is the person I am talking to from Generation X, because if they are, they probably don’t do the following:

  • Talking in circles means repeating the same point without making progress or getting to the core issue.
  • Beating around the bush means avoiding the main topic or being evasive, often due to discomfort or fear of directness. 

And they likely communicate within the following parameters:

  • Concise and clear: They get to the point efficiently and avoid unnecessary words or details.
  • Direct: They address the issue at hand directly and honestly.
  • Forthright: They express their ideas or needs openly and candidly.
  • Frank: They are open and honest in their communication.
  • To the point: They focus on the essential information rather than tangents. 

In essence, these individuals value efficiency, clarity, and directness in their communication. 

Please don’t become offended, but rather value frankness and assume the best of intentions. The person you are talking to is likely very passionate and cares deeply, otherwise, they won’t waste time talking to you.

And if you are like me, stop being so “efficient” these are people not computer programs you are talking to… FEELINGS MATTER, at least to them. 

As always, God Bless, C.