Profound and Sometimes Preposterous Ponderings of Pete

A friend of mine who is on the worship team at church said something to the congregation with which I agreed and yet wanted to further expound. She said that she did not like most of the Christmas songs.  I agree. After I became Christian, the bulk of the songs seemed superficial and very unchristian.  They seemed that way because they are.  So it put me off to all Christmas music for a while.  The veneration of only the season and the traditional icons of the season was just wrong. Then I started listening to the Christmas hymns which I liked the best anyhow, and I saw the joy in them again.  As with many hymns, the 3rd and 4th verses hold the meat.  Let me show you: Hark The Herald Angels Sing Hail! the heav'n born Prince of peace! Hail! the Son of Righteousness! Light and life to all he brings, Risen with healing in his wings Mild he lays his glory by, Born that man no more may die: Born to raise the sons of earth, Born to give them second birth. Hark! the herald an

I can't resolve this. Maybe one of you can. I have been to the Philppines and I have seen real poverty. Not American poverty but real poverty. It is the Chistmas season and I am beside myself. How can I eat drink and be merry when I know that children are scarring their hands by pulling nails from planks so that their families can eat today. Or that 13 + year old girls are being sent to the big cities to become prostitures so that their families can eat.  Or that many of those girls become so addicted to drugs that they get pregnant, give birth, and their babies starve to death. Merry Christmas!? I know that in Matthew 26:11 Jesus that we will always have the poor with us but that was in context with explaining to his disciples that his time here would be short. How do I reconcile any of this? I have met these people. I have preached to these people. I have touched and been touched by them. Again, Merry Christmas?! Jesus Christ, being God, became one of us (see Phil 2:5-11)to take

Rom 3:“There is no one righteous, not even one; 11there is no one who understands;     there is no one who seeks God. 12 All have turned away,     they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good,     not even one.” 13 “Their throats are open graves;     their tongues practice deceit.” “The poison of vipers is on their lips.” 14     “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.” 15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16     ruin and misery mark their ways, 17 and the way of peace they do not know.” 18     “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” 21 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

There are so many songs and poems and Christian literature about being in storms.  About leaning on God when things are hard.  About finding God's peace when life let's you down. Etc. Etc.  Great songs, great poems, great writings.  Most of these works deal with circumstances that were created outside of your control.  They speak of how God knows what is going on and while we cannot see it, He is in control.  Let me make this perfectly clear, that is absolutely true.   One thing, that I find lacking in all these is dealing with those times when you were in control.  When you are the cause of the storm.  When you dug the pit around yourself.  When you stood at the edge of the abyss, looked down into it, and jumped in. When you filled the cess pool in which you decided to swim and bathe. When you knew better, even heard God's spirit warning you, and made the wrong choice. Almost everyone is familiar with Reinhold Niebuhr's Serenity Prayer.  It is wonderful and has been

Eph 6: 10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. The full armor of God.  Many of us know this well quo

July 16, 2015 a true hero went to meet his maker.  His name is Matthew Duffy.  I only had the honor of spending a very short time with he and his family but my life has been changed for ever by him.  Matt was one of the few remaining WWII veterans.  He served in the US Army in the European theater.  He and his fellow platoon members saved the lives of my father and uncle who were scheduled to be executed at the concentration camp Dachau.  You can read the full story in my previous post This Man Know His History . The ancient quote of Mark Antony is "I have not come here to praise Caesar but to bury him" is to be rearranged for Matt.  I have not come here to bury Matt Duffy but to honor him. Matt Duffy served his country with honor.  He faced the worst of what humanity can do to their fellow man.  He had to store those images in his heart for all his life.  This is the definition of true courage. Yet still, he married and raised children and along with many others who ser

For those who know me and have known me, I used to be a staunch conservative (1 step away from a compound in Cors D'Laine armed to the teeth).  Rachael's death and God has shown me that it does not really matter.  Am I still conservative minded?  Yes.  Do I feel a need to spread my conservatism? Not any longer.  There are more important things.  My God, His message, my family (both blood and water), and my neighbors.  So where am I going with this?  Take a seat.  Take a breath. I have many ideas, passions, many opinions.  Many are very conservative (Tea Party, Reagan Republican), many are anti-government involvement (Libertarian) and yes, many are liberal (Democrat/Socialist/Communist).  But let me be perfectly clear (said with a Nixon impression), these ideas/opinions/passions are MINE!! Not theirs.  These ideas do not they enroll me in nor associate me with a particular political party/movement.  Politically, I am eclectic.  I agree and disagree with issues at my discreti

I revere my wife.  She is my best friend.  She is the only one who truly knows me. She is the love of my life. She has given me 12 fantastic children.  They turned out that way because of her and in spite of me.   She is indeed, my better half.  She deserves a whole lot better than me.  I guess she loves a challenge. One thing she is not, is my mother.  Thank goodness!  Did I love my mother?  Certainly!  Did I respect my mother? Absolutely!  Did I marry my mother? Not in a million years!  So I ask why is society, Hallmark, the diamond purveyors, and the florists bent on making husbands feel guilty about not getting their wives something for Mother's Day? My mother is dead.  When she was alive, I went out of my way to get her something for Mother's Day.  Now it is my kids' turn.  They should be the ones made to feel guilty.   OK, maybe not so.  I actually think that the whole Mother's Day thing has become an insult to mothers anyway.  Oh, I believe its original intent

2016 is right around the corner.  We live in the USA.  Presidential elections are coming.  I hear all kinds of statements. "Don't vote Democrat they hate Christians and support immorality."  "Vote Republican, they are anti-abortion." "Don't vote for Mitt Romney he is a Mormon."  Blah, Blah, Blah!  Both Democrats and Republicans have very poor track records. The Bible states in Romans 13: Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4 for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is th

Growing up and attending churches, I wondered at the practiced, polished sounding prayers of the collared men at the pulpit.  Methodist, Baptist, Lutheran, Catholic, etc.  My wondering was not good. The prayers seemed, to an unsaved boy, contrived. I am not criticizing just relating my observations at that time in my life.  I am sure those gentleman were praying how they were taught and who am I to judge? Years later, as an adult, I got saved.  As a baby Christian, I was amazed at how well those around me could pray.  I wished I could pray like them.  Fervent, passionate, yet flowing and understandable. Some good friends even showed me that it was OK to add humor in your prayers (thank you Joe Stewart and Steve Crain).  God invented it and I believe down to my deepest parts that God laughs too. Over the years of praying, I think I became a little practiced at it as well.  I did not realize this until recently.  A few  times I have prayed one-on-one with some brand new or close

Usually I post about concerns and scriptural revelation and sometimes political insights (if you can call them that).  Today I am taking a different tack.  Westerns.  I watched the movie Appaloosa again today.  It is a relatively modern made western movie starring Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen.  So why am I writing about westerns?  Well, I consider myself something of an aficionado on the genre. ('Cause only aficionados can use words like aficionado and genre.)  Since I was very young (maybe as far back as 3), I spent Sunday afternoons watching western movies with my father.  One of the very few things we did agree upon, was John Wayne, western and war movies, as well as a multitude of other western movies.  I grew up watching Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, Clint Eastwood, Tom Mix, Gary Cooper, Robert Taylor, Robert Redford, Yul Brynner, Charlie Bronson, to mention only a few.  There were many others.  Those were the good guys.  The bad guys were greats like Eli Wallach, Lee Van Clee

Matt 7:3“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? Recently, I have read some FB posts about the problems of the modern church.  My friend Ben Jensen wrote an excellent rebuttal to one of them and I will refrain from re-iterating it here.  Please take the time and read his statement in his blog Dear Church: People Will Always Leave You at  http://lifeunstained.blogspot.com/     Read it. It is worth your time. It is easy to go about ranting on what is wrong with the church.  We, who are the church, are fallen, imperfect, etc.  So there is a lot of material available.  Possibly a 1,000+ volume encyclopedia on me alone and I am just 1 of millions. I understand admonishments and exhortations are needed from time-to-time.  And yes discipline needs to be exercised as well.  But we need to be so careful that we do not overstep our authority and find ourselves in direct opposition to the authority of God and/or his